bowtie`

Once again the frontal passage timed out perfect for the sunset this evening. But I am going to start missing these in the future during work days. I just managed to make it out at the last possible moment. Looking east as soon as I rolled out of the car getting there... Next I shifted to the northeast as the orange started creeping into the area... Then I ran down to the pond to get the yellow and orange on the western horizon... A bit later as the reds started creeping in... The last image of the night was taken with the 24-70mm. The previous four images were all taken with the 16-35mm. Just a hint of a sun pillar with this image... Good night my darlin', where ever you are...

Had a little bit of cirrus around for the post sunset. Was kind of breezy again with gusts around 30mph when I took these. Both of these images were taken with the 24-70mm lens. It is the Mark I version of this lens and there is a reason they nicknamed it "The Brick". It is quite heavy and helped stabilize the tripod and mount with it's heft. When I got out there at 38mm... A bit later at 70mm...

I had 0.24 in my tippy bucket when I got home from work. There was a farmer plowing under the corn stubble with a field cultivator and the almost quarter inch was still not enough to push him out of the field.

Tonight we had the perfect frontal passage as far as the timing for a nice sunset. After a month of benign conditions I forgot how much a struggle taking pictures in a stiff breeze was like. But I made it through it. These three images are all taken at 31mm and occurred within a four minute window. Shows how much things can change and still be sort of the same. So here are the three in the order that I took them... Cheers!

Delta's remnants were a bit thicker here this evening. What it looked like when I got out to the pond... Here I oriented a lot higher to get more of the overhead clouds. Interesting to see how the color balance changes when you do this... Cheers!

Once again, Delta's skirts were around the area for sunset. Looking west when I got out to the pond... THe beginning of the post sunset color, looking south-southeast... Back to the west for post sunset color... The best over-the-top color was looking south-southwest... Cheers!

Arid, Parched, Desiccated are just a few terms for how it is around these parts.

The northern extent of clouds from Delta was tickling the area around sunset. When I got out to the pond... Around max dynamics...

Count me out.

wut????

The clouds were fading around sunset as the system from earlier in the day departed the area. Looking east when I got out to the pond... Looking west... The bronze color as the Sun gets closer to the horizon... The gold color as the Sun disappears into the trees...

100% off-topic but Gamma for me ill always be the Ronnie Montrose (RIP) band whose second album artwork is one of the all-time greatest. The sharkfins in the grass with the sun-bathing feet, fantastic.

How low can you go? Lets do the limbo...

Spotty showers in the area around sunset. That meant there as a chance of some rainbows. I had to head to the pond just in case. Literally when I rolled up to the pond. Fell out of the car, popped open the umbrella, through the tripod down and hit the shutter. Glad I was close to level... The other side of the rainbow and after a change to the 16-35mm trying to get more of the bow... A bit later and an image of the whole cell that gave me the rainbow. You can still see a stub of the rainbow glowing quite well...

Took a trip around the county this afternoon hoping for some good clouds. I always stop for clouds... The harvest is on-going here... This might be a bit dark but I did not want to blow-our any of the whites in the clouds...

What was that wet stuff falling from the sky? First time the rain gauge has budged in over a month. Only 0.24 in my bucket but it is a start.

Was out at the pond, morning and night. Some cirrus off to the northeast during the sunrise... What little color there was during the evening...

After a couple of days of severe clear at sunset, it was nice to have some clouds to look at tonight. When I got out to the pond... As the Sun got lower towards the horizon... Beginning of the color on the horizon... As the lone cloud overhead became illuminated with the orange color... End of the color on the horizon... Cheers!

Most of today was 100% stratus. But around sunset things started breaking up. When I got to the pond there was a rather vivid cloud shadow... The best of the post sunset color...

First sunset of Autumn. Pre-sunset... Post-sunset...

Last Clouds of Summer Went out for the sunrise these last hours of summer. The early orange... Had a nice sun pillar this morning... Does the vertical show the pillar better? The Sun above the woods... Last cirrus of summer. This was straight overhead so sorry I could not give any horizon for perspective...

Had some clouds this evening. A nice change. Looking south when I got out to the pond... First look to the west... Best image of the night, I think, and some great crepuscular rays... The red flash... The last dregs of color and light... Cheers!

No clouds last night, obviously, but the smoke shield there in western Illinois is the dirty yellow on the horizon and there is some extremely faint crepuscular rays going on here... Just some more info. This was taken at 7:44 P.M.. The moon was 17 degrees above the horizon. It was at 241degrees or WSW. And 8.4% illuminated ( at lunar noon). This was taken with my 100mm. Now you have the rest of the story.

Yea! Finally had some clouds to shoot this evening. And the smoke eased off just enough to give a smidge of color. The yellows with some faint crepuscular rays... About the best the color would do...

The only good news to all this smoke is that you can shoot straight into the Sun and not worry about lens flares. Other than that, it is boring.