It was supposed to be a late start to a short day…
Picked up a couple of goodies at garage sales, got some photos in over the next couple of hours, and arrived home around 2pm-ish. We had to leave again at 3:45 to go pick up groceries.
Doing a normal grocery shop, where I go into the store and pick stuff out, is a rare thing any more. 99% of the time I order online and let them bring stuff to my car. It’s not a perfect solution – let’s not go into some of the stuff that’s been proposed as substitutes when they’re out of an item(s) – but for someone whose mobility is increasingly limited, parking 5 minutes while somebody else loads your groceries? Pffft. Only way to go.
The grocery trip itself was nothing special, but it establishes a timeline. You see, when I left the store things got interesting.
While G grabbed his camera when we headed to the store, he didn’t get mine, so unfortunately my only camera was my phone. I usually insist G bring my Nikon beast when he grabs his, but tonight I let it slide. The light earlier in the day was meh so we didn’t really expect anything, anyway.
However…
I dropped G off at the hardware store with the big orange sign while I went to the grocery store, because he’s got a woodworking project and needed some specialty glue. By the time I picked up groceries and drove back to get him, the eastern skies were growing dark. In some parts of the world I’d have called them ominous. In our part of the world we call them glorious. My only thought then was, “Well, we have plenty of time to get home, if that comes attached to a dust storm.” We live about 10-15 minutes from the grocery store, which included the time to stop and wait on a train. And as we were driving parallel to the train, we saw the watery whisper of a rainbow form over the Picachos. That was our first clue.
The picture up at the top of the page makes me mighty disappointed not to have taken my Nikon. The rainbow in the sunbeam was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, and the light on the mountains was brilliant in person. It was breathtaking.
We only got this photo because when we pulled into town, I kept driving to the end of our road. We were going fast as we safely could because we figured the rainbow would be gone any second.
About that:
We decided to go a bit further down the road because we were trying to get away from some of the homes and clutter to get a clearer shot. In the few minutes it took, this turned into one of the brightest bows I’ve ever seen in my life. The light and shadows were really that pronounced. Again, lots of regret not having a real camera with me. I chalked up the issues to camera shake because the pool-noodle stabilizer isn’t viable for the phone. However, when I blew these up to full size, I realized it’s only partly camera shake. It’s equally issues with a cheap phone camera. It loses at least half the detail even when the lines are all crisp, and puts halos around everything.
We did indeed run into a dust storm – in this case, on purpose. It was a smallish one and the first one we’d seen backlit by afternoon sun. See, the incoming storm was to our east, but ironically the dust was to the west. G got some amazing shots – waiting for him to forward them to me, ‘cuz he owes me for not bringing my camera, heh. (He’s the designated camera wrangler. I’m the designated driver. Both those are for good reason.)
Again, my apologies for the less-than-stellar quality. This was taken with the phone camera in fading light, but you can see the peak coming up over the layer of dust here.
The earlier run wasn’t a total bust, thanks to a cooperative vulture in flight.
I know – not a blue-ribbon shot – but considering how tough it is to get close enough to photograph these things at all, I’m happy with that shot. I was taking pictures of the surroundings when I realized he was flying my way. This was taken with no help from my pool-noodle tripod, so it’s a miracle he came out this clear.
The site I’d been itching to photograph – came out pretty blah. The Cowboy Church has boots, saddles, and similar western paraphernalia nailed all along its split-rail fence. In person it’s fabulously tacky. I edited the crap out of these photos and am so-so on whether I like them.
The sun was so bright these were nothing but silhouettes in the originals. I’m happy I was able to pull this much detail from the shadows.
I’d planned to add more photos to this post. Unfortunately this computer’s crashing every time I open Photoshop. I can’t convert my photos from RAW (the camera’s default) to a jpg or other web-friendly format without Photoshop, so I guess we’re done. If I’m extraordinarily lucky it’ll edit two images. Half the time it crashes before I can even do the first step.
I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get the replacement laptop. It can’t come soon enough.
I absolutely love the Cowboy Church shots! Well done! I’ve never actually seen a dust storm except in my livingroom when NewWifey(tm) goes away for more than a week. Are they dangerous if they get larger than the one you saw here?
Dust storms are only dangerous when driving, because your visibility can drop to almost zero in a matter of seconds. Otherwise they’re mildly annoying. This one was small potatoes. I’m going to post some of G’s photos when I can. With the sun behind it, it loked almost more like a white water-based cloud than a dust cloud. We ran with the light, which was just gorgeous.
The Cowboy Church shots are growing on me. I took a bunch of them and wanted to go through and choose the best. These the only two I was able to open and work.
The last three pictures of the post were taken with the Nikon, all three silhouettes because of ridiculously hard light earlier in the day.
Love the photos, especially the rainbow and the Cowboy Church. I’m glad you were able to catch some of that beauty.
Thank you, Terri! I loved seeing the rainbow – but was mighty frustrated not having a real camera, lol.