Sunsets are a lot like Gumbo, you never know when you will get it next

Sunsets continue to fascinate and frustrate me. They are largely unpredictable. A perfect sky with beautiful clouds to color up can suddenly die as at the last moment the clouds move and thicken to obscure the sun. A clear sky that looks uninteresting can suddenly light up the mountains and trees behind the photographer. For a variety of reasons, the admonition "to watch your back" has a special meaning for photographers. A thick layer of clouds can, but not often enough, lift at the last moment to give a spectacular sunset. And more often than not, nothing happens and you are left to gather up your gear and stumble back to the car in the growing gloom. At least at this time of year in the mid-Atlantic sunset occurs sufficiently early enough that food and drink, or usually drink and food, can still be had when you find your way back.
And even when you have witnessed nature's fireworks in all its glory, there still remains the problem of trying to reveal that magic in the images you have just captured. Those sophisticates who sneer at sunrises and sunsets should try to coax that magic out of a digital image. The dynamic range of a sunset far exceeds what digital cameras can capture without a lot of post-production effort. The fact that you are pointing your expensive glass at an object that remains very bright even as it dives toward the horizon through all that pollution that man has thrown up ensures flare and ghosting. And then there is the matter of color. How often it never seems to match my memory - but as I get older that seems to be true of most things of the senses.
These three images were captured this week on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving on Skyline Drive in Shendandoah National Park. And sure enough the next night was a complete wash out. Well maybe not a complete wash out as Texas did beat Texas AM!
HDR with Photomatix certainly helps, Topaz Adjust is vital, Lucis Pro often moves the image closer to the mind's eye. But nothing kills my desire to try it again next time - it is a lot like Gumbo.