*** Mini-Challenge #440 *** Dramatic Skies

Love the color.

Great mood...

All great, but that third one really speaks to me.

Great stuff, fantastic moon!

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

Very spooky, makes me think of Halloween.

Very nice!

All great, but #3 is fantastic, and #6 is stunning! Thanks for sharing.

Shot from my back yard.

Wow! Those are all stunning.

Some spectacular shots have been posted already and I am, as usual, humbled by the work I see here. Skies are one of my favorite subjects because they are the “ceiling” over my favorite place – the uplands - and I very often try to include them in my images because they set the mood for the day. Here are a few random shots.

Sunset behind the Amelia Island lighthouse:



Another "shore" image - sunset over the Pimlaco Sounds viewed from Orkacoke Island. The colors are not faked - really looked like this.





Another "water" type shot - early morning sunrise as viewed from my camp right on the banks of the northern Missouri River in the Missouri Breaks area - one of my favorite prairie hunting spots. The dogs and I spent a lot of time there before I became a nursemaid and could no longer travel. Same deal with the colors - it looked just like this.



Speaking of hunting the remote high plains, here is my dog-of-a-lifetime, Maggie with a young Chase sharing a point on what turned out to be a Greater Prairie Chicken under the BIG skies that can only be found there:





Early morning prairie fire:







A powerful storm howling in over an abandoned building far from anywhere on the high plains. As the lightening began to crash down all around us (the dogs and I being the tallest things around for miles), that old place started to look like pretty good shelter to us.



My dear Maggie pointing a sharptail grouse under vast western skies:





To switch gears, here are some obviously fake skies created by transposing the subject (airplanes at a local WWII airshow) over a sky image. I know many may disagree, but to my mind, the image is the ONLY thing that matters, not how one gets there (i.e. camera, oil paint or Photoshop) and I like these images even if they are fake (of course, presenting a Photoshopped image as documentary proof of something that never actually existed IS unethical). A Navy Corsair turning into a Japanese Kate torpedo bomber off Okinawa:





A B-17 taking off from an English airfield in the wee hours for a dangerous mission over Berlin:





Finally, a young Hellcat pilot having just survived a mission in the Zero filled skies above his carrier:









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Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137747053@N07/4M38jj

I live deep in the woods, so we don't see much of the sky, except in winter. Even in the field, there is almost never a view of the far horizon like one has in the high plains, but I try to include skies in many of my images nonetheless.

Chase watching the ice break up on the little mountain lake by my house in early spring:





Slowly warming April skies in the uplands during an off-season dog run:





Weighty December skies hanging over a lonely rural PA Dutch graveyard (only visible when the crops are off):





Leaning into strong, frigid winds as we head out on a 9 degree February morning under glowering skies:





Chase pointing under icy February skies:





Doves coursing in the hot pre-season August sun:













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Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137747053@N07/4M38jj

My mountain home on a winter evening - more snow on the way!





"My" feed mill - one of our favorite places in the nearest town. When we go there to buy feed every couple weeks, the dogs chase the ubiquitous dirty pigeons away and the workers give them treats in thanks every time.





A lone walnut tree on the family farm just as low lying clouds rolled in:







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Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137747053@N07/4M38jj

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"Life's Too Short to Worry about the BS!"
So I Pick my Battles
Click for Wild Man's Photos

Queensbury NY




Gila Cliff Dwellings New Mexico




Arches Nat Park Utah




My Yard



--
"Life's Too Short to Worry about the BS!"
So I Pick my Battles
Click for Wild Man's Photos

--
"Life's Too Short to Worry about the BS!"
So I Pick my Battles
Click for Wild Man's Photos

Sunshine and showers in Brugge


Brugge again. Believe it or not, we didn't actually get wet - although we did need to spend a fair bit of time in cafes, chocolate shops and art galleries to stay dry.


Drama at Duxford - this day, it didn't actually rain at all.

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Ed Form

More pictures of the flying display to show how dramatically the weather changed...


Taken at 14:09


Taken at 14:25


Also shot at 14:25

Now look back at the shot in my previous post, the one with my three entries. That was shot at 14:15. Good old English September weather - the technical term is 'Changeable!'

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Ed Form

All 3...Beautiful, Ed

as are the exhibits

Bill Borne said:

All 3...Beautiful, Ed

as are the exhibits

Click to expand...

Thanks Bill: I'm between cameras at the moment - notionally I'm saving up for an RX10-III but I'm also watching the Nikon DL24-500 which is only just over half the price. So at the moment I'm trawling my archives for shots to show. It's given me a long list of things I've never tried to photograph!! - and must do when I have bought the new kit!

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Ed Form