I am finding that even though I am not experiencing ideal conditions for sunrise, nature always provides a beautiful canvas. When the pre-sunrise color isn’t there, the subtly of the clouds provides a focal point. The waning crescent moon was also shining bright this morning and added a nice touch to the frame.
On the drive home I ran into a herd of Wild Turkeys.
Happy Holidays to you and yours. Have fun and be safe. Be sure to secure any loads during this festive season!
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.
I used the Syrp Genie Mini Camera Motion Control – Wireless to achieve the rotation. An excellent way to introduce motion into your time-lapse sequences.
A landscape photographers constant wish is just the right amount of clouds to make the scene interesting. When that happens, consider yourself fortunate. Today was not one of those days. The scene that can unfold can still be beautiful…if you wait for it. The skies could not have been any more clear or bright.
Just like sunrises with the best color coming before hand, so goes sunsets with rich color happening after the set.
It took a few minutes after sunset for the color to change and pop.
There is nothing quite like the the palette of color nature displays prior to the sun rising above the horizon. Pre-sunrise color can be quite spectacular; as was the case this morning.
Don’t forget to look all around before the sun comes up and the vivid color is gone.
Once the sun broke the horizon the pinks/reds disappeared; the blue and yellow became more defined.
A constant stream of ducks doing flybys pre-sunrise; if you look close enough you can see them in one of the shots. There were lots of geese honking. A single pair a swans swam close by. Two eagles chattered on and on in a nearby Cottonwood Tree. What a great morning and start to the day.
There was no sunshine at sunrise this a.m. I did catch a little bit of sun two hours after sunrise when it began to filter through the heavy fog and clouds.
There isn’t much hope for a sunrise when the fog sets in. When it is freezing fog, though, there is something to look forward to. The rime it creates is beautiful; not to be confused with hoar frost. I recently learned the difference between the two; this MPR article explains the difference. It was a spectacular morning for rime.
Situated on the southwest bank of the Mississippi River, the floodplain forest of Colvill Park is one of the most popular spots in Minnesota to watch wintering bald eagles. In the spring and fall migrating ducks such as mallards, common mergansers, and common goldeneyes can be seen feeding. White-tail deer, mink, and gray squirrels are also common sites. ~#exploremn
There were not many eagles this a.m., but the light, shadows and reflections were wonderful.
Bay City is a village on the Mississippi River in Pierce County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 500 at the 2010 census. It is one of my favorite places to shoot a sunrise. It’s close proximity to Red Wing makes it an easy distance to travel. This isn’t such a big deal in the Winter when sunrise is 7:30 a.m. In the Spring and Summer months, though, sunrise is closer to to 5:30 a.m.
I made the trip to this very spot yesterday a.m. and it was less than colorful.
That morning was more suited for photographing the hoar frost.
This morning was a completely different.
It was a chilly morning, but it wasn’t too bad at 19 degrees. Always a good time with nature, cameras and friends.
There was a constant build of anticipation leading up to the fortress; as you can see it a very long way off. The structure was truly massive. You can get a sense of the scale in the photo below. It was a warm August day; I was glad to see that an escalator lay between the bottom and the base of the fortress – easy mode.
I could have spent an entire day here exploring every corner on the interior. The view from the top of the fortress is magnificent. The restaurant was great as well; of course there was beer, lovely ice cold beer. There is quite a collection of items on display inside. Plenty of other attraction all around the fortress as well.
Hohensalzburg Fortress, literally “High Salzburg Fortress” sits atop the Festungsberg, a small hill in the Austrian city of Salzburg. Erected at the behest of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg with a length of 820 ft and a width of 490 ft, it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.
1077 – 1462
Construction of the fortress began in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein. The original design was a basic bailey with a wooden wall. In the Holy Roman Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg were already powerful political figures and they expanded the fortress to protect their interests. Helfenstein’s conflict with Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy influenced the expansion of the fortress, with the Archbishop taking the side of Pope Gregory VII and the German anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden. The fortress was gradually expanded during the following centuries. The ring walls and towers were built in 1462 under Prince-Archbishop Burkhard II von Weißpriach.
1495 – 1519
Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach further expanded the fortress during his term from 1495 until 1519. His coadjutor Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, who was later to succeed Leonhard, in 1515 wrote a description of the Reisszug, a very early and primitive funicular railway that provided freight access to the upper courtyard of the fortress. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is probably the oldest operational railway in the world. The current external bastions, begun in the 16th century and completed in the 17th, were added as a precaution because of fears of Turkish Invasion.
1525 – 1800
The only time that the fortress actually came under siege was during the German Peasants’ War in 1525, when a group of miners, farmers and townspeople tried to oust Prince-Archbishop Matthäus Lang, but failed to take the fortress. In 1617 the deposed Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau died in the fortress prison. During the Thirty Years’ War, Archbishop Count Paris of Lodron strengthened the town’s defenses, including Hohensalzburg. He added various parts to the fortress, such as the gunpowder stores and additional gatehouses. The fortress was surrendered without a fight to French troops under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau during the Napoleonic War of the Second Coalition in 1800 and the last Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo fled to Vienna. In the 19th century, it was used as barracks, storage depot and dungeon before being abandoned as a military outpost in 1861. ~wikipedia
