My heads in the clouds

Yesterday and this morning, I took my cameras out to photograph the skies over my neighborhood. I photographed stratocumulus this morning at sunrise and sheets of cirrus--including cirrus spisattus yesterday afternoon. 

Recognizing and photographing clouds has been a life-long hobby of mine--practically since the first grade when our teacher gave us a coloring page with a drawing of a "nimbus" cloud; she told us that this cloud would bring rain. Since then, I have learned about cumulus clouds--which can be either low-level cotton balls or low-level towers, building up into thunderstorms; cirrus clouds--the wispy clouds leaving their streaks which resemble curlicues and blown-about hair across the skies and stratus clouds--which are low-level clouds without much form or shapes built within. I have also learned about the mid-level clouds such as the extremely tiny cirrocumulus clouds--which don't leave shadows but mackeral patterns (according to one classic book on weather for children), stratocumulus--which have been compared to entertainer Cher--they can look like anything--according to another classic book dealing with the clouds--and cumulonimbus--which are always distinguished by thunder, lightning and hail. 

Alas, the first few years of my cloud-watching were pretty bland--it appeared that most of the books and manuals which I consulted used the same photos or paintings for their inspiration. Many of these photographs came from the National Weather Service of the United States (or as it was known, the United States Weather Bureau). Most of these, moreover, were in black-and-white and seem to have dated from the 1940s or earlier. Finally I decided I had had enough. So during my last weeks in high school, I got a single-lens reflex camera and decided to start my own collection of cloud photographs--in color.

My first efforts were not very effective. I had trouble with effective focusing. Moreover, the clouds did not stand out that much from the sky. Needless to say, I went through lots of Kodacolor film--this was in the 1980s--when digital cameras had yet to be invented, and even started some albums with photos. 

Back then it seems that I did best with stratus clouds, fog and cumulus clouds taken on dry days. I had better luck a few years later when I got a polarizing filter from the old Black's photo store at the local shopping mall and discovered what difference the polarizing filters could make. Subsequently, I have introduced a wide-angle lens and a zoom lens into my techniques and also learned how to make the horizon serve the clouds and the skies.

There's much I'd like to do with my interest in cloud photography. I'd like to photograph a tornado in action. I'd like to photograph lightning bolts. I'd like to use graduated neutral density filters, a tripod and timed exposures in order put some motion into the clouds. I've come a long way when it comes to photographing clouds but I'll never stop learning. 

I am proud of the way that photographing clouds has helped my interest in weather and my interest in photography grow. They will always be part of my life.