I pass this cluster of oaks every single day on my way back and forth to work. About 10 minutes away from this spot, I watched the sky start to turn this unreal blend of pinks and purples. In Illinois, we rarely get high clouds at sunset, so our sunsets are sometimes nice but most often uneventful. The colors in the sky this particular evening rival anything I've seen at home or anywhere else.

You could see the astonishment on the faces of every driver heading in the opposite direction as we all stared to the west. Cars were randomly pulled to the side of the road and folks grabbed their cell phones to take a picture of what they were witnessing.

This is one of the only times I happened to have a 35mm digital camera in the car with me. I made it to my favorite grouping of trees and fired away. Oh how I had hoped for a wider angle, but I'm quite satisfied that I was able to capture it at all.

The colors were deep and rich and unlike the golden and orange that we occasionally see. Something about the atmosphere that evening, the height and type of clouds - it all came together for a brief while that many got the chance to see.

Canon EOS T2i, Canon 18-55mm f/3.5 @ 36mm, 1/6 sec @f/7.1, ISO equiv 100, handheld, image stabilized