skies – Page 32 – red paper boat

Sunday Photoblogging

July 16, 2006October 20, 2015 Shelly

I woke up early again this morning, while it was still cool outside. The sun was shining through the trees, creating little fingerling rays of light as well as a long patch of sunshine on my otherwise shady yard. Within that patch, the dew glittered on the grass, so I got my camera and took some macro shots of it. There were also zillions of those little spider webs littering the yard. I don’t know what sort of spiders inhabit them. They look sort of like winged, eight-legged ants to me, not spiders.

After yesterday’s sweltering heat, this morning’s dew was wonderfully refreshing. It’s likely to be just as hot again today, so it’ll be nice to think of the coolness of the dew on my feet.

Crepuscular Rays

Evening Belt of Venus

Last night’s Belt of Venus occurred at about 9:30. Daylight saving time has wreaked havoc on my sky watching, among other things. I just haven’t been able to adjust to the new rhythm, so things have been hit-and-miss. I can’t get used to the fact that it doesn’t get dark until 10pm. I’m normally in bed long before then, and the light makes it difficult to sleep. I’m starting to wonder if my internal clock will ever adjust.

Photography

Waxing Full

July 10, 2006October 20, 2015 Shelly

The moon is nearly full. It was especially pretty last night, above the treetops, with a whisp of clouds cradling it. My cheap camera is limited in what it can do in low light, so I played around with Photoshop filters to add even more graininess. When all else fails, pretend that you meant to do that, right? Or, as a friend’s mother likes to say, if something is an eyesore, “Paint it purple.”

According to my–yes, he is all mine–local weather guy, when there is a halo around the moon, it means there will be precipitation in the near future. It’s caused by ice crystals high up in the atmosphere. It isn’t fool proof, but it seems to be a good general rule.

Speaking of, I’m blaming my lack of productivity on the weather. It’s oppressive–still and humid and hot–and, while I haven’t looked at the weather forecast, based on last night’s moon halo and the viscosity of the air, I suspect it’s going to storm. This sort of weather makes me apprehensive, so I have a difficult time focusing and getting anything accomplished. I dealt with it today by watching mindless television and baking brownies. Yes, I required chocolate, so the Brownies of Dqqm have returned. I also made a big batch of roasted veggies: potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and peppers. Why on earth I was suddenly craving baked winter vegetables in the middle of July is a mystery, but I’m not about to argue.

Photography

Sweet Serendipity

June 29, 2006October 20, 2015 Shelly

Earlier today, I posted a link to a website on lightning photography. Well, this evening, I managed to snag my second ever lightning photo. Wheee!

For about thirty minutes, thunder had been rumbling. Then, I suddenly noticed that the sky to the southwest was a little pink, from the sunset. At the same time, a large, dark cloud mass had crept in from the north, creating a dark band of land, a light band of pale pink, then a dark band of clouds. I thought the contrast was lovely, so I grabbed my camera. The lightning strike was pure serendipity.

A few moments later, I noticed that a fringe of rain was falling from the southwesternmost cloud rim. It was dry where I stood, and clear on the far side of the rain sheet. (Both images were taken at about the same time, but with different exposure lengths.)

The backside of the storm spewed gumball-sized hail. I went out to check on my car and gathered up some specimens.

This therapy-through-photography thing is pretty damned cool. I’m scared to death of storms, but instead of getting sick, worrying about tornadoes, I actually found myself getting excited about the fact that there was lightning and hail. Not a lot excited, mind you, but any bit helps.

Photography

Stormblogging

June 19, 2006October 16, 2015 Shelly

A storm cell just passed overhead. Hoo-boy! It moved through quickly, thankfully, and we didn’t get the worst of it. North of us, there was a lot of rotation and tennis ball sized hail. We didn’t get any hail–in fact, we only got a few drops of rain–but there was rotation and a lot of movement in the clouds. Eeep!

After the storm passed, the sun came out and lit up the towering cloud bank. Whew!

Photography

Photo Salvage

June 7, 2006October 16, 2015 Shelly

What do you do when a photo doesn’t really turn out the way you’d hoped it would? You go a-Photoshopping, of course!

I took this photo last night, just as the sun was setting. The summer sunset is usually pretty boring from my vantage point, because a large stand of trees blocks the view. We occasionally get interesting cloud formations, though, and I’d hoped that this would be one of them; but it ended up not being very photogenic, so I did some Photoshopping to try to salvage what I could of it.

I started by desaturating the image, darkening it, and ramping up the contrast. Because I intended to put a black frame around it, I wanted to make sure the foreground trees were a rich black, not a washed out sorta-black. So I used the Levels setting to select the tree value as the darkest in the image. Then, I used Color Balance to add reds and yellows, to fake sepia tones. Finally, I added a grungy border around the image.

Photography

The Calm Between the Storms

June 2, 2006October 16, 2015 Shelly

Wednesday evening, we had a couple of waves of storms pass through. The sky tried, unsuccessfully, to clear between the two cells. When a bank of tall clouds moved in front of the sun, I went inside to get my camera, in hopes of getting in on some crepuscular ray action. It’s subtle, but it’s there in the second and third photos. There is also a nice mix of thin, whispy clouds and tall, dense ones. The first photo is of a neat double arch formation that hovered over my neighbor’s barn.

Photography

The Sky Above

May 26, 2006October 16, 2015 Shelly

The weather yesterday was turbulent. High temperature and lots of atmospheric instability led to an impressive storm system blowing through in the late afternoon. Owen County and Monroe County were both under tornado warnings, so I decided to stay at work until the storms passed. I’m glad I did, because as I drove home, the sky was amazing. As I was heading out of town, I noticed a patch of mammatus clouds. I tried to get a couple of shots from my car, while traffic was stopped, but they didn’t turn out very well. Luckily, the clouds held together until I got to a place where I could safely pull over.

25 May 2006, Curry Pike, Monroe County, Indiana

25 May 2006, Intersection of Ratliff Rd. and Starnes Rd., Monroe County, Indiana

A patch of mammatus clouds had begun to pull apart into elongated forms. The frothy clouds in the lower left made the sky look like a turbulent ocean, reminding me of a nineteenth-century shipwreck painting.

Sunset 25 May 2006

Eastern Sky at Sunset 25 May 2006

The sunset was reflecting off the tops of clouds in the east, and the pink glow showed through the clouds.

Belt of Venus 22 May 2006

Photography

Mammatus Clouds

May 23, 2006October 14, 2015 Shelly

Earlier this spring, we had a spectacular storm move through. It passed slowly, with lots and lots of lightning. I got a few pictures, but only one was half-way presentable.

Storm with Lightning and Mammatus Clouds 31 March 2006, Owen County, Indiana

If you look really closely, you can see the bottom curves of mammatus clouds that formed on the back side of the storm. They’re visible as pillowy shapes descending from the mass of black across the top of the frame, backlit by the lightning strike.

The reason I’m reposting this image is that today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day is a photo of mammatus clouds, taken on the same day, of the same storm system, in Avon, Indiana. Avon is west of Indy, and north of where I live.

And, for anyone who wants to be ubergeeky, here’s a cloud identification atlas.

Photography

Happy Little Clouds

April 24, 2006October 14, 2015 Shelly

Clouds at Sunset, 22 April 2006

Crepuscular Rays, 22 April 2006

Photography

Efflorescence of a Sunset

April 18, 2006October 14, 2015 Shelly

Eastern Glow at Sunset, 14 April 2006

I took this last Friday evening. I’d been standing outside, talking with my neighbor across the gate (like ya’ do). I was facing west, and had been lamenting internally that the sunset was non-existant. One minute it was hovering boringly above the horizon, then “plop” it sank. Nary a hint of pink or orange or purple or anything at all. Hrmph.

Then, as she was leaving, I turned to go back inside. Oh my. The entire eastern sky was glowing a soft pink. It was kind of subtle, so I didn’t think it would show up well in a picture. I intended to just hang out and enjoy it while it lasted, but then Harriet decided it was time to eat rightthisninute. I took her inside to feed her, then went back outside to do some more sky watching. In the few moments I was indoors, the pink had deepened and intensified. I got my camera and took a few pictures.