Learning to Shoot: Winter Sunset

Well,
This last week(end) Paige's family was out here to visit. We were able to celebrate Christmas with her family and grandparents on the 28th, then her grandparents took off the next morning, but her parents and brother stayed to help us ring in the new year.
It was a great week and a lot of relaxing, but one day, we felt that we needed to get some exercise. So, Dave and I ran 5 miles (Chad ran 7), then we headed up to Hanging Rock State Park to do some hiking. They hadn't ever been there and I thought it would be a lot of fun to get out and do some winter hiking. It was a beautiful day, mid-40's, when we hit the road and it only got better once we got to the mountain. We started off with an easy 5.5 mile trail that took us to the highest point of the range. It's a trail Paige and I have done before and I've got a picture of it in one of the earlier posts of the foggy hand railing.
When we got to the fire tower, which marks the highest point of the range, we decided to stop, enjoy the scenery and get a picture. I was pretty pooped by this point. The fire tower is 3.5 miles into the hike, so I'm already 8.5 miles into my day and completely worn out.
We hung out there for a few minutes (the wind was blowing and it was pretty cold up there) and decided to head on back to the car.
Once back at the car, since they didn't have a chance to see the actual "hanging rock", we thought it would be a good idea to hike out to that as well...what's another 2.5 miles when you've already done 10.5.
So, we hit the trail again, Chad leading the way, because Dave and I were so tired, we could barely make it.
Once we got out to the rock, it proved to be completely worth it. The skies cleared up and we got to be a part of a magnificent sunset. Of course, I was snapping away with the camera, but I think that I got some pretty cool pictures of it.
My two favorite are the vertical sunset picture and the silhouette of Chad against the sunset.
I put a slightly different frame around these pictures. I decided to use a drop shadow to frame the picture rather than a fake mat...I think that they came out pretty well.
Anyway, it was a great few days with them and Dave, Chad and I had a blast out on the trails...even though I almost had to roll down the trail to get back to the parking lot because my legs were too tired.