The huge temperature swing was refreshing this morning. No crazy sub-zero temps or windchill’s to contend with. Instead, we were in for a hazy February sunrise.
The crescent moon just above the horizon upon arrival was an unanticipated bonus.
Jupiter and Venus where still shining bright as were quite a few stars. It was a spectacular site.
The sunrise sequence was filled with a lot of color and wonderful clouds.
I didn’t sleep in this morning. The weather forecast was good as was the Photographer’s Ephemeris Skyfire sunrise prediction. It was a titch chilly, but with a hot cup of Caribou and the proper clothing, this wasn’t going to be a big deal. It was a Brrr-b-b-beautiful sunrise. The pre-sunrise color was spectacular.
23 Frame D700 Pano25 Frame D700 Pano
The sunrise wasn’t too bad either.
At 16mm
At 150mm
Beautiful morning all-the-way-around.
Extra
A short time lapse of the sunrise and steam this morning
Every time I see the steam rising off of the open water one of Abbas songs starts to play in my head with queen replaced with steam. You know the song I am referring to. Good luck getting that out of your head now. You are welcome 🙂
This a.m. I remembered my spotlight and managed a short snippet of the steam. It was -11 and the camera froze up in just under an hour.
Nikon D700 | ISO 800 | 150mm | f/7.1 | 1/160 secondNikon D700 | ISO 800 | 150mm | f/7.1 | 1/40 second
It was a pretty spectacular sunset this a.m. The color was beautiful.
Pre-surnise
Just before sunriseSunrise
Here is a panorama I shot; you can see the long line of steam
No drone photos/video this a.m. Too cloud to stand around for very long.
The conditions were favorable and I was able to get home at a reasonable enough time to get out and enjoy a midweek sunset. Maiden Rock, WI is another favorite spot; mostly for sunsets given the angle of sunrise throughout the year not being as favorable in this location. There are typically large ice heaves just off the shore, but not this year. Plenty of cracks and other interesting designs in the ice though.
Fellow photog, Jeff Marcus, joined me this beautiful afternoon. We had the beach all to ourselves this fine January afternoon.
The ice on Lake Pepin was smooth and had no snow cover. There were a handful of ice fishermen trying their and people ice skating too all over the bay.
Nikon D700 | ISO 200 | 16mm | f/11 | 1/160 secondNikon D700 | ISO 200 | 16mm | f/11 | 1/60 second
I was a bit late getting home from work and was not so quick to change and load up my photo gear. The sunset forecast for this evening was not great; however the weather was so nice (40+ degrees on the 18th of December). I decided to venture out anyway.
I didn’t have enough time to get where I wanted to. Alternatively I found a n area on top of a bluff along a road with an area of wide-open space. If I wasn’t going to see an resemblance of a sunset, it could be viewed from here.
When the conditions are not necessarily what you are hoping for in a typical sunset, there are options. Abundant clouds in motion are perfect for time-lapse. I only wish I had gotten there sooner and had more time. Just under and hour of shooting yielded 5 whole seconds of video.
There was a pretty spectacular presentation of Mother Nature yesterday evening. Smaller, isolated showers were forecasted to roll through my area; there is no better place to take this all in than Memorial Park on top of Sorin’s Bluff overlooking the town of Red Wing.
iPhone 6S shot
Here is a brief time lapse sequence from one of the small storms bypassing Red Wing.
Here are some still shots of the weather rolling by out on the horizon.
And then this soaker-cell approached from over-top Barn Bluff; it was time to pack up and leave.
It was an unseasonably mild, snow-less and cloudy afternoon in Red Wing atop Sorin’s Bluff in Memorial Park at the lookout. I would not have typically thought about loading up the photo gear to venture out in these less-than-optimal conditions; however, everything was at the ready and loaded from this morning when sunrise wasn’t visible at all – not even a glimmer. I really wasn’t anticipating seeing any moving clouds in the frames and was thinking of focusing more on moving traffic on the city streets. I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to glean from the sky. Lightroom recently added a very handy feature nestled in between Clarity and Saturation – Dehaze.
Original
Graduated Filter with Dehaze. FYI – a little goes a long way.
Final edited first frame
This definitely provided some definition in the clouds making the scene more interesting. Here is the completed time-lapse video combining all three points of view that I captured. I may have to give this vantage point a whirl after dark. The light trails from the head/tail lights produce a wonderful light show.
December 5th, 2015 – 37 degrees @ 7:00 a.m. (sunrise @ 7:30 a.m.). It would go on to reach 49 degrees as they day progressed; sure beats 20 below. I setup in a familiar place; a favorite site any time of the year for a sunrise. I employed a 3-camera setup this morning as illustrated in the first image below. I moved camera 3 to three more different vantage points. I used footage from only two of four positions that camera 3 occupied. It is challenging enough to get the exposure correct on one camera as it gets lighter out; 3 different cameras had me running a bit. The more I dabble with time-lapse the deeper its hooks get into me. It is challenging.
From L to R – Camera 3, 2 & 1
Camera 3 moved for wave view
Here are a few single-frame shots from the time-lapse sequences.
Camera #1 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #3 View
Camera #3 moved from tree to waves – quick snap in-between
Camera #3 View
You can view more of my time-lapse projects via my blog or my youtube channel.
The end product of this time-lapse shoot is below. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did creating it.
I’ve admired time-lapse photography for some time now; mostly through viewing websites on the Internet and what you see on TV from time to time. I can attest that once you get the bug to give it go, you can easily get hook – for a time anyway. As mentioned in a previous post, time-lapse photography is time-intensive. Last week I made some time for more practice.
The second shoot of the week was in another favorite location – Pine Creek. A lovely little spring creek not far from Maiden Rock, WI (off of Hwy 35 and AA; then Rustic Road 51).
I setup right in the stream just off of the road. I did not figure I would encounter any traffic in the early morning hours along this minimum maintenance road, but I was wrong. You’ll notice a few instances of ripples in the video as a result.
The sun had already risen and was making its way along the ridge of the bluff out in front of me. The sun flares that resulted as the sun rose higher in the air were very nice surprise. I had only anticipated cloud movement in the sky as well as reflected in the stream. I also had hoped for some moving shadows; those were more prevalent in the other angle I shot (next post). I shot for 2 1/2 hours in his location. I am pretty happy with the result.
