SkyPix

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

Strokkur Part 1: The Blue Dome

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Located steps from its mostly dormant geological namesake (Geysir), the Strokkur geyser is the most well-known and reliable one on Iceland, if not the world.  Its blasts are predictable enough that I could get the focus, exposure and filtering (3-stop graduated neutral density against bright sky) just right to freeze-frame it at the very moment the bubble starts to burst through a dome of … [Read more...]

Geothermal Waterscape

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Rivulets of water, ranging in temperature from frigid to scalding, pour down a gravelly hillside in one of Iceland's largest and most peculiar geothermal fields, forming a fluidly abstract landscape of undular texture and strange tones.  Behind such alien beauty often lurks hidden danger, and this area certainly qualifies.  Some of the island's most notorious eruptions (including Krafla, which is … [Read more...]

Dragging a Dust Plume

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After the brief but scenic Phillips tornado had spun its way north of the highway and dissipated, a second tornado developed from the same mesocyclone. At first, this one similarly left a long gap between condensation funnel and small debris cloud.  That soon changed in a major way as it got closer.   In the meantime, however, a dense plume of non-rotating dust rose off nearby plowed fields south … [Read more...]

Panhandle Power

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After peaking in width, the Canadian (TX) tornado gradually narrowed but still presented a stout appearance at this stage.  Tornado size does not necessarily offer any insight into intensity.  In fact, assuming the mass flux through the vortex changes little or none, a tornado can strengthen as it narrows, due to conservation of angular momentum.  Because this tornado occurred mostly over scrubby, … [Read more...]

Pastels Paint the Plains

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Although the western sky provided some bright sunset colors, my attention was more drawn to the eastern view, scuddy with pockets of light rain, filled for just a fleeting moment with a soothing interplay of pastel reflections in land and sky, hues both cool and warm blending together in a serene mosaic with the smells and sounds of a freshly wet landscape.  The chorus of thousands of frogs … [Read more...]

Brule Blow

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A bountiful storm-intercept day concluded with an outflow-surfing, heavy-precipitation storm driving a multi-tiered shelf cloud before it, as if snowplowing the moist and unstable air it consumed.  Shortly after sunset, the marvelous pastels of twilight emerged above and along the formation.  This manner of subtle yet somewhat surreal front-lighting is why early twilight is one of my favorite … [Read more...]