SkyPix

A digital photographic storybook of clouds, weather and water by Roger Edwards.

Box Canyon Falls

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Wherever one finds mountains and flowing water, waterfalls are a sure bet.  Following a steep grade from the adjoining San Juan Mountains into Ouray, Canyon Creek carved a narrow gorge—in some places, a slot canyon like this—first through Mississippian Leadville limestone, then Devonian Ouray and Elbert  limestones and sandstones, and finally, slate and hard quartzite of the Precambrian … [Read more...]

Thunderhead over Haze

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Here was a striking example of a young cumulonimubus (Cb) casting a shadow on a haze layer aloft.  This formation over Gem, KS, also offered an atmospheric gem:  iridescence, or prism-like refractive color separation, in the cirriform cloud streaks in the right-center of the picture, just above the near edge of the Cb.  This striking scene highlighted an otherwise nondescript day of … [Read more...]

Black Canyon in the Light: Painted Wall

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Responding about an inch per year to crustal uplift that raised the modern Rockies, western Colorado's Gunnison River has cut a deep, magnificent canyon here, 2,250 feet into a slab of very hard, 1.7-billion-year-old (Precambrian) gneiss and schist.  The metamorphic rock's rigidity and erosion resistance keep the gorge unusually steep-walled.  For scale, those are mature trees down there.  … [Read more...]

Wet vs. Dry

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The striking difference in appearance between a wet and dry surface is illustrated well here.  A section of beach made of solid bedrock—in this case the colorful, cobble-infused, Precambrian Copper Harbor conglomerate—looks much brighter on its dry surface than the wet parts.  Light gets reflected between the underside of the water's surface and the rock material, and gets scattered more … [Read more...]

Fall Colors from the Shadows

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Rules have exceptions.  I find them.  This odd effect was made possible by a steep canyon slope, exposure for the bright aspens over the dark conifers, and deliberately violating a fundamental tenet of photographers that oppose midday shooting in the direction of the sun.  In this case, the background slope across the southwest side (northeast slope) of the canyon was so steep that it held shorter … [Read more...]

Autumn at Curecanti

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On a nearly perfect fall afternoon, a blend of stratocumulus, cumulus humilis and cumulus mediocris rode the southerly flow ahead of a mid/upper-level trough.  Distant trees and foreground riparian grasses bore the mark of the changing seasons.  Leaf-decorated waters of the Gunnison River's side channel reflected the sky in ripples pushed by a steady, gentle breeze carrying the unmistakable scent … [Read more...]