Magic Hours: The blue hour and the golden hour are considered, especially by landscape photographers, the best moments to take pictures, because lighting is soft, diffused, and warm.
During the blue hour the sky has a deep blue hue with a cold colour temperature and saturated colours. At the beginning (evening) and at the end (morning), a gradient of colours, from blue to orange, can be seen right in the place of sunset and sunrise. The blue hour can be the best time to take photographs of the moon or to capture the time when street lights switch on making it a good time for city and urban photography.
Last night (21st June, the summer solstice) the sun set here in the south-west at 21:25. The photo above was taken at 22:30 and the tiny white dot is in fact Venus.
Thursday’s Special | Blue Hour
Cornwall in Colours 
I love the colours in this photo. I had only heard of the golden hour and had no idea that there was a name for the light after sunset. 🙂
There are all sorts of names for the twilight time and very complicated ways of working it out too!
Yes, the evening star that makes the blue hour magical 🙂 Thank you, Jude. So nice to have you participate.
Thanks Paula, thanks for the opportunity!
Beautiful, Jude! I love the blue hour. Good for pure magic. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this Jude. I have so much to learn and explore!
That was really interesting to read, Jude. I do notice the different light and presumably am subconsciously aware that it is not just ‘happenstance’, but you have put it into a scientific context which of course makes sense even if I don’t fully understand the physics of it. For some reason the few years I did physics as a separate subject at school (age 11-13 I suppose) it just didn’t resonate but as an adult I am intrigued with all the concepts I had no interest in at the time – strange!
I’m afraid I loathed all the sciences when I was at school, but ended up doing A level Psychology which included biology that I loved, and a Computer Science degree (both as a mature student). And of course botany fascinates me now!
And how things are taught can make a difference, of course
Also true 🙂