I'm always shooting video, so usually get my stills from that, I need to get the camera out more often, we've always wanted to set up a camera, maybe like a gopro, to let it run one entire sun/moon cycle of a day to catch the tide and moving light and such. It'd make a great longform video with music. One day.
I agree, the colour feels 'sharper' this time of the year, tho we have some amazing almost gaudy sunsets in high summer.
I have done a few time lapses both with my camera and go pro, but never a full day cycle, that would be cool to do :)