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Clouds in Isolation
4 April 2020
We've had these clouds hanging over our head for a week now. They were floating above Donner Lake in February 2007 at the precise moment we had gotten out of the car with a Kodak EasyShare One.
Clouds in Isolation. Kodak EasyShare One at f4.7, 1/500 second and ISO 80. JPEG capture processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
We grabbed the wide-angle shot and put the little camera away in favor of the Nikon D200 we'd brought along. Those are the shots we've enjoyed working on over the years.
But they weren't quite the wide angle view this Kodak capture shows. And the isolated clouds come through just fine if the trees in the shadow lack a little detail.
So we threw all the modern editing tools we could at them in a sort of out-of-camera computational frenzy. Dehazing, masking, highlight recovery, you name it.
And we think we improved the image -- marginally.
It's busy enough that it doesn't work at all in black and white. The color is the thing. Not just the sky but the clouds as well. They appear more three dimensional in color.
And the clouds are the subject of this shot. They are what got us out of the car in the cold of February. And why we switched to our dSLR with the circular polarizer on its zoom lens.
For all their elegance and charm, they cast a shadow on the earth below them, of course. And if you happen to be standing in that shadow, you wonder if the sun has vanished as you shiver in the biting air. It's like losing your job.
But the sun has not yet vanished. Not once in human history.
You just have to stand back a bit to take in a wider view to appreciate the situation. And, with whatever is at hand, take advantage of the opportunity.