Foto Friday 22 – Überwolken
Excuse me, where is Cloud Nine?
Welcome to another edition of Foto Friday, dear readers. For those of you who are new, Foto Friday happens every first Friday of the month. Only two more, and FF will turn two! It’s the final countdown.1
I spare you the song, given that you’ll hear it now for the rest of the day anyway, even if you’re not in(to) Europe.
For this twenty-second issue of Foto Friday, I chose clouds, or cloudscapes, also called cloudporn. There’s even a subreddit for that.2 Why not in colour, you ask? I chose black and white instead of blue and white… for dramatic effect.
Clouds, enormous in size at times, harbingers of rain, thunder, and lightning, especially if they are of the Cumulonimbus calvus3 type, spur our imagination from the day we’re born. Children never tire of seeing all kinds of shapes in clouds, and adults, too. Do you? If so, give it a go and let me know what you see!
I, for one, never tire of taking pictures of clouds, especially with sun rays breaking through them.
What a magnificent combination! Clouds and sun rays or god rays. These specifically are called crepuscular rays.
Crepuscular comes from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight". Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at dawn and dusk passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high Sun at noon. Particles in the air scatter short-wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer-wavelength yellow and red light.4
I can confirm the colour version is very orange. Science is cool. See?
Like clockwork, the orange sunbeams break through the clouds (shot on Bal Cony island). Which one do you prefer? Black-and-white or colour? Choices, choices! We shall continue in black-and-white.
Particles aggregate, light scatters, nuclei bleed black vapour, slow beats my dark heart.
Sometimes, it’s not the shape of the cloud itself…
Lines from one of my favourite songs.5 You may know it. Also, I can’t let you hum Final Countdown all day long, can I? As far as the image is concerned, I took this one at Dragonlake, featured in Foto Friday 07.
Whenever I’m flying, I always book a window seat, watch the clouds roll by, and snap pictures. This one was on the way back from Athens to Paris in 2017.
I was tempted to title the above image, “Black Smoke”, as a reference to the TV series Lost. Then again, it doesn’t look like the “Smoke Monster,” does it? Still, a freak occurrence or just a normal, good old storm cloud forming?
Sometimes, it’s just clouds with the sun hiding behind them, making us see things whenever we look up. It’s magic. Strange Magic.
Guilty. Another song reference. Yes, I like ELO.6 Also, I’m giving you options not to head to Venus, come back to Earth, or fly so high, you know? Because things will never be the same after you’ve seen The Day The Earth Stood Still,7 and I don’t mean the 2008 remake; no, watch the original from 1951 if you haven’t; it’s a classic.
Klaatu barada nikto
I took this sunrise long-exposure shot at the pier on Pulau Macan (Tiger Island) at five in the morning. It always reminds me of that movie. It was as if the world stood still at that moment. The whole island was asleep, and I was the only one out and about. This is one of the many shots I took that morning. Here is the colour version.
I like them both but prefer the black and white version. Which one do you prefer?
Tiger Island is only a short boat trip from Jakarta, and it’s so small there’s only one place to stay: the Eco Lodge. You can walk leisurely around the whole island in less than five minutes. There is no aircon, no TV, Wifi is limited to a few hours a day, and no hot water in the shared showers and bathrooms. Water is scarce and delivered by boat, so use it sparingly. Bring lots of mosquito repellant. Also, don’t be alarmed when you go for a swim, and tiny fish will come for some extra meal. Stay away from the infamous stonefish when snorkelling, and don’t step on any of the abundant sea urchins. Other than that, you get to enjoy a slice of paradise in the Thousand Islands.
Here are two more cloudscapes from the same pier later that day.
Those clouds are ready to discharge…
… and they did. Look at that wall of rain coming down on the island on the right. And yes, of course, you noticed yet another song reference.
Instead of singing along with CCR,8 and since we’re nearing the end, let’s have a look at the biggest, baddest, maddest cloud of all. Maybe it’s as big as the one Percy Bysshe Shelly9 wrote about in his poem “The Cloud” (1820).
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As we began, so shall we end this Foto Friday with a view from Bal Cony and one (or two) last film references.
Some clouds are just too big. Something must be going on. What’s hiding in there? Nothing… nothing at all.
How did you like my cloudscapes?
Outtake
Flying home from Greece again (August 2022), I noticed this cloud, a single ray of light shining down on it, and I thought… Nope.10 It’s just a cloud. Or maybe this is cloud nine, after all, George?
The pieces you don't need are mine
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Previously on FotoFriday…
Clouds of the genus cumulonimbus have very dark-grey-to-nearly-black flat bases and very high tops that can penetrate the tropopause. They develop from cumulus when the air mass is convectively highly unstable. They generally produce thunderstorms, rain or showers, and sometimes hail, strong outflow winds, and/or tornadoes at ground level. (Wikipedia)
So many things I can see in these pictures Alexander that if I had them hanging them on my wall I would stare at them all day and do even less writing that I’m doing at the moment! 😁
From dragons, to crinkled wise faces and then to a leaping dog, they’re endlessly fascinating
I’ve never actually asked, would you consider offering prints of these?
Too many to pick a favourite. They're all amazing.
Crepuscular is one of my favourite words.
Cloud Atlas is one of my favourite books.
Clouds are great.
Wonderful pics and words, Alexander.