Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
You have seen pictures from me of this spot many times before. No matter the season, it virtually always looks cool and this morning was no different. A light snowfall overnight coated the landscape in white and fog settled in with sunrise. With virtually no color to work with, I went with a black and white conversion and that seemed to work well on what a cold and somewhat dreary scene.
Oops! Somehow I forgot to share this one.
Late last month, Colorado saw itself experiencing a deep freeze. On the morning of the 22nd, temperatures dipped to 15 degrees below zero with wind chills far below that – absolutely brutal cold. As the sun rose over the horizon that morning, a very cool sun dog appeared to the east. I missed the best of the show but was able to catch the tail end of it before it disappeared.
Sun dogs are caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals and appear 22 degrees to each side of the sun. I have had a few chances to grab pics of one, always on the coldest of mornings.
I really don’t storm chase anymore due to time constraints and the fact that the hobby has gotten to be a bit too crazy out there with way too many chasers on the road. Sometimes I do get lucky and have a storm come to me and I certainly don’t turn down those opportunities.
Such was the case just outside Badlands National Park last week. One evening, a monstrous storm cell was passing just to the north of us. It was absolutely impressive looking and as it was dumping 2-inch diameter hail, I was thankful it missed us.
The next night, we got a rude awakening right after midnight. The wind really began gusting and so I crawled out of bed and saw on radar a little storm cell was about ready to pummel us. We quickly prepped the RV and gear to be hit and sure enough, it did. The hail wasn’t too big although it did do some, relatively minor, damage. After it passed, Mother Nature put on a nice light show in the sky for us.
I don’t have any pictures of leprechauns to share for St Patrick’s Day but I do have a rainbow.
This image harkens back to July 2019 near Seward, Alaska. As we returned from a boat tour to Kenai Fjords National Park and Preserve, we were greeted with what was probably the most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen. Throw in the dramatic clouds across Resurrection Bay and a hint of the snow-covered mountain peaks, well, it was pretty danged awesome.
As for that pot of cold, I tried to convince the boat captain to go find it but he refused. 😉
After we returned from that trip, I did share a full view of the stunning rainbow. You can check that out here.
The first part of our winter here on the Colorado Front Range was kind of odd. We were extremely dry and what storms we received were different than normal. Such was the case on Christmas Eve when we actually received rain instead of the more typical snow.
I had to run a quick errand to pick up some last-minute things late that afternoon for the holiday and the storm clouds were brewing. What was notable was how they looked much more like a May or June thunderstorm, including mammatus clouds. Mammatus is usually more associated with severe thunderstorms so it made for quite an unusual Christmastime scene over a local open space.
I shared a different version of this same scene on Christmas Eve, the same day the images were taken. But, due to the holiday, I don’t think many folks saw it and I feel it is worthy of another look. Sunrise along the Front Range saw some rain showers, an unusual thing to experience at the height of winter.
As I drove around looking for a worthy critter to photograph, I came across this scene. Dark, storm clouds were hovering over the foothills and a gorgeous rainbow had materialized. Throw in the farm and horses down below and the sunlight streaming on the hills, it was pretty darned cool.
Definitely not your typical Christmas in Colorado scene but pretty darned neat nevertheless.
It has been extraordinarily dry and warm on the Front Range thus far this season and a white Christmas is not to be. On my photo drive yesterday, as I approached the foothills, rain showers were brewing and the rising sun was perfectly illuminating the landscape and creating a beautiful rainbow.
Throw in the rural farm scene with a few horses below and dramatic clouds above and you have a pretty nice scene – even if it is missing the usual snow.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Well this was kind of fun! I was almost home from work when a Tornado Warning was issued. That got my attention but, unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me (I know, sacrilege!).
I raced home, grabbed my gear and headed to the local fairgrounds. While I never saw any rotation, the storm cell did look pretty darned cool.
Pictures taken by my drone not 20 minutes ago. I was scrolling through Facebook and heard the news about a tornado dropping near Firestone.
I ran downstairs, grabbed my drone and put it in the air to catch the tail end of the twister before it dissipated. Not the greatest pics but considering the distance of about 15 miles, not too bad.
As this happened so recently, I have no idea what damage was done or if anyone was injured. Certainly folks in the affected area are at the forefront of my mine right now.
I’ve been burning the candle at both ends pretty heavily lately and just needed a quick break to recharge so I took today off as a “me day.” That of course meant a morning of photography and while I got some cool critter pics to share in the coming days, there was also this.
As I waited for some action, looking to the east the clouds to the south of the sun were a veritable rainbow of colors. The iridescence coupled with the way cool shapes in the clouds was pretty darned awesome to see (but kind of hard to capture in pictures).
Cloud iridescence is caused by clouds (usually cirrus) that have small water droplets or ice crystals in them causing the light to be diffracted, or spread out. The phenomena is much like the rainbow colors seen with oil in water.
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