bowtie`

Day 17 of the streak. While it was nothing to write home about, it was another evening at the pond and that is a good thing. Looking south at the cells over Bloomington, IN. when I got to the pond... The view to the west was cloudless so it was all about the color post sunset...

89'd at KIND today. The ten point dewpoint increase from yesterday, from 55 to 65, made it feel a little oppressive outside this afternoon.

Day 16 of the streak continued this evening at the pond. The neat thing about this evening was the combo of clouds. To the east was the cumulus. To the west was the cirrus, both low and high altitude. Made for another fun night behind the viewfinder. When I got to the pond. THe view to the east and the cumulus... Now on to the west and all the cirrus. Starting off with local sunset... Max orange... Max red though it was a weak looking red... And finishing up with the last dregs...

I have large cracks in the ground opening up in the now dormant grass. But then it is early August. It is suppose to be hot and dry this time of year. And guess what, it is!

89 at KIND also. We are your equal today.

Day 15 of the streak continues. The big question of the night was, a. Does the smoke conditions cause the clouds? Or b. Does the cloud conditions cause the smoke to be visible? Whatever the case, sparce conditions at the pond this evening. A little of that violet color with some extremely diffuse cloud shadows... This is the end...

Only 87 at KIND. You guys are two degrees better than us. lol

My favorite time of the year. Tonight was my 14th day in a row being at the pond taking sunset shots. I might be a little sleep deprived but my joy factor with life has gotten beyond the sated phase. Got to enjoy this while it lasts before those 100% stratus days start up again. It was another night with perfect placement of clouds for optimal viewing. Oh, and it took so long to go through, chose and edit all the images of the evening that it is tomorrow already. So these are from the evening of Aug. third if you are looking at them sometime in the future. Started off with what it looked like when I got to the pond. There was a little sun dog on the left side of the Sun... A little more of a broad view pre-sunset... Post sunset and the way the *white* clouds kind of made semi-circles, intrigued me... The greatest extent of the red flash... Some of that violet color that I think is smoke induced. Oh and the moon also... Not sure if I should share this one but I think I shall. This is all about the white clouds at the top and middle of the image. While they might not be noctilucent clouds they have to be close cousins. The clouds have to pretty high up to still be white when I am so far past sunset. Matter of fact it was 43 minutes past local sunset to this image. Also the incidental light on that cloud to the right looks pretty wild. So this image has a few things that I like...

Looking at the satellite after I got home I confirmed what I thought out at the pond earlier. I was right on the edge of the clouds. Had clouds to the north and west. But the east and south were barren. Gave me some nice cirrus to image. Local sunset and the yellows... Post sunset and the orange... The red flash was rather rapid and a little diffuse... And way past time I should have headed home. I really like the young moon in the upper left. Just gives the image a little lift...

Not much to the sunset this evening. I still put in an appearance at the pond though. Post sunset there was this thin, little cloud that looked like it formed on a smoke boundary... Also had some diffuse and faint cloud shadows going on for another short period of time. I am not sure if the shadows were from the front edge in Iowa or the top of the cells in South Dakota. I am going to guess South Dakota, but what do I know... Tried shooting it this way so see if it was *easier* to see. You be the judge...

Was another *fun* evening out at the pond. Started off close to local sunset. A nice combo of clouds... Did not look like there was going to be much color post sunset so I was messing around trying to get a decent reflection image... Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, some decent red seemed to pop up out of no where. Looking back a the visual satellite I now see the reason it happened. The clouds over southern Iowa were moving towards Missouri. When they got far enough south it suddenly let the red through as the Sun made its way around the bend under the horizon... Here I tried to make the image as symmetrical as possible...

Thank you Lake Michigan for the lake boundary clouds this evening. I know usually I curse you for the 100% stratus days but today I needed your influence to have some clouds to shoot at sunset. Close to sunset... Clouds off to the south with some nice color... Sort of early post sunset... Really late post sunset...

Kind of a different night at the pond. The rain of the afternoon had passed on to the east but the low level moisture was hanging tough. Made for some waiting but also some nice images. When I first got to the pond there was some nice sun dogs with that perfectly placed cloud... Looking to the north with the high white cirrus and the yellow low level clouds... And now looking east at the same conditions as above... Then there was a break as a solid layer of clouds ran overhead. It was one hour between the above image and this one... Of course, losing the daytime heating the clouds melted away as the light died with them...

Pre-system sunsets can be chancy affairs. At least there was some cirrus to shoot this evening. When I got to the pond and from my normal position... Moved over to the fishermen's point to get this cirrus off to the north... Post sunset color right on the horizon... And finishing the evening with a look at the same cirrus cloud that I started with but much later and from farther towards the north side of the pond...

I was not sure that the evening would bring, but I was ready for about anything for once. An overview hen I got out to the pond. this image is looking about due west. You can see some rain way, way far away in Illinois. Then there is a cell to the north in the right side of the image. I was interested in the orange in the northwest. If the corridor opened up just a little bit the post sunset color could be good... As close to local sunset as I was going to get with a visual on the Sun. While the above image was with the 16-35mm. This image was with the 24-70mm... About the best color dynamics, and a switch back to the 16-35... The red flash, caught with the 24-70... And ending the evening back on the 16-35mm with the incidental light on the clouds above my head... Was such a strange night in that all those lens changes and I was ahead of the curve all night. Making the proper choice with plenty of time to get set up in time and not miss anything I wanted. Usually I am frantic at some point and miss something but this worked out rather nicely. And the sky cooperated also

For being typically the hottest time of the year, the recent past has been fairly nice. Sure there has been a couple of warm days. But those days have not been a prolonged stretch. Looks like more of the same coming in the near future. A+ summer so far.

A nice night out at the pond. The clouds were out there. And it was just a pleasant evening to soak up the colors. Close to local sunset, real close... Close to maximum color dynamics ... Once again had that violet color late, late in the evening. Very pretty...

Had some normal clouds to go with the smoke this evening. Sun above the horizon... Sun below the horizon... Late color and clouds...

Not a cloud in the sky for the sunset this evening. But I made a guess that maybe the Canadian smoke might make a nice visual. I might have guessed right. Local sunset... looks OK if maybe a little boring... Max orange... starting to look a little bit better... The rest of the images are all about the violet and red... Starting off with the red up high... Full on gak violet, on the horizon... Ending the evening with max red on the horizon and the billboard lit up...

Some crepuscular rays when I got out to the pond this evening... About the best I could do before the virga on steroids ran me back to my car. I was not expecting rain at all....

The dry air was winning this evening. The clouds did not make to the sunset. So this is a single image looking south at the retreating clouds while the sun was still above the horizon.

0.72 in my tippy bucket which matches nicely with KIND's 0.68 so far. It was a nice typical July storm to bring in some cooler air. So far the dews have been above 70 degrees for all of the three day reporting period. That is going to change, and soon.

Tonight the sky conditions changed rapidly and seemingly constantly. Could not complain about being bored out at the pond. Was busy from the time I got there to the time I packed up and left. When I arrived it was still raining as you can see in the pond here... Fortunately the rain stopped and the clouds right on the horizon in the first image climbed to above the billboard... As close to local sunset as the conditions would allow... Getting more vertical showed all the different cloud layers... While there was a little color post sunset, the scud tried to put a block on the max orange here... There was just a little red and it was on the backside of the scud so it is kind of hard to see but it did make a nice ending for the evening...

I am going to start off with an error that ended up looking fairly decent. After dinner, grabbed the camera which had been inside all day in the A/C and ran to the pond. Set up the camera, popped the lens cover off and *poof* instant condensation. Taking the cold camera and lens from the cold house straight to the oven like conditions gave me a cloud inside the lens. So I am taking a picture of clouds through the clouds in my camera. You could say I am doubled down on clouds in this image. I kind of like the result... Here is what it looked like after the lens had equalized and I could get back to trying to accurately image the conditions... Here is the post sunset clouds...

No great amount of clouds this evening. But the smattering was positioned properly, so the attempt was made. Started off toward the side of the pond I do not make it to very often. The orientation of the clouds took me over there... Back to the fishermen point but seeing how they were driven indoor with the blistering heat, I had to whole place to mayself. Max orange... And ending the evening looking due north...