Clouds over the foothills

The foothills of the Karavanke, which I've shot many times, this was in the autumn, I love the play of the shadows and the sun breaking through here and there. 

 

Through the clouds

 

I pulled over the side of the road amidst some fields not long ago to get this shot looking to the south-west over some low hills. It had been a wet and cloudy day and the sun just barelly managed to poke through the clouds here and there. This was a few days after the previous two photos here (the last light on the Karavanke and the clouds below).

Cumulus congestus

 I'm not a climatographer but from my understanding these are Cumulus congestus clouds, an intermediate stage between cumulus mediocris and cumulonimbus, according to Wikipedia. To put it a different way, this is the buildup before they become cumulonimbus clouds which bring heavy rain. The photo was taken pretty late with the sun nearly set, which is why the hills at the bottom are already in shadow while the tops of the clouds still enjoy a few last rays of sunlight.

Breginjski kot

 

This snap of the valley Breginjski kot (Breginj Combe when translated to English) was taken during a bike ride from Kobarid towards the Nadiža river (taken with an iPhone). We spent a week long holiday camping near Kobarid and did quite a bit of light mountain biking.

Firefighting helicopter

This was taken from my balcony recently, there was a series of small forest fires in the woods nearby. I've since walked by that area and the fires were contained pretty quickly. On a side note, this photo was taken with a 40 year old lens (mounted on a new Fujifilm camera).

Powerful Night

Last night was strange and powerful. I saw that kind of mistery before, but last night I took some time and grabbed my tripod... and cleaned the dust off my old camera.

Sunbeams

When I came up with a title for this post, I checked Wikipedia and was amazed to discover there's quite a long and informative article on what are correctly known as Crepuscular rays. They are also known as both Buddha's Rays and God Beams - not surprising, given how majestic they can appear. Not that it matters, but this moment of serenity and beauty took place in Italy - in the Dolomite mountains.

The brightest star and the comet

Actually the brightest star is the moon and the comet is a plane, but a nice one anyway I think.

Over nine hills

Picture taken from Krvavec with tele lens. The sun was going down and the fog under us was looking beautyful until we came in it. Maybe the composition isn't so good, but the motive was amazing.

Star trails

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

This was taken on Velvia film one night at Rašica, which is a village on a hill overlooking Ljubljana. The bright light behind the tree on the right is light pollution from the city. The camera was on a tripod and the exposure time is a few minutes (six, if I remember correctly, this is why the stars are streaks instead of being points of light). It was pretty cold so I was waiting in my car. When I opened this up in Photoshop to resize it for the web, the first thing that came to mind is the rhyme above, even though these are not the first stars of the night. As always, you can click it for a larger picture.