Shimmer

I hate the month of January as a whole—recovering from the holidays, getting back into the grind of the world. But I love what the weather looks like.

At least in Southern California.

The weather is mild, the days are slowly starting to get longer, giving some reprieve that Spring is on the horizon and the sky just looks beautiful. I don’t know, I can’t describe it in any other way. This is the second year in the pandemic and I guess I have noticed nature and the weather more since photography is one of the few things I can enjoy without being completely cooped up inside. And when you take pictures, you notice things more, like the January sky in Southern California.

To be fair though, California has the best sunsets. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking—it’s the same Sun that rises and sets in the same place every day. How is a sunset in California different than a sunset in Maine?

Look, I’ve never been to Maine or really have interest in ever going to Maine, but I’ve been in other states and it doesn’t compare. There’s a certain glimmer to a California sunset that no other place can really compete with. But not just California, Southern California (The Northern part of the state can be so drab).

When I look at a California sunset, it just feels like…home. Call me spoiled by being raised here and seeing the sunset every day but anytime I went away on vacation in another state, I’d always be excited to come back home to the beautiful sunset that I can always rely will be there.

Looking at a California sunset reminds me of the warm summers in the apartment, a rare occasion when both my parents would be home at the same time. The fan would oscillate throughout the apartment as we ate dinner and joked around. Or the times I would tag along with my mom to the liquor store so she could pick up a pack of More Reds and I’d get a candy bar for accompanying her on the journey. We’d listen to KROQ and maybe a tune from The Smashing Pumpkins, say “1979” would come on to the radio and it would provide the perfect soundtrack for the day ending. As I got older and would accompany my mom on these short trips, I found it was easier to talk to her about some of the troubles in my life. Or the one time I went with my dad to get his car washed and could see the golden horizon through the water drops on the windshield.

Sunset on a California beach? Perfection. Nothing can ever top those views, and yeah, I am spoiled fucking rotten I can see this whenever I want. Despite not being a beach person, I still can’t take my eyes off a sunset on a beach. It’s the equivalent of seeing a beautiful human being walk right past you—you have to take a second and admire something that only nature could create.