Sunrise

This is NOT the result of post-processing. It really was that spectacular.

Skyfire - Wordless Wednesday

(These are the real colours, not post-processed.)

Smoky sunrise

Last week I shared an image of the shadow of smoke. Today, the smoke itself comes to visit! (Okay, that was a little melodramatic. My brain is mushy, forgive me.)

I would love to play with this just a touch and make the building completely dark, like a silhouette. I love how the only colour is the pink from the sunrise that is picked up in the smoke. The sky is perfectly clear, no clouds or birds or planes to fill it up. Just smoke.

1/250 sec exposure, 4.0 aperture, ISO 80, -2/3 exposure bias, auto white balance

sunrise

In my opinion, daylight savings is only good for one thing. It robs me of sunlight after work, and still leaves me with none in the morning. Wait, that's not good at all... okay, it's useless. However, the shift did mean that I caught the first part of the sunrise while on my way to work this morning!

This was taken with a very basic point and shoot. I did set it to "sunset", in order to capture those rich sunrise colours - otherwise, it can look very washed out. I also cropped the picture a bit to clean out the cars and lightpoles, but I didn't alter the image in any other way. I know I've shared sunrise pictures before, but I find the colours just so stunning that I don't think it hurts to do it again. I really like the ripples in the clouds.

Things I would change: Well, if I wasn't running for a bus, I would have walked over a block to get past the power lines, although the black silhouette they make is kind of neat.

Comparison

Yesterday morning there was a lovely view from my office window. The sky was all kinds of pretty colours from the remains of the sunrise. I tried taking the pictures two different ways. First, I used essentially "automatic" settings (P setting). (Note that both pictures were taken through the same window.)

Contrast that with the second picture, where I used the "sunset" presetting.

In the end, they are both failures. The first washed out a lot of the colour, while the second just made everything too dark. I will definitely have to take more direct control next time I want to capture colours in the sky, as leaving the camera to sort it out just results in disappointment. Lesson learned! (If I had to pick one, I would take the first. I think overall the colours are truer than in the second.)

Sunrise, looking west

It's a shame about the power lines, but I'm glad I took this when I did, because by the time I had made it a couple of blocks further to a more open area, the colour was much less impressive.

This could probably be improved with some editing, even if just by some cropping. But when I try to think of how to force it to fit the rule of thirds, I feel like I would be losing an important part. The power pole on the left could be cut without loss, but I like the sky further above the cloud and something about the quiet street below it.

Moon set

This was taken not long after sunrise, looking west.

A handheld shot from a camera that's not all that powerful, considering how far away the item was I was shooting. I love the shadows and colours, which are partly from clouds.

Gift from Mother Nature

Sometimes, if you are really stupid and get up at 5am, you will catch the first show of the day that Mother Nature hosts.*

What a glorious sunrise, over-looking Lake Abraham near Nordegg, Alberta.

*Note: HHGttG fans, I think this is a little bit like going to the Big Bang Burger Bar, to catch the ultimate first show!