Tag: sun

A Deck Of Clouds

My family lives in the countryside of Texas with lots of horizon and big skies. One nice thing about it is having more photo opportunities with nature.

One morning this week, I was treated to an extra nice sunrise. I stepped onto my front porch to let the dogs out when suddenly my eyes were caught by the glowing orange ball peaking out from a blue-ish cloudy sky.

Immediately I did a 180 back into the house to grab my camera (iPhone 7), thinking I had maybe 60 seconds of that golden moment before the sun was hidden behind the cloud deck.

I jogged over to my farm truck, stood up on the bed, and snapped away. I tried to frame the landscape nicely and expose the image in a balanced way.

Yeah, that means I just tapped on parts of the image I wanted to focus/expose on and let auto-HDR handle the rest. It was a snapshot moment worth getting.

Hopefully the results are appealing. There’s so much texture in the clouds, and I like the orange sun contrasted with the blues in the sky.

Enjoy!

When was the last breathtaking sunrise you saw? Shout out below or write to me. Thanks for reading!

Friday Wireflowers

A lot of times, I’ll see something that catches my eye. It just looks picturesque. And my brain starts cranking over…there’s gotta be a way to capture that in a good photo. But often, I don’t try. Too inconvenient, too difficult. But today, I decided to try. And I’m glad I did.

Just Stop The Car

We live on a farm in the country. I drive down a dirt road everyday. This time of year, we get an awesome array of wildflowers (and weeds).

Today, while heading home, the orange and yellow flowers caught my eye beside the dirt driveway. They’re just displayed in abundance all along the barbed wire fence with its weathered posts. The sky, meanwhile, is all blue with floating storybook clouds.

Like I said. Picturesque.

I’ve been seeing these, and other flowers, for many days now. But today, in the early afternoon sun, the inner urge to try and capture the lovely scenery and showcase their small wonder was strong enough to make think, “just stop the car and do it.”

Actually, I both stopped and then backed up. I had driven past the prime spot while my brain internally quibbled whether or not to take some pictures.

So I grabbed my iPhone 7, which had been podcasting through my car speakers, and put it in camera mode. I simply snapped 4 photos only, not trying too hard. I figured they probably would not turn out great anyways.

I was content that I at least didn’t pass up the chance and, instead, just stopped the car and got out.

I don’t think these shots are gonna win me awards or make me some sweet moo-lah. But I think they’re very nice; I like them!

And I hope you like them too. Enjoy!

Have you felt like doing something yet decided not to? Or did you go for it? Were you glad you did? Comment below or write to me. Thanks for reading!

An iPhone Sunset

Back in 2012, I got the iPhone 4. It was my first smartphone. Cameras on phones were not very good, but they we’re on the cusp. Instagram was pretty new and hot back then. I enjoyed a bit of iPhoneography.

One day at sunset, I went out snapping. Across from our house was a field with wide open space and an angle towards the sweeping horizon.

I think I got kinda lucky that day, blessed with the right conditions. Right time of day, right place, right time of year when crops were green…

This sunset photo is one of my favorites because of the vibrant colors I was able to bring out in editing. Lots of lush green, vivid blue, and warm orange/red.

I composed the horizon just above the centerline of the shot and the sun offset left, kinda following rule of thirds. There were not really any clouds, so this was less of a sky shot and more about the field over which the star of our solar system can shine on some photosynthesis.

That’s kinda cool, literally “light synthesis,” right? Sure, plants do that. But that’s like photography, “light writing.” Graphing the light, synthesizing light with other objects.

Anyways, enjoy the photo! It’s also in my Gallery.

What do you like about sunrises and sunsets? How do you like to soak up the sun? Comment below. Write me here. Thanks for reading.