Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
Sometimes it’s worth remembering to look away from the sunset, too. I stopped to capture this view yesterday.
(Incidentally: yes, there are signs and light poles inside the pond. The park doubles as a flood control basin.)
#photo #clouds #sunset #orange #park
Found this shot looking through photos from my old phone. It's from the outdoor part of a mall.
The western horizon was blocked at sunset…but the view upward wasn’t!
Photo taken at: Los Angeles, California
Rising above the clouds… I tried a lot of crops on this (otherwise it’s unmodified) but finally settled on the square because I wanted enough of both the rooftops and the sky bracketing the clouds and mountain, and I wanted to steer clear of some of the foreground buildings that would have appeared on the sides and break up the layout.
Breaking through.
Late afternoon sunlight breaking through the clouds last Thursday.
The wind was steadily blowing from the left of the frame at ground level, and apparently at the level of a popular flight path as well. The angle of the sun makes the contrails’ shadows stand out sharply, and you can really tell the older trails from the newer ones by how far they’ve spread out.
Photo taken at: Los Arboles Park
todo: post as a follow-up to “Rays from the Anti-Sun!”
Photo taken at: Manhattan Beach Pier
Puffy clouds and reflections. The holes in the side of the building are for a major remodel. They just took down a plywood and scaffolding garbage chute that ran down the outside of the building.
Cloud shadows and an airplane.
Cloud shadows on the sky. The late afternoon sun is off to the right. The shadows were just barely visible to the naked eye, so I’ve increased the contrast severely.
Cloudy sunset behind power lines.
Wispy late afternoon clouds. #sunset #clouds #silhouette #sky
I’m fascinated by the interplay of sunlight and clouds, particularly oddly-shaped clouds and optical effects like haloes and sundogs. The trick with photographing them is that you have to take the picture now. You can’t run and get another camera and come back. You can’t wait until you reach your destination even if it’s only 5-10 minutes away.
Lighting conditions will change. A halo might get stronger, or it might vanish entirely. A cloud that looks like a flaming dragon or phoenix right now will be a dull gray in a few minutes. Patterns of rays will fade from view. I’ve missed my chance a lot of times by being stuck on the road, unable to find a suitable place to stop until the moment had passed.
This last shot is a circumhorizon arc formed by ice crystals. It always appears parallel to the horizon, like a flattened out rainbow, and if the crystals cover enough of the sky it will actually form a circle all the way around the sky. I spotted it while walking back to work from lunch and only had my phone with me — and I actually ran the rest of the way to the office so I could get my camera. I was lucky, since these really don’t appear very often.
