Birches and their Neighbors - Day 31

Janus in the Birches  

Looking Ahead and Looking Behind    

- Much can be observed by looking backwards at a sunrise     

Janus, the Roman god of transitions, and especially the god of the New Year, is depicted as a two-headed figure who is able to look in two directions: to where we have come from - the past - and also to where we are going - the future. Janus is able to act appropriately in the present - now - because of being able to see both ahead and behind.
Similarly, I think, while I can get lovely sunrise photos by shooting in the direction of the sun, sometimes I can make even more telling photographs by observing the effects of that sunrise on my surroundings. These effects include capturing opposites like complementary colors in shadows, and revealing objects not in the image by the absence of the light they are blocking, and by enjoying the overall glow of the atmosphere.

And so with the New Year. Here's to Janus in the Birches, looking backwards at 2013, and looking forward to 2014. Best wishes from here for a Happy New Year!

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 30

Sunrise Light and Color 

This is the jpg - 99KB

This is the png8 - 204KB

Testing Blogger's Color Rendition   

- checking out the differences   

I wanted to check again the differences between Blogger's rendition of a jpg version of a photograph and the png version. This photo was taken at the same time as Day 15's photograph, which lost its intense darks to some rather pretty blue-violet tones, when it showed up in the blog.
I anticipate similar color-shifting on the jpg, and none on the png. Let's see!

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 26

Sunrise Contrasting Colors

WHAAA'  ???  Here's the photo as an optimized .jpg.  Changes that happened after importing to Blogger included pixelization and color shifts.

Here's the same photo saved as a .png-8. It's almost identical to original. Blogger, what happened? 

Lights at Sunrise 

- and the colors they produce 

There are two light sources in this photo - one, the rising sun bouncing through the clouds in the eastern sky, and the other, the artificial light on the building behind the trees.
To our eyes, the areas where the light does not strike show up as complementary colors to the light - in this case intense blue-violet against intense orange-yellow.
The artificial light merely serves as an accent to the colors the sun produces.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 23

Striped Clouds at Sunrise

Striped Bands of Clouds  

- and vertical bands of trees  

What's not to like about the colors of a sunrise through bands of clouds, back-lighting the vertical stateliness of birches and aspens and the elegant tendrils of last summer's tree flowers?

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 18

Winter Dawn Spectrum

Sunrise Spectrum  

- a full range of colors from a prism of clouds  

This morning there was a full range of color in the sunrise - deep blue in the unlit sky, then pinks, violets, a brief intense red-orange, a suggestion of yellow, and a rather rare occurrence, several stripes of green in the clouds above and to the side of the rising sun.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 15

Branches in Winter Dawn

Sunrise through Branches  

- directing the viewer's eye through a blur of color 

Different camera settings will give wildly varying results in a photograph.
A twist of a dial on a camera lens could have put sharp focus on all the trees in this scene, right back to the rising sun. A different twist of the dial allows the viewer's eye to contemplate just the branching structure of the twigs in the foreground, leaving the wonder of the early morning color as an unfocused blur in the background.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 13

Winter Dawn

Sunrise through Trees  

- brilliant color to start the day

There is a drama in watching a sunrise. From the full darkness of night the sky gets paler, gradually brighter, and then, more intense light starts to show. It may be a colorful sunrise, or the sun may present itself in a neutral gray light.
But actually, the light from the sun is always the same. The color effects of a sunrise or a sunset are due, in fact, to clouds at different levels in the atmosphere and from particles of dust or moisture suspended in the air, and to how the sun's light is refracted and reflected through them.
So, a glorious "sunrise" is actually the colors a viewer sees in the clouds between him or her and the sun.
Somehow it's nicer to think that it's the sun giving us a brilliant start to the day.  

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 12

Winter Dawn Silhouette

Birch Branches in Early Morning Light  

- against a bright dawn sky

What can I say?
All I could do was sit back, catch my breath and enjoy the scene as I got ready for the day.

Art Every Day Month - Nov 29 -

Red Sky in the Morning...

Red Sky in the Morning  - sailors take warning. 

Source photo

Weather traditions that enhance our ability to predict our day come from generations of observation, and are a form of practical knowledge. The weather proverb "Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning" means there will be wind or stormy weather coming during the day. "Red Sky at Night, Sailors' Delight" is the concluding part of the verse. In this case, it is a red dawn, and yes, there is wind.

Art Every Day Month - Nov 24 -

Sunrise Reflections

Sunrise Reflections - why are reflections in still water so calming?  

Source photo

I'm a sucker for a good reflection photograph - and this morning's sunrise gave me one of the nicest picture taking opportunities I've ever had.
What is it about a mirror reflection on a still body of water that makes us feel so calm and peaceful? Is it the horizontal and diagonal lines repeating harmoniously throughout the image? Or is it being able to see the tranquil color scheme twice over? Or maybe simply resting our eyes and taking a break to view this quiet scene?  

Art Every Day Month - Nov 23 -

Sunrise Start

Sunrise Start - a beautiful sunrise to start a road trip 

Source photo

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," said Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu. It's a good start when the view you are traveling through is as lovely as this, and the weather is as agreeable. Just back from a road trip of just over a thousand miles out and a thousand miles home again, I am pleased to have carried this view with me along the road. 

Art Every Day Month - Nov 22 -

Break of Dawn

Break of Dawn  - light emerging from darkness

Source photo

It's not so much getting up early that makes photography at dawn an adventure. The real thrill comes from watching as hidden hills and trees emerge from the background, when the strangeness of a darkened location becomes familiar again as day takes over from night.
Changes in the early morning landscape are intensified by changes in color, like this morning's sunrise with yellow-orange shafts of light cutting through a break in a cloud-bank into violet-blue shadows. And then, just as quickly, the sun went behind the clouds, and the quality of the light changed again.