Stormy Skies

What I do know is that I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the sky over the last few days.  I’ve admired a series of gorgeous sunsets, and–like you, I’m sure–I’ve looked at the sky every morning as a hopeful indicator of what my day will be like.  In fact, the more I think about it, we spend a lot of time looking at the sky.  For centuries sailors have looked to the sky before setting sail (“Red sky at night…”); as photographers, we often differentiate a “so-so” photograph from an epic one depending on what’s happening in the sky; most people let what’s in the sky help define their mood, to some extent at least.  So, the sky really does define our days, and our lives.

As much as it influences us, I also think we could learn from the sky.  It carries the weather, but is ultimately unaffected by it, dealing with tumultuous changes easily and unscathed, and in a world that sometimes seems to be filled with our own hurry, hurt, and negativity, perhaps we could all take a moment to look up at the sky, take a deep breath and create our own high pressure system, so to speak.

What do you think?

Cotton Candy Sky

Wave Abstract, April 2010

In this shot, I wanted to accentuate the detail in the waves, as well as the water texture in both the leading and tailing edges of the waves.  By processing the lower lefthand part of the image as monochrome using Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro and leaving the upper righthand part of the image in color, I was able to accentuate the difference in these areas of the water.

Incidentally, in my last post on my Channel Islands trip, I talked about how intense the wind was.  For most of the night, we dealt with wind gusts of 50-65 miles per hour, with no vegetative cover.  Equipment takes a beating in that kind of wind, and today I received an image from my friend, whose tent we used that night on Anacapa.  These tent poles used to be straight.

The Wrath of Anacapa