Sunset Photos From My Phone / Simple Is Better

Colorful Sunsets

Most every day for the past few months, we have been walking our horses in the evening. We have missed a few days here and there, but we have been pretty consistent about it. Our horses aren’t able to be ridden now either because of age or because of medical problems, but they do still need some exercise. So we lead them on a walk around the yard, and that walk usually ends up being around 1.3 miles. Good exercise for them and for us, too. That walk also usually ends up being around the time of sunset.

That sunset is by design, because especially during these hot, humid summer months, it is at least a little cooler outside once the sun has gone down. The temperature and humidity are still up, but at least we aren’t being baked by the sun as well. Plus, we often get to see a cool sunset.

Because of the heat and the horses and the unpredictability of it all, I don’t carry a camera with me for these walks. Plus, I don’t need one more thing to be carrying around when I am leading a horse. But I do almost always have my phone with me, keeping it in my pocket. That has been great, because for most of the nights that we have been out there, the sky has put on a pretty good show, and I have wanted to try to capture the sunset in some way.

Here are just a few sunset photos from what we have seen. Click each one to get a larger view if you wish.

As you can see, God can do some pretty amazing things in the sky. And the ever-changing clouds always keep things interesting as the rearrange themselves from one minute to the next. Even though it is usually hot out, the views are pretty cool!

Simple Things

These photos are a reminder that while digital cameras are a good thing to have, you don’t necessarily need one to get some good photos. As I mentioned, all of these were taken with my phone. I did do a little processing on them with the Snapseed app, but that was it. No fancy camera equipment to carry around, no big computer software to do some processing. Just a simple phone and an app. That’s it.

Sometimes, we make things harder than they really have to be. We can spend too much time overthinking things, trying to come up with something “perfect,” whatever that might be defined as for whatever you might be doing. But sometimes the solution can be rather simple.

Yes, phones these days are quite complex, but they end up being a simple solution to so many problems because there are so many things that they can do. For photos such as these, for example, I would imagine that you would have a hard time telling if they were taken with a phone or with a bigger camera if you were just scrolling through on social media.

When you are faced with a problem or a difficult situation, sometimes the simple answer really is the best. Don’t work too hard when you have an obvious answer.

Bible Verse

For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. - Psalm 112:6-7

About the Photos

As I mentioned above, each one of these sunset photos was taken with my iPhone XR. I just used the standard camera app, even though there are several different camera apps out there that will let you do different things. The standard one often works fine for me.

Also as mentioned above, I used the Snapseed app for processing these. With that, I did much the same as what I normally do on a computer with my “regular” camera photos - I increased the saturation a bit, brightened up the shadows, reduced the highlights, and sometimes lightened or darkened the whole photo. It works pretty well for me, and it has many more settings that I don’t usually use, too.

If all you have for photos is a phone, see what all you can do with it. You might be impressed.