Weak Sauce Attempts at Sunset Pictures

It would be cool if the title of this post could be something romantic like "Sunset Over the Sahara" or "Desert Nights." Unfortunately, despite having the arguably BEST view in all of Southern Morocco, I was unable to produce any photos worthy of those titles. I blame it on not owning a tripod and overwhelming incompetence (please do not judge the quality of my beautiful Nikon camera based on these shots). Anyway, here are a few of my attempts...

Here it is. Gorgeous sunset, picturesque traditionalesque mud building, and only a mediocre combination of the two. Oh well...

This one is not so bad. I especially liked the rays coming from the sun. I also like the fact that I'm not blind, despite pointing my lens directly at the sun.

What's so incredibly painful about this particular picture (and yes, I know this is technically not a "sunset picture" being as it is a picture of the moon, so spare me the smarmy comments) is remembering the intense gorgeousness of the original scene. I'd never dreamt of the moon rising over sand dunes, but now that I've seen it, I will permeate my dreams forever.

It is obvious by the oblong shape of the moon that I was not using a tripod. I did attempt to prop my camera up on a table on the patio. But, that wasn't tall enough. I stacked a stool on top of the table, and that was better, but I couldn't see the viewfinder. Also, the stool drooped in the middle, causing crookedness. So, I was forced to do a handheld shot at a slow shutter speed. :(

It was captivating. Seriously. You probably don't believe me because of the poor quality of the above picture, but you're just going to have to take my word for it...