Beyond Golden Hour
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 22 Nov 2025 | N21481 | SDC (Sodus, NY) - local flight | 1.1 | 3089.7 |
Photographers refer to that time period just before sunset or just after sunrise as the "golden hour", when a longer atmospheric pathlength softens sunlight toward warmer hues and the low solar angle accentuates topographic differences.
On November 22, I indulged in an hour long golden hour flight along the Lake Ontario shore.
Below, the wooded landscape presented a neutral backdrop of bare deciduous trees in shades of brown and gray.
When the descending sun reached a particular magic angle, the world below was enflamed. The effect was one of the most striking that I have ever seen from aloft and seemed to turn autumn back to its time of peak foliage color over a month prior.
In a moment that seemed to surpass "golden hour", I dubbed the phenomenon "fire hour".
Even after the surface was left in shadow, scarlet rays at just the right elevation transformed any blank canvass they encountered from the mundane to the wondrous.
My hastily coined "fire hour" was a misnomer because it did not last an hour. Within ten minutes, the optical fire was extinguished and the world reverted to its normal aspect. I felt fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to experience it. I will consider it a win for the day.
