Summer Sunset Screensaver

I can’t believe it’s almost fall. My wedding is in a month and a half, my final draft is due at the end of the month and I was supposed to have applied for graduation months ago (April? What the hell?). The weather outside is taunting me, sunny and mid 70s just like summers I remember from back home in Oregon. I want it to be summer still!

Today I want to continue talking about the last of the summer screensavers since summer is clearly fast-fading outside, and I want to pretend it’s not. Unfortunately, the summer screensaver I came across today is both a lovely summer screensaver and a definite reminder that the summer is ending.

This lovely photo screensaver gives a handful of photos of beautiful sunset scenes. There are four photos, which doesn’t really seem like enough, but they work surprisingly well in rotation.

Technically, this isn’t strictly a seasonal screensaver. The locations however, especially the ones over water, really have a strong sense of summer. The sunset over these places, to me, speaks entirely of summer winding down, just as the day winds down into golden tones. One of the nice things about this collection of photos is that because they are all taken during sunset, they all have a similar color palette. I love this limited palette of golds and reds and blacks. They are strong colors under any circumstances, but it is only in the context of sunsets that they manage to be gentle and calming as well as bold and dramatic.

My favorite photo in this group is the third one in. It is a very simple photo of a tree against the sunset, with a low horizon and a scattering of clouds low in the sky. I think I love this photo mainly for nostalgic reasons. When I was growing up, on the way home from school, we passed a lot that was almost entirely empty except for a large, perfect tree. The tree had a "No Trespassing" sign on it, and my dad thought that because the land was owned by Eugene Sand and Gravel, the tree was sure to be cut down at any moment. In Eugene, that tree became my favorite tree, and I’m happy to say that it stayed up all through my high school years. I haven’t lived there since '99, but as far as I know the tree is still standing. This photo reminds me of that tree.

This screensaver is another nice example of how simple things can work very well. If this coupled overly complicated scenes with the dramatic colors of sunset, it just wouldn’t work as well. As it is, it’s a wonderfully relaxing backdrop that would fit in well in any setting. I’m hoping the sun can stay in the sky just a little bit longer with this screensaver, and put off the end of summer for a couple more weeks!