tahitian sunsets: insane in the membrane

Well, I don't know about you, but happy hour sunsets on the beach make me smile...and especially during a nice vacation (preferably somewhere tropical, of course). I didn't realize that I was such a sucker for sunset photos, until I recently rustled through some old photos - geeeeez, louise!  I can create a whole scrapbook of sunsets (but don't worry, we won't go there)... If there is anything I've learned about shooting sunsets, here are two things I constantly think about:

1) If you are heading out in the late afternoon, from work or from your house, to do errands, to pick up the kids, to pick up dinner, whatever...be sure to have your camera handy. You never know when you'll get that magical sunset that lights up the sky. Remember, Murphy's Law (almost) always wins. "Cool! Look at that awesome sunset...darn, if I only had my camera!".

2) Do not look at the sun directly through the viewfinder, and don't expose your camera's lens directly to the sun for a long period of time. Why? Because in either case, you can cause serious damage to your eye and/or the camera sensor. No bueno.

If you have any tips or comments you'd like to share about shooting sunsets, please do. Also, do you have any favorite sunset pix you'd like to share? Feel free to share a link to your gallery in the comments below...and no spam, please. Otherwise, the spam monsters will find you!