John Wiley
By John Wiley
Between storms lately the sunset skies and dusk aftermath have seemed especially spectacular to me. Maybe just because of so many overcast sunsets – or some particular combination of humidity, local clouds with clear sky offshore, upper-level winds, and rain-washed air. Like this first one on the 3rd (did you notice the moonrise?). [see above]
Minutes later on the sunset side there was this explosion of colors and shapes.
It got wild again on the 7th, with a fuller moon accented by foreground trees and a peeking ripe orange.
A nice finale was more sunset fireworks.
Does anyone else have views to share? So many vantage points around town, up in the slopes, down on the beaches, or over in the valley and each probably looked quite different as the show unfolded.
Any guess about what could possibly create that squiggly cloud in the middle of the first pic?
Looks like mare’s tails superimposed on the cumulus.
Interesting idea, though to me these clouds look much lower than cirrus. Any other ideas? I’m noticing several details that are making me very curious what could’ve created that really strange show.
Beautiful.
Of most interest to me is that all these are phone pix. Used to be I had to lug a big DSLR around to get decent pix, then process them on a PC to approximate what we saw that caught our imagination. Recently we finally upgraded from dying old Samsungs to Pixels, and it’s amazing how much AI has advanced. Looking at the “RAW” pix, it’s easy to see the limitations of a tiny lens & sensor compared with the detail & dynamic range from the DSLR. But for quick and convenient snaps of moments like rapidly changing sunsets and family fun, good phones now win hands down. Did you share my annoyance with early phone cameras, when companies touted the pathetic results they’d built in at the expense of a degraded phone that didn’t work well compared with the cheaper prior version?
MAJESTIC! Sure shows the power in the weather above us. That clear tiny Moon in the bottom left of the 1st photo gives perspective on the size of the wild weather above us. These are Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing with us all…