You’ve heard of storm-chasers.

But Rene and I became light-chasers on Saturday when we hopped in the car at 4 p.m. and decided to try to make it down to Laguna’s Treasure Island Park to take pictures for my new blog, Things to Do in Orange County.

The sun sits low and deep anyway in the fall, which makes fall afternoons the very best times to take photos of anything (especially people, since it makes everyone’s skin look golden) (so if you’re taking family photos for Christmas, take them around 4 p.m. in November!) but the sun was sinking lower and lower at 4 p.m., and I knew it would set at about 5 p.m.

At 4:07, we were on the road, but I had to stop and get gas! Ahhh! At 4:17, we were heading straight down Crown Valley Parkway, which is a long road that takes us straight to Pacific Coast Highway, the main road that runs up and down the California coast.

“It’s a pretty drive anyway,” Rene insisted as I sighed deeply. I was sure we weren’t going to make it, and I kept flooring the accelerator.

But she was right. Chasing the light is all well and good, but it’s important to enjoy the drive along the way. That fall setting sun makes everything gorgeous — all the leaves, all the flowers, everything looks backlit or lit from within. I eased off the gas, stopped racing the lights, and kept glancing at all the foliage along the roadway. It was such a beautiful drive.

We made it into the Treasure Island parking lot at 4:30, found a miraculously perfect space, hopped out of the car, ran to the pay booth to insert our $2, and dashed up the hill to catch what we could catch.

Here’s some of it:

More of it is on the Things to Do in Orange County blog. And the rest (we did get some good sunset/horizon shots!) we plan to try for the Things to Do header.

It was a really nice evening, chasing the light with Rene. …