Rain in September is a big deal for California. I was pretty excited about it because at this point in the year I get tired of keeping things alive. I don't think we've had any measurable rain since January. I'd have to look back through my blog. So, I'm super tired by now.
The night before the storm I'd pop outside and see if it'd started sprinkling yet. One time when I did this I was stopped short by the most massive moon rainbow I'd ever seen. My brain went wild trying to think if I should run for my gear. I decided by the time I got to it, the cloud would have passed. Another one was coming anyway and I was just going to enjoy this moment and see if the next cloud was going to make another moon rainbow. I mean, you see them from time to time, but this one looked like my house would fit inside it. And it was vivid.
I stood there for probably a minute when something really weird happened. Weird enough I had to go run and get Mr S. I bring him out side and tell him - just watch. For about 30 seconds he stood there unimpressed and then said - huh, that's really weird. It's like the cloud is vaporising right there. All I could think was - I've never seen this weather phenomena before, how am I going to capture this? It's one thing taking pictures at night, but very low contrast pictures like clouds at night is super hard. My IR camera would capture it, but I've never used the video option on it. When you have a little point and click like mint berry that does very good HD video, or my big camera which weighs three pounds, which one are you going to carry around? I just never thought I would use it for video. Now this cloud is forming literally right in front of my eyes and I can't capture it. I can either watch it, or figure out how to use my camera. I chose to watch in fascination.
The cloud kept reforming over the moon, but not in a way that it looked when I first saw it. In this shot you can see just a little color on the side of the cloud. Eventually the cloud moved on. But this cloud would stay static in the sky for a really long time. All of these shots are done with a long exposure.
In the winter I go on more of an IR kick. The clouds make it somewhat more dramatic and the holidays make people have funny or interesting things in their yards. Wind is more of a problem though. Which is why this shot is kinda crappy. But I didn't know my tree showed up purple. I have to relearn IR because they swapped out all the heat based street lights in my city.
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