Serendipity and the Rainbow.

S

stevew

Guest
Friday is usally my motorcycling day, but it was rainy, so I grabbed my leica and digital and headed out. Shot some nice flowers, and a vineyard . Drove along a backroad that winds through farmland. Up ahead I saw a walnut orchard lit by the peeking sun. Stopped and grabbed the camera, hopped out of the car and the sun slid behind the clouds. It was a neat scene before me: winter grass on the ground with abandoned farm equipment scattered about, walnut trees stark and leafless, crows flying in and out of the trees, but no beam of light. I stood there waiting by a little stream, and I really had to P*. I waited 15 min and the light wasn't going to happen. I left it for another day.

It was starting to rain again and I drove along thinking about the shot that could have been. Up ahead I saw a beam of light poking through the rain and a rainbow starting to form. I raced along trying to find a spot to shoot through the roadside vegatation, pulled over and grabbed the camera. Shot with a 35, changed focal lenght and tried a quick 3 shot pano, the sunlight disappeared and the rain follwed me back to town.

I really appreciate all the moments of serendipity that you each find. Most of you shoot far more than I, and beautiful images are shared by all. It is refreshing not having to deal with big egos spouting off. We each shoot differently and there is toleration for different camera formats. Thanks alot guys and gals.
 
The best light seems to be ephemeral, fleeting, doesn't it? I often see it but can't catch it. Sometimes I even catch it without having noticed it, and that's discouraging in its own way!

Let's see those pics!
 
I had this experience on Friday. I live in Santa Barbara and it had rained in the morning, but gave way to a clear day but with a number of fluffy clouds (usually Santa Barbara is cloudless, but with a bit of haze). I made my way up to the top of the mountains (in a car) with my Horseman 4x5 and drove along the ridgeline. As I drove on, it got a bit foggier. I turned the corner and came to this incredible scene: The wind was racing up from the inland valley and then over the mountain and down into the seaside valley. It was amazing -- the fog looked like it was running up and over the mountain. This was at about 4000 feet, so some of the regular clouds were at about eye level. I pulled the car over, grabbed the monster tripod and air case and ran with it up to as good a spot as I could muster. I set up the camera, realizing I forgot my loupe. I focused as best I could, took some quick incident readings and took some shots. As I was taking a quick break, the scene, which had been beautiful, but somber, grey and foggy, changed drastically. By that time the sun was very low, and the light was starting to get a bit redder. In an matter of seconds, the sun burst through and made the whole mountainside glow orange, illuminating the fog in pinks, reds and yellows. I nearly knocked over the camera trying to load the film, get a decent exposure and braket. Within two minutes, the clouds were back. I got some decent shots, but nothing that really shows what it looked like up there as I saw it. I don't have a 4x5 scanner, but I took a few shots with a mamiya 7, not of the perfect moment, but perhaps I will scan them in so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about. Well, I am actually headed up there again right now...it's not so foggy, but it should be a great day again.
 
Racing fog.

Racing fog.

Stuart,

I live in Lompoc so I know what you mean. The clouds/fog can race along like flowing mud. Pretty amazing. I worked on Platform Holly for 16 years (don't hate me) and saw awesome sights over the mountains. I was out there the night the mountains burned and watched the fire work it's way down to Hollister. Ansel Adams made most of his best shots in inclement weather.

Being There, and Luck.
 
Stuart and Steve,
What are the sunrises and sunsets like from the ridge line above 154 between Santa Barbara and the valley? I went to UCSB and still have family in the area so I'm there once or twice a year. I just haven't been able to get myself out of bed early enough to catch a sunrise. Usually I just try to catch some good light around the Mission or the harbour, but I'm always curious about the view from up there.

So, what say you? Is it worth getting up early for?

SRMC
 
Sunset

Sunset

About 15 years ago I backpacked from Montecito up Cold Spring trail over to Gibraltar. The next day I got a later start and only made it partway down to Monetcito before dark. I camped right on the trail above Montecito peak(which projects out from the ridge line towards the coast), cooked dinner and watched the most awsome sunset. The sky glowing from Ventura to Point Conception, and I didn't have a camera.

Then again, some time it's fogged in and you can't see your feet.
 
I love it up there. I am absolutely shocked that more people don't go up there (and pleased though, to be honest). When I was up there on Friday, I did not see a single person...no one even passed me on the road...Well, here are some from another day...I think this was this fall.

mountain-road-fortia.jpg


24mmmountains-polarized2.jpg


moon-over-channel-islands.jpg


And Steve -- Thanks for leaving the nice comment in my guestbook. I am sorry that I never responded. I was home for a month over the holidays, and not having been back in over a year, I was run ragged by my friends and family.
By the way, is platform Holly one of these?

sb-nighttime-landscape.jpg



SRMC -- I am sorry, but I have actually never been around 154 for a sunrise. I am not much of an early riser, to be honest. I imagine it would be nice, but everything is nicer once you go up further into the mountains. If you are going to do it, you might as well go all out...
 
Yep, been up there, with the UCSB hiking club, on my year as an exchange student - it's a pity I had not been into 'serious' photography back then, so in only have a box of snapshots from that time; BTW, I distinctly remember hiking up a hill that was volcanic on top, with grey lava sand, a bit like the cinder cones in the Mojave - anyone from the Santa Barbara region knows what that one was called?

Had my own serendipity moment today when coming back from a walk through the snow with my GF - the sun was already beyond the horizon, and lit up some clloud that almost looked like a pink chessboard; took a few snaps with my Pentax MX (my Bessa R was loaded with B&W film...) and the 28mm, wide-open and at 1/30, hope they turn out well.

Roman
 
Oh, oh - Full size beautiful pics !!! Wonderful, not thumbnails, how did you do that? And thanks for sharing ~ ; - )
 
Hey nwcanonman -- I am surprised and pleased. The img tags now work (they did not for me with the old design), so if you have your images hosted on your own site, all you have to do is {img}your image URL{/img}. Of course, you need to replace the {} with brackets [ ], but then it works fine.
 
Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara

Stuart,

Platform Holly sits right off Coal Oil Point by UCSB, so it's hated by students and faculty. My wife works in Central Stores at UCSB.

As far as sunrises, I had one at the harbor which I attached. I've got a lot of film scanning to do, when I get a scanner.
 
Ugly day.

Ugly day.

Rode the bike to Santa Barbara today. It was boringly pretty. Blue skys, no fog, no rain, no haze, perfect green hillsides. Wasn't inspired to take pretty pics. Maybe tomorrow, but it's so pretty, how do I overcome it?
 
That just makes you work harder, Steve! "Think Different"... Look for interesting juxtapositions of different shapes or objects, seek out people doing something in the fields (jogging, biking, pulling weeds...), find rock formations or odd shapes of hills, curve of road or path through the landscape. Keep it relatively simple... All much easier said than done of course, just keep your eyes open and brain active. :D
 
Cool shot Steve. It must be amazing to ride out there. The road between Santa Barbara and Lompoc is so beautiful.

Here are a few shots from the day that I was up on the ridge. None of them really captured the best moment, and there is much, much more shadow detail on the slides (as in, you can see the foregrounds), but I still think they are pretty. These are 6x7, the 4x5 ones came out a little better for what I was describing, but I do not have a flatbed or a 4x5 scanner, so I cannot post them. Anyways, here they are.

sunset-tree-fog.jpg


sunset-tree-fog2.jpg


carpenteria-view-bw.jpg


The black and white one is just desaturated E100G. I was just playing around. In the real one there is shadow detail to be had, but I felt it more dramatic to make it a silhouette.
 
Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara

Here's a shot a few weeks ago. Shot in color but it was so graphic I used channel mixer to convert.
 
Great cloud shots, Steve and Stuart! Not sure I should dare to show a recent one of mine those remind me of...
 
Doug,

Couldn't tell exactly where your shot is. My wifes parents were from the Squim and Port Angelus area. The Olympic P. is really neat. I've been around the rest of Washington some on motorcycle trips. My eariler post about clear blue skies reveals my love of clouds.
 
Hi Steve -- It was shot Dec 2 from the slopes of Haleakala, the distant hills at right are the West Maui Mountains. You can see faintly the shoreline just below the cloud, about the town of Kihei, with the shoreline running rightward into the harbor at Maalaea. City of Kahului not quite in the pic at the far right. Fields of sugar cane and such in the valley. Motorcycling there would be great!
 
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