I often hear about ‘the golden hour’, that last hour before sunset where everything becomes bathed in the soft remaining sunlight.

Sure this is a lovely time to create images but then there is that last 2 minutes. It begins the moment the sun touches the horizon, the last moment when full face of the sun shines its yellow light on the landscape. This is the brightest yellow and most horizontal the light will get. Actually at this point the sun has already dropped below the horizon. It is only still visible due to refraction and the sun’s rays being bent by the earth’s atmosphere.

From this moment the light begins to dim and the yellow begins to fade. One minute later the sun is sitting as a semicircle on the horizon and the colours in the landscape begin to cool towards the grey blues of twilight. After two minutes the sun finally dips below the horizon and the landscape’s transition from yellow-orange to blue is complete.

A two minute window to capture this is not long, but not so short that you can’t enjoy the experience and take photo.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 498, The Last Two Minutes’ 1/13s f/9.0 ISO125 15mm