Dawn sequence

kw: observations, photographs, dawn

I went out shortly after 6:00 am to get the paper and see the sky. Dawn colors were just beginning to show, so I got my camera and tripod. I got set up up the block from my house, at the edge of the street (and I still picked up a wire!) about 6:30 (daylight time; 5:30 standard) and took 19 images as morning clouds developed and the sunlight played across them. There were three cloud layers, not all visible at once. All images were shot at 32mm focal length (41mm equivalent for 35mm std).

6:34 am, ISO 800, f/11, 1.3 seconds, shutter priority. The lower level of scattered clouds is not illuminated, but the "mackerel" stratocumulus clouds are getting very pink already.

6:37 am, ISO 800, f/4.5, 1/6 second, shutter priority. The lower clouds are beginning to pick up some red light.

6:48 am, ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/40 second, automatic with flash locked off. The stratocirrus have thickened, and their brightness almost swamps the pink color of the lower clouds.

6:52 am, ISO 400, f/5, 1/100 second, automatic with flash locked off. An upper deck of cirrus clouds can be seen forming at the top of the image. A small lower deck cloud, which looks dark with just a hint of pink, is seen between the trees. The stratocirrus are mostly yellow now. The street lamp to the left went off just before this image was taken.

6:57 am, ISO 400, f/5, 1/100 second, automatic with flash locked off. Nearly all the reddish colors are gone. To my eye, this seemed to be a daylit scene, but were the sun fully up, the exposure would have been f/11 and 1/400 second at this ISO. Though the house at the right is getting visible to the camera, the amount of light is still just 1/20 of daylight.

So why am I posting this twelve hours later? Right after breakfast I began to dig up a corner of the yard that was infested with Nimblewill, a weedy grass that could take over the lawn. I dug and sifted soil from roots for five hours, spread out and tamped the sifted soil, planted new seed and set up a stick-and-string barrier. Then I had a late lunch and napped for a couple hours, loaded to the gills with Ibuprofen, to let the cramps in my back loosen up. A ton of work for 30 square feet, about 400 pounds of dirt. Now I am full of a nice dinner and have leisure to get at my computer.