Another view of early morning light
Shades of Dawn
Rising Early
I became an early riser during the first month after my husband’s heart surgery. He sleeps in a recliner in the living room, and, until the last few days, I slept on the couch beside his chair. I could see the first hints of early morning light through the window and often would sneak out to grab a few photos of the sky. He is so much better now, though, that I no longer feel I need to listen for every movement and am starting to lie in bed until after dawn.
This is a view looking maybe northeast? from our street. There was morning fog (not common here), and if you look closely you can see a faint outline of Flagstaff’s San Francisco Peaks behind the silhouette of the Dells.
The View
It’s been awhile since I posted any photos. On June 26, my husband Lonnie had a heart attack, which resulted in a triple bypass surgery on July 1. He has been home since July 7 and is recovering well in the 4th week of at least an 8 week recovery. Our daughter came for over a week to help, and our son will be here tonight for the weekend. All of this explains why the only photos I’ve been able to take have been the view from the front of our house- specifically clouds, which have been magnificent during this monsoon season. I believe in August I will be able to get back into a bit more photography and photo editing as Lonnie improves.
Big Sky, Little Earth
Yesterday was one of those days when the sky dominated everything. The clouds swept across the sky, and from our vantage point on a small hill in Prescott, we couldn’t help but be aware of the vastness of the sky above compared to the earth below.
Cold Moon
I love taking photos of the moon and do it almost every month from our driveway or, in this case, the sidewalk across the street. And so of course I had to try to capture this month’s super moon. I love how it appears to sit on the horizon like a huge beach ball!
The night before, I also photographed the moon, which was almost full. There were clouds on the horizon, so these shots were taken after the moon rose above the cloud layer.
Aurora
The aurora was visible right over our house last night!
I had received a text with a photo just taken of the aurora visible from Colorado. I didn’t have any real hope of getting a photo, because last time we drove all over Prescott trying to see it without any luck at all. I knew that it might not be visible to the naked eye and that people here had seen it before by taking iPhone photos. I went out to the driveway and just aimed my iPhone at the sky in a northeast direction and there was the purple! I did not see streaks or dancing lights or any green at all, but the color was definitely there. I used night mode on my iPhone for most of the shots so that I would see the stars against the dark background and increased the exposure slightly to get the color. My hands shake, so the focus on the stars isn’t perfect.
Below is another view looking out across the street from our driveway.
Moonrise
Here’s our view of last night’s harvest moon as it rose above the hills! I missed the shot of it just peeking above the horizon- in the minute or two it took to get my camera and run out to the driveway it had already popped up over the hill.
Heavenly
Last night we went out to grab a quick salad before settling down to rewatch one of our favorite Brit TV series- Scott and Bailey (we just can’t seem to get enough of these fascinating characters!). After dinner, the sky put on an amazing display for us, complete with God-beams highlighting Granite Mountain! I managed to capture several shots with my iPhone through the windshield as we drove towards home.
After we had been home for a bit, we heard the pitter patter of gentle rain, which had been predicted for earlier in the day. We ran outside and watched, and, unfortunately, the rain stopped after about ten minutes. The drought here is getting scary- our lakes are drying up and there are wildfires burning. In fact, it is likely that the some of the clouds and haze behind the mountains in this photo are actually smoke.
Goodbye, 2020!
Goodbye, 2020!
2020 may have left us battered and bruised, mourning our losses and maybe our innocence as we come to the end of this terrible year, but we can still find hope and inspiration in our heroes, the resilience of the human heart, and in the beauty of our world.
Moonrise- the last full moon of 2020
Chasing Sunset
Since moving to Prescott, we have developed a tradition of going out after dinner to watch the sunset- either from our driveway or getting in the car and driving to a good vantage point. We have become cloud-watchers and predictors of when there will be an especially good sunset display. Last night I thought there was a 50/50 chance of a great one, but I wasn’t convinced that there was enough sky visible- it was overcast in our area of town. But Lonnie had been out and about and pointed out blue sky to the south, so we headed out to find a good view of the Thumb Butte. As we drove in that direction, it was obvious that we had a magnificent sky with great clouds. The photo below was taken before sunset, when a golden glow was just beginning on the Thumb.
Creepy Moon
The cloud shrouded moon the other night looked more like a spooky harvest moon than the December cold moon we’ve been hearing about.
Sunset Clouds
We’ve been having some beautiful skies lately. These gorgeous clouds caused me to grab my camera (not my phone!) and head out the door to capture them before the light changed. I had a 300mm zoom on, so didn’t get the whole expanse of gorgeousness- just one section.
Sunset Moon II
Another view…
Sunset Moon
I can tell I’m recovering well from my surgery, because last night’s view of the moon at sunset drew me outside with my iPhone.
Crazy Beautiful
The light, the clouds, the sky! We had a crazy beautiful sunset last night!
It was the golden light that we noticed first. Lonnie was calling me to come out just as I was running around the house looking for my camera (I know, I know I should always keep it one place, but I had been on the phone with Matt and taking pumpkin photos at the same time- I can’t multi-task). When I found it, I ran (hobbled fast) outside and saw the CLOUDS! There was one of our magnificent red sunsets going on behind the house, but it was the golden clouds out front that took my breath away!
Nothing beats Arizona’s Big Sky (sorry, Montana!)!
melinda anderson photography 