Where I have lived for over thirty years, it is said that people “never look up.”  In fact, that is often one of the ways you know who the tourists are:  They’re looking up.

New York City, of course, is a crowded urban metropolis, known for skyscrapers and cramped sidewalks.  It requires that you watch where you’re going, lest your bump smack into an oncoming bus or a flock of camera-wielding sightseers.  Same applies even to the exurbs of Manhattan.

There are many places where looking up (or out, over, about, or around) yields a worthy sight.  The Grand Canyon comes to mind.  Desert landscapes.  Ocean shores. Sunsets.

Every day on the African train journeys, I watched for sundown, and during those times, I took a multitude of pictures of the African skies.  I couldn’t choose which shots to upload here. So I’ve narrowed them down and uploaded a majority of them.

It’s hard to fathom these dramatic shades — sharper and more vivid than any orange sunset I’d ever seen.  It sounds cliche, but truly, the camera doesn’t do it justice.  I’m tempted to say that the telephone poles and wires ruin the shots, but in fact, they don’t.

No doubt, the sunrises are as impressive, but I was not awake for those. Here are some stunning sunsets, though.

“The scattered tea goes with the leaves and every day a sunset dies.”  (William Faulkner)