Level views of 104-foot-high DeSoto Falls can be had by hiking a mile or so down a trail that starts well before reaching the falls. Fortunately, on a mild to cool day in late winter, this doesn't involve dodging thorny weeds, ticks, chiggers, copperheads, timber rattlers and other natural hazards. Instead, a relatively clean view can be had from the top of a high bluff over looking Lookout … [Read more...]
Sunset Cloudplay across the Water 5
[Part 5 of 5] In the last of the Lake Mendota sunset series, the sunset itself likely did not begin until about here, even though just a small portion of the orb still was visible. The far water edge was much closer to the invisible true horizon than the hilltop. Through extrapolation, that puts the "bottom" of the sun on the horizon. For practical purposes of course, "sunset" was seconds … [Read more...]
Sunset Cloudplay across the Water 4
[Part 4 of 5] As our sequence of Lake Mendota sunset views proceeds, the sun appeared to be sandwiched between a stratocumulus cloud base and the distant, hilly, forested ground past the opposite shoreline of the lake. Magenta tinting deepened to a visial maximum, as the sunlight's distance through both air and embedded haze woud not appreciably lengthen from here on, while the sun stil was … [Read more...]
Sunset Cloudplay across the Water 3
[Part 3 of 5] Reddening of the solar orb continued as expected, though here the atmosphere let a little more blue through than usual for this stage (perhaps due to intervening reflection off or refraction through haze), naturally turning red a bit toward magenta in the end product. Meanwhile, as the sun temporarily "wore" a cloud-base cap, it wonderfully silhouetted a separate turret of fairly … [Read more...]
Sunset Cloudplay across the Water 2
[Part 2 of 5] A vertical view of the Lake Mendota sunset sequence zooms still further, highlighting both the reddening of the orb as the sunlight passes through progressively more air to reach the eyeball (or camera sensor), and cloud textures. Instead of the "silver lining" characteristic of sunlight's passage through relatively thin convective-cloud edges earlier in the day, or even a "golden … [Read more...]
Sunset Cloudplay across the Water 1
[Part 1 of 5] Sometime between experiencing and posting this, I realized I had few multipart sunset scenes here, few involving zooms with sun and clouds. Here you go! Following shooting and appreciating the vew immediately before with a wide-angle lens, I grabbed another body/lens combination and concentrated on the process of solar "descent" to the horizon (earth's eastward rotation from a … [Read more...]