Another world

I arrived. My space craft slowed from warp speed abruptly and began to descend; The thrusters roared slowing the craft for landing and the superstructure shuddered alarmingly...I felt only a slight bump as the landing skids made contact with the surface though, and the thrusters shut down as the white-hot turbines slowed and the cooling vents worked to expel the residual heat. I peered through the heat-haze rippling upwards off the red-hot thrusters beneath the craft the small porthole showing me an amazing vista. This track played on the space craft sound system as I marvelled at the beauty and felt a shudder of excitement course through my body at the thought of setting foot upon another world.

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...And if you believe all that, you're bloody bonkers...and not in a good way like me!

There was no space craft, just the Big Dog, my trusty [and beastly] four wheel drive. There was no other world either, just my own, albeit one that looked pretty amazing and rather other-worldly as the sun dipped low towards the horizon. Admittedly, I was excited about my walk on the beach that night, but there was no shuddering, just the anticipation of the walk, sea air and, most probably, an ice cream later on. Ah yes, ain't life grand.

I was at Semaphore, South Australia not too far from my house, a place I often go for my other world experiences. I headed towards the shoreline, Olympus camera slung over my shoulder and Samsung S22 Ultra thrust into the front pocket of my camouflage cargo shorts. No shoes/flip flops, no shirt and no cares...just me, the beach and my girl-person.

As I was parking my space craft four wheel drive, I commented to my girl-person about the lack of clouds which dismayed me.

I'd figured the sunset would be colourful that evening and a few scattered clouds would have made it spectacular however, besides a tiny wisp here and there, there were none. Typical. Maybe I'd brought my camera across the universe from home for nothing and I'd have to console myself with a triple scoop ice cream instead of my usual double just to feel better about it all. [Part of me knew the ice cream was inevitable, it suited me to pretend it was to console my disappointment though.]

As I walked along the beach upon that distant world, things began to happen though, my girl-person stripped down to her bikini and, equally important, the sky coloured-up as the sun sank lower on the horizon. It was a warm evening, I was on another world the beach and the sunset was going to be beautiful. Life was good.

Sunsets change colour due to the scattering effect, that's the term used for light changing directions as it hits particles like smog, smoke, dust and moisture in the atmosphere, and because when the sun is low the light travels through more atmosphere. More yellow, orange and red light reaches our eyes and sunsets become the wondrous things they are. Thanks universe.

We don't need to travel to other planets for other-worldly vistas, ours is beautiful enough...which is why humanity should care for it much better than we do.

Whilst walking I was snapping and ended up with eighty images on my camera and a few on my phone camera. The sunset kept changing little by little and I stopped often to watch it stain the sky and to think how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place. Adelaide. Australia. Planet Earth.

The beach wasn't as pristine as usual, we'd had some strong winds and a little storm a couple days earlier and that caused seaweed to be deposited on the beach in small mounds at the high-tide line. It wasn't too bad though, that's just how the planet rolls right? It does what it does; seaweed is meant to be.

I decided to test out my sniper-stalking skills by sneaking up on the seagulls in the image above and had zero luck, they were way to too smart; they couldn't outrun my camera lens though.

My stalking skills got used a little later though. I stalked this couple, because human's are stupid and have very little situational-awareness, to get a shot of them against the sunsetty-colours. [OK, I didn't have to stalk much at all. I just stopped walking at took the picture.]

The sun had dipped over the horizon and the couple were silhouetted against it bathed in red and orange. I particularly love the colour contrast in sky in that shot above, and the way the couple seem so lost in the moment oblivious to the rest of the world. That's kind of cool, and I felt that way myself...like I was on another world far removed from my day-to-day version.

I think this silhouette of the jetty above is sort of cool.

I like how the structure appears to get more complicated from left to right as the pylons get closer together due to the perspective, the way the sand looks like glass because of the water and the movement brought by the waves. I tried to capture breaking waves but it wasn't working, the hazards of being a shit photographer, so I gave up and put my energy to more important things. (Ice cream).

I finished may walk at the Semaphore jetty and walked up to Jetty Road for an ice cream...Remember, I had to console myself for the fact there was no clouds in the sky to capture the light.

There's a couple of ice creamery options, but I went straight to Royal Copenhagen for a twin scoop of macadamia and gingerbread flavours in a chocolate dipped waffle cone...Yeah, it's not good for me but come on...there were no clouds and I had to feel good about something right?

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I don't profess to be a good photographer, quite the opposite in fact, but get a lot of value from taking a photo or two now and then.

In another world, a parallel universe in which another me exists, maybe he's a great photographer, is handsome, virile and super-rich but, in this world, the plain old Earthling me has to make do with pointing and shooting the camera or phone camera, enjoying the moments they capture and hoping one or two photos come out well.