Silhouettes & Sunsets

One of the nice things about my university room is that I get the afternoon sun and the sunsets- well, I would get better sunsets if I wasn't looking at a courtyard, but still, the sky just lights up in the evenings in a blaze of the most magnificent colours that I can never seem to catch on camera (highly frustrating!). At the moment it has truly amazing ripples of orange and purple, blurred together like an artist's paint palette, with shades of blue flirting around the edges (it really brings out the poetical side of me!!). I have spent the last half hour trying to take decent photos of it, and they look good on the camera but then something happens to them on the computer and they don't look as good. Still, here are my attempts- if anyone has any suggestions of how to capture sunsets then please let me know!!

Several of these photos feature my collection of seed heads and dried plant life because I think the silhouettes just look fantastic against the coloured backdrop.