Sunday evening, we could see the clouds lighting up with the approaching sunset, and hopped in the car to get down to the waterfront, since the sunset (or sunrise) views at Walkabout Estates are lacking – too many trees nearby. On the way, we could see the sun already hidden behind a bank of clouds but edging those with brilliant gold and a few crepuscular rays, but this view was past the town buildings and especially powerlines – yurg. Naturally, by the time we got to the waterfront (which was literally less than ten minutes,) the clouds had done their North Carolina thing and dissipated almost entirely right before sunset. This has happened so routinely that I’m sure there’s something curious about the climate here, I just don’t know what, but it means that chasing sunsets is more often a losing proposition. As seen above, an insignificant swirl and streak caught just a hint of color, but down on the horizon, a solid bank of clouds formed a ‘mountain range’ over coastal plains. Seen closer, they looked ominous, but were actually the after-effects of tropical storm Isaias, which had merely given us some light-to-moderate rains earlier in the day.
I tweaked the contrast on this just enough to bring out more of the cloud textures – the sun had already set, off to the right. This is actually the same perspective as most of the lightning pics back in July, and may even feature some of the same sailboats.
Looking in other directions captured some thin clouds still showing some color.
I attempted to look up that flag to see what it signified, thinking it was a standard nautical message, but nothing I’ve found matches that. Still, it was something to do with a bare splash of color. It got better a little later on.
The exposure for the boats makes a misleading sky, since the sun is nowhere near that bright glow – this is actually facing almost due south.
The temperature was perfect, the breeze stiff yet not chilling at all, and it moaned ominously as it passed through the masts and rigging – very atmospheric, and a great night to be out. The geese were coming in to their overnight roosting areas, but it was getting dark enough that any pics of them overhead, even just trying for silhouettes, suffered from motion blur. With several attempts, however, I did manage a couple of frames of someone else.
As we approached, The Girlfriend and I had a brief, wavering disagreement as to whether this was a bird or a piling – that’ll give you an idea of what the light level was like, much better than the image does. This was 1/10th second at f5, ISO 1000, braced on the railing to try and keep things steady enough. Squint until you can’t really tell there’s a curving red reed behind this heron, and you’ll get the idea. But the detail held up even at full resolution:
Seriously for 1/10th second in dim twilight? I can live with this. Nice pose, too.
While clear, there was enough residual humidity in the sky to capture some cloud effects far over the horizon and produce a nice little aura well after the sun set, backlighting those mountainous cloud banks. So, yeah, still a few keepers from the evening. Waiting and watching for those more spectacular colors though…
