^^ That's similar to your sunrise "Shadowed Mountains" shot, earlier. I guess lots of haze (humid air) makes for that kind of effect.

^^ Well, it would be a kinda "light effect". We naturally "see" things by their reflected light (except when looking at unnatural light-emitting sources, such as a video display, for example). The light from the low (rising) sun in this case is being bounced around haphazardly by reflection/refraction via the zillions of small drops of water (mist) which have condensed in the cold/dense early morning atmosphere. Some of that bounced light comes towards the viewer as just white light, partially obscuring the reflected light from the objects (mountains) behind the mist, like a natural veil. The effect dissipates as the air and moisture is warmed up by the sun, and the moisture evaporates.

At those times, depending on air temperature, there are different layers or thicknesses of such haze "veils" through which the reflected light from the mountains has to travel to get to your eye and the camera lens. The effect on the view of the mountains in your shots is quite beautiful, with the shy mountains furthest away being more demure and obscured (with a thicker veil) than those brazen wenches nearer (with a thinner veil). The white haze is like visual "noise". I've been inside that kind of haze/mist in freezing high alpine conditions, and the visual effect can sometimes be far from beautiful. When it is very dense, one literally cannot see anything - no reference point - so which way is up/down is unknown, because it is a visual "whiteout". Extremely disorientating - and potentially highly dangerous. A fog.

Similarly, a rainbow is a light effect when the sunlight gets refracted and split into its constituent colours (a prismatic effect) by the zillions of small drops of water in the atmosphere. The result is seen as a circular rainbow - per the sun - from an aircraft flying above, and as a partial circular rainbow from the ground.

If I have the time, I could happily watch the changing light on mountains all day long (preferably accompanied by a crate of beer and some BBQ meat). From experience though, sadly the best shots are usually those ephemeral ones captured by the senses - via the eyes - and photographs unfortunately tend to run a poor second to those. Which is a good reason for putting down the camera and just watching. Try telling that to Japanese tourists though...

But I do appreciate being able to view "your" mountains, from somewhere else halfway around the world.

A comparison of the same sunset by both cameras.

   

            GE J1470S                        Sony DSC-HX20V



Sunset parallels

Very nice. Thanks. Was showing this to my 6¾ y/o son. He likes it too.

Big sun sunset without clouds.

Unfortunately, a second look shows some fire still there. I hope they get rid of that.

Clouds on the mountain, not smoke. The monsoon rains doused the fire again.

I think the clouds / smoke / fog make the best photos of the hills

A triple-colored cloud.

I thought the "triple-colored cloud" was kinda special, but the "sitting cloud" is most unusual, because the depth differential is provided by the sitting clouds - not the natural light-and-shadow (as in earlier shots of that range of mountains).

   

Storm clouds today.

The left picture is how it looked to me. The right picture looks more dramatic.

presuming they were taken about the same time: what was the difference when taking the pictures - i.e. how did you make one darker?

You do that by pointing the camera at a slightly different place. I do this until I get something I like to get a picture that looks like what I want to see. The camera tends to produce orange sunsets if you don't do this. See pictures in #30, #34 and #35 for examples.