bowtie`

Tonight was about the post sunset color. Starting out with the sky behind going to yellow... With the red tinging in on the blue sky, it started the almost violet color up... Switch to vertical to get all the violet color and the way I was feathering the GND kind of fooled the white balance of the camera again. Still made the contrast of clouds correct but the color might be a bit off. I still like the result... And as the color was leaving the sky overhead, of course the horizon goes super saturated...

I wonder where that boundary/front was? Oh yeah, checking the visual satellite at sunset said, "Right Over My Head".

This evening was quite interesting out at the pond. Some cloud shadows when I got out to the pond... I like this one because I think I actually followed the rule of thirds for once... I like all the different colors in this image. The Moon also takes it a step farther... I might have gone overboard with the contrast in this one... Walking back to the car at the end I looked to the south-southwest and I could not pass up a shot that went from the horizon to past overhead at 16mm. The Moon looks like more of a sensor error but I think it is cool when you know what it is...

All of the clouds disappeared as the sun sank to the horizon. I had to find other things to look at. Here the Sun was doing a balancing act on top of a power pole. Also in the reflection in the water, you can see the straight line of the power pole at least in full resolution RAW image. Hopefully you can see it in the squished down version... Beginning of the post sunset color... End of the post sunset color. I hope you can see the faint and broad cloud shadows that look like they came from the tops in south central Iowa well over the horizon...

The rains of the morning departed and left an almost clear sly overhead this evening. But it was a close thing. When I got out to the pond. A look to the south of some build-up and the anvil from that cell south of Indianapolis... Post sunset you could see that the lower atmosphere was very blotchy. I do not see smoke on the visual satellite so I wonder if it was the high low level moisture from the morning rains that was real close, if not starting to make some fog... There was just a smattering of red way off in the northwest distance. And more of the low level blotchiness... Once again some short lived violet color... And ending the evening with the Moon making an appearance in the western sky...

A couple of small breaks in the cloud layer around sunset. What it looked like when I got out to the pond looking southwest... These next two images you can see the difference between my glass. First one was with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Two mintues and nineteen seconds later, after a lens change, here is the 24-70mm at 65mm...

When I got off of work at 6 p.m. I thought, darn too bad it is not sunset right now. It would have been ae-inspiring. But two and a half hours later it did a decent enough job of it. What it looked like when I got to the pond. Not much to it... Later as the clouds started to dissipate with the loss of heating... Going to skip straight to the good stuff now. THe beginning of the orange/red... Switched back to the 16-35 for the red max... Here is when the red was just starting to fade. That electric blue ribbon on the left side almost made my teeth hurt it was so tasty...

A little bit of that violet color again tonight...

Well the streak is over. Yesterday was 100% stratus. And there were no lucky breaks. I know because I was out there just in case. And all the images were solid grey and nothing to look at so they all went into the recycle bin. At least this evening it was a lot nicer looking out at the pond. Starting off with some crepuscular rays... And some more rays... Best image of the evening in my mind was this view to the east just before sunset... Last image of the evening had a little bit of yellow. A little bit of orange. A little bit of red. A little bit of violet. In other words, it was a hot mess...

Picked up 2.04 in my backyard. Got trained a little bit early this morning.

I played Putt-Putt in the late 70's. Can I be in this thread?

Day 36 and I sneaked another evening in. Not much in the way of color but there were plenty of clouds to image. When I got to the pond looking southeast... Looking west, vertically... And now horizontally... The post sunset color was muted and no reds. A little bit of light orange was the best it could do... The best reflection image happened very late and the colors were going wonky so I just did a B&W...

Day 35 and might this be the last evening for this streak? Upstream on the visual satellite is not looking very promising. So I had as much fun as I could this evening, just in case. I got there just before sunset this evening... Some very faint cloud shadows going on in the right side of this image just after sunset... Started off watching the red approach from the south with the 24mm-70mm... Ended the red with the 16mm-35mm looking to the southwest... Not a bad way to go, if this happened to be the last for a day or two or three.

Day 34 and I keep hoping for more. Right after sunset... The beginning of the orange way up high... The end of the red up high... The last of the color on the horizon...

Day 33. I only made it out to the pond after sunset today. Real soon I might have to flip the evening meal with the pictures. Day light is really getting shorter now. So tonight was all post sunset. I am not sure which I like best, isolating the sky... Or trying to get at least a little bit of a reflection... Here the cirrus behind the lower clouds turned hot red... Figured I show you the *new* billboard. Same company but a little bit different of a message...

Day 32 of the Energizer Bunny Streak that will not give up. Was a close thing though. Had a pretty thick cloud shield to the west and north. Was not sure if anything might happen. BUt as usual I was out there just in case. When I got out to the pond. I had to orient to the southwest to get anything... Tried going vertical when it started getting tinged with orange... Fortunately, right around local sunset, there was a slight tear in the cloud bank. It was crepuscular ray nirvana for a very short period of time. Here are the rays in color... And here are the crepuscular rays in black and white only a minute later...

Day 31 of The Streak. And still it continues. And what I night it was. The afternoon storms rolled through at just the right time and left the perfect environment. Starting off vertical, pre-sunset... And onto horizontal pre-sunset... Just going to make a rather long time jump break and go straight into the max color... And a little bit more of a detailed view of the right side of the previous image... Going to end the night just as I started, vertical. The extreme post sunset light had a strong violet cast to it again. Supposidly from the aerosols from the two volcanos on the other side of the Pacific. It is very noticeable...

Day 30. A solid month at the pond. And what a celebration I had. I was running everywhere, all night long. Complex to the northwest of me. Complex to the southwest of me. There I was, stuck in the middle with you. Started off looking south when I got to the pond... A nice sundog on the north side of the Sun... Once the post sunset started the edge of the southwest complex started to go orange... I glanced over my left shoulder and saw something I do not see very often. Maybe once a year if I am lucky. An anti-crepuscular ray. In other words, a cloud shadow so strong that it went all the way to the vanishing point looking to the southeast... Then I ran to the fisherman's point, to get a better angle and some more reflection on the complex to the southwest... Then it was a move back to my normal spot for the post sunset color to the west and you can still see the cloud shadow or crepuscular ray that gave me the anti one... Ended the evening with a wild color. Feathering the GND sometimes fools the color balance of the camera. On rare occasions the result is visually pleasing...

Please do not hack me. You almost guessed my password on one attempt.

!.78 since Friday here in my tippy bucket. The radar estimates only have one inch over me. They show a 1.5 stripe just south of me though. The convective nature must have given me a tad bit more.

Day 29. And what a busy night it was. Had some cells roll through this evening and I went out hoping it would break in time for sunset. Started off with some crepuscular rays... Then a rainbow broke out. It never did make a complete semi-circle, so I had to image it in installments. First the xouth side of the rainbow with a bruise blue background... Then the north side of the rainbow which was vivid yellow... Then on to some post sunset color... How about post sunset color with a lightning bolt on the right side of this image... And finished the evening off with another lightning bolt, this time in the lower left...

Day 28 and still hanging on by a thread. Was almost a shut out but not quite. Good thing I did decide to go out to the pond just in case. It may have been brief but it was worth the effort. Probably the best color dynamics, and image of the night. Might as well as starting off with a bang... A little bit later there was a decidedly violet color to the light from over the horizon... And this last image is just for me. Completely incidental light and I exposed to make the sky/clouds right and had to let the billboard be way over-exposed. I do have my priorities...

Day 27 and all is well. Sooner or later this is going to implode on me. And yet it is the conditions of a changing condition that brings me the best color and clouds. Here is to having triggers near by. And what an evening it was at the pond again. What it looked like when the post sunset color machine was practicing its scales, getting ready for it's performance... The first serious color occurred just over my left shoulder. So I just swung the camera to the south and opened the lens to 16mm and it still hardly fit... Once the overhead went red I adjusted more to the southwest to get all the color at once... Here is a close-up of the stuff closest to the horizon... And as the red was departing the area. Stick a fork in it, it is done... Goodnight my darlin', wherever you are...

Day 26 and still the streak marches on. And it was one of those sunsets that I hope for each and every time I go out there. What it looked like when I got out to the pond. Nothing special here,,, After the sun actually set, the breeze started to die down so I was doing reflections shots just in case that is all I got. But if you look to the right side you can see a little red starting to creep in... Well I swung the camera more over to the north and was elated when the red really started coming on strong... Then it even moved over more to the west and mixed just right with the yellows and browns and blues and the whole mess... gorgeous.... Good night my darlin', wherever your are...

Day 25 and I am still going strong. This evening was smoke influenced. I think the smoke layer did not let the clouds radiate away once the sun set, as usual. It seemed to even trigger some more cloud formation. When I got to the pond... The clouds getting bigger... And even bigger... This last image shows the blotchiness of the smoke the best...