"catching the sun" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to the act of sunbathing, for example: "On weekends, I like to relax in the park by catching the sun."
It's to do with catching the sun before it slips behind the horizon".
One wheel, catching the sun, is a bright circle of light; the other is a dark ring.
The spray will fan out behind me, catching the sun as my prop churns the warm dark water.
The Glasshouse is decked out, for the majority, with Logan's pieces; weird and wonderful creatures suspended from the ceiling on fishing wire, slowly turning and catching the sun.
Mr. Long was shaking water off some lettuce, and the droplets were catching the sun and spraying a few men standing nearby.
All day at work I thought of nothing but those shining surfaces, like coins catching the sun, and when I came home I went from mirror to mirror, striking poses, turning my head from side to side.
It has big portions and faces east, catching the early sun.
In the 80's its hills swarmed with trekkers catching the evening sun as it hit Annapurna.
From the top of one of seven hills once sacred to the Incas, even the city's largest Virgin seems to be catching the setting sun's fire.
The chair on which Father Meade had earlier rested, catching the morning sun, was still there, on a lawn more spacious than the strip of grass by the wall with the Virginia creeper.
No one knows when it will open, neither uniformed polizei catching the early-morning sun, nor the waiters of open-air cafes laying tables for lazy breakfasts.
