Just to show that one never knows what to expect when photographing Terra Lumina.

The day before New Year's Eve 2012, I scouted the canals in Venice, California for my annual New Year's Eve sunset photograph. The weather was cooperating - which is to say, the sky was filled with beautiful clouds reflecting in the waters of the canals. In all a spectacular sunset.

On New Year's Eve the photography gods were laughing at me. Most of the day the skies were absolutely clear, filled with brilliant, hard-edged winter light. The storm that had brought the dramatic atmospherics of the previous day had moved on.

But in the end, there were gentle wisps of clouds catching the last rays of light. A quiet, peaceful, and perhaps more appropriate finale to the year.