Although New Jersey is blessed with approximately 130 miles of wide, sandy ocean beaches, New Jersey is on the east coast of the United States, so its ocean beaches are generally not good places from which to watch the sun set over the water — what with the sun setting in the west and all. I’m sure there must be some splendid sunrises over the Atlantic Ocean visible from New Jersey beaches, but that would require one to get up mighty early in the morning and I’m a committed night owl.
Fortunately, when we purchased a vacation house in Brigantine, New Jersey, we managed to find one that has a west facing view over a small piece of a bay, Saint George’s Thoroughfare Bay. As my Facebook friends can attest, ever since we’ve owned our little patch of Brigantine, I’ve been mesmerized by the sky — the clouds and the sunsets.
Here are a few of my favorites:
While the sunsets are a gaudy display of color, sometimes the menacing skies are riveting.
Storm Clouds at Sunset over Saint George’s Thoroughfare Bay, Brigantine, New Jersey
As rain clouds gather over neighboring Atlantic City, the “scare owl” who lives on our deck knows he’s going to get wet.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell from the clouds what weather is coming our way.
And sometimes, the clouds are just, well, interesting.
And then — there are the sunsets.
And then, there’s after the sun sets.
Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.
(This post is part of Travel Photo Mondays on Noel Morata’s Travel Photo Discovery blog. Noel’s photos of Hawaii are magnificent — well worth a look.)
{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
seems like an awesome spot, and you get so many weather variants there!! I love the one where you say “sometimes hard to tell…” Great skyline and clouds!!
Life here in Zurich is just sun sun sun (after months of rain rain rain). Although no great sunsets for me of late as I can’t really see them from my new place either.
You still managed to capture a beautiful sunset despite being on the east coast. Beach or waterfront sunsets are always the best!
You just have to face the right direction 😉
I bet the skies are even more beautiful in person.
There is a photo meme called Skywatch Friday – http://skyley.blogspot.com/ – I bet you would enjoy participating.
Thanks for the link. I guess I’m not the only person mesmerized by skies.
What a clever idea – a photo essay. I often travel through NJ, the NJ Turnpike, but I don’t see the beaches. I’n so glad you posted this because it will be worth remembering and recalling instead of the typical signage on the Turnpike! Thanks.
Oh man. You definitely need to get off the NJ Turnpike, as useful as that road is. Calling NJ is the “Garden State” is not a complete oxymoron.
God is nigh? I always assumed you were an atheist! It’s funny what you learn when you read your friends blogs.
Great photos. This, for me, is the ideal travel blog post. Not much text, but lots and lots of photos!
Don’t you recognize the text? It’s “Taps”. We always used to hold hands, and sing that while floating little bark boats with candles out into the lake on the last night of camp. Guaranteed not to be a dry eye. Now, I associate it with military funerals and first responder funerals. Always emotive.
Nice pictures Suzanne. Makes me think of a combination of a holiday resort and a town. The bottom one kind of looks like there are a lot of minarets. So it could be shot in, for instance, Turkey.
Hmm — seeing a resemblance between Atlantic City’s high rise casinos and the minarets of Turkey. Interesting juxtaposition.
The best sunsets and sunrises I have ever seen have been over water. Fortunately I live on the west coast of Florida so I get to see the sunsets over the water quite often when i am at the beach. The most beautiful sunset I have ever seen however, is the sun setting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was absolutely breath taking.
Now that you mention it, sunset is always an occasion on cruise ships.
What spectacular color on that last image, it would also make for an amazing painting. All of the images are so soothing with great composition, they speak to enjoying calm.
Debra, it’s true. I’m not a person known for an abundance of calm, but sun sets do have a calming effect. Definitely, helps one get some perspective — that the sun doesn’t rise and set on one’s particular set of anxieties.
Love the idea of a photo essay. The sunsets are really soothing to look at. The images are beautiful. Now I certainly would love to take a visit to New Jersey. Thanks so much for sharing the serenity.
–Visiting from BHB LiknedIN group. 🙂
Thanks for visiting me and my sunsets. Chris Christie would also like you to visit New Jersey — and probably to vote for him for president too.
Best sunsets I’ve ever seen have been in Thailand. But these are pretty swell too. 🙂
What’s kind of cool (if you think about it) is that it’s the same sun setting in Thailand and New Jersey.
Beautiful photography. I love nature shots and the colors of the sunset is amazing. I love the idea of a photo essay. It speaks to people in a different way. 🙂
I’m not a schooled photographer, so it helps when I have a large subject—like the sky!
LOL, I’m so with you on that one. I do closeups for the same reason. Composition on the other hand is a bit problematic for me. 🙂
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for participating, the images are beautiful and I love all the sunset images.
Hope you can join us again for the next installment.
Thanks, Noel. I’m going to try to convince my husband to contribute some photos.
Very nice! I grew up in Sea Isle City *high five.*
Thanks, Amy. We used to do our two week summer vacation with the kids in Avalon which always included at least one dinner in Sea Isle City. You might enjoy my blog post about being a “shoobie” “down a shore”.
http://www.boomeresque.com/a-shoobie-view-of-brigantine-new-jersey/
Nice reminder that we “never walk in the”same” river” twice and apparently never look at the”same” sky twice either. (Some philosopher or other said the river thing – residue of sharing a Berkeley home with a Berkeley philosophy phd candidate, among others, in my youth – Don’t ask…) Lovely photos – great variety – especially the ones where you’re not sure clouds can look like that! Mostly, it’s a major reminder to get out there and smell the roses! Sigh…..
I’m not sure I understand anything you said, but thanks for commenting 😉
I remember singing those words to “Taps” at girl scout camp. But I never thought of them as the words to “Taps”. Wondering if those were the real words, I just Googled “Taps” and found this:
“The first two verses may be attributed to Rukard Hurd. Hurd was a member of the Class of 1878 of the Pennsylvania Military College, which later became Widener University, and a trustee from 1895 to 1922. He is said to have composed the lyrics to Taps now used by most every Boy and Girl Scout troop in America. The University regularly gives permission for their use to Scout troops and other groups, as the rights to the copyrighted lyrics were willed to P.M.C. and then Widener by Mr. Hurd and his descendants. Indeed, many early citations of the lyrics to Taps cite the Pennsylvania Military College or Mr. Hurd as author. “
Thanks for the history lesson, Poppy. There are more stanzas too, but those just popped into my mind as I was looking at the photos.
Suzanne: Have you ever been to the Caribean? The color purple is really something.
Reminded me of the velvet paintings we used to see with all the lovely colors not seen
in our sunsets. Renee
I have seen sunsets over the Caribbean, mostly from cruise ships. Once, I actually even saw the “green flash”—in Hawaii.
We have a similar problem on the east coast of Australia, but like you sometimes we do manage to get a sunset over water. Love your scare owl photograph and those gorgeous sunsets. The one through the reeds especially.
Thanks, Jan. These sunsets are so beautiful that even I can photograph them credibly—with my smart phone camera, no less.
Sunsets or not, your shots are amazing! I live on the West Coast and even though I’m close to the beach, I don’t get there often enough. How lucky you are to have a place with such gorgeous views!
The sunset views sold us on our Brigantine house and we haven’t been disappointed. It’s difficult to do anything else without being distracted by the sunsets and we still ooh and aah—even though this is our 7th summer here.
These are gorgeous shots. Your haven is beautiful, a lovely place for getting away from it all, from sunrise to sunset and in between. There’s nothing as nourishing for the soul as a beach and a shimmering body of water at dusk. That orange orb hanging in the sky reminds us that day is done, and it’s time to relax. Love it …!
It’s true about beach walks being soothing. Sometimes it takes a little bit of pushing myself to get out there, but it does refresh the mind.
The panoramic picture of the long, gray clouds over the skyline is my favorite. It would look great framed and hung on the wall. Sunsets pictures are among my favorite to take, though I imagine most people might feel that way.
Sunsets are definitely lens candy for even we non-professional photographers.
New Jersey gets a bad rap so it is wonderful to see you captured some beautiful pictures of our state. The beaches are nicer than the west coast unless you are in Hawaii. Just beautiful photos
These are great photos. I love looking at the clouds and sky. It is always so beautiful (well maybe not when it is raining!) When I do, I really get a sense that there is something far bigger than us out there
I think your last sentence captures some of why we are so attracted by sunsets even beyond their intrinsic beauty. I think that’s why the words to “Taps” entered my mind unbidden as I was reviewing photos for this post.
I agree, Arlene. The New Jersey beaches are under consistently estimated.I have visited beaches around the world and the U.S., but is hard to find beaches as wide and gently sloping with very fine sand as those in NJ.
Hi, such a great post. I just let the peace wash me over. Beautiful sunsets. I have your page under my relieve stress bookmarks. 🙂
Thanks, Mary. This particular post is hopefully stress relieving, but as you know, not all my posts have the same salubrious effect 😉
Beautiful sunset you have posting. I am a baby boomer so this is a great site for me, thanx
The view outside your window could calm a raging bull. I love these shots. Especially the last one!
Robin, I’m glad you got to see the view in person, but raging Bulls ARE NOT WELCOME!
What beautiful sunsets. And your scare owl is priceless.
Thanks, Judy. What’s great about the scare owl — in addition to his just general greatness—is that he actually works! He’s supposed to scare away the gulls and we’ve had a noticeable decrease in gull poop on our deck since he arrived.
Those sunsets are just beautiful. What a lovely place to live 🙂
I love those sunset shots! I can’t wait to get back to a beach somewhere. As long as I can sit on the beach and watch sunrise or sunset and avoid the heat of the day, I’m happy!
This past week, it was hard to avoid the heat of the day unless you were actually standing at least knee deep in the ocean. 😉
I’m a committed night owl too so seeing a sunrise would be rare for me. We do get some nice sunsets setting over the Sierra Nevada mountains here in Reno. I need to get a picture – thank you for the reminder! That “scare owl” pic made me laugh! The pics of the sunsets are fantastic! I like the one with the sun setting between the weeds in the marsh the best 🙂
Just like New Jersey, my country, Romania, is situated on the western coast of the Black Sea. So, we can’t watch sunsets, but the sunrises reward our patience and waking up early in the morning. Yes, I had the great opportunity to wait for the sun to rise, bare feet on a beach, wearing a sweater..It is a moment like this when I feel deeply connected to the entire Universe. Considering your incredible pics, you must have had the same feeling :).
Thank you, Laura.
I’m not sure I’ll make a sunrise on the beach, but I had a lovely sunset walk on the beach tonight. Indirect slanting pink light on the wet sand. Lovely.
It’s amusing that everyone sees the sunsets and no one seems to take pictures of sunrises. I’m also a night owl – love your owl picture. Beaches are so relaxing, even when the grandkids are making sand castles.
I admit that I’m spoiled when it comes to beaches. Brigantine, New Jersey has wide sandy beaches that stretch for about 6 miles along the coast. I do have one sunrise photo of the sun turning the Andes pink outside Mendoza, Argentina. I confess the only reason I was awake to see it was that we had to catch a plane. 😉 Thanks for your comment.
Hi, as usual, you take really stunning photographs. 🙂 Let me know when the next carnvial you are involved in comes up so I can put it on my blogging calendar too.
Thanks, Mary. Ever since I’ve been blogging, I find that I look at things a little differently — thinking about whether whatever it is (view, flower, sunset) would make a good photo.
What beautiful sunsets! In response to your question, my favourite sunsets are in Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas. We so enjoy our time spent there, and a gorgeous sunset ends the day on a perfect note. Here are a few of my own favourites…. http://littlehousebytheferry.com/2013/08/03/perfect-endings-to-perfect-days/.
Amanda
Wow! What stunning sunsets! I particularly love the photo of the owl head peeking into the frame. Happy TPMonday!
Beautiful photos… I love the vivid colors…
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