Eye Candy with the Sun

The release of Google Earth version 4.3 gave you the ability to view dramatic, beautiful scenes that involve shadow and light.

To create these views, I always navigate first to hilly or mountainous terrain. The more colorful, the better. I click the sun icon in the 3D viewer, then move the time slider to create the appropriate shadows. Make sure you turn on atmosphere (View > Atmosphere).

Here are a few images that I was able to create using this process. Click each one to make it larger. Truth be told, I retouched each a bit (Brightness/Contrast) in Adobe Fireworks. From top to bottom, they are Swiss Alps; Mounument Valley, AZ and Big Sur, California.