Our "Mountains"

Anviled Thunderhead in the Valley

Photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

I get to feeling like a broken record around here in the spring, summer and fall.  The view here is very nice, but add the drama of the morning or evening skies and it can be quite amazing!

I've been working on some landscape photography and painting ideas the past couple weeks in the "neighborhood", and was processing several of the image files I'd taken yesterday afternoon and evening.  Georgie had alerted me to the cloud formations forming out across the road, so I took periodic trips out to the pasture and took some photographs...about every time I'd head back into the studio for more work, I'd look out the window and everything had changed and needed shooting again!  Its hard getting anything done here in the summer, especially in the late afternoon!

This thunderstorm (which I guess was actually in northern Kossuth County and into Minnesota) eventually "anviled" out and was very dramatic across the valley, with a blue sky backdrop and the evening sun lighting its facade!

I do say it a lot, but I'm gong to say it again...the clouds are our mountains out here on the prairie, and they are beautiful and awesome!

 

Cloud Chasing

The Vernal Equinox is only about 36 hours away as I write...and I'm looking forward to it! A lot of work seems to crop up for me at this time of year, so I have to be thankful for the opportunities as they arise, but it makes getting in some painting time almost impossible. It is also a wonderful time for photography in the tallgrass environment...I love it, but it's mostly just getting out that I enjoy so much, especially after a winter of contemplating just that.

When I'm out doing freelance work for different projects, I try and take advantage of what's going on in the prairies and prairie potholes of our region. One thing that is always enjoyable for Georgie and I is "cloud chasing". No matter what time of the year it is we can always manage to find interesting skies in the tallgrass. I've always thought of the prairie as a sky dominated landscape, it usually is. The sky is to the prairie like the mountains are to the american west. The prairie has the advantage of an everchanging sky however, the landscape can change quickly and constantly with your tripod still firmly achored to the same spot all day long.

We've had days when the chase begins early in the day and we move with the sky...kind of like storm chasing but not with that kind of earnest flight...more with the light and the shapes and the vantage point. The image above is a good example of one of these days...this started at an event of a friend's spouse. As the event ended we saw the sky and spent the rest of the day following "it"! The cloud chase ended shortly before sunset when this thunderhead began to collapse, yet still leaving an "image worthy" offering to us before the light was gone.

Here's to a great Spring and some good chases to come!