Dawn is not my friend. I don't really care for the dawn. Means that I'm up way too frickin' early. I'm a nightish-owl.. meaning that I like going to bed around midnight/1am and getting up between 8-9am. It's not that I'm lazy, it's that's how my internal clock has always been. My DH is the same way.. we mesh so very well that way.

Except for when we have to get up a dawn so I can take him to the train station because his job is now even further away than it was before. His company moved to the exclusive Cherry Creek North district (rents there have fallen dramatically due to the downturn http://cherrycreeknorth.com/). They have a much bigger office now than before, which is good. But, I hate the fact that he is working so far away now. The train ride & bus ride alone is almost 1/2 hour, which is nothing considering if he were to drive.. that'd take almost an hour with traffic on I25. So I take him to the train depot here in my area where I drop him off and he catches the north bound light rail. And since I have to be at work by 8, I need to drop him off by no later than 730 to make sure I get to work on time. So we're saving there as we're now carpooling again (yay!).

But still doesn't excuse the fact that I don't like dawn. However, when they're as gorgeous as this, it *almost* is worth it. DH took the pictures.

Looking east:


Looking west:

Great color! Almost makes it worth getting up that early. I am on that same sleep mode as you although health wise I know it would be better to hit the sack earlier, just hard to implement that. Hubby keeps saying he needs to get up early one day to get some dawn shots, right now he is hooked on the sunsets and blue hour shots, going out to the city (SF) or somewhere on the coast several times a week lately. I think I will go with him tonight as it's not quite as cold as it has been.
Here are his latest shots, one from last night. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4...

Absolutely, beautifully incredible shots, Sue! I simply can't believe how wonderful they are!!!
And Toni's husband's pictures are really fantastic too! They both must have incredible cameras! And incredible talent, too, I must add!

Clearly photographic genius is a family trait.

Gorgeous photos!

Here's a few more shots that fairly shout, "Cold!"

Frozen fog.

Beautiful, but, yes, COLD.

Yep. Frozen fingers that day.

WOW, those are some AMAZING pictures! That's SOOO awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! I was trying to figure out what "blue hour" shots are.. we don't have those here.

Betty - DH took 18 pictures.. only 2 were passable (those two that I posted). We only have a little Canon SD1200 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001SER49C/, but when I got it for my birthday last year, it was only $129.. so I don't know why it's gotten so expensive!!) However, Sue's husband's pictures are to DIE for!!!!!! WOW!!

Toni, if you have sunrises and sunsets, you have 'blue hours'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

Brad has quite a bit more expense in his camera equipment than I do, some of the house remodeling money went into it in fact
That newest image with the brilliant sharp stars of light are from a great lens, Canon Ef16-35mm F/2.8L that he bought a few days ago.

OK, I understand the "blue hour" concept, but I can assure you that we don't have anything that spectacular as far as a deep blue like that. Our sunsets are almost 100% orange all the time and then it goes white, not blue. And since the mountains are to our west, we never ever ever ever EVER get that gorgeous blue for a sunset and in the morning, there's usually clouds on the mountains so there's never a deep blue like that for sunrises either. Actually, now that I think about it, the sunrise I posted is a typical sunset we get. I'll try to get some pix today as it looks pretty clear but there's definitely some haze off the mountains (again, extremely normal).

You may not always have the intense blue depending on the cloud cover, haze or other weather conditions but you do get a blue/twilight 'hour', it lasts about 30 minutes after sunset. For instance, today your sunset is at 17:00 and your twilight ends at 17:29
http://jekophoto.eu/tools/twil...

As it happens to be that I will be on my way to the train station to pick up my furball, I'll see if I can get some shots of that time, depending on the weather. Neat calculator! Couldn't understand it though. LOL!

OK, I took my camera w/me when I was heading to the train station at about 5ish.. didn't see a "blue" time.. just the normal white. Is the blue to the opposite side of the sun (ie: sunset, so the bluing would be to the east?). That's the only part that turned blue, but it was more of a black-blue rather than the gorgeous blues from Sue's husband's shots.

I've been watching for the blue hour around here too. I think the weather conditions must need to be just right.

I think porkpal is right, the weather conditions have to be right, more on clear nights, twilight is just after sunset.

But which way is twilight? I'm sorry to be so retarded about this.. I'd love to snap some nice pictures, but if I don't know which way to point the camera, can't quite snap 'em, can I. Today's an absolutely gorgeous day.. not a cloud in the sky so the sky is a white/blue...

huh

That's something I just thought of. Now that I think back to when I lived in NNY, I do remember that the sunsets were much different. I think it has to do with the altitude!! 6400 ft makes a HUGE difference compared to sea level.. sunsets up in the mountains (12,000-15,000 ft) are much much MUCH more different than down here.. down here it's a lot more orange/red (that's why the Denver Broncos are blue & orange.. the sunset colors) plus all the methane from the cows/cars. Sunsets up in the mountains are just white/yellow, especially in the winter.

Toni, the blue is in the sky right after sunset for about 30 minutes but the camera gathers that in because it's a long exposure with the camera set on a tripod, (since it's already sunset, you can't take a picture without extending the exposure without everything being blurred or the flash going off) your eyes may not see the blue but the camera in that time frame, 30 seconds for Brad's photos, gather enough of the color to bring it out.
The first link I posted from Wiki shows several shots with the blue, the three after the ocean shot have lights on the streets and buildings so you couldn't take those shots without a longer exposure and tripod.
And the elevation shouldn't make much difference other than maybe smog in lower cities adding to the color of the sunsets but we have seen great sunsets up in the mountains.
So all this will just help to make you more aware of the difference in the quality of light, the softer colors of in the morning & the evening colors and it will make you more aware of the twilight.
I did a search on Flickr for Denver sunsets, here are pages of them:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?...
and I picked out a few blue hour ones
City Park, Co http://www.flickr.com/photos/s...
Denver Metro http://www.flickr.com/photos/h...
this is a cool sunset reflection http://www.flickr.com/photos/a...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/z...
These are from one guy who did several shots and not even with long exposures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/p...

Yea, just looked at the last link and that's about what we see nightly. Purdy, huh. :D

Those are some great sunsets, Sue, but I like your husbands' better.

I'm going to keep watching for that elusive blue hour. I'm always out before dawn/after dusk so I ought to see it sooner or later. I probably already have but I didn't know it had a name.