I’m a sucker for sunbeams — I blame it on my Hopper genes. That’s why I’m thrilled that the camera in my phone has a knack for capturing pictures of them.
Here’s a gallery of them, and there’s a backstory about each one below.
You can also click on a picture to see the story about it.
Touch the 360° image to explore it and touch the pictures to find out about them.
If you can’t see it, you can also explore it on Kuula.
Kites & Sunbeams@Revere (October 2020)
I was walking down the beach around Halloween and saw these great kites.
I tried to capture them from various angles and caught this sunbeam.
Sun & Sand Angels@Revere (November 2020)
I took a lot of walks on Revere Beach during COVID, and I took a LOT of pictures along the way. There is an entire post about it called Beach Bubble.
It started out just being scenery.
My focus shifted to birds for awhile.
Then I honed in on capturing sunbeams.
I was thrilled to take this one of a kite surfer.
It was around this time that I noticed that if you follow the sunbeam up, there was often a Sun Angel up there to see.
It was around Thanksgiving when I snapped this series that included a reflection in the sand of what I began dubbing “Sun Angels.”
Sunbeam@Belle Isle (November 2020)
Once I started to focus on sunbeams, I started to see them everywhere.
Here’s one I caught while waiting for my food at Belle Isle Seafood on the water near Boston Logan Airport.
Sun Angels@Wonderland (2021-2022)
I took some of my favorite photos of Sun Angels while I lived at 500 Ocean next to the Wonderland Station in Revere. A pub named Fine Line is in the building, and it has outdoor tables that are a great place to soak up late afternoon sun.
I started out taking pictures of pretty reflections of glasses while waiting for food.
Then it turned out it was also a great place to find Sun Angels.
This evolved into a months-long obsession with taking snapshots of Sun Angels.
Near the end of October of 2022, right before Fine Line was going to put their tables away for the winter, I was able to capture these spectacular Sun Angels.
Dancing Sun Angel@Tall Ship (June 2023)
I moved away from Wonderland, and I didn’t see many Sun Angels after that.
Then in the summer of 2023 I happened to be visiting The Tall Ship in East Boston and met some Sun Angels there.
I started out just noticing some sunbeams.
Sure enough, I looked up and found a Sun Angel hovering above me.
Better yet, I was even able to get capture this short video of it dancing to music.
Seeing Sargent@MFA (October 2023)
The next time I saw a Sun Angel was when I went to the Fashioned by Sargent exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
After I saw the exhibit, I decided to grab some lunch at the New American Café.
I wanted to remember the occasion, so I took a picture and noticed a sunbeam.
Then I wondered, would it be attached to a Sun Angel? Sure enough, yes it was!
Better yet, it came and briefly took up residence in my wine glass.
So Long Summer@Mission (October 2024)
I live near a restaurant named Mission on the Bay, and it has a great roof deck!
One evening I was having dinner and noticed these sunset lightbeams.
Then last October I arrived to find that the roof deck was closed for the season.
I was very sad, so I snuck upstairs to grab a picture to remember it by.
Guess what? There was a beautiful Sun Angel hanging out there!
Here’s another one of the same one, and it’s my favorite picture of a Sun Angel!
I haven’t seen many Sun Angels since last Fall, but I hope I do soon!
Meanwhile, I made the gallery above so I can visit them whenever I want.
I hope you enjoy visiting them, too!
Mary