Sunrise/Sunset/Sky

Moon Through the Trees

After taking the previous picture, of the rainbow on our family room carpet, Cathy and I went for a walk in the neighborhood. It’s been a bit cool out and even I wore a sweater and gloves (don’t be shocked—when it’s less than 20°F, even I’ll wear a bit more if I’m going to be out for a while).

As we walked east, the waxing gibbous moon was rising through the trees and I stopped long enough to take a handful of pictures. This one turned out best, the others being a little dark.

Single-Cloud Sunset

The sky was mostly clear today, at least late in the day. As I was driving home, watching the sun set in the rear-view mirror, I could see a bit of color very low in the sky but other than that, there were just a few small clouds high in the sky. I didn’t have time to get anywhere that I could both stop and have a good view of the horizon. I stopped for a few groceries, though and the few clouds overhead started to turn color. So, here’s a solitary cloud, lit up by the setting sun. Not your spectacular, all-encompassing sunset, but pretty, nonetheless.

Sunset

As I was leaving work it looked like a good sunset was shaping up. The sky was partly cloudy with clouds moving across an otherwise brilliantly blue sky. I got to my new sunset location with about ten minutes to spare before the clouds really started to light up. Of course, the best sunsets generally need the sun lighting the clouds from below, which means it’s a very brief thing as the sun drops below the horizon. This evening, unfortunately, there were clouds blocking the sun at that point, so this is as bright as it got. It was beautiful but not everything it could have been. But I couldn’t complain. I was outdoors on a wonderfully lovely evening enjoying a fleeting glimpse of solar splendor.

Winter Sunset

It was nearly 70°F yesterday but as we were driving home from Richmond it began to rain. By the time we got home (about 9:30 p.m.) it was below 50°F. This morning it was not much above freezing most of the day and by the evening it was fairly cold. On the way home I found a good spot for taking sunset pictures. I’ll need to plan on coming home that way when a sunset is in the offing. This is a panorama of five images stitched together quickly (and not necessarily expertly, but they look pretty good). I got a few individual images with a line of geese flying across, as well, but I decided I like the panorama best.

Clouds

It was a beautiful, if cool, day today and this was the view out our kitchen door at about 4:30 p.m. Not bad. Sometimes I wish we lived somewhere a bit less built up, somewhere a bit more natural and scenic. But there is plenty of beauty where we live and it’s important to be on the lookout for it. Sometimes it hits you when you least expect it. In this case, I happened to mention to Dorothy that I hadn’t taken any pictures yet. She said, “you should look out the back door, then” (or something to that effect). Yep, worth it.

Pre-Thanksgiving Snow

Well, the forecast was for snow. I thought it was supposed to be overnight but when I got up this morning, it had only been raining. It seemed to be on the edge of freezing as I came in to work. Later in the morning I got an email from my brother George saying there was a dusting on the ground in New Jersey. Albert replied that it looked about the same here. That’s when I turned around and saw the snow for the first time. I guess I was concentrating on what I was doing.

This wasn’t any sort of record in terms of earliest and certainly not the heaviest but it was still rather early and rather heavy for this area. It was coming down quite hard for a while, although it never really stuck to the roads, just to grassy areas and on cars.

Tree By Moonlight

I was out this evening and just before coming home I enjoyed looking at the moon for a while. It was fairly high in the sky at this point (about 9:30 PM) and there were clouds speeding across the sky, creating a broad glow around it. Clouds lit by the moon are quite beautiful but very difficult to photograph. Our eyes are such amazing things and anyone who thinks there are no improvements to be made in camera design hasn’t stopped to think. The moon is so bright compared to the clouds lit by its reflected light. To our eyes, the clouds are just a little dimmer than the moon but a camera isn’t fooled and isn’t so capable. To get the moon exposed correctly, you have to stop down enough for daylight. But the clouds are not in daylight and they go black, regardless of how bright they seem. To expose the clouds well, the moon becomes a washed out blob. So, no picture of the clouds and the moon this time.

Instead, here is a tree, just about ready to sleep the winter away. It is lit by the light from the moon in this 15 second exposure. Here’s something that the camera can do that we cannot—store up the light into one big packet and see in the dark.

Evening Clouds

We had a slow drive to Virginia this afternoon, taking over two hours to get through the first 60 miles and a third hour for the second 60. Shortly before the traffic eased up we stopped at a rest area. The sun was setting and the clouds were quite lovely. The higher clouds were still lit by the setting sun but there was a layer of clouds much lower that were already in the shadow of the turning earth. Those dark clouds were set off against the bright, higher clouds and made a wonderful tapestry in the sky. Certainly a nice break from interstate 95 traffic.

Rainbow at Dusk

I was just about ready to leave for youth group at church when I noticed that the light outside was amazing. You know how sometimes, just before dusk, the sky lights up with a warm glow? Well, that was going on. So I grabbed my camera to try to get a picture of that light shining on the tops of the trees out front. When I got outside, however, I found this rainbow waiting for me, so I took pictures of that, instead, against the backdrop of brightly colored clouds. I took just a few pictures with that lens, then came in to switch to the wide angle so I could get more of the rainbow. By the time I came back out, the brightness had faded a bit and before I had taken three more pictures, the rainbow was gone.

Foggy Evening

It was a foggy evening as I drove home from work today. Fog is a funny thing, when it comes to taking pictures. It rarely looks the same in the picture as it did when you took it. Also, the temptation is to increase the contrast, which ruins the effect. In this case, this is about what it looked like on the way home, taken with my do-it-yourself (or did-it-myself) dash-cam. I do like a soft, foggy evening (or morning, or night), actually.

Sunset

I was on my way to church this evening and there was a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, my drive to church has very few good places to stop and see the western horizon. Because traffic on our normal route is heavy and slow this time of the evening, I went the back way, which does go over the top of a hill and give one or two quick glimpses to the west. I stopped the car briefly to take a very few pictures and this one turned out to be pretty good, I think. There is actually the top board of a fence running across the bottom but because all the ground has gone to black, it doesn’t hurt the picture.

355 Sunset

Yes, another sunset. This time I’m sitting at the light at MD 355 watching the traffic go by and enjoying the sunset colors. In this picture, I’m actually looking almost due north, well away from the setting sun, so you can see that the amount of color in the sky is impressive. It was a beautiful sunset, lighting up the entire sky. I even took a picture or two looking to the west in my rear-view mirror, although those are not particularly good, photographically.

Sunset

It’s shaping up to be a very busy week (and since I’m writing this after the fact, I can tell you that it was). I was fortunate to be able to head home before it was completely dark today. I took this from the road, while waiting at a light to turn green. After the last sunset picture I posted, I’m glad to be able to post a proper sunset again, with the bright colors that we all love in a sunset. This is a great time of year for them, so keep your camera (or these days, your phone) ready.

Correction: This was not taken on the way home, that was tomorrow’s picture. We were on our way out to dinner with Cathy’s mom for her birthday and stopped on Perry Parkway to take this picture.

Clouds at Dusk

As sunset pictures go, I guess this is a bit weak. We expect sunset pictures to be bright and bold. This isn’t. It’s dusky and muted. That’s the sort of day it was, and that’s the sort of picture I got. Not a terrible picture, I suppose, but it isn’t going to catch and hold your attention.

Anyway, this is September 17, 2014. Good evening.

Sunset

I was just about caught up, posting the last few pictures the day they were taken or early the following day. Then it got very busy at work and I had a very hard time keeping up with everything, so this slipped. As I write this on September 26, I have finally gotten around to taking pictures off my camera from September 13 through 23. I’ll try to get caught up again. Anyway, there was a pretty sunset this evening as I was cooking dinner and I went out back for a few pictures. Most of the color was seen behind the trees but there were a few bright areas of open sky.

Clouds

It got quite warm yesterday, topping 90°F, but today was cooler and the sky was a glorious blue with fabulous layers of light clouds scattered across it. It was a long day for me, having a dentist appointment and then part of a work day, followed by a round trip to Richmond, returning by way of Baltimore, which isn’t really on the way. Because of all that I didn’t take many pictures but this is one of a few I took from my car while waiting at a traffic light.

Dusk

I took a few pictures this evening although I can’t say that they are very interesting. It rained again this evening and as the sun was getting low in the sky, the whole area took on a beautiful, slightly yellow glow. This photograph doesn’t really do it justice and of course it’s just a photo of our neighborhood, so not a lot to look at, but perhaps it will give you some idea. If you’ve ever seen this, then you know what I’m talking about and maybe you’ll appreciate it. Anyway, this is all I have today.

Sunset

Dorothy drove us to church this evening, freeing me up to take some pictures while we were on our way. The sun was low in the sky, so I put the long lens on and took a few pictures when I had a break in the trees. It’s not the sort of sunset picture that’s going to win any awards. In general, I recommend finding a good location, stopping the car, and setting up a picture like this, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Considering how it was taken, though, I think it’s reasonably pretty

Sunset

It was another gorgeous day today, again a bit warming, up near 90°F, but a fabulous, blue sky with a few scattered clouds. As the sun dropped into the west the sky darkened to an even prettier, deeper blue. Then the clouds began to light up with a wonderful orange color.

This was the view out our kitchen door at two minutes to eight. Not bad, eh?

Sunrise, Ocean Isle Beach

Those of you who follow me on the various social media outlets of the interwebs have already seen a picture of this sunrise, which I took on my phone and posted the morning of July 31. Unsurprisingly, I took some pictures with my “real” camera, as well, and I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out, as well. It’s actually somewhat amazing how good the phone pictures is, but there are still things I can do with my Canon that the Samsung won’t quite manage.

Sunrise, Ocean Isle Beach

I was going through the images I took and trying to decide which I like best, which is sometimes really easy. Today, though, there were two that I liked and I was having a hard time picking between them. On the one hand, I think this vertical photo is the better image of the sun, the reflection, and the waves. On the other hand, I really like the bird in the first one. In fact, I was thinking about cropping that down to just have the bird, the streak of light from the sun, and the top of the wave coming up the beach. I may do that yet for a card, but this is the whole image.

This is the third and final sunrise that I’ll post from Ocean Isle this year. They were all quite different from one another, which is, I think, one of the things we find so fascinating about sunrises. That and their evanescence. They have to be enjoyed in the moment, because they don’t wait, evaporating like a morning mist. Pictures are nice, of course, but they don’t hold a candle to the real thing. Standing in the waves of the Atlantic, feeling the cool, morning breeze on my face, and seeing the colors and movement of those waves, most of that is lost in the photograph.

Starry Night

The last photo from another busy day. This one isn’t as spectacular as the thunderstorm photo from last night, but I’m still pretty pleased with it. Dorothy suggested that I go out and take some pictures, because the southern sky was so clear and the Milky Way was clearly visible. Well, clear is relative and this was clear if you are used to the east cost of North America, anyway. This was taken with settings similar to last night’s, with the ISO set to 640, f/3.5 and 30 seconds. The lens was a 10–20mm zoom, at 10mm, so a fairly wide angle (that’s equivalent to 16mm on an old 35mm camera, for anyone who actually remembers those). This picture was harder to deal with in terms of “noise.” If I reduced it enough to matter, I lost a lot of the detail in the Milky Way. So, here’s an even better reason to want a full frame SLR. And a trip to the dry, much clearer and darker parts of the country, preferably on the top of a mountain. Still, it’s the best Milky Way picture I’ve ever taken (though that’s not saying much).

A Very Different Sunrise

After the dark, deeply colored sunrise I took on July 28, today’s was very different. There wasn’t a lot of pink, orange, or red in the sky, just a little around the sun. But the clouds were quite pretty and nicely reflected in the water washing up on the beach. Also, after two days of 90°F plus heat, I woke up to about 70°F this morning. It warmed up later in the day but never really got above about 82°F. It was much less humid, as well. Beautiful.

Thunderstorm and Stars

After seeing the beautiful rainbow and then going out to take pictures of the receding storm over the ocean, I figured that was all the pictures I’d take for the day. I did go next door to snap a few pictures of my aunt and uncle and their family, a group of 18. As I came out from that, I was greeted with a beautiful sight. Even this photograph, which I think it pretty amazing, doesn’t capture the real beauty. The sky would be dark. Then, lightning in the clouds out to sea would light them up, sometimes just providing light to the clouds, other times accompanied by streaks of lightning between the clouds and the sea or horizontally between clouds. I set up my camera on a tripod and took a bunch of exposures at various settings. This one was ISO 800, f/3.5, 30 seconds. On the beach, you can see a family with flashlights walking from right to left. Then, the clouds, lit by multiple flashes of lightning. Above the clouds, stars.

Long exposures on a digital camera produces a lot of “noise.” The black areas of the picture were not black, but a mottled collection of colored blobs, small but of varying size. This is a time when a full-frame sensor makes a big difference, because they produce significantly less noise. Still, with the aid of a noise filter on my processing software, I’ve turned this into something usable. I’m pretty chuffed about this picture, to be honest.

Rainbow

Two more pictures for today. A little before 6:00 PM we all went outside to see a very full and then a full double rainbow across the eastern sky. As you can see, I was able to capture the entire length of it with my wide angle lens. Although you cannot quite make it out in this picture, in addition to the secondary rainbow, outside the first, we saw a supernumerary, extra arcs just inside the main rainbow. It was quite a show.

Thunderstorm Over The Atlantic

As the storm moved out to sea, the lightning didn’t abate. If anything, it got more frequent. I set up my camera on the railing of our deck and took some pictures of the clouds. By closing the aperture down and setting the ISO to 100, I was able to get long exposures times. This one was 25 seconds at f/22. That let me capture a few bolts of lightning in a single frame, which is pretty exciting. I like thunderstorms at most times but at the beach they really do tend to be spectacular.

Sunrise, Ocean Isle Beach

As is fairly common at the beach, there was a pretty sunrise this morning. Most of our house was still in bed, but my body rarely lets me sleep much past 6:00 (and sometimes not even that late). It’s one of the “benefits” of getting old, I guess. Anyway, I came down stairs and soon noticed a bit of color in the sky so I grabbed my camera and went out for a few photographs. The house we’re staying in has a room without air conditioning, which for those of use with cameras, is a nice thing. Going from a cold house to a warm, very humid beach is a good way to have your camera fog up. This is especially true first thing in the morning, and by the time you’re ready to take pictures, the light is gone. This sunrise color didn’t last very long but was particularly intense when I went out.

Pretty Evening Sky

It turned a bit colder today but was sunny and nice. In the evening I had a meeting at church and I was a little early getting there. I took some pictures of a large flock of geese that had been walking around on the church property. Shortly after that, I noticed these pretty clouds against the deepening blue evening sky. The clouds didn’t really turn a full, sunset orange, but did get a slight pink to them that really set them off.

This is a composite picture, made from four vertical shots stitched together into a panorama.

Friday Sunrise

We had another beautiful sunrise this morning and I was in the right part of the house to notice. The color didn’t last more than about 5 minutes, so I consider myself fortunate. This image is a little darker than it actually was, but just about as pretty. It’s cooler this morning, but still nice. We have more weather coming our way, if the meteorologists and their models are correct (which I know they are because I’m typing this on Monday).

Sunset From Our Back Yard

It has continued to be beautiful outside and it really feels like spring. I know it’s not even the ides of March and it will very likely get cold again, but we’re all enjoying this while we have it. If nothing else, we’re closer to spring than we were a week ago, when we had half a dozen inches of snow on the ground.

We had a beautiful sunset this evening. With the two big trees in our back yard gone, we have a better view of sunsets and I’ve been happily enjoying them. It’s nice to be able to slide the back door open and take sunset pictures from the steps.