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.
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.