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4-18-07
These are just a few photos I've taken that wasn't enough to make an entry. Either that or I was just too lazy to do so. Not too big of a deal, but each one of these photos has a little something that I like about it. The majority are night shots/long exposures. I need some more storms to add in here. Hopefully soon sufficient moisture will return to the MS valley soon.
This first one was from an entry sometime last year. I'm too lazy to go back and look for it now, but there was a pretty cool anvil to the north. This was obviously nearing sunset and I thought it was sort of a cool picture. It's sort of blurry and lacks alot of detail, but I was still learning alot about the camera at this point in time and I was also using very cheap equipment.
This was the very last picture I took in 2006. The sunset was brilliant on the way home, throwing vivid oranges and reds in the sky. By the time I got home and gathered the equipment, the colors gave way to this bluish-purplish hue. I was kind of disappointed that the original colors had faded, but was still somewhat happy with my results.
Now jump to 2007. Winter time is really, really boring. The only real interesting thing about it is the optics the sun and moon can provide. The day before this picture was taken, there were some absolutely stunning sun dogs with a very tall pillar. I rushed down to the river, started snapping away thinking I was getting some good shots. When I went to review them on the LCD, I soon realized I left my CF card at home. $*#&#&#@. Anyway, by the time I booked back up and grabbed it, everything had gone away. So the next day I sat and waited...and waited. Finally this little sun dog appeared. It wasn't ANYTHING like the day before, but my forgetfulness once again prevented another good photo opportunity.
During the colder months, I realized that my camera was really producing an incredible amount of noise. I adjusted a few settings on the camera and set it out in single digit temperatures to compare. I needed a subject but nothing really peaked my interest. I decided on shooting the North Star, really thinking that it wasn't going to turn out. I had it on f/8 and I REALLY didn't think it was going to pick up the star trails. I was actually very impressed with the results! This was with the stock Canon 18-55mm USM lens.
The above shot was only around 40 minutes. A few nights later I wanted to try another shot about an hour long using the 17-40L. Again I set the aperture to f/8 and left the shutter open for an extra 20 minutes. The original shot was actually a tad overexposed, but easily corrected in post-processing.
A few nights later, it got COOOOOOOLD. I mean, 2 degrees cold. When this type of cold weather hits, it can create quite a bit of interesting phenomena. The shot below was actually taken on the same night as the 2nd star trail shot above. I noticed to the right of the tall pine tree some very tall light pillars. Aurora activity was at a minimum so I quickly discarded that. These were actually light pillars. The ice crystals in the air refract bright light sources and give the appearance of auroras. They are actually also called "false auroras". This was from some sort of industrial plant about 6 miles away.
The next shot was taken down at the Hampton Dam. I was shooting bald eagles all day long (with the camera!) and sunset quickly approaced. After getting ZERO usable shots with the crap 300mm Sigma lens, I needed to go home with something. So, another cliche sunset shot. I just really liked the colors and how they sort of jumped out of this picture.
These last three are from my frequently mentioned favorite backroad. My buddy Joel and I were both bored and wanted to go out shooting. He just bought a tripod and wanted to test it out with his A620. I met him out there and began shooting some nimbostratus before sunset. Eh, really wasn't anything special. But, when the twilight came the sky was really cool looking.
The first one I only put up because of the sliver of the moon. The orange lights are from the city. Long exposures can really bring out colors the eye normally can't see.
The next one was when twilight was at its peak. The blues were really cool looking showing through the cloud deck. No real definition in cloud structure but again I just liked the colors.
The last one was really, REALLY cool. This deck just came floating in pretty slowly. It reminded us of a spine. It was constantly chaning shape all the way in. It was really neat.
