Paul and I are opposites in many ways. For one thing, he thinks in graphics while I, in words. He is a very determined guy, seldom giving up on his hopes and dreams, while I am easily distracted, giving in to setbacks.
Saturdays previously, January 4, 2025, Paul and I went to the Lake Moran Beach for the sunset. Perhaps it was because of the New Year, there were clusters of visitors at our usual perch. A lady squeezed in between Paul and another man with a serious camera. Just as the sun started to dip into the horizon, I heard her asking Paul if he had ever seen a green flash at sunset. Paul shook his head and told her that he had only seen a green cast in the sky after the sunset in his hometown Ohio back in the late 60's.
"No, no," the lady explain. The green she referred to was a flash of green right as the sun dropped under the horizon. In her lifetime, she witnessed twice, once in Santa Cruz and another in Oregon. Paul found her experience interesting, even though he had never heard of it. He was unusually quiet on our way back to the Pleasure Point and Hook. The fascinating story apparently was rooted in his head.
The very next day, Sunday the 5th, we went to Seacliff State Beach for a late stroll and managed to see another sunset. All of a sudden, Paul excitedly told me that he had seen the green flash. As the sun began to make the final slip below the horizon and disappeared into the ocean, he began to back off on his telephoto and used a slightly wider shot. Just as the sun was about to disappear altogether, he saw some green beginning to appear. He kept shooting until the green grew to a large emerald green bright flash in the previous sunspot for a second or two. With a dim blue buff, all was gone.
Right next to him, I managed to miss the rare green opportunity, due to a untimely distraction to practice panorama shots. Paul contributed this moment to his dumb luck, but I am more inclined to think of it as being a sharpened goal for a new discovery right after his conversation with the lady the day before on the Moran Beach. "Fortune favors the prepared," as the old saying goes. It has been proven that it is extremely rare to witness the green flash, it is rarer to have caught it on the camera!
According to Paul, "The Green Flash is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs just after sunset or right before sunrise. It happens when the sun is almost entirely below the horizon, and for a brief moment, the upper rim of the sun appears green. This is caused by the refraction of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere, which disperses the light and makes the green part of the spectrum visible. As the sun sets, the sunlight refracts from red, orange, yellow and then to green, progressing through the "ROYGBIV" colors. It is extremely rare and usually only lasts a couple of seconds. Here, in the last frame you can also dimly see a bit of blue spectrum."
The following is a video produced by Paul Titangos from his series of photos.
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