early day or late day light?

I've spent years being a morning person chasing images in that early morning light and have always loved the serenity and peacefulness of that time of day. I have spent far less time shooting at the end of the day due to family/children obligations and have recently spent some time working birds in the end of the day light and have found it to be even nicer than the early AM. My question is, what do you prefer and why? Also, it seemed like the golden light lasted longer at the end of the day vs the AM.... any thoughts? :)

I like early and late light, and I agree, it is usually more peaceful in the morning, particularly on the shore. It also depends on the location. On Long Island for example you get this beautiful pink very early, late in the day it's more red due to pollution and smog in NYC.

Hi Mike I like early but for a different reason ... our prevailing wind is SE !!

Mike
I agree with you. I love the serenity in the morning but the light just doesn't last that long. The afternoon is my favorite as when it's good....it's magical.

I'll take what I can get :) More often than not it depends on the shooting location as to whether it benefits most from one or the other. There is also the factor in my area that it is more frequent that sunset has more cloud cover, as moisture builds up over the course of the day.

Hi Mike,
I am with you on this one, i like afternoon much better.

I leave home at night and come back at night!

I prefer morning for the stillness, and because there are fewer poeple. Here in Morro Bay the wind picks up in the afternoon, and a morning stroll on the beach will have a greater number of birds, because there are, at the most, 4-5 poeple on a 3 mile stretch of beach in the morning.