Fogbow?

The last two posts feature images of a misty morning shot from the shore of Agimak Lake. I was determined to shoot from the water at the next opportunity. Each night, I made sure my gear was ready for an early morning departure. A crisp morning not days later started off crystal clear but ground fog moved in thick and fast. Setting off from shore I headed straight out of our bay in the direction of ‘my’ island.

kayak in the mistIt wasn’t long before I was in a silent dome of fog, no shoreline in sight. It was only slightly unnerving. I knew I couldn’t get lost and that the mist would eventually burn off.  I kept the sun on my 8 o’clock which should take me on a direct line out form the shore and to the island. Directly on my 2 o’clock, a bright arch began to appear. You can see just a hint of it in the image above. My camera had a difficult time processing the arch alone but as the fog lifted, the arch remained and became more defined.

kayak to island with arch of fogI’ve never seen anything like this before. We’ve lived here almost 30 years. This summer has certainly provided some remarkable sights!

fog arch over island

 

 

Optical Prism?

While shooting the spectacular morning of previous post, I noticed a bright patch of light to the right side of the island.

island in the mist

At first I thought it was a beam of sunlight breaking through the mist but as the morning brightened and at closer look, a spectrum of colour was clear.

surface prism

The full range of colour became even clearer as it seemed to stretch and move closer to shore.

fog generated prism on lake

Physics was not a strong subject of mine in school and is still a challenge to process. Even searching on line to find what this is or how it is formed made my head hurt. The best (simplest) info I found was this Wikipedia article for ‘prism‘. What I do know is it was a treat to notice and capture it.

 

 

March 2014

free desktop calendar March 2014_1600x900
I waited all February for a mild (above -15 C) day to capture an image for March’s calendar. It didn’t happen. So, having run right out of time, on Feb 28 with the temperature at -22 C, I bundled up and headed out with gear in hand. I had hoped with such constant cold that the trees along this creek would be nicely frosted but between bright sun and raging winds of late, most frost had been weathered away. Thankfully, the heavy accumulation of snow softened and brightened the ragged river bed offering nice contrast to the dark turbulent waters. I decided the shot would suffice. I hope you like it. For specific screen resolutions, go to the Free Calendar tab in the menu bar and select March 2014.

March has come in as a lion if -30C with wind chill warning of -40C to -45C is considered fierce! Hopefully, there will be a much warmer looking scene for next month.

radiant sunset

The other evening, the air was crisp and clear, the sky clear blue and the water calm. The lake called me out from the shore. I’m glad I answered the call.

radiant sunset.jpgTo get the star light glow of the setting sun, I set the f-stop as deep (or wide – I never am sure of the technical description) as I dared (f29) and shot when the sun was brightest poking through the pine bows. I was driving the motor boat alone as I shot so I cruised as low as possible past this point of land several times to capture the sun before it disappeared over the horizon.

 

island at raleigh

This scene may look familiar to you. It was the foreground of moon shots I took in May.  You might even have the image as your July calendar desktop! 😉  I loved the graphic look of the trees and sky when the colour was removed from the image. I added a Radlab preset filter in Lightroom to bring out more contrast. Maybe I’ll send it out for printing…
desaturated sunset island

June 2013 calendar

Here’s my June desktop calendar. Feel free to use it, too.

For different screen resolutions, go to the free calendar tab above, drop down to select June or click here.free desktop calendar June 2013 1440x900