bowtie`

Had the perfect amount of clouds overhead this evening. When I got to the pond, looking east. Very photogenic. Taken with the 16-35mm at 19mm... To the west I had the perfect amount of cirrus. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... It is too bad that the convection in northern Illinois shut off the post sunset light. It could have been epic with all the cirrus overhead. About the best the color would do, and that is not saying much. Taken with the 16-35mm at 23mm... By this last image of the evening everything had turned so blue that I just went ahead and made a B&W out if it. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm...

I thought there might be a chance for some decent color right after sunset and I guessed right. Glad I made the effort. Just going to start with the yellow right after the Sun rounded to corner of the horizon. Taken with the 24-70mm at 42mm... Moved over the the southside of the pond seeing how a lot of the color was more towards the north. Taken with the 16-35mm at 25mm... During the orange there were some very distinct cloud shadows. Taken with the 24-70mm at 54mm... And ending the evening with the red. Taken with the 24-70mm at 30mm... Good night my darlin' where ever you are...

Only one image tonight also. An absence of clouds is still a sky condition, right? Anyways, right after sunset there was something close to the horizon. Almost looked like smoke but it did not dim the Sun while the Sun was above the horizon so was it haze brought up by the system to my south? You could see whatever it wwas on the sub-regional portion of the visible satellite. It was even all across from Ohio to Iowa. Anyway here is what it is. Taken with the 100mm at 100mm of course...

The visual satellite has the death ridge look to it today.

out west, yes.

I told myself that I was not going to go out to the pond this evening. I was going to stay home and catch up on the some sleep. Then what did I do? I went out to the pond anyway. I do not think, I know I have a problem. Guess I can be a rumblin' zombie at work tomorrow. Only one image this evening. Was a sparse night post sunset. Only some cirrus off to the east. So I got the cirrus and a little bit of the "belt of Venus". Taken with the 16-35mm at 21mm...

Had some cirrus hang tough through sunset this evening. I expected the dry air to win but while it as a close thing. there was a little to image. Started off somewhere new and novel. I crossed over to the other side of the pond right at first. There were no fishermen out tonight so I had the whole place to myself. When I got over to the other side, I found out why there were no fishermen out. That whole bank on that side of the pond was nothing but mud. So I only took a couple of images before moving back to my normal side. In this though you can see what I call the fishermens point on the extreme left side of the image. I normally shoot from the seventh tall reflection tree from the left. You can kind of see where I have thinned out the cat-tails a bit. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... Back to my normal side and out on the fishermans point. Looking southwest as the color was getting primed to go. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Southwest again but with some color in all of the cirrus. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm again... Eventually all that was left was this lone cloud. Looking almost due south. Taken with the 24-70mm at 43mm... Cheers!

I have been told that I missed a fantastic sunset last night. Oh well. These things are going to happen. I was out at the pond tonight just in case it wanted to be fantastic again. Started off looking to the southeast when I got out there. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Looking to the west. Taken with the 16-35mm at 21mm... A vertical orientation so you can compare it with the last image of the evening. Taken with the 16-35mm at 26mm... Another west view a bit later. Taken with the 16-35mm at 24mm... Last image of the night. The red happened to the cirrus that was behind some cumulus. Nothing fantastic but at least it was some color. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Cheers!

I had really not expected to have anything to shoot this evening. I had not turned on the computer all day so I had no idea what might happen. all I as going on was the way the clouds looked all day. And that was not encouraging. But when I left dinner a quick look at the sky told me I should had out to the pond. When I got out to the pond there were no fishermen there. Kind of surprised me. But that meant that the fishermen point was open so I took up being able to get right out on the water. Looking from the south to the west. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... Looking from the west to the northwest. Taken with the 16-35mm at 27mm... Even going vertical to get the cirrus overhead looked good. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Eventually it had to end, The fishermen showed up and started roiling the water up so I needed to move locations. Headed to the top of the construction mound. Do not know how much longer that is going to be there. They have used most of it to backfill. But there is still enough right now to get on top of it and take images. Even the view to the east tonight looked decent. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... And a last look west to what little color there was. Taken with the 16-35mm at 18mm... Cheers!

After a perfect cloudless day, Some cirrus from the next system approached the area during sunset. Started off with some parhelia ( sundogs ). The north side as super bright. There is also some on the south side but much more subtle and hard to see. Taken with the 16-35mm at 30mm... About the best the post sunset color as going to get. Taken with the 16-35mm at 31mm...

Oh nevermind. I now see KHHG - KORD is 149 miles. And seeing how IWX is north of town and HHG is south of town so it has to be less that 150 easy.

I just looked up the great circle route from KIWH to KORD is 138 miles. So is KORD - KIWX within 150 miles? It would have been more amazing if that difference was under 100 miles such as KSBN.

Well?

That voice-over is heart-breaking and amazing. The line " I do not know where that is. All the landmarks are gone" is chilling to the core.

Our mets are the best. They called this one. Looks like I cleared the tippy bucket for nothing. Literally nothing.

Minimalistic kind of night at the pond. Looking east when I got there. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Looking east for the start of the color. Taken with the 100mm... Looking southwest at some red. Taken with the 100mm... And looking northwest at some cirrus that is way over in central Illinois. Taken with the 100mm...

Watch Mother Nature pencil you in for 0.60".

Not much in the way of color tonight. So I will go with a comparative study of horizontal versus vertical orientation. Start off vertical. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Almost one minute later, horizontal. Taken with the 16-35mm at 18mm...

A columbine bloom from my backyard...

Another fine evening behind the viewfinder. When I got to the pond a view to the north. you can see how far along the new building is. The foundation is complete. Just waiting on the cure before the structural steel goes up. Taken with the 16-35mm at 25mm... The view to the west. Taken with the 16-35mm at 21mm... Some faint crepuscular rays. Taken with the 24-70mm at 62mm... A view to the south. Taken with the 24-70mm at 40mm... I had given up on any more color and was heading back to the car when there was an extremely brief red flash. I had to just stop in the middle of the construction site and get the camera operating again. Looking to the northwest. Taken with the 100mm... Looking to the west at the retreating red. Taken with the 100mm... Cheers!

As the Sun was getting lower and lower in the sky tonight I could see a clear sinking motion as the clouds were evaporating. So it was going to be a race between the dry air and sunset again. As the Sun got close to the horizon, this is how it looked. Not bad but I knew it was not going to last. Taken with the 24-70mm at 58mm... Here as the orange was getting ready to turn red, you can see the variety of cloud heights. The white up high the dark blue/grey of the low clouds and the medium clouds where you can see some color. Just a smattering of each type here and there scattered about the frame. Taken with the 24-70mm at 57mm... Here is the max red. taken with the 24-70mm at 70mm... Cheers!

Did not go out to the pond this evening. So I took the sunset images from the front yard instead. Have to put up with the building, trees and wires. Start off with a zoomed in version. Taken with the 16-35mm at 30mm... And then more of an overview. Taken with the 16-35mm at 24mm...

Had decent conditions for the sunset this evening. Perfect amount and placement of clouds. Too bad the breeze was up. Put a damper on some of the reflections. But still a nice time. When I got to the pond the bronze hour was underway. Taken with the 24-70mm at 62mm... This overview shows howw even though the Sun is on the horizon, the bronze hour blazing. the cirrus way overhead was still shining with the white light way up there. Taken with the 16-35mm at 20mm... A bit of a rocket engine was ignited this evening. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... The red flash as brief and spotty. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Cheers!

Nice conditions at the pond this evening. Winds were close to calm. If it wasn't for all the fish popping the surface it would have been perfect. Best image of the night was when I first got out there. Had to chop a lot of the reflection off to be able to get all of the clouds in the image. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... After the fact, looking at the visual satellite, I am surprised I got any color at all. But here is the best I could do. At least the reflection is top-notch. Too bad I was so heavy-handed processing this one. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm...

Last night I missed some colorful clouds getting some stuff done around the house. This evening I was not going to make that same mistake. Trouble was the atmosphere does not play that way. Best clouds were to the south when I first got out to the pond. Taken with the 24-70mm at 27mm... Around local sunset even though the warehouse is blocking that view. Taken with the 100mm at 100mm of course...