One morning, as I left home it was still dark, but it was just getting to the time when the sun was due to creep above the horizon. As I headed south, I got treated to a wonderful red glow in the sky. Even better, there was a nice lenticular cloud sitting over the summit of Mt Rainier which was catching the morning light very nicely. There was no way that I was going to miss out on this unless the light changed so quickly that I could get somewhere to take the shot. Fortunately, that was not a problem, and the sky stayed looking great for quite some time. Mornings like this are rather special and are something to appreciate here.
I can’t imagine that there are too many parts of the world that didn’t hear something about the significant coronal mass ejection that came the way of earth in May 2024. If you lived nearer the poles, aurora discussions were everywhere, and social media posts were full of it. If you lived elsewhere, you probably still heard about the potential technical issues our infrastructure could experience. I have had no luck with previous aurora potential sightings so, while this was of interest, I had a dose of skepticism.
I didn’t make any plans to go and find a location to see the aurora if it was visible in our area although I had checked out the dark skies maps to see how bad the light pollution was here and how far I would have to go to make a difference. I didn’t do anything with this data though. We were watching a movie in the evening and, when it finished, I stepped outside to see if anything was visible. It was about 10pm and there was nothing.
I went to get ready for bed but kept my clothes on just in case. At about 10:30, I went out again and still the skies were clear. I had read that 10pm to 2am was a good window so I was still at the beginning of this so didn’t give up completely. I messed around with a few other things and then figured I would have one more go outside before giving up and going to bed. Fortunately, this proved to be the right choice. I stepped out of the front door and saw something strange in the sky above us like a streak. I watched for a bit and then things started to get livelier.
I grabbed my camera and the tripod and went out to grab some shots. I also let Nancy know this was all going on since I hadn’t taken my phone outside with me. For the next hour or so, I just stared at the sky. The colors that the camera reproduced are far different to what I could see. It is a more sensitive device for this light than my eyeball, but I could clearly see purples and greens in the sky. The colors weren’t rapidly changing but you could see the transitions occurring. One of our neighbors returned while I was out so wandered over to ask if I could see anything and I pointed behind them. They were amazed by the sight and spent the rest of the time I was out looking as well.
At one point, I was beginning to be a bit tired, and the colors were fading a little, so I decided to call it a night. Just as I said goodbye and walked back towards the house, the skies lit up again. It was not letting me go that easily. I watched for a little longer and then decided I had got a good enough experience and headed indoors. It was certainly an amazing thing to witness. Maybe somewhere with less light pollution would have made things better but it was pretty good seeing all of this over our houses. The following night was supposed to be another good one, but the intensity was less, and I decided to sleep instead!
I was down in Burien on a day with some stronger winds from the north. As I looked in the direction of Mt Rainier, my attention was drawn to the east and a string of clouds that had a very repetitive pattern. I might have expected them to be downstream of a summit, but they were not obviously connected to a high point. They did like someone had just discovered the clone tool in Photoshop and had not yet worked out how it creates repeating elements. It took little time before they had dissipated, and I was left wondering what the cause was.
One great feature of traveling to more remote areas away from the cities is the clear skies you can get at night. The ability to see plenty of stars when the sun has gone is great. With summer approaching, the sun takes quite a while to go down so I had to wait until quite late to get a shot that I wanted. I could have waited even later but I wasn’t that committed to the shot. I wasn’t using a fast lens so, even with higher ISO, I was still using a 30 second exposure. Even at 16mm, this still shows up some motion in the stars. Ideally, I would have taken a fast wide lens but I didn’t bother renting one for the trip so this will have to do.
One damp weekend day, I went to Kenmore to visit the camera store. After browsing in there for a while, I headed down to Log Boom Park just to take a look at the Lake. A storm shower had just passed through so I decided to try my luck in staying dry. As I walked down to the water, my gamble did not pay off and it started to rain again. However, I was able to stay out of the worst of it and take a couple of shots across the lake. The clouds near us were really menacing but there was clearer sky in the distance. Quite a range of exposures to accommodate.
This example is not going to get me to the sun from Seattle. It will head to Europe before it starts transporting passengers. I saw it during test flying activities as it flew approaches to Paine Field. The sun was out but the skies were stormy so it made quite a dramatic sight as it bashed the pattern at Everett.
They even were kind enough to fly a missed approach the first time to get a different view of the jet. Then it was around the pattern and back in for a second approach, this time landing. The dark sky background was only in the direction of the approach so the roll out shots were far less dramatic.
My personal preference is to shoot planes tight. I like to see the detail up close and usually strive to get that in my shots. However, sometimes I remember that there is more to it than that and there is something interesting about the context of the shot. It doesn’t have to be a detailed shot of the plane. It can be a wider shot when no one is looking at the plane expecting to see the intricacies of its structure.
Having some nice clouds to play with is an important part of the story. Going wide when the sky is blue is not really going to add any drama. However, some nice puffy clouds will certainly be appreciated in this situation. In this case I was with some friends at O’Hare shortly after a storm had passed through. Things had cleared up nicely but there was still plenty of evidence in the air of what had been dumping water on us a short while before.
I doubt closer shots would have been much use anyway. With the amount of moisture in the air and the warmth that was quickly coming back now that the sun was out, heat haze would have destroyed an detail with a longer lens. Going wider was probably the only option. It was certainly worth it though. The texture of the clouds after the storm was there to see and to be emphasized in the shots. The plane provides a focal point to explore the image from but is not too important itself. You can’t just do this but, from time to time, it is good to fight your normal style.
The forecast the other morning was for some big storms. I decided that this would be a good time to head down to the lakefront. When a storm hits us, I see a lot of lightning around us but there is little that I can do to get a good shot since the buildings are too close to get any perspective. Before Trump was built, there was a lot more to see but that is no longer the case.
Instead, i thought the Adler planetarium would provide a good view of the city as the storm rolled in so I hopped in the car and headed over there. There was a local TV crew setting up when I got there so I thought they must agree with my planning. The sky was certainly looking darker.
As it turned out, we were both wrong. The sky got very moody and some crazy looking clouds bubbled across but no storm showed up. Instead, it just started raining and my enthusiasm reduced significantly! Eventually I headed home and the storm ended up skirting south of us. Oh well.
One morning, as I left home it was still dark, but it was just getting to the time when the sun was due to creep above the horizon. As I headed south, I got treated to a wonderful red glow in the sky. Even better, there was a nice lenticular cloud sitting over the summit of Mt Rainier which was catching the morning light very nicely. There was no way that I was going to miss out on this unless the light changed so quickly that I could get somewhere to take the shot. Fortunately, that was not a problem, and the sky stayed looking great for quite some time. Mornings like this are rather special and are something to appreciate here.
