Little Bang Theory

Not To Keep Sylvia Waiting… December 28, 2008

I mentioned in the last post that I’d given up on my search for landscape photo opportunities around noon today, opting instead to come home, debone the turkey and consolidate the leftovers from yesterday’s Holiday meal.

Hey, I’m not made of gas, you know!

So I did that, punctuated with doing an on-line weather watch, and being satisfied by the forecast of thickening clouds.  I was glad to not have squandered an afternoon driving around when I should have been doing house chores.

Then, a little after four, the cloud cover cracked, and the western sky resolved into a riot of pink and  fuschia puffs separated by  coronas of fire-pit orange.

I drew a blind so my daughter could see the show, and all the while I lamented my lack of prescience, noting that by the time I’d gotten dressed and out to a clear vantage point, it would doubtless be too late.   As if to illustrate my point, the spectacle on the western horizon diffused into nondescript bands of orange, and I closed the blind in resignation.

Back in the kitchen, my south-facing window was aglow, and one quick look caused me to dive for my camera, crank it up to ISO 3200 and lean against the cleanest piece of glass I could find on short notice.

It wasn’t very clean, and adding the low, scuttling clouds and branches in the foreground, the result will never be in a calendar, but you get the picture:

It was an OK consolation prize for a guy standing in his kitchen in his long johns.  🙂

Playing In The Rain. December 28, 2008

This has been a mostly cloudy day.  There was no discernible sunrise, and the constant dripping outside my bedroom window cocooned me against the sounds of the day.

I stirred slowly and rose late, brewed a pot and contemplated the ubiquitous grayness outside:

But then, a thinning of the clouds revealed a filtered disk of sun, and I cursed my sloth to be lounging around the house as the light was becoming right!  I dressed and headed out.

The thinning of the river valley clouds coincided with a brief break in the day’s general overcast, and I caught a glimpse of blue hovering above the deeply shaded landscape:

But that closed up as the valley fogs retreated, leaving me wandering around the hill roads under a mottled gray pall:

The weather’s return to drizzle led me to return to a simpler palate, verging on shades of gray, but finding a slight touch of color to add depth and differentiation to the fog and forrest:

By noon I was back home, a bit discouraged by my haul, but unwilling to pump carbon into the atmosphere for four more hours in the faint hope that things would open up toward sunset.

I should have kept my pants on, but that’s another post.

Last Light. December 26, 2008

So the sun went down, and the clouds went pink, and the forests turned black:

I liked it enough to take this picture.

Then One Foggy Christmas Eve… December 24, 2008

As if I haven’t denigrated the Sacred Legend of Rudolph enough!

Still, we have rain and warm air moving over the copious snows of these past few days, and the result has been lots of fog, much of it atmospheric rather than ground-level.

It looks like this:

…except, of course, that your eyes aren’t working at ISO 3200, so you would see something much more vivid and creamy than this.

But such are the vagaries of hand-held photography in low light, and such are the miracles of digital photography that Humble Me can actually capture such a thing to share with you.

Here’s the Cold River, draped in snow and mist, on this Christmas Eve:

It’s an image some of my “regulars” will recognize, as it’s embarrasingly accessable and has graced this page in all seasons and lights.

Oh, and speaking of which, just in case I don’t make it back here tomorrow, here’s wishing you all the most Joy and Happiness in this Season of Light.  You’re why I bother, really.  Thank You.