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Cloudscapes
7 March 2016
As a series of storms rolls in off the Pacific, we are occasionally getting little breaks in the cloud cover. A bit of blue sky, some sunshine and we sneak out of the bunker for a peek.
But not at our usual subjects. Instead, our gaze couldn't help but drift upward at the dramatic cloud formations passing overhead. They're massive. Bigger than anything on the ground.
And did we say dramatic? They range from dark pockets of impending doom to brilliantly backlit puffs that suggest choir practice might be in progress.
But you have to be quick on the draw. The winds up there move the furniture around faster than you can compose a shot.
We had to make a run to the Post Office this morning and, expecting a shower or two, we left our expensive cameras in the bunker. We did bring the iPhone 6 Plus, so it could dutifully count our steps. When we saw these formations, we stopped, looked around to make sure we weren't in anybody's way and took a shot with the iPhone.
We used the Obscura camera app to capture these at f2.2 and ISO 32. Shutter speeds ranged from about 1/3500 to 1/6000 second.
We were wearing polarizing sunglasses so things looked a lot more dramatic to us than they did to the iPhone until we got the images into Photoshop CC and used the Camera Raw filter to bring out the tonality. Dehaze helped a lot with that.
When the raindrops started falling on our head, we retreated to the bunker. But we keep peeking out the window to see when the next show starts. We've got tickets.