Tips for all the amateur photogs like me, time of day and position of the sun is everything in landscape pics. Pay attention and you'll start noticin the changes. Sometimes you only have one or two minutes to capture a certain light, particularly at sunrise or sunset. (It changes faster than you think) Professional photographers are trained in the science of this, Ron is blessed to have an eye for composition and bein in the right place at the right time, and I just pretty much look at what he and other folks do on here and go out and try to copy it. (You can learn a lot and improve sometimes by imitation) And to answer another question, yes the sky really is that blue some days, particularly here in the mountains and in Utah.