December Sunrise

One morning in December, sky conditions were perfect for one of those incredible sunrises we get from time to time.  The weather folks went into great deal about the scientific reasons for this, but I just think of it as the magic of New Mexico!

Sunrise Clouds

What strikes me about this image is the way the clouds look as if the color is about ready to drip off them, as if they are oversaturated with color.

Purple and Pink Morning

A few minutes later the color of the sky changed to be this incredible purple and pink palette in the sky.  If I did paint this, people wouldn’t believe it was a realistic painting!

Winter Morning

I just wanted to prove that these colors were based in reality and weren’t some abstract of my imagination!  I was standing at one edge of our back patio so I could capture a bush barren for winter and our mountain, South Mountain, in the background, for that taste of reality!

Big Sky Morning

I can’t imagine skies any bigger than we get here, but Montana does lay claim to Big Sky Country.  Should we challenge them to a contest?  LOL!

Morning Abstract

I thought I’d end this post with again a sample of the wonderfully abstract of the sky on this wonderful December morning.

Enjoy!



 

Last Morning Sunrise

On our last morning at this great campground, Mother Nature decided to leave us with a fabulous show called a beautiful sunrise!

Morning Sky

This was the first part of the sunrise.  It was a rather pastel sunrise, which can provide some of the most beautiful skies.  If you look close, you can see the twinkling lights of the town of Carrizozo.  I wonder how many folks there were up and enjoying the sunrise, too.

Day Awakening

A bit later during the sunrise, clouds began to wisp in from the north.  I love the gentle bit of texture that they add to the sky.  Can’t you just feel the sun’s rays reaching to light up all the dark corners of the sky?

Sunrise Silhouettes

I think this is my favorite image from this sunrise.  I just love the graphic feel of the various elements in this image, and how the morning sunlight sort of softens it all.  What a wonderful world we live in!

 

Enjoy!



 

East Mountain Sunrise

A couple of mornings ago, as we were waking up, Jeff commented that the sunrise looked like it would be a good one.  So, I crawled out of bed, grabbed my camera, put on some slippers and went out on our back patio to see what there was to see.  Take a look!

Morning Glow

The sun’s rays were great as they played across the clouds in the sky.  I love the contrast between the warm sunrise colors and the cool blues and purples of the night.

Peeking Sunrise

The sun hadn’t yet peeked up over the horizon when I got this shot.  I was standing at the very edge of our patio and included part of a lovely bushy tall shrub that we have growing there.  I thought it added a nice balance to the wide open sky and clouds.

Dead Calm

It seems that often, right around sunrise, the air gets completely calm and peaceful.  You can see that’s what happened on this morning – the airport’s wind sock is hanging limp!  Again, I included that bushy shrub as a bit of balance for the image.

Enjoy!



Wintry Morning

 

This morning, when I woke up, the day was fairly grey.  There had been a bit of snow overnight, enough to just dust the ground.  But then, the sun began to rise.....

 

 

Here's what it looked like when I got up.  I liked how closely the clouds hugged the mountains and were fairly close to the ground.  Our fire pit in the foreground will not be used again until the spring, and it looks a bit lonely out there.

 

 

As I sat curled up in the recliner journaling, I looked up and noticed the sunrise peeking out from between the pines we have on the side of the patio.  I love the contrast of the warmth of the sky and the cool snow on the pine trees.

 

 

Altho it was really chilly outside, I had to step outside to capture the pink and blue sky.  These are the same clouds that looked so gloomy just a few minutes ago!

 

 

I absolutely love how the sunlight danced on the top of "our" mountain, South Mountain.  What a great sunrise!!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 



Expand

Yesterday morning, my inspiration rock said “expand”.  As I began my morning walk with Miki, I kept that in mind, and decided to take a bit of a different route on our walk; in essence, walking the opposite direction from the way we typically walk.  In a way, it was the road less traveled by, at least for us……and that made all the difference in terms of my perspective on the morning.  An expanded perspective…… 

 

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the sun and clouds in this type of pattern before.  It’s as if the clouds are ribbons in the sky, reflecting some of the colors from the sun.  The mountain in the distance is in the opposite direction from the mountains that I typically photograph from home.  I honestly don’t know if I ever truly noticed that mountain before this morning.

 

This view is a view between some houses on what is typically the back side (return trip) of our walk.  Since my back is usually turned toward this view, I’ve not seen it before this morning.  You can see the sunrise ribbons in the sky, but they are softer here, with the trees as an anchor.  The bare tree’s silhouette is really visible against that sky.  Overall, this image has a soft feel to me……kind of how the morning was.

 

You can tell I was really “taken” with the sky this morning, and my newly “discovered” mountain.  This image gives you an idea of how much land is between the trees in the foreground and the mountain in the distance.  If you look closely, you can see a bit of a house in the lower right corner of the image.  It helps to add a bit of dreaminess to this image, as if the people inside are slowly awakening from a wonderfully restful sleep.

 

The sun has risen and the glow of sunrise is gone.  I liked the way the camera picked up the rays from the sun as they played off the frost on the fence.  You have to look close to see it on the tops of the rails that run horizontally.  Yes, I have to say that walking our route backward did expand my view of a sunrise here at home.

Enjoy!

Nothing to Photograph - Part II

At the far end of our walk, Miki and I came to our friend’s place.  Miki was so wonderful, just sitting patiently while I captured the warmth of the morning in my photos…..

 

 

This is an image of part of my friend’s home.  I have always loved the arched entrance to what I assume is a patio or some sort of enclosed area.  I really love the way the morning sun shines thru and accents the arch.  The rustic fence and tree just sort of add to the ambiance of the setting.

 

 

This is the view of the drive into my friend’s property.  I love the illumination behind the tree, and the warmth of the scenery beyond her property.  The morning wasn’t warm temperature-wise, but this view certainly warmed me!

 

Here are Ozzie and Jewel, the Norwegian Fjords owned by my friend.  I call this the “Morning Shuffle” as the two of them sort of shuffle around deciding which are the most tasty morsels to have for breakfast!  You can see another home in the distance, and just the rolling land beyond Ozzie and Jewel’s corral.

 

 

I captured this image of Ozzie just as he turned toward the sunrise, and you can see the sunlight reflected in his eye.  Ozzie is quite photogenic – I got a great image of him a few years ago, with frost on his coat.  This one ranks right up there as another of my favorites of him!

 

 

This image is similar to another one that is above, but it’s a closer in shot, and I converted it to a Monet-type painting.  I just love the dreamy feel of this – a lovely start to the day……and I can’t believe I thought there’d be nothing to photograph!

Enjoy!

 

Muted Morning Light

 

This morning the light was incredible.  It was so soft, it was almost muted.  Once again, we had a narrow layer of mist just holding to the earth close to the mountains.

 

 

I converted the above image to a painting to capture the detailed beauty of the sky - the texture of the clouds, the sunrise color below them, and the lovely blue sky above the clouds.

 

As I began to turn away from the actual sun, the colors softened quite a bit.  I'm not certain what made the colors so muted, but I truly enjoyed the transition from brighter to soft.

 

And, here's the best muted sunrise one could hope for.  It seems odd to speak about a sunrise as muted, but here you have it!  I also really like that the band of mist shows up in this image.  I never get tired of this.

 

Enjoy!

 

 



Welcome Home!

 

We are now back home, and New Mexico welcomed us with open arms!  I took a few minutes out today to take some images and create some art!  Take a look!

 

Good morning!!  What a great sunrise we woke up to!  Jeff wandered out of our bedroom and told me to check out the great sunrise.....and he was right!  We actually arrived home this past Saturday, but with unpacking and getting life at home back on track, I slept thru Sunday's and Monday's sunrises.  Thank goodness Mother Nature is a patient being and gave me this beautiful one this morning!

 

 

Here's a look at the sunrise slowly making its way across the sky.  Mountains and big sky - I really missed "my" mountains and sky, altho we saw some beautiful ones on our trip.  I really love the way the colors blends into each other.

 

 

Later in the morning, I noticed some wonderful sunflowers blooming all over the airpark - we've had a great monsoon season (things are actually green here!).  I went out in search of sunflower portrait images and here's one that I really like.  Face up to the sun!

 

 

I really love this image - I converted it to a painting because it really struck me that way.  The background is the wonderful green that the land is this summer, with the blue clouds.  Overall, this is a happy image, and just reminds me of the words of Dorothy, who said, "There's no place like home."

 

Enjoy!





Early May Sunrise

I woke up early this morning, and when I went to the window, a lovely sunrise was happening.  I almost missed it, but luckily was able to capture these images before the sun was totally up and sunrise was over!

 

The color of the sky was so wonderful, with purple, blue, rose and pink hovering over the earth below.

 

The sun is peeking up over the horizon and the sunrise will soon be over.  At this moment, the wind is still, altho it started blowing up a storm (typical New Mexico spring!) just a short time later.

 

I shared the last bit of sunrise with Patches, our next door neighbor's horse.  He's in the lower left corner.

 

Enjoy!

Spring Pastel Sunrise

What a beautiful sunrise this morning!

 

It's not often that we have a pastel sunrise - most of ours are more brilliant than one could call pastel.  However, this morning, it was such a gentle sunrise.  I can resist sharing!  Please click on the image above to see the birds that were singing in the tree.  You'll have to look closely!

 

With the birds chirping me on (as opposed to cheering), I shot more great pastel sunrise images.  I just love the light feel of this - very spring like!

 

This was so unexpected, I just savored  every moment of this sunrise.  As I stood there, I just couldn't imagine living a better life than this!

 

Enjoy!

To Begin

Here are more images from yesterday morning's sunrise.  I added quotes involving the idea of beginning to these and played with some of them to create a painting or drawing type effect.  I'll let the images (and quotes) speak for themselves.  You'll probably need to click on each image to read the quote.

 

Enjoy!

 

Begin the Day

As I sit here in bed watching today's rather gloomy start to the day, I decided to process the images I shot of yesterday's beginning of the day.  Once again, I was out there in my PJ's and robe - good thing we live in New Mexico where quirkiness is seen as "normal" !

I really liked the above image - it reminded me of people waking up, slowing getting the coffee started and perhaps thinking about what the day would bring.  (You may need to click on the image to see the houses at the bottom of the image.)

 

Two of my favorite subjects (when they cooperate with me!) are our friends' horse, Patches and Jazz.  They were up to see the sunrise and Patches, at least, seemed to enjoy watching me wander about getting shots.  Or, maybe he was hoping I'd feed him breakfast?

 

The sun was rather brilliant in this image.  I just loved the silhouette the trees in winter created.  It was amazing that all of the images were shot within minutes of each other - depending on where I looked in the sky, I had different light, color and feel to this sunrise.

 

 

 

Here's another great shot that really conveys the sense of big sky that we have here.  The sunrise and clouds just seem to go on and on and on.

 

Isn't it cool the way the clouds just seem to hang over the mountains?  I also love the play of color in the sky, on the clouds and under them.

 

The feeling I get from this image is that the morning is just creeping on in!  There's no escaping it - the light will get you!

 

Enjoy!

Paintings of a New Mexico Sunrise

These images are from a sunrise about a week ago.  I made them look like oil paintings just to give them a bit of texture. 

 

I just love how a few minutes can create such different colors and patterns in the sky.

 

 

Enjoy!!