August Haze

This is a typical Indiana August morning. The heat and humidity combine to produce colors that the camera cannot capture. Light is gold with a hint of pink, everything takes on a magical glow, even the weeds and far off treeline. It is magic to stand and watch; mesmerizing to the point of being motionless.

Lens flare captures the feel of the coming day better than walking though the heavy air; it seems to part like water while languidly strolling. The heat is upon us early, and the old saying of "Red sky at dawn, Sailor be warned" is exceptionally true. These are the conditions that produce super-cells and occasionally duratios; they pop up in the afternoon as tiny thunderstorms and suddenly become massive, roiling creatures with great speed and vengeance.

After storms of this nature pass, there is occasionally a glow that, though I have tried and tried, I cannot capture. When I stood taking the photo of the corn tassels, they were sparkling as if gilded. Color becomes unreal---you cannot trust your eyes. Something in the water and the light; the dense air and the sun dropping to the horizon......everything is rich with intense hues.

We are a land of big skies; clouds not to be contained within a viewfinder. Cumulus that goes on and on, and bears remnants of the earlier threats. Blues that border on black. Shades of grey that do not cooperate with the photographer.

Striking silhouettes of simple trees against the last remaining puffs and rumbles of the storm. Impressive visions from the common. The feeling of being enveloped at any moment by cloud or dark, should the creature turn and strike again.........

And then, as if a promise to behave better tomorrow, a hint of shell-pink blush and the sun says goodnight. Another setting, intensified by the wrath of mother nature, a moment to linger in the peace of birds singing, water droplets finding the ground and the scent of the world scrubbed clean.

How small and insignificant we really are!

Pax....