There's a mantra of sorts that nature photographers recite as they're out: take a look behind you... Often the best capture is one behind you, one that you were not expecting... I had been watching the "pop-up" thunderstorms all day. It shaped up as a great sunset with perfectly-place cloud layers as the sun was going down. Thank heavens I turned around. A late-evening storm was brewing up from the southeast, directly at my back...
Sunset Storm
Walking toward the river I moved passed a series of vernal pools with some lovely reflections developing in the late evening light. Here I was focusing on the clearing sky as seen in the water surface reflection...
A peaceful evening
Walking a bit further toward the sunset I stopped to get this image, hoping to capture the Canada geese on the water (they're present...). The sky over the distant mountains looked fine, but the water surface seemed rather dark and unsettled...leading me to turn around...
unsettled?...
I've seen my share of strange clouds in the Midwestern thunderstorms of my youth... But this flat-topped half-funnel cloud was stunning. The setting sun lit it up, and the rainbow edge was so brilliant, so saturated...in part because the southeastern sky was dark, stormy, threatening...
an unusal sight
The next storm was quickening, and a race against both time and space was on (I was about 3/4's mile away from the relative safety of my car). But this sunset capture was there to be had, and is so exquisite...
a quick 180...
I'd been keeping an eye out on the half-funnel while getting the initial sunset photo. The tight half-funnel was starting to come apart, but the prismatic range of the front-edge rainbow was getting stronger....
the next 180...
In the space of a heartbeat the decomposing half-funnel evaporated and the rainbow took off like a missile launch towards the southeast and the heart of the oncoming storm...
the rainbow
A quick look behind me toward the sunset... The yellow was shifting to reds and oranges, the west sides of the lower clouds developing more reddish-purple hues and better definition...
another 180...
I shot this with a 16mm wide angle. I had an 8mm wide angle fish-eye with me, but there was no time to make the change... Thunder was rumbling regularly now, and the lightning flashes were developing on the nighttime half of the sky... And I still had sunset images to work on... I really like this one...
turn, turn, turn...
It was interesting...
As the eastern skyscape was getting progressively darker and more threatening, the western half lightened up again somewhat.... The distant yellows returned, although the reddish-purple hues on the closer lower clouds remained.
one more sunset...
Another turn, and one last look toward the east. Another surprise... The very low sun in the west got in underneath the cloud layers and lit up the low clouds and rainbow to the east of me. The rain curtain is simply ethereal...
surprise
My last look at the sunset...
The reddish-purple hues really developed as the sun went down. The thunder became a 360 Surround Sound...as did the electrical light show...
the sun sets...
I'm not sure how to explain the light... The low angle of the sun sneaking under the cloud blanket?... A certain light returned, more colors were in play... I captured this last image before making a run for the car, lightening going off all around me. The first rain drops fall as I got to the car door...