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Wow, Asher, that is amazing! Holy Cow.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Asher Kelman: “Dusk with no Dust”
Rarely, the ocean winds clean the air and we get a light golden glow reflected in the clouds and none of that amazing fire!

Still beautiful!

Asher
 

James Lemon

Well-known member
It amazes me how the sky appears to catch fire. Tonight I made a pano stitched from my humble IPhone and used a Topaz Impression chalk smudge filter to abstract all the detail.

Asher

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Asher Kelman: “Sunset Chalk-smudged”
Very abstract Asher, but not a total escape from reality!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Asher Kelman: “Pierced Cloud”

What amazing sights at no charge!

Is this what everyone sees at night or we lucky?

Asher
 
I hate to break it to you, Asher, but your skies seems like quite normal and although lovely, I think the skies we have here where I live would amaze you. We do however have temps that go from very hot to very cold, and many summer storms, and amazing sunsets, I think I'll make a quick collage of some of our skies to give you an idea. be back soon. No photoshopping, all electrical wires will be included as they are all taken just from my yard.
 
So here are some of my skies, I could have put many more, but just made a selection to show. Had to resize several times as it was always saying too big; not sure how big we can post here.
maggieskies.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Second central one, (of your page of skies), Maggie, is truly worthy of you showing on its own as it’s an act of heaven!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I hate to break it to you, Asher, but your skies seems like quite normal and although lovely,

Do you also have images like like #13, with a person #32 with fire or #35 with Almost nuclear drama? Surely such pictures are neither “quite normal” or even as you say finally, “lovely”, as that would be fitting for my granddaughters smile, LOL!


I think the skies we have here where I live would amaze you. We do however have temps that go from very hot to very cold, and many summer storms, and amazing sunsets, I think I'll make a quick collage of some of our skies to give you an idea. be back soon. No photoshopping, all electrical wires will be included as they are all taken just from my yard.


I like your collage as it shows you are excited about looking up too!

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But the best of your skies deserve a single large picture, large enough so we can see texture and lighting of the wisps of the paint brush that the heavens use to wow us.

This central image of yours is already remarkable and so engaging. There’s a lot of power and spirituality! We need to celebrate its individuality. To me that single concept is why we stop to greet one another. Without pausing and investing effort in the individual person or work of art we miss out and everything becomes objectifiedcas mundane.

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I am certain that a much larger version of this one picture you made of a white furnace of heavens power, would show even more of its true worth!

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
How Cool, Robert, yes, I think you probably have fabulous skies there too. Is the bottom a composite? or just lucky or triggered by noise?

Thanks Maggie. Second image is not a composite. We were at the beach for a get together one evening, and it started raining and thunder and lightning. There were a set of wooden stairs going up a hill nearby, where I set my camera down to steady it. There was a lot of lightening going on in the background and so using the 12 second self timer to eliminate shake, I fired off several long exposures and managed to catch this one. Shortly after I took this shot, the rain started pouring down and we had to take cover and leave. I didnt get a change to try for more lightning strikes - but was satisfied that I got this one.

I just checked the exposure setting in Exposure 6, and that pic was exposed at f9.5 @ 8 seconds @ 400ISO on my little Olympus E-PL5 using the 14-42mm kit lens at 15mm setting.

Of course if I was taking the pic today, I would just be using Live Composite Mode on my Olympus Cameras and leaving the shutter open until I had captured the strike or even better, multiple strikes. No timing or guessing. Just watch the screen. All my current models have that feature.

These are both Pacific Ocean skies in Nicaragua.
 
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Tried to upload it bigger, but says too big. I think this is the same shot, but maybe one just besides it because I was randomly picking sky pics. As for the #s of photos that you are talking about, do you mean your red sky? I don't know how to see those numbers.
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Thanks Maggie. Second image is not a composite. We were at the beach for a get together one evening, and it started raining and thunder and lightning. There were a set of wooden stairs going up a hill nearby, where I set my camera down to steady it. There was a lot of lightening going on in the background and so using the 12 second self timer to eliminate shake, I fired off several long exposures and managed to catch this one. Shortly after I took this shot, the rain started pouring down and we had to take cover and leave. I didnt get a change to try for more lightning strikes - but was satisfied that I got this one.

I just checked the exposure setting in Exposure 6, and that pic was exposed at f9.5 @ 8 seconds @ 400ISO on my little Olympus E-PL5 using the 14-42mm kit lens at 15mm setting.

Of course if I was taking the pic today, I would just be using Live Composite Mode on my Olympus Cameras and leaving the shutter open until I had captured the strike or even better, multiple strikes. No timing or guessing. Just watch the screen. All my current models have that feature.

These are both Pacific Ocean skies in Nicaragua.
It's a great shot, almost surreal! :) Maggie
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you Maggie. But it is not the kind of shots I like to do... however I have a few.
I like the instruction “Do not walk outside this area!!”

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Like c’mon I have a seat I paid for, so why would I?

Joking aside, this is a picture with a great sky and mountains at the horizon.

If you processed it for printing it would surprise you how impressive it is. The fact is that the robust quality of the image file allows for the development of highlight and shadow detail in the cloud and the stripes accross the sky at the top.

Asher
 
Maggie,

Each post is numbered!

Asher
Wow, I had not seen that. Probably because it was at the complete right. LOL
I do not have a complete sky with bright red, but have one that is partial. I will admit, that is more unusual. As for the others, they are nice evening skies. I will put one here, unless you mean the ones with contrails from jets, I don't have any of those. I am also, like Antonio, not a sky photographer.
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Two photos of the sky in the same locations, two different moments.

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The first image above has a romantic red contribution to the end of a great day in a vast and wonderful location. It’s peaceful and calming.

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The second image, is another matter entirely, covering only a small portion of a cloud-rich sky. It’s far more energetic and structurally impressive with contrasting slivers of diffuse clouds and generous bulbous shapes forming creatures and animated forces in an orchestra of drama!

Like photography of complex waterfalls, framing of such clouds is a challenge even for experienced photographers. Where should the framing end? What can be excluded, as there is always so much richness and going wider risks hiding intimate drama of the close up!

You have chosen well, Antonio! I like this...

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Antonio,

You’ve a talent for such skies. Each has its own power. What such photography does is to capture for all time such orchestral moments that otherwise will be trivialized like one unidentified head in a crowd.

The effort, (how seemingly trivial as it might be), you put in stopping to invest time in an individual man, woman, child, insect or cloud shows, ultimately our respect for each of us!

We cannot interview EVERY cloud and flower. But picking examples helps us show respect and love for the abundant gifts and needs around us!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
In California, we’re awaiting the fury of a major atmospheric river about to invade and bring flooding and damage to rivers, streams, aqueducts, low lying coastal areas, unstable hillsides where fires have already stopped the trees which hold together soil and more!

However the pre-storm skies are still beautiful!

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Asher Kelman: “Beverly Hills Skies”
February 2024



Add your wonderful skies!

Asher
 
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