bowtie`

It looked like it might be a good sunset. When I got off of work there was a decent amount of high altitude moisture but the mid and low was dry and clear. Looking at the visual satellite after the fact, I see a system to the north and a system to the south with me in the middle just getting what I needed and the west being open to put the cherry on it. What I started with when I got out to the pond... Yellow of the post sunset... Here is the orange on the right side of the image (west) and the approaching red from the (south) on the left side of the image. The image is a lot unbalanced but I kind of like the tension it puts in there. A rather different looking than what I normally do... To the west as the color progresses... Last image is with the 24-70mm. And it really accentuated the pink of the sunset here.

The atmosphere surprised me last night. Was not expecting what I got. When I got to the pond, looking west with some nice crepuscular rays... Best color balance looking southwest... Red flash looking southeast... Red flash looking southwest...

Start off with an afternoon shot from the front yard of some triple layer cloud action... What it looked like when I got to the pond... Max color for the evening, but that is not saying much...

Complex was getting close to the area this evening. What it looked like when I got out to the pond... A more direct look at the edge of the cell closest to me. I hesitate to say close up because 20mm is hardly a close up focal length. I do like the striations and little gravity waves from a growing cell in a complex... Last glimpse of direct sunlight for the day... Last vestiges of color...

Rain hanging out just to my north. All that is doing is putting the humidity into the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", range. Dewpoint is around 74 or 75 degrees.

Not much in the way of clouds here for this evening. But there was plenty of smoke... Way past sunset there was a cloud shadow from the top of a cell in Iowa. Quite a way over the horizon...

Color of the overhead clouds this evening. The white... The orange... The red... Going to break the flow of the above here. A close up of the horizon post sunset...

Best clouds and color were to the south and south east this evening. When I got to the pond... Later when the colors got cranked up...

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Once again, I was on the edge of the cloud shield around sunset. This time the clouds were north of me. The Sun disappeared behind the clouds before sunset but I hoped that it still might give me something to shoot... Had a rather vivid cloud shadow. I was trying to make the colors in the cloud above the shadow right, those were subtle but I came pretty close, but it made the shadow itself a little too blue... Horrible bruise color here... A little late but I wanted a shot with the billboards lit up...

Not much in the way of clouds this evening. Looking south east when I got to the pond there was this little cloud but it was evaporating even as I took this image. Was gone in the next 15 minutes... The thicker smoke made it to central Illinois according to the satellite images I just checked. Here is what it looked like post sunset...

The edge of the stratus cloud deck made it just east enough to be almost overhead this evening. I thought I might have a chance for some color. When I got to the pond... Local sunset... I made a decent decision around the red flash. I flipped the GND filter upside down, with the dark gradient on the bottom and it worked great. While there was some red, it was kind of faint and knocking down the clear areas of the sky made for a better balance of the image. I am pleased with how this one turned out... Way late with the blues going overboard but I like the billboards turned on...

So many images to choose from. Probably will bore everyone severely. What it looked like when I got to the pond... Had an intense sun-dog on the northside of the Sun. It was so vivid that it was almost all white. Just the tip closest to the Sun had any color but basically it was just a white blob... Post sunset color just getting started... In order to image all of the color when the red was starting up, I had to forgo the reflections and aim high even at 16mm. Just about nailed the colors perfect but the poor horizon suffered greatly from the barrel distortion. I still really like how this one turned out...

Not much to the post sunset this evening. You could see the smoke again but it was way west unto Illinois...

The front moved through today, unfortunately dry, but in time to get a decent sunset. Close to local sunset. The yellow around the Sun is I think smoke, possibly from Canada. It provided some nice colors, for being ugly smoke. The yellow smoke... The orange smoke... And to end the evening, the red, orange and yellow smoke...

The clouds were to the south this evening. Around local sunset... The red flash... Some extremely late color and two cloud shadows. I might have gone overboard with the contrast and saturation trying to bring out the cloud shadows better. But it is what it is.

Tonight was all about crepuscular rays.

A mixed bad of clouds and colors this evening. When I left dinner, was getting some sun-dogs so I headed out to the pond. Caught a little dog to the left of the Sun... A little hole in the clouds to the south east gave me this view... Not long after the last image it started raining. So I packed up and headed home. Sat out on the porch watching the rain. As the rain eased up I noticed a thinning of the clouds to the north. So I loaded up the car again and headed back out to the pond. Caught this coffee colored post sunset while out there again...

Very iffy here but I snuck in another trip to the pond this evening. Looking south as I got to the pond. That blue in the distance was rather vivid and I think I came extremely close to imaging the colors proper. Than there was the red flash. The blues look way over-cooked but I did get the tricky reds decently exposed.

The storms were to the east and south of me, leaving me with another evening of imaging clouds and colors. Looking south east when I got to the pond... Back to the west for the local sunset... Post sunset color... Ended the evening looking back to the south east. But this time at 16mm instead of 21mm and from a slightly different spot...

I thought I might have a night off from the pond but as sunset got closer the stratus started breaking up. Close to local sunset... The post sunset colors get started with yellow/white combo... And end with a sparse red...

Another fun night of post sunset color. Local sunset... Then I took this image and figured it would be the best of the evening... But it was not. Then I took this image and figured it , would be the best of the evening... But it was not. Then I took this image and it was the saved the best for last image...

The atmosphere was jabbering away again this evening. And I was listening to every syllable. Start off from the front yard and some vivid crepuscular rays... And back to the pond for some vivid colors close to local sunset... The post sunset colors begin... Here comes the reds from the east... Full on gak red and orange...

The atmosphere was very expressive this evening. Pre-sunset... Around local sunset... Lots of orange and a hint of red... Going vertical to get the odd red to orange to red to orange and then the repeat in the reflection... Way late with the pinks and light blues...

A nice ratio of high clouds to low/mid clouds made for a nice viewing post sunset this evening. The yellow/whites... The orange... The reds...