All the Colors

This week the Lens Artists are looking for monochrome images. This most often means photos shot in black and white, but it can also mean any picture where just one color dominates. I don’t have much in my archives in black and white, but did find some monochrome images in various colors, and decided to post one in each of the four primary colors in human vision. Yes, I know, most color systems focus on three primary colors (red, green, blue), and the color receptors in the human eye also respond predominantly to one of these three hues. However, the visual system then turns this input into three opponent systems: red vs. green, blue vs. yellow, and black vs. white. This means that, at one level in human vision, there are four colors, just like in the song I used to sing with my children:

Red and yellow, green and blue,
All the colors over you.
Red as an apple, green as a tree,
Yellow as the sunshine, blue as the sea.

So here are four images, one representing each of the four colors.

Red: Amazing fall colors from 2018

Yellow: Part of a dazzling display of twinkle lights I spotted in a hotel this past spring

Green: A single white blossom stands out against its dark green leaves

Blue: A vivid sky, painted with swirling clouds

Posted in response to Lens-Artists #70: Monochrome, with thanks to Patti for posting this week’s challenge.

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ON ANOTHER NOTE: I’ve made a rather momentous decision. I will officially be switching my blog from this free WordPress location to my actual author website. From now until the end of this year I will post all my blog entries (including this one) on both locations. Starting in January 2020, though, I’ll be posting only on the website. If you enjoy my content, please start following me at my site: www.celiareaves.com. I value every one of my followers, and I hope to see you over there!

Sky Layers

This week’s photo challenge is to illustrate layers: images of things that are stacked in front of and behind each other to create depth. I’ve always been fascinated by the sky and clouds, which is a rich source of such images. Here are three from my archives. I hope you enjoy them!

A flock of puffy clouds in the blue sky over Black River Bay, piled up all the way to the horizonSame spot, different day, this time with darker clouds and rain falling on the far side of the bay

A gentle sunset over water, with a tree-covered bluff in middle distance and a bit of beach in the foreground

Posted in response to Lens-Artists #67: Layered, with thanks to Amy for this week’s challenge.

Sky Light

This week, Patti challenges the Lens Artists to post photos with silhouettes. I love this topic! I take a lot of pictures of the sky, and this often includes dark things silhouetted against a bright sky. Here are a few of my favorite silhouette photos.

First: Three images with sunsets

One was taken from the marina at Sackets Harbor. I love this image so much, I used one like it for my Twitter header.

One was taken nearby, at the 1812 battlefield, as some young people sat on the stone wall watching the sun go down.

One was taken at the Port of Rochester, when we were staying at the marina there.

Next: two images with stormy skies

One has a leafless winter tree, and a tiny patch of blue showing through the gray clouds.

One has a bird silhouetted against those stormy clouds.

Finally: one with blue sky and clouds and a power pole with a tangle of wires

I was struck by the complexity of the cabling on this pole.

Posted in response to Lens Artists Photo Challenge #62: Silhouettes, with thanks to Patti for posting this week’s challenge.

Sunset Show

I love taking pictures of clouds, and have posted sunsets several times before (for example, here, here, here, and here). This one, from August 2016, is a particularly florid version. The sky was just showing off, and I love it!

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge: Rise/Set

Impressionist Sky

I take lots of cloud pictures, and I’m happy to share another one. This is the view to the east at sunset, with the last rays of the sun making some clouds glow while others are already fading to black. The colors are vibrant and the textures make me think of impressionist oil paintings. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge: Glow

Gorgeous Light

I’m a sucker for clouds, with hundreds of sky photos in my folder. Here’s a shot I love of the gorgeous, golden light on the buildings and clouds opposite the setting sun. This time of day is often called the golden hour because of the color of the light, and it creates a warmth that you don’t see at other times. The view stopped me in my tracks. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge: Shiny

Water’s Edge

I took this photo two months ago, on black River Bay off of Lake Ontario. It’s one of my favorite sunset pictures, not just because the clouds are so dramatic, but because I happened to catch a flock of birds headed back into shore for the night. This image for me captures some of the beauty and peace of nature.

It also captures a bit of science as well, which ties it into this week’s photo topic: H₂0. We can see water here in three ways. There’s liquid water in the bay itself at the bottom of the shot. The clouds are made of water and ice suspended by air currents. They are brightly colored because they are reflecting the rays from the sun that’s just below the horizon. Behind the clouds you can see a bit of the normal blue of the sky, and that’s due to water as well. Sunlight is white, containing all the visible wavelengths of light. The shorter blue wavelengths are scattered in all directions by the water vapor in the air, making the sky blue. When the sunlight is reflecting directly off the clouds at low angles, as you get at sunrise and sunset, it has passed through a lot of air to get there and most of the blue light has been scattered. All that’s left is the longer red wavelengths. That’s where the sunset colors come from.

So there you have it: nature and science, together. As they should be.

Posted in response to the WordPress Photo Challenge: H₂0

Clouds and Cameras

When I saw this week’s WordPress photo challenge (Look Up), my first thought was that it would be the easiest one yet for me. It turned out to be much harder than I expected, and the reason has to do partly with changes in photography itself over the years.

Sunshine and Clouds

This was the weather on Friday, weather for which the only word was “changeable.” One minute, blue sky and hot sun; the next, dense gray clouds. I grabbed this shot of the dramatic boundary between sun and cloud.

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge: Opposites.