Heavens Above

Dawn Displays Her Pink Ribbons

Photographs copyright: DAVID MCMAHON

This sequence of shots was just a lucky result. They were taken last Friday, literally a few minutes after I had entered my link on this site for last week’s Sky Watch post.

I switched the computer on and I walked into the kitchen, as I always do each morning. The sun had not yet risen, but I could see some interesting bands of thick grey cloud across the horizon. I knew there was a chance that there would be some arresting colours to shoot a few minutes later.

After I’d done a few things on the computer and around the house, I checked the sky again from the kitchen window. This time I could see faint daubs of pink across the bottom of each cloud band. I knew that in a few minutes there would be a dramatic display of colours, but I also knew that it was one of those windy mornings when the hues would disappear rapidly.

About five minutes later, the pink started to intensify, so I picked up my camera and walked out into the back yard, where I shot four frames. Then I decided to walk to the front of the house for a different aspect and perhaps a wider range of colours.

I was outside for less than three minutes. All up, I took eight shots and when I walked around to the back door, the colours had gone completely and all that was left was grey cloud patterns. That’s the thing with Nature - you sometimes have to be very quick to capture its greatest beauty.

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