February Sunrise

I’ve been watching all week for a great sunrise…and it happened yesterday. The clouds were just right to reflect the colors. The pictures below were taken from the front of my house in Howard County Maryland. This is about as easy as it gets for a sunrise photography project: simply walking out the front door at about 7 in the morning, taking pictures from two vantage points with a hand held camera. The first series was taken over a 3 minute period; the second over 4 minutes. Catching a great sunrise does not take a lot of time; being in the right place for those few short minutes is the challenge. Next time I’ll add a bit more location/setting control (i.e. use a tripod and just take one vantage point).

Trees still in silhouette

The red - pink - orange light

Reflected on the clouds

Begins a new day

The color sequence always the same

Red - pink - orange until

It all washes into yellow light

That bleaches away

To the dazzling brightness

Of a sunny day.

January Extremes in Howard County, Maryland

Within less than a week, we’ve had the extremes of weather for January. The first was a few days in the 20s with wintery mix on the ground. As it started to slowly warm up there was lots of fog in the neighborhood and back into the forest. The deer were in the yards noshing on the grass and anything else that wasn’t covered by the ice.

The warming trend culminated in a day that was more like March than January; the temperature actually reached 60 degrees F and the flags were fluttering wildly in the wind as I walked into my local library. There is a new-to-me mural on the side of the building near the athletic fields. Looks like spring…but it’s not quite that time yet.