The Daily Photograph™

Sunset comes earlier

And the nighttime is chilly. Frost is not far away.

Looking For the Sunset

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And finding not much. At least in this direction. This is facing East, toward Omaha. You can see why I chose this spot: A nicely delineated skyline, comprised of ancient white stones deposited when this was all seabottom, full of quirky trees and a deep but unobtrusive foreground. And the sky is quite nice.

A few minutes afterward, these clouds were dark and thoroughly uninteresting. The culprit was the thunderstorms building behind me, that blocked the sunlight as evening fell. I showed you those the last two days,

I also made a photograph facing West, just to complete the sweep of the four winds, but it is so lacking it will never see the light of day.

Looking the Other Way

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Is something any photographer needs to do. You see a good photograph in front of you, but something even better may wait behind. I made this just a few minutes before the photograph I posted yesterday, by pointing my camera south, toward Casper Mountain. Yesterday’s photograph was made by pointing the camera just about 180 degrees the other way, toward Montana. My tripod never budged.

Funny thing is, I originally went to this spot to point the camera Eastward, toward Omaha. I had planned to get a fine portrait of an August sunset, above a slab of primordial seabottom. That never happened. I’ll show you what did, tomorrow.

The rain is pretty useless

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This time of the year. And there isn’t really that much of it; what the weather service calls ‘a trace’ is about all any one spot sees. And, this is falling mostly on grazing land, and there the grasses and tumbleweeds have already stopped growing, so the water doesn’t have much to nourish.

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For those who want some specs: 50mm, 1/8s, f11 (EV10). They are far off, but just to the left of the hillside are a couple of wind generators. Their slowly turning blades blurred in the slow shutter speed. Three years ago, there were no buildings in this view.

This sky made no noise

Even though it looked fierce. And only a few drops of rain fell.

The sky has been kind

The last few days, after a week of not much. The temperature has been very high, and that means more clouds as the moisture is ripped from the soil. Very few thunderstorms have erupted, but lots of grand sunset action.

A very brief shower came through

Right at sundown. I was alerted by the smell of rain on hot asphalt, and looked out the window in idle curiosity. And then was able to make this photograph before the wonder disappeared. The shower lasted, perhaps, 20 seconds. The rainbows persisted for a minute or two.

I don’t know the legends around double rainbows, but they have to be good news, right?

The moon has a dark side

And it will never be known, no matter how often we walk its surface. The moon keeps its secrets, even in the light. Gaze not so long.

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Sadly, this photograph is not technically good enough to work into full artfulness. I forgot the need to lock the camera viewing mirror in place. You can’t see it here, but the resulting shake at a slow shutter speed caused a slight blurring that won’t take much enlargement.

I am blessed to live here

Near a mountain that lifts me up, two thousand feet above the horizon, so I can see and show this kind of magnificence.

It is a common failing among photographers to be ensnared by the spectacular. Much is amazing in this world, but again, more is mundane, and that in itself is amazing. I have always tried to present the ordinary in an extra-ordinary way.

Here, we have an ordinary sunset. Not at all an item of spectacle. That’s what I tell myself. And I almost believe it.

I never could leave well-enough alone

Even when the first thing seems as good as it’s going to get. This photograph was made about a half-minute after the one I posted yesterday. Shooting directly into the sun is not advised. It’s hard on the eyes and hard on the very delicate sensor. I had the lens stopped down as far as it would go (1/500s f32) and still the sun ‘blew out’ the open area in the clouds. And, we see some interesting solorization effects on the edge of the opening.

If I work this one up to a finished piece, I will bring up the foreground. It was not as dark as it appears either here or in yesterday’s post.