The unusual coloring, I guess, is the camera's interpretation of a bright setting sun.
NOTE: The Venus Transit (Venus crossing the face of the sun) will be visible on Tuesday, June 5, from a little after 6pm until sunset.
This will not be an eclipse - Venus will look very small against the sun. It will be a black dot crossing the top one-third of the sun diagonally. Because this part of the US will be seeing this close to sunset when the sun is a little less bright, it will be easier to photograph.
No one alive will ever see this again (the next one is in 2117).
Lots of information is found here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/2012-venus-transit.html
