Weather weird and wonderful
How about this for a sunset?!?!?!?!
I took this on 19 July at 10pm last week during the European heatwave. The heat never really reached Orkney, but the day had been warm at just over 20ºC. However, it was pretty windless and a bit muggy (for us). Towards evening, European warm air hit our cool sea and a haar developed, making the air look silky.
When sunset came, the moisture droplets in the air were just the right size to refract the light in this particular way, an effect called Rayleigh scattering.
I can assure you this is EXACTLY what it looked like [NB Stephan – no jiggery-pokery with colours or silk effects!].
It lasted a quarter of an hour or so and really looked and felt quite apocalyptic. Gazing at it with Arthur, we decided the rooshans had at last nuked London.
Photo was taken at ISO1600, f.9.5 and 1/125s with my 35mm lens. The moderate noise due to this high-ish ISO was wonderfully magicked away by my newly-acquired de-noising software, Topaz De-Noise AI.
Earlier that week, I went out to experiment with my most recent lens, the Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 50mm F2. This lens cost the same as a Leica 50mm APO – the same, that is, if you knock one zero off the price! And for that price, it is wonderful. Experts says it's 80%+ as good as the totally fantastic Leica lens. I'm in love with apochromatic lenses as the results are so, so sharp.
So here are some of my test shots:
It was a searingly bright morning and the back of the freshly repainted Bellevue, next door to us, looked magnificent.
I've always been fond of the Bellevue's sign out front with its rusty, rusty post. (Once, a few ago, our great cat Manky it a fit of friskiness ran up the post, God knows how as there's nothing to get claws into, and sat triumphantly on the top of the sign. He then discovered he didn't know how to get down and we had to help him off!)
Sun-bleached wood on a garage.