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Minimalistic kind of night at the pond. Looking east when I got there. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Looking east for the start of the color. Taken with the 100mm... Looking southwest at some red. Taken with the 100mm... And looking northwest at some cirrus that is way over in central Illinois. Taken with the 100mm...

Watch Mother Nature pencil you in for 0.60".

Not much in the way of color tonight. So I will go with a comparative study of horizontal versus vertical orientation. Start off vertical. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Almost one minute later, horizontal. Taken with the 16-35mm at 18mm...

A columbine bloom from my backyard...

Another fine evening behind the viewfinder. When I got to the pond a view to the north. you can see how far along the new building is. The foundation is complete. Just waiting on the cure before the structural steel goes up. Taken with the 16-35mm at 25mm... The view to the west. Taken with the 16-35mm at 21mm... Some faint crepuscular rays. Taken with the 24-70mm at 62mm... A view to the south. Taken with the 24-70mm at 40mm... I had given up on any more color and was heading back to the car when there was an extremely brief red flash. I had to just stop in the middle of the construction site and get the camera operating again. Looking to the northwest. Taken with the 100mm... Looking to the west at the retreating red. Taken with the 100mm... Cheers!

As the Sun was getting lower and lower in the sky tonight I could see a clear sinking motion as the clouds were evaporating. So it was going to be a race between the dry air and sunset again. As the Sun got close to the horizon, this is how it looked. Not bad but I knew it was not going to last. Taken with the 24-70mm at 58mm... Here as the orange was getting ready to turn red, you can see the variety of cloud heights. The white up high the dark blue/grey of the low clouds and the medium clouds where you can see some color. Just a smattering of each type here and there scattered about the frame. Taken with the 24-70mm at 57mm... Here is the max red. taken with the 24-70mm at 70mm... Cheers!

Did not go out to the pond this evening. So I took the sunset images from the front yard instead. Have to put up with the building, trees and wires. Start off with a zoomed in version. Taken with the 16-35mm at 30mm... And then more of an overview. Taken with the 16-35mm at 24mm...

Had decent conditions for the sunset this evening. Perfect amount and placement of clouds. Too bad the breeze was up. Put a damper on some of the reflections. But still a nice time. When I got to the pond the bronze hour was underway. Taken with the 24-70mm at 62mm... This overview shows howw even though the Sun is on the horizon, the bronze hour blazing. the cirrus way overhead was still shining with the white light way up there. Taken with the 16-35mm at 20mm... A bit of a rocket engine was ignited this evening. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... The red flash as brief and spotty. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Cheers!

Nice conditions at the pond this evening. Winds were close to calm. If it wasn't for all the fish popping the surface it would have been perfect. Best image of the night was when I first got out there. Had to chop a lot of the reflection off to be able to get all of the clouds in the image. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... After the fact, looking at the visual satellite, I am surprised I got any color at all. But here is the best I could do. At least the reflection is top-notch. Too bad I was so heavy-handed processing this one. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm...

Last night I missed some colorful clouds getting some stuff done around the house. This evening I was not going to make that same mistake. Trouble was the atmosphere does not play that way. Best clouds were to the south when I first got out to the pond. Taken with the 24-70mm at 27mm... Around local sunset even though the warehouse is blocking that view. Taken with the 100mm at 100mm of course...

I could see from the visual satellite that it was going to be a race with the system to the southwest and the sunset. Only way to find out how it turned out was to be there. So I was! Started off with some parhelia (sundogs) on both sides of the Sun. Taken with the 16-35mm at 30mm... Here you can see just how fast the system to the southwest was racing in. Only had a sundog on the north side of the Sun. But it as bright as bright can be. You can even see it in the reflection of the water! Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... Moving on to the post sunset and the yellow. Taken ith the 16-35mm at 35mm... The orange. Taken with the 24-70mm at 48mm... The beginning of the over-the-top red. Taken with the 24-70mm at 60mm... As the red was departing the area. Taken with the 24-70mm at 60mm... Good night my darlin', where ever you may be...

1.11" in my tippy bucket. Agrees well with the radar estimates. Not too much, not too little. Just right.

IWXwx, did someone along US24 get eight inches of rain like you radar suggests? Has to be some water standing in fields if it did.

Departing system this evening. As usual, the dry air won as the sunset progressed. So only pre-sunset images this evening. When I got out to the pond, the white. Taken with the 16-35mm at 29mm... The yellow. Taken with the 16-35mm at 23mm... The orange. Taken with the 16-35mm at 27mm... And what little red there was. Taken with the 24-70mm at 55mm... Cheers!

Tonight I imaged the sunset with the 100mm exclusively. So all three images are taken with the same lens, and cropped almost identical (a little off the top and bottom). So the only difference will be in the timing as I will annotate. First image is within a minute or two of local sunset, taken at 8:41. Hard to tell with the warehouse in the way even though I am on top of the mound... Next image happened five minutes later at 8:46. Amazing the color changes that can occur in that time period... Technically the last image of the night happened a minute and a half later. Although through rounding I will call it only a minute later at 8:47... Cheers!

After work I snuck a peek at the visual satellite and it looked like there might be some color. So I packed up the gear and headed to the pond. I started off on the fisherman's point seeing how there were no people out drowning frogs when I got there. This is close to local sunset. Taken with the 24-70mm at 57mm... For the next three images I moved to the top of the mound the construction crew made. I wanted to get as much of the horizon as I could and the winds were cranking right along so there was no chance of reflection images. Starting off with the yellow of the post sunset. Taken with the 24-70mm at 63mm... The orange. taken with the 24-70mm at 70mm... And ending the night with the reds. Taken with the 24-70mm at 70mm... Cheers!

Hasn't this been going on for years?

Thought the sunrise this morning might be decent, so I set my alarm even though it was a day off. When I got out to the Fairgrounds the cirrus was already lit up. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... The reds/orange lighting up the altocumulus. Taken with the 100mm... The Sun is above the horizon for the day. Taken with the 100mm... Last image before I head home and take a nap. Taken with the 16-35mm at 31mm...

KIND only got to 20 gusting to almost 30. But that was enough to spin the whirlygigs crazy at the Courthouse and snap the flag straight.

A very busy day behind the viewfinder. Lots of photogenic clouds to image today. Started off with some mid-day cirrus. Was mowing the yard and looked up and saw some nice cirrus overhead. Looking basically east. Taken with the 16-35mm at 26mm... First look at the pond for the sunset. As you can see, lots of cirrus and a smattering of altocumulus. Taken with the 16-35mm at 16mm... Going to skip ahead to the post sunset color. Starting off with the yellow. Taken with the 24-70mm at 45mm... Moving on to the orange. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... And ending the night with the reds. Taken with the 24-70mm at 59mm... Good night my darlin', where ever you are...

Was right on the edge of two features this evening. There was a ripple (hardly big enough to call it a wave) that passed by to the north. There as also a static group of clouds from the lake breeze boundary that made it this far south. The lake boundary king of put a squash on the post sunset color. But I did get some interesting pre-sunset stuff. When I got out to the pond. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... A patch of altocumulus from the ripple. Taken with the 16-35mm at 35mm... As that patch of altocumulus got more overhead and started coming apart. Taken with the 16-35mm at 25mm... Some parhelia ( better known as Sundogs) as the Sun sank into the lake breeze boundary. Taken with the 16-35mm at 30mm...

A little sucker hole opened up overhead around sunset. The best images were all pointing to the east. and all were pre-sunset. As the clearing was shredding the cumulus. Taken with the 16-35mm at 19mm... When all was left was this cumulus remnant. I like the moon being the cherry on this sundae image Taken with the 16-35mm at 29mm...

This evening I checked the visual satellite and sure enough it looked socked in from me to well west of me. Figured the sunset would be a washout. walking to dinner it was wall-to-wall stratocumulus. Took my time at dinner. When I walked out I looked west as I am wont to do and lo-and-behold a sucker hole has opened up right over me. So I ran home and grabbed the camera and made a beeline for the municipal lot that is only a couple of blocks south of me instead of the mile and a half to the pond. When I got out to the lot, the pre-sunset. Taken with the 24-70mm at 62mm... The post sunset taken with the 100mm at 100mm of course...

There was only one of two sucker holes on the western horizon this evening. But I went out to the pond to document anything that might happen. When I got out to the pond it was spitting raindrops as you can see in the water in this image. Taken with the 16-35mm at 27mm... The yellow of the sort of post sunset. Taken with the 16-35mm at 27mm again... What little orange there was this evening. Taken with the 16-35mm at 28mm...

I had no idea what to expect this evening. I did not check any satellite images beforehand. Just went out to the pond to go out and shoot whatever happened. When I arrived for the pre-sunset there was a smattering of cumulus down low and some nice cirrus up high. Taken with the 16-35mm at 17mm... Close to local sunset and you can see that the dry air was winning and getting the upper hand on all of the clouds. Taken with the 24-70mm at 70mm... The post sunset color was distant and diffuse. Taken with the 100mm at 100mm of course... Have a great weekend!