The Color of Light: 

Making sunrise shots is about a lot more than just pointing the camera at the sun, or a bank of clouds. Sometimes it’s the other direction that counts. When you look to the opposite direction, the “play of light” will color objects like rock forms, trees and even buildings.  It will saturate those subjects with alpenglow. When you point your camera at the rising/setting sun, you are filming all of that colorful backlit atmosphere that the light (the sun) has traveled through. When you shoot in the opposite direction at an object, the light has traveled from the sun to you, onward to the selected subject, and back again to you.  A double journey.

I know a lot of people don’t like it when you use wildlife, especially birds as your subject or recipient of that double journey. Their color is all wrong. Well not really, but whether it is or not, it is natural and you can see it with your eyes. It is not even an interpretation. It is literal art provided by nature. You only need to utilize your photographic knowledge and skills to pull it off.

I love white birds in the pink alpenglow of sunrise. The Snowy Owl image below was made on a cold winter’s morning here in Wisconsin. It is like photographing a beautiful western rock formation at sunrise, except this “rock” has a brain and a heart. I love it when the subject and the light come together.  I arrived at this fairly remote location in total darkness……my fingers were numb but my heart was soaring.

From the sublime….to the ridiculous.

Sarcasm Alert:

From ABC News….There are reports that many Americans are visiting hospital emergency rooms for treatment, after attempting to text while walking.  Now several states are rushing to pass laws to ban that act of texting while walking.  Presumably any laws that will be passed will still allow texting, as long as you don’t walk.  It is not known if it will still be legal to walk, without texting!

Further news of the same sort shows a man in Kentucky was forced to get stitches in his big toe after missing his toenail while attempting to clip it. The Kentucky Senate is in the process of passing legislation that will ban the clipping of toenails.  The government will supply all citizens (those making under $100,000.00) with a fresh supply of 20 new socks of their choice in an effort to accommodate a citizenry with long toenails.

In California the state government has discovered that the number of people over 20 years of age who are slipping and injuring themselves while getting out of their bathtubs is increasing at an alarming rate. They are in the process of hiring and training 3 million new “tub guards”.  They will accompany you at tubside upon request, to help you safely out of your bathtub.

On other matters California has announced a new bath tax on billionaires only. It will be levied only on those billionaires making over $10,000.00  per year or anyone who owns a bathtub…..whichever comes first.  Californians proudly announced they will become the first government in the world to accumulate a deficit of over 50 trillion dollars.  Californians have been heard to be saying “not to worry” we can borrow money from both Greece and Spain if necessary.

Wayne