Contrail Thread Volume III
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Contrail Thread Volume III kicks off not very long since Alec started Volume I, so this topic runs fast but still the Contrail Count Game is pending at the number #17. No higher numbers were posted in VolumeII. I am curious whether someone will spot more then 17 contrails in one picture. George ended Volume II with a fantastic red colored sky with contrails. Here are some other colors to start Volume III.
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https://public.wmo.int/en/WorldMetDay2017/classifying-clouds
Well, this was not what I was searching for, Hans, and I have not counted. I was going to suggest that your challenge is for a ground based photo. I was looking for a NASA satellite picture which might exceed 17; there is one of the Irish Sea focussed on Dublin airport I believe.
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I don’t know how you guys do it – spot such cloud formations, let alone such photos too.
P.S. Morse (a UK tele detective) on a railway platform asked a chap who had given him rail info if he was a trainspotter – railway enthusiast he answered. I don’t think I like sky enthusiast as much as cloudspotter.
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Walking backwards through the recent posts here, love that ZZZ path you found, Hans. Nothing to snooZe on, that’s for sure! And those amazing Spare Ribs, stripped clean, it looks like.
What a wild dance Angelic Contrail is doing, Roger! It’s got rhythm to spare.
And such softness in Weeping Contrail, Hans. Misty is utterly fantastic.
I’d say you two are keeping A Good Eye on those contrails.
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Thank you very much Keelin. I just had some luck with an extraordinary sunset with contrails. Fizzzzzle is more than fun to share. A perfect abstract in rectangular balance.
At the same occasion I spotted next one (and others to follow later). The difference in color between the two trails is striking. I am still looking for a good explanation why one turns red – like it is supposed to do at sunset – and the other is blue. Who can unravel this mystery?
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Very nice shots, Hans and Keelin and Hans again.
Hans, I cannot explain what you are showing in the last one, except for the birds. A contrail twisted into a spiral? And what is that glowing point, the sun or a dog?
In the meantime, Mr Crow finally paid me a visit. I am calling this “Morse or smoke signals”.
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Ha, congrats George with your first Crow. I am sure more will follow.
Indeed you see a contrail twisted into a spiral on my last Contrail Madness. I saw today Ian posted my overview of the situation on the gallery. Take a look and you will see the spiral in its surroundings. You can see that the bright spot is no dog but just a relatively more bright spot in the picture where two spirals cross. Taken with the tele (400 mm) showing no context may give a different impression.
The whole scenery was quite surreal: the twisted trail in the sunset, the shadows and even a rather blue trail in this red colored scenery. The picture on the gallery has no changes, but when I do some photo shopping (as I did on the first Contrail Madness), the results are surprising. The enhanced ones are the ones I can share here. I posted one on the B&W thread. More later.
Next one is different.
Simple
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Sorry it took some time before I was able to answer George. I got the black background by firstly converting the pictures into black and white and giving them extra contrast. At that point I was almost there. Only some whitish blur was left over. To my surprise I could make the background completely black without wiping out the interesting trails by adjusting the levels in photoshop on the dark side of the graphic. Et voila. Surrealism is just around the corner. Champolion would have liked to decipher the message on the last one I suppose.
Metamorphosis
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Hans, your contrail shots are truly extraordinary and a great joy to behold — in any shape and every color! Someday I hope to catch something even close to what you’ve shared here or some captivating CVI. That will be a lucky day as it seems so seldom that I spot contrails. When they do appear, I stand very still, gazing upward, waiting to see what will become of them. And sometimes in my peripheral vision, I catch strangers gazing at me and likely wondering…
And congratulations, George, on capturing your first Crow! You renew my own hopes.
Disappearing Act -
Thank you Keelin for kind words. It is nice to know you like my pictures. And so do I like yours as well. No need to be modest about them at all, I should say. Your Disappearing Act is great having a shadow cast just in line with the trail itself. And being in the neighborhood of lot of air traffic might be an advantage in finding nice situations with contrail, but these trails can also spoil the scenery very well. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Be sure some day Crow shows up.
High Over
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Haha, in either direction the journey will be fun. Love your interpretation Keelin
Here is one that reminded me of the Crow and the illustrious scientist he would like to warn when he saw this one. The trails leaving the chimney with their mysterious wavy shadow are already alarming enough but the misleading normal looking old fashioned antennas could be of an unknown and alien making to track whatever they are looking for……….. Corvidova Where Art Thou!
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Wonderfully mysterious, Hans! Who knows where the Crow flies these days? And while we await his return, we must make our own way.
The straight path below required pressing the camera button without looking — so bright was the sun! I could barely detect the contrail attempting to slice it neatly in half until heavy contrast in post-production gave it a blue tint and a 22˚ hint of halo to the left.
Bisection -
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George, while the short list below wouldn’t necessarily make good titles, it was fun thinking of different ways to interpret the image you offered.
Corralling The Cat – or – Catch Me If You Can!
Path Of The Conductor’s Hand and Baton
Just Before The Chalk Broke
Does The Left Hand Know What The Right Hand Is Doing?
Patiently Listening While A Friend Talks In Circles
Certain vs. Thinking It Over -
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The real question is: How does Hans do it? That is, how do you manage to capture such amazing images? Further evidence is your fantastic photo appearing on the Gallery today. You must have your antenna well raised to spot these extraordinary sightings. Dank je for sharing them with us, Hans!
Vibrating Antenna -
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I’m not quite sure, Hans. It may have just been a bit of iridescence? As for antennae, sometimes I think the strange situations find me! And what’s not to welcome? Often when I ask myself, “How odd is that?” it turns out I’m not actually in this dream we call waking reality and become aware of the possibilities that lucidity offers to the cognizant dreamer (like Levitation!). And if it turns out I’m not dreaming, the wonders of the waking world are no less intriguing (although the possibilities are somewhat more limited).
The Shape Of Things To Come -
Noone can put it better then you did, Keelin. The Shape Of Things To Come being the confirmation. Great composition and title as well!
I saw this fantastic 22 degrees halo guarded by two dogs on the gallery by you. Nice to capture it in perfect symmetry with a parhelic circle cutting the picture in two parts.
At Sunset
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Thank you for your kind words, Hans.
At Sunset absolutely shimmers! Its as if the sky were a smooth coppery surface with the dramatic lines of the contrail etched into them. Love this image! I must say this thread has truly brought those linear, sometime squiggly, sometimes cryptic lines in the sky to life for me. Now my eye catches on the tiniest of them, especially when they streak by like a delicate meteor above more formidable formations of cloud.
And here’s a funny side note I shared with Gavin about that halo on the gallery: Just as I was taking the photo, a fellow getting out of his car next to me asked, “What is it you’re seeing?” I’d only begun to explain when he smiled widely and said, “Ah! So that’s what the fellow on the radio was just talking about with the ice crystals and, and, and… cloud appreciation!” He’d just been listening to a repeated broadcast of Gavin’s interview with Michael Krasny. How auspicious for a halo to be present at that very moment!
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Alec inspired us Keelin. At the start of the foirst contrail thread I could not expect so much variety on the theme. From large to tiny meteors like in your last picture. It better stays above the formidable formations.
I like the story about the moment you pictured the 22 degrees halo! I think we all had our moments that surprised bystanders asked what you are looking at. It makes your day. Always positive reactions. In this case the coincidence of the broadcast makes it even fantastic.
Escher was here yesterday evening and left a first attempt to sketch the Penrose triangle.
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What a dramatic shot, Hans! And look out, Paradise Bird — contrail splitting is risky business! But whatever happens, I believe quick regeneration is possible for such a fine feathered ethereal creature.
Paradise Lost?
(But only its tail feathers. Well, maybe a bit more, but I’m sure it will all grow back in no time.) -
Paradise found Keelin! On another thread I saw already some very colorful and beautiful feathers grow like you predicted.
A different bird?
Hello mr. Crow, long time no see.
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Haha, thank you both. Great you deciphered the code Keelin!
Here is one I took yesterday at sunset and I immediately thought about a question George put forward some time ago: can castellanus develop and be spotted on contrail?
I remember Alec Jones answered ‘why not’, contrail is after all a cloud like any other. This picture seems to answer with an aye. The plane in front does not leave a trail but what’s behind it, is an older contrail grown large. Any opinions?
Castellanus: aye or nay?
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I am curious for George´s opinion on the former picture with the supposed castellanus. Now one without plane.
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Hi Hans, sorry I missed your first posting. Here the contrail seems to be evolving into undulatus, maybe even k-h, though that’s a bit of a stretch. Another piece of the contrail puzzle.
I used to think of contrails as cloud pollution. Then as abstract art. Now I’m thinking of them as probes into the atmosphere.
Wanted to also say that I like the one with the plane. I like the contrast between the sharpness of the plane on the fuzzy background of the clouds. Did you play with the focus?
BTW, you are obviously using a serious telephoto, I think you said it does up to 400mm. Do you use a tripod for these shots?
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Hi George, thanks for answering. I was just curious about your opinion about the supposed castellanus. Your answer surprises me. I will think about it and continue to watch out for other occasions. Maybe this discussion about contrail seems a bit far fetched, but first of all fun while studying all kind of appearances of this homogenitus kind of cloud.
My thoughts about contrail seemed to have undergone a bit of the same evolution like your thoughts. First I thought of it as a nuisance polluting the scenery in the sky, but since Alec started a contrail thread I got interested in it for its own beauty and abstract figures they can form. Still not always beautiful, but nevertheless more than I held as possible.
I did not play with focus btw. The picture with the plane is taken with a 1000th to avoid unsharpness by movement and the tele was supported just by the windowsill (although I have a tripod when necessary). I also take pictures this way without support of anything when using the 400 mm. Seems to work well enough.
To be continued.
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Good timing and a keen eye on the sky have rewarded you again, Hans! That little gap in the trail above, along with your reply to George about thoughts undergoing evolution, brought to mind Donovan Leitch’s song “First There Is A Mountain”. The image below illustrates an adaptation of his famous koan lyrics.
First There Is A Contrail, Then There Is No Contrail, Then There Is -
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Stepping Stones
Gigggle!
Thinking About It*
Twisty
Fizzzzzzle
Disappearing Act
In Either Direction
Bisection
You Could Hear A Pin Drop
Vibrating Antenna
The Shape Of Things To Come
To Write In The Sand With A Moonbeam In Hand
A Ripple in Tide
Frayed Coud Connector
A Small Break In Concentration
An Unexpected Opening
Paradise Lost?
First There Is A Contrail, Then There Is No Contrail, Then There Is
Blue Highway
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