I kicked off Monday right by dragging myself out of bed early enough to get set up to catch the sunrise coming in behind the 11th Street Bridge in Southeast Washington, DC.
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| Sunrise - Anacostia River - Washington, DC |
This location has become a standby for me to capture good shots in the morning. The water is generally calm, there are interesting things to silhouette in the foreground and middle ground, and if the sky is clear the quality of the light rivals anything from the Mediterranean region. Often, you get one of the rowing clubs coming through in their boats/shells, so that adds a little bit of interest as well. This shot qualified the day as a good day.
I got out of work much later than I'd hoped because I scheduled a meeting last week to start at 1700 our time. I was dreading that decision today because apart from that self imposed pain, there was nothing really keeping me in the building. We slogged through the meeting, I worked the calisthenic part of the daily practice, and headed out for the commute home.
When I got outside, I noticed a thunderstorm moving into the area, and on a whim, I drove to the top of the parking garage to see what the scenery looked like. I was not disappointed.
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| Thunderstorm Pounding Washington DC, with the Hammer of Thor |
Standing on the upper level with the bulwark at chest high and the lightning rods ringing the garage coming in at just about collarbone level, I only got off about three or four photos before my hands started to tingle, and I decided that the better part of wisdom would be for me to catch pictures from inside the car. I tried to catch lightning, and I got some on video, but the results of the electrically isolated arrangement were far less satisfactory. The windshield tinting washed out the colors of the sky, and I never did capture a satisfactory still photo of lightning. The videos were alright, but they just don't have the same tangible feel of catching the blue white flash from the sky to the ground.
I followed this thunderstorm home, and it spent quite a bit of its fury over the intervening miles. The lightning was still active, so I thought I'd give it another go.
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| Lightning Over Annapolis, MD |
Just a little less than 200 single frames into the effort, I managed to catch this washed out and obscured by trees image. It's only the second live lightning strike that I've managed to capture, and it's not very satisfactory. That said, I'm pretty sure that I'm hooked on trying to capture the beauty and menace of this electric display of the gods. More research is needed for sure, and I may have to try some new equipment. More on this later, and I'll let you all know how things develop.
All was not lost because the storm rolled on through, and set up a sunset that I would not have believed unless I had seen it with my own eyes.
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| Severn River Sunset - After the Thunderstorm - Annapolis, MD |
There are no filters, no trickery, no gimmicks of any kind in this photo. If anything, the pinks and oranges are a little washed out, but this is what the Severn River looked like after the passing of the storm. I've never seen anything like it, and if you've followed these ramblings at all you'll know that I"ve spent quite a bit of time chasing sunsets and sunrises. This scene was breathtaking, and I only captured three or four shots of it because it was too good to experience on the back side of an LCD screen.
Wow...What a Day! I don't know what tomorrow may reveal, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Every day is unique, and this one today seemed particularly remarkable, but it reminded me of something I've learned from my time on the road moving slowly. There is an amazing wealth of beauty all around each of us every day. Once you start looking for it, you'll see it everywhere. As noted yesterday, the Universe is an amazing and highly prolific artist, and I'm grateful beyond words that I opened my eyes at a time when things could have gone in an entirely different and darker direction.
