I DO catch occasional Sunrises

I recently posted about the amazing sunset of January early February this year, and now I'm pleased to Now that I do occasionally get sunrises as well!

Lenticulars, Lightning Sunrises and Wildfires

I just wandered through some archive files... and realized I had only processed the one good Lightning shot from this amazing sunrise August 26, 2011.  Working on the rest of the images brought up such joy in the beauty of nature, the delightful feeling of being out there under the sky smelling the morning air mixed with the thunderstorm that lasted for about 4 hours through dawn.  This brings up the memory of the weather pattern that came along that hot August.

The first remarkable thing that happened was on August 22, 2011 when we saw this ENORMOUS Lenticular Stack , also called Mountain Wave Cloud, Weather indicator cloud, Altocumulus lenticularis, or my own pet name "Lenny, or Lennies" forming up downwind SE of Mount Adams. 

This stack grew taller than any such stack I have ever seen here before... seven and more layers tall.  The image above is only half the cloud, taken from up on the hill in White Salmon, Washington in the Columbia River Gorge.

I had just gotten off work and later learned I missed a couple hours worth of this cloud... after going home and grabbing what I needed, I stopped long enough to grab a few shots of the clouds around Mount Hood as well

Getting excited now... I drove north on Highway 141 and ahead of me I caught glimpses of the monster cloud SE of Mount Adams.  I stopped before and after Husum, WA and grabbed a couple shots across the Alfalfa fields of the White Salmon River Valley.

Heading on up through BZ Corners I had to stop briefly one more time on the Camp Five Hill to catch this shot

Then rush on up to Trout Lake.  Sunset was coming fast and i was hoping to catch a good one... but stopping by the school I caught a couple more before heading out to the lake.  I was disappointed to see the mass of storm cloud moving in from the NW down over Sleeping Beauty and covering up the Mountain.

Out at the Lake just out of town, I was able to get off a couple more shots before the encroaching mass came across in front of the giant column.  

As I posted this one I realized my sweet Rio was front and center in this shot... she passed away this summer following her last run up near Bird Creek Campground... I love that she is in so many of my photos. 

Here you can see how the stack is wobbling off balance and starting to fall apart.  This is really the last good photo I got of this... the cloud hid, and you could see that it was hot pink back behind a gray mass, but too hard to get a good photo.  Who knows how long the Lenny Lingered here, hiding... into the night.  I have seen them last nearly all night long!  

NEXT IN THE WEATHER PATTERN

On August 26, 2011, a Thunderstorm rocked the Northwest that lasted for nearly 4 hours in the Columbia River Gorge, before and during Dawn and Sunrise. The crashing pulled me out of bed, and grabbing my camera I headed down to Bingen Point on the Columbia where I caught this sunrise series

and finally, the one good strike I was able to catch!   This was during the pink sunrise, and the blue lightning flash created purple! 

And now, the place all this weather led us to.. the natural cycles of the world, that break our hearts and fascinate us.  Fire... the destroyer and the Purifier.  

This Thunderstorm started several wildfires in the Northwest.  One locally was the Monastery Fire just out of Goldendale, WA... and the other was the Dollar Lake Fire on Mount Hood.  Huge fire, with a Fire camp at the Fairgrounds in Odell. This last photo was taken September 1 from Parkdale, Oregon. 

All my photos are copyrighted... they may be shared on blogs if they include links back to one of my pages such as here, or on Facebook as Starlisa Black Photography  

On Google+ you can see my photo albums here 

Flickr is my oldest Photo sharing sight, with thousands of photos organized into sets and collections

And my other blog/website with links in the sidebar tying everything together.  

www.starlisa.net

I do sell my photos, although I still do not have a proper storefront.  You can contact my by email here at starlisa.black@gmail.com or on facebook to make arrangements.  I am able to take Paypal or debit/credit cards over the phone now.

Also you can view a pricelist for larger prints including Metal Prints here  

Thank you for your visit and enjoying my bit of heaven with me!

Sunsets R Us

We have had a run of amazing sunsets here in the Columbia River Gorge at the end of January and into February... with remarkable intriguing clouds as well.  This first set is from January 29th from Panorama Point in Hood river, Oregon.  The panorama is from the previous post, taken with an iPhone.  In addition are   a few more shots processed from RAW images.

On January 31 there was another interesting sunset, milder but with lovely late pink color in the east near Murdock, Washington.

and tonight, February 1, a glorious pink and orange sunset filled the Western sky in the Gorge... seen from Hood River, Oregon

Then on February 2 still another sunset lit up the Gorge and from what I hear much of the Pacific northwest.  I almost missed that one, but still caught the last of the color shown below

It has been lovely indeed! 

All my photos are copyrighted... they may be shared on blogs if they include links back to one of my pages such as here, or on Facebook as Starlisa Black Photography  

On Google+ you can see my photo albums here 

Flickr is my oldest Photo sharing sight, with thousands of photos organized into sets and collections

And my other blog/website with links in the sidebar tying everything together.  

www.starlisa.net

I do sell my photos, although I still do not have a proper storefront.  You can contact my by email here at starlisa.black@gmail.com or on facebook to make arrangements.  I am able to take Paypal or debit/credit cards over the phone now.
Also you can view a pricelist for larger prints including Metal Prints here  

Thank you for your visit and enjoying my bit of heaven with me!

Amazing sunset!!

Seen from Hood River's Panorama Point on Tuesday 01/29/2013. This is an iPhone shot processed in phone on the Snapseed App which is new to me. I am curious what you think of it?

Warmth and color

In the midst of winter grays I find myself looking for my brightest images of summer. Hope you might enjoy them as well.

You can also find me and my other links at www,Starlisa.net

Thoughts following Christmas

People talking about the Christmas gifts they received makes me realize I dodged the whole Christmas thing so well this year that I avoided any presents! I am good with that by the way.. because it just reinforces my philosophy of Presents are not what matters about Christmas... not material presents anyway! What I DID get was the love and appreciation of my Sissy when she got to be warm all day long wearing her new fleece clothes... and her new micro plush blanket. I got the delight in watching kids play on the street in the snow of a true White Christmas. I found my Christmas tree I did not put up this year when I wandered in the snow to the bluff and found the snow capped ornaments hanging from snow covered branches along the road put there by Christmas Ball Fairies just wanting to put smiles on peoples faces. I heard the Christmas angels sing in the laughter of children and falling of snowflakes. I feel good!!!!!!!!!!!!

This photo was taken in July 2012 during a tremendous and fast moving thunderstorm that raced through the Gorge in the evening.  Lightning was flashing all around but most of it inside the clouds, like this one towards Mount Hood.  Taken from White Salmon, WA

This is a blog post mostly for my own processing.... others are welcome to read, but certainly do not feel obligated!

Novembers have been a challenge for me for years now, and just today I realized why I have been is a dark fuzzy cloud of something like depression this last couple weeks.  Part of it of course is the change in weather... and usually I overcome that by getting out in the weather and taking photos anyway.  This year it snuck up on me, and without my Rio here to come wag her tail and stare at me intently I simply did not go out and about much... therefore the fog in my brain grew and grew, until last night I froze up sitting in my truck in a parking lot unable to get out and walk into the busy store while the rain flowed down the windshield.  I posted on my facebook and a newer friend saw, and helped talk me through the moment until I was able to get out of the truck finally and go in the store.  Of course, then on the way IN the store, going through an EMPTY part of the Parking Lot a car came speeding down thru the dark and slammed to a halt a foot away from me!  Ok, not my night... but it is always my belief that we make of things what we will, if we look for the negative that is what comes our way; if we search out the positive then we find it in spades.  I opened my frightened eyes and walked on into that well lit store, searching for smiles and positive moments. I found some elderly men being greeters at the door, and I thanked them kindly and they gave me big smiles.

I am still striving to get through the cotton fluff that has me wrapped up, and still did not make it outside today... and yet, I found some laughter with friends online, and some old friends from church came by and gave sis and i hugs and a prayer and brought some sunshine into the house.  One day at a time.

Today I also reached out to try and encourage others or make them laugh, and that helped me as well.  Maybe tomorrow I will get out of the house and go DO something!  Rain or no rain!  That is, if I have enough Gas money... hmmm.  part of the problem I suppose, feeding back into not going anywhere.
Another part of the equation is needing to be here more for my Sissy Nora, since she fell a couple weeks ago.  I don't actually have to be here all the time with her, but I think I was so worried I did not want to go far.  She is getting a wee bit stronger, actually took 5 or 6 steps last night and got herself into bed with little bit of help.  I am so glad I can be here and help her, and she also helps me with a place to live.. I would be homeless right now if not for her with so little income. Unfortunately being here too much with the TV on full time feeds into the glazed over feeling... and I start stagnating.

so no worries, just talking myself through a strange time of year.  Looking back through what I have written I see I skipped past the heaviest issue of November for me.  Both of my parents passed away this month in past years, 7 years apart.  My husband David Reel who I loved so dearly passed away holding my hand on January 16th, 1996 after a long illness, and my father Claude Elias Black left us with a quick heart attack while I did CPR on Thanksgiving Day 1996.  Several other friends and family passed away that same year, such as my adopted nephew Curtis Clark, and my uncle Vernon Black (prior to my Dad).  I spent some quality time with  a sweet older lady I helped design a small home for in Port Townsend named Ruth Godsey  just before she passed, and another friend Michael as he passed away of cancer. There were others that year also.... and then 7 years later I held Mom Nina Black's hand along with my brother Boyce and my daughter and many of his children and grandchildren who all sang to Mom as she passed on November 7, 2003.. That is the point all the grief finally knocked me flat for a time as I experienced Anxiety attacks and other such difficult things.

Some months after Mom's passing, I was on my way to work one early morning in Spring, barely aware of my surroundings.  When suddenly I heard her voice clear as day  from the seat next to me in the truck where she used to ride on our singing drives through the mountains. "Oh LOOK at the pretty sunrise" she said clearly... my head jerked up, and the sky was full of color and one of the prettiest sunrises I had ever seen!  I burst into tears, said thank you... and after that found myself really noticing the beauty in everything around me.  It was a couple more years before I got a little camera, while I was working at Cherry Street Manor as a caregiver in the adult foster care home.  I found my way out to Bird Creek Meadows on Mount Adams, for the first time since i was in my early 20's, and took many photos that i brought back to share with the elders I was taking care of. Many of them had memories of places like that and I found it brightened their day also.  That led into taking more and more photos, and discovering Flickr in 2007 where I could post photos and learn from others around the world.

This remembering is a good reminder now for me, as it explains and reminds me where my gift of Photography came from, and how it is my heartfelt wish to share the photos with others  to help them see the beauty in the world around them.  And here I come back to the early thought that when you focus on the positive in this world, it will surround you.  I have been blessed to be surrounded by people in life who were indeed positive, creative, and loving!