i needed a new project. this is it: http://onemillionsunsets.tumblr.com/

on a recent trip to los angeles, i was on my way to the airport to drop off the rental before catching a flight home. unbenownst to me, i had scheduded my departure in perfect time with a rather beautiful sunset. the kind of sunset that makes you swerve while haphazardly trying to capture a blurry mobile camera pic. it looked as if the sky was on fire.

walking into the airport i noticed that i wasn’t the only one taking note of the sky. car rental service agents left their trailer posts and stepped outside to gaze at the horizon. i overheard one casually say to their colleague “yep, looked just about like that yesterday” as they held their camera phone outward.

and that’s when it occurred to me:
is there any such thing as an ugly sunset?
and for that matter,
is there any such thing as an ugly picture of a sunset?
no. there isn’t.

this got my head in a tizzy. exploding possibilities. i decided that i wanted to capture as many photographs of sunsets as i could. one everyday! for the rest of my life! or, until i get a million. yeah! a million!

then i did the math:

1,000,000 sunsets / 365 days = 2,739.73 years (i.e. impossible)

but i realized that there were millions, no…billions. roughly 6,897,100,000 sunsets everyday. 6.9 billion sunsets every day from the vantage point of each human being on the planet (one could argue for including animals as well but most animals don’t know how to operate cameras). this was how i would reach one million sunsets: enlist the help of everyone and anyone with a camera and the internet and a healthy and never-ending love of watching the sun set.

here’s where you come in - you can help! upload your photo by hitting the submit button on this page: http://onemillionsunsets.tumblr.com/submit. don’t forget to include the date and location of where the sunset was captured.

you don’t have to sign up for a Tumblr account and your name and email address are sent to me so that i can approve real submissions and weed out spam. also, i’m unfamiliar with how Tumblr legalese addresses intellectual property, so if you feel reserved about posting that sunset photo that you’re sure will make you millions one day, skip it and enjoy photos from everyone else.

peace and sunsets,
nicole