Cloudscapes
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hygge,,So the suggestion is..we are pretty much free to define ” cloudscape” due to rather open ended subjective definitions. The nearest ” help” that I think of is ” landscape” as in the illustrative arts. Grand views of earth and sky lit to emphasis atmosphere and scale I suppose is one way to start . So I ..and I mean its my preference,with no want to tell anybody else how they should define cloudscape, I like to create cloudscapes ,, with nothing but clouds, no earth at all. Well, what i would call abstracts or studies etc,,I generally include no earth at all. So me, continuing that personal preference shouldn’t be surprising to see.
But that doesn’t mean I lack reference points in my photos. Horizontal and vertical lines can act as reference points for those who would like to have some. As with the illustrative arts, there is texture, contrast , direction, atmosphere etc to also lend accessibility to a creation. I guess, to get right to it, no matter how ” Cloudscape” is defined, its still a subject personal definition, no better or worse than an others.
So hang on, Im going to try to stay within a general parameter of expectation of ” Cloudscape” but please don’t be boxed in by that loose rule of thumb.
A downside to this ” definition” attempt is..size. With ” Landscape” I think , grand, majestic etc and large scale canvases to accommodate the thought. Im the same way with Cloudscapes,,but I have to use my imagination to see what is on my computer screen as it would be observed on the living room wall. So we should have no qualms if anybody clicks on and drags a Cloudscape from here, drops the pic on their screen and they at least expand it up to full screen size..PLEASE Do It
Okay , enuf yik yak. Below is a B& W Cloudscape I’ve been waiting for the right moment. It appears now is it.
Arizona Cloudscape #17
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I said a while back, but the post vanished, that to be fair to my Concise OED, although it does not list cloudscape, perhaps in the interest of conciseness, it does list
-scape * comb. form denoting a specified type of scene: moonscape
N.B. the * is a solid square not on my keyboard
I read the entry on the day of the recent super blue blood moon.
P.S. I can not upload pictures for some reason I have yet to fathom (3.3mb was too big for one).
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https://www.maxrivephotography.com/index
Max Rive won the International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2017. I have found it difficult to find the photo at any scale, and I think four were submitted anyway. Hopefully you will get one of the four with this link – The Times, UK, 16FEB2018, captioned it ‘This shot of the Gorner Glacier with the Matterhorn behind won Dutchman….’.
Silver Lining to boot.
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You know, Michael, Rive is obviously brilliant, and he chooses to make a penny this way, but to my taste it is all a mite too glossy perhaps even contrived. I much prefer the more natural photos we get on this Forum by you and others.
I just wish I could upload the odd snap here – it gets as far as ‘100% complete’, pauses and gives an error message with conditions which are all OK for my image e.g. 1.3mb JPEG.
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hygge..I try to keep my pics to be posted here under 1mb..like 4″x5″ ,,generally no bigger than 4×7.
Professional photogs are anchored by..what sells. They are trying to sell their photos. Perhaps thats all we get to see; what they think will sell. Maybe they have files full of art,,but don’t display it because it won’t sell..maybe not. I am not weighted down so much by what sells cuz I’m not selling anything. Heck, just ask and I’ll send a file of any pic I have. Point being,,we’re about clouds so clouds tend to come first in our presentations. Landscapes see clouds as accessories to the earth in most cases. I rather use earth as a helper to the clouds, ie, for scale, or orientation or maybe contrast. Clouds are free,,free to us and free to behave as physics allow. So not only un-anchored, unencumbered sense,but by that,,to be quick as the clouds and maybe even quicker to capture the freedom manifested by clouds,is difficult enough but even more so if you’re trying to capture the shot that will ” sell”.Me, I see ” interesting” starting to develop , I bring the camera up to my eye. I can’t be worried about perfection. I do what I can to fix things when I process the shots.
So Pros are taught to imagine, or ” see” their photo first and then go photograph it..Pros craftmanship is top notch tho. Has to be. But here, size covers errors and flaws and here is all digital . Make 11×14 or 14 x 16 out of most shots posted here and in the gallery…things start coming apart. Where as ..pros start at 11 x 14.
Heres a cloudscape thats more velum than anything except maybe the wind,,which we don’t see.
Arizona Cloudscape #86
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Sunday’s Cloud copied here. (I know we should not have too much of such copying but allow me an occasional one)
https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=3b978e064761964547808bac4&id=5d414d2fa1
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Hygge, I don’t know what your problems are with making a picture af about 1 Mb or less, being fit for posting on the forum. Maybe it helps when I describe how I do it. When I make a picture it is in large format about 5 Mb, so always too large to post. Editing the picture in photoshop you can choose “save as ..”. Then you can first choose a new name (so that you won’t loose the original file), secondly choose the wanted quality in a range from 12 (high quality) to 1 (low quality resulting in smaller size). Before you confirm your save, it will show the size the file will have after saving. Depending on the size you begin with you will see yourself which quality is needed to give a size of about 1 Mb or whatever you want it to be.
When you don’t have photoshop (or something alike) there is another way to downsize a picture by using the resize option of Windows itself. When you don’t have it already installed you can download it for free. Here is the link: Download resize tool. You will find via this link also the information needed to use the tool. After downloading and installation you will find that when you have an entry active in the directory where your pictures are and you ‘right click’ with your mouse several options will appear under which “resize” (together with the options for cut and paste etc. you might be familiar with already) . Choose small, medium or large and you will find out what the results are. Very easy imho. I hope this helps. I look forward for new pictures from you.
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George , yes , it was an asperitas event. In there was this flat bottomed cloud and the light became right so became the picture. Asperitas means mixed up or stirred or asperated . That event became chaotic in that area of the sky. A undisturbed cumulus in the middle of it all seemed odd.
Arizona Cloudscape #41
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Ah! More lenticular beauties from Arizona. Wonderful how they melt together.
Michael, you once wrote lenticulars are regular visitors of Arizona, while I stated that over here in the Netherlands they are less frequently to observe. Nevertheless they pay us an occasional visit. Just a week ago I spotted this special delegation of four visitors. I really wonder what they were up to.
Friendly or not?
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Longing for Lennies here, with no sightings for months! But how good to know they are at least visiting you two, Michael and Hans. Your captures are lovely and, well, captivating (hope they’re friendly!). I can hardly complain, though with what does appear. Like your Heralding Change Of Weather, Hans, the clouds holds sway overhead with A Thin Layer of Winter Asperitas.
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Nice example of castellanus George. Of the two following vortices the first one looks very much like a fallstreak hole and I am amazed by the second one. One must have a wide view to be able to observe something like this . Great spottings!
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Thanks Hans. It did not occur to me that the could in the first picture be a fallstreak hole, it looked like two separate clouds. About the second picture, I work on the 16th floor of the southernmost office building in Manhattan with occasional access to outside windows. Yes, the view is wide, but being inside creates other problems, like reflections on the window glass. There was a time when I could go on top of the building, 50 stories high. That was a fantastic view. But they closed that security gap.
Here is a shot I took today. I liked the dark grey clouds on the lighter grey background. (In the picture it looks a little blue, but I saw it as grey.) Only later I noticed the halo. It would have been nice to have that patch of light directly on the Statue of Liberty, but it was moving he wrong way. If I only had been there 10 minutes earlier :-)
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Although you are not allowed to go to the 50th floor anymore, you still have a privileged view on the Hudson bay, George. Awesome.
I like the view with the halo and the patch of light very much. I can understand that having light on the Liberty Statue would make it even more grand. I bet this picture also does very well in black and white.
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Difficult to catch just one heartbeat of a wave, Keelin, but you succeeded and captured some spare ribs as well. Your Lac du Nuages is atrue optical illusion of the new ages.
I am curious about you findings on the summit you are looking forward to. I can’t find the dates anymore on the site. It must be somewhere around this week I remember.
Wow Michael, your Cloudscape #65 has great depth.
Chaoticscape -
Thank you for kind words, Hans. And talk about heartbeats… mine quicken to know Gavin’s event is tomorrow in Tiburon! What a delight it will be to hear him speak and, hopefully, I’ll have a chance to express gratitude to him in person for all he’s done for so many of us. No doubt it will be a fun coming together of enthusiastic cloud appreciators.
The gathering in your Chaotiscape is one I’d like to attend as well! A fine balance of dark and light with just enough blue to enhance. Lovely. Below, more chaos in celebration.
More Chaos -
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Michael, Arizona Cloudscape #26 is simply stunning. Love the strong composition and movement!
And Hans, well, I’m not going to say what I’m seeing in Even More Chaos because, as you say, once seen cannot be unseen! But I will say that what I do see would explain the source of the chaos you’ve captured— in a very fun and playful, and likely unpredictable way.
And speaking of things unpredictable… Alas, I am very sad to report that due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to attend Gavin’s presentation tonight in Tiburon. It is, of course, a deep disappointment. I took his sage advice, however, and found some solace in gazing up at the late afternoon sky here and tried to keep in mind that everything changes, the tides do turn and there is always, always reason to appreciate whatever is going on if we just know where and how to look.
Tidal Wonders -
Nice composition on Arixzona Cloudscape #29 indeed, Michael.
Keelin, you make me puzzle what you see in my chaos. I tried and maybe I found what you saw and what I did not see before, but let’s leave it unsure…. because once seen can’t be unseen.
I understand your disappointment not being able to attend to the presentation by Gavin. Truly bad luck. I hope for you there is nothing more inconvenient about it and I also hope you found solace in your own Tidal Wonders. There is also this interview on KQED Radio in San Francisco with Gavin you can listen to. You find the link in the topic “What Clouds Can Teach Us” on the home page, but maybe you already noticed.
Just a poor attempt to cheer you up
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Thank you, Hans, for kind thoughts and the link to Gavin’s radio interview which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, for the lovely cloud which cheered indeed.
The image below includes a bit of ‘noise’ because I like the way it enhances the impressionistic quality, while at the same time adding a touch of softness.
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The blues in Arizona Cloudscape #73 …… Restful, peaceful, beautiful.
In a former picture Keelin wrote about the noise giving the picture a special texture. Here is one that I took at sunset and the reality was quite gray. To my surprise a simple standard enhancement gave it all of a sudden soft colors and forms showed up in the clouds very clearly. The toll to be payed was the accompanying noise. Still nice to share I think.
Noisy Asperitas
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There’s a fine poetry in the display of blue on white/white on blue in your Arizona Cloudscape #73, Michael. Based on the squarish shape of image here, I’m assuming you cropped the original. And while I don’t know what was left out, the composition of what you’ve chosen to frame is very strong — and very pleasing.
And Hans, your Ghostscape is wonderfully haunting. The essence of ethereal! And I don’t mind the noise — or not — in you images above. Both have their own beauty.
Below is one from the archives, with a woven watery feel to it.
Watercolor Tapestry -
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Very nice Sky Gondolas Keelin. Must be great to tour with them.
Since you cited the bard with his Hard Rain that’s gonna fall I stumbled in this great old music by the Band. Heard some of it back and one of the lyrics that keeps playing in my head like an ear worm (a pleasant one!) is When I Paint My Masterpice. This line in particular:
Sailing round the world in a dirty gondola,
Oh to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!So let’s go on and aspire to some sort of a masterpiece.
This Is Not A moustache
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Very clever, Hans! This Is Not A Moustache is a masterpiece that would make Magritte smile. And I love the counterbalancing delicate softness of the sky in Wired Cloudscape.
With strong contrast applied to the image below, the clouds took on the look of a scene from far northern climes.
Cloudscape Of The Midnight Sun -
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Hans, That shot is of just a portion of an angry monsoon cell that pushed into the valley sending tornado warning alerts and flash flooding warning over the medias. I was outside taking pictures so I never heard the warnings. It became full Nimbus with green flashes. I sent in a pic . Never saw it make it to the gallery. Maybe its in the App, which It don’t have a smart phone for. Anyway the Nimbus eventually blew out, lots of wind and dust and some rain. Heres a shot of the anvil spreading overhead.
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Thanks for the explanation Michael. It really looks like a bad tempered one although your second picture appears to be more peaceful (but that can be misleading?).
I am curious about the pic you sent in. I suppose you sent it just in the period the gallery didn’t change due to the vacation of Ian? May I suggest a polite reminder or a retry? As far as I know pictures from the gallery are used only sometimes for the Cloud a Day mail but aren’t used for the App.
Recently I spotted next mighty anvil-like structure without the usual structure underneath. Taken with 10 mm wide angle, effectively 16 mm taking the crop factor into account. So it was big.
It just drifted by acting like a very large beach umbrella on a nice day in May.
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Thank you, Michael, for “poetry” above. And what dynamic images of AZ in the wild season of monsoon you followed with — in all directions, no less!
And Hans, your beach umbrella simply defies the static nature of photography. I have the feeling it will drift right off my screen here.
Below, these clouds could not decide in which direction to go. The layering in this case reminded me of a very busy night of dreaming followed by wondering about the many directions in which my mind had travelled.
Landscape Of Forgotten Dreams -
Michael: I think the picture you mentioned before is on the gallery now. That is indeed a heavy cloud building up with pileus and velum on top. Cloudscape #75 was soem time later I suppose? Great to see these big ones develop.
Keelin: Thank you for kind words. Please don’t get lost in the Landscape Forgotten Dreams with all its directions. I Love it in black and white.
Dreaming In Colors
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Hans..No, the pic I sent in has a green flash. The photo of pileus and velum I sent in recently. Anyway, below is a B&W cloudscape
Arizona Cloudscape#76
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Michael, your Arizona Cloudscape#77 is indeed an extraordinary shot. That greenflash is riveting. Hope to see it also on the Gallery and/or 2019 calendar. It is nicely sandwiched between Hans’s beauties too. All quite stunning additions to the ‘scapes topic.
As I recall, my feet were solidly on the ground when I took the image below. Yet when I cropped it later, I had to wonder.
Gazing Into A Pond Of Sky -
Thanks hans and keelin! The green flash is believed to be the tale tell sign of Hail. I say flash but the faint emerald green lasted more than a flash. Looking at my photos timing it looks close to a minute that I photographed knowingly of the green. Green showed up in a few other shots in different areas of the storm as well. Below is a shot ( no green) of the clouds going Nimbus.
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Interesting green color in your cumulonimbus Michael. I suppose you did so too, but I tried to google for an answer and didn´t find anything conclusive. Only the tale tell you mention about the sign of hail. Might there be anyone on this forum having a scientific explanation? There must be many skilled scientists among the members.
Going Nimbus: nice found description of the growing process!
Keelin, your Pond is amazing. I keep gazing at it for the striking resemblance with even some clouds reflected in it!
A Bird And A Plane
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It All Adds Up
Cloud Island
Ghost Ship
Across A River of Cloud
Where Are We?
Lac du Newages
Looking Towards The Summit
Heartbeat Of A Wave
More Chaos
Tidal Wonders
Watercolor Tapestry
Watercolor Session
True Grit?
Sky Gondolas
Cloudscape Of The Midnight Sun
Landscape Of Forgotten Dreams
Gazing Into A Pond Of Sky
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