Just before my husband and I decided to visit the beautiful island of Santorini in Greece, I made a quick trip to Mr. Google for some research on what to do there. The island has something to offer to everyone. Nice clubs and lovely villas for those who would like to relax, small studios by the sea for tourists like us who love to have a meal and some wine while looking at the view and beautiful sunsets for the photographer within us.
I had read about sunsets in Oia [EE-ah] being an extremely popular destination among tourists. Oia is a small town in Santorini noted for its white and blue domed houses. The houses are painted in white lime water so that the rainwater which falls over it runs down and can be collected. The other reason for painting the houses white is because it looks very beautiful from a cruise, especially as you approach Santorini.
One of the most popular attractions in Oia is sunset viewing. It is a special event every evening in Oia from the Sunset Seranade point. At this time the town is crowded with people to watch the spectacle, when the white houses and the caldera catch all the colours of the setting sun for a few seconds.
We had hired a two-wheeler and decided to drive from the crowded town of Fira to Oia with a few stops on the way for pictures. One can spot the town of Oia from a distance -beautiful white houses, red cliffs and the sea. We parked our scooter in one corner and I climbed over the rocks and grabbed a place from where I could see and capture the sunset. There was still about two hours to go before the sunset but seeing the crowd slowly gather I decided to stick to my spot.
Some time later a number of cruises that promise sunset views came and stopped in the middle of the sea waiting for the sunset. Even though there was still an hour to go for sunset the colours of the sky started changing to orange and then slowly to reddish orange. I had my camera ready to go and I shot a number of pictures with different shutter and aperture. I stuck to manual mode so that I had enough room to experiment and get a range of shots.
The sun finally started going down and the sky all around Oia was lit up in shades of red and orange. It looked like a perfect canvas with brush strokes on it. I never knew something could be so beautiful and I am glad I stuck to my spot for those three hours because in the end I did get my perfect shot.
