Sundog Maui 2

We hiked into Haleakala Crater last week. At the summit the elevation

is a little over 10,000 feet, but we were a little lower on the trail called

“switchbacks”. The weather the previous week gave us our big storm for

the winter with lots of rain so we were looking for an excuse to get out,

although it was still windy, cloudy, and a little wet.

I used my 17-40mm lens to squeeze in this Sundog, and screwed on a

circular polarizer to make it pop. I posted two shots, variations in

exposure. The clouds changed the appearance.

The name Haleakala translates as “House of the Sun”. From many parts

of the island it appears that the sun rises out of the mountain. After this

Sundog I wondered if the Hawaiians of old spotted something like this at

the top.

wow! does this really look like this? Never heard of a sundog. What is it? Atmospheric  effects on sun?

amazing photo regardless.

I have seen this type of phononema before when the suns rays passes through ice chrystals in the atmosphere.  But Wow! never witnessed anything this clearly defined and dramatic before. This looks like it could be another planet! Great processing to reveal the ful extent of the halo whilst retaining the reality of the surroundings. Well done!

Best Regards

Alf

Unbelievable phenomenon. Excellent capture.

This phenomenon is interesting, but this is not a great photograph.  I think the exposure is off, but I imagine that this can be tricky to capture.  Everything below the sky is badly processed; I see lots of red and green vertical lines throughout that area.

i believe the bottom half is in large part to show scale...you almost don't want it to detract from the real show...

impressive capture Dominick...regards....David

G&V-  Yes, it's real.  I think I'll keep my RAW files to prove it.  This is the land of rainbows and I have a collection most people would not believe.

Jeff-  I agree processing could be better.   Pointing my camera towards the sun left the distant mountains dark and underexposed.  I used Lightroom 4 for everything except to scale down size for posting.  Even the advanced noise reduction within LR4 could not do it.  The other post of the Sundog has a little more correction to it.  I may double process to see if I can get it right.

And I learned a new word today. In my opinion it is a great photograph! It looks like a picture from an alien planet, I would not change anything.

I agree with some of the sentiments regarding the processing of this image. For that, the image is a slight let down, however, one cannot look past the absolute fact that the composition sets this image apart from many others. I can only assume the difficulty in being able to take such an image under challenging conditions, and in that regard I feel you've done exceptionally well Dominick 

Thanks Art.  If the weather had been any less severe, gusts to 60 mph at the top of the world, I would have had my tripod and made a HDR.   Aloha.

Of course this photo catches the attention. It could be used as a sign of prediction of the doomsday. Your other submission of the same phenomenon seems to be more honest but I am not surprised that it gets less recognition. Our overwrought senses are no longer satisfied with the reality. Karl

Superb shot Dominick!  Yeah you could mess around with the processing and the colors of the Haleakala hills would add some color but to what end?

You could just crop out the lower half of the hills but the main feature which you have captured so well dominates the image anyway.

Art trumps HD stuff here.  Nice work.  Good to see that all of that rain had some even more spectacular rewards. 

Lucky for you that you were on the mountain when this happened.  What the heck were you doing up there at that time anyway?

Some kinda shaka! Tanks eh?

I have never seen anything like this - thanks for sharing!

Dominick,

These two sun dog photos are dramatic. I've never seen this effect so pronounced.

Too bad conditions precluded carrying the tripod as your suggestion for exposure blending would have saved the day. A split ND filter could have also come in handy.  Barring either of those, your idea for working this up once for the foreground and again for the sun dog will likely give you the best result. I will often work up an image in in LR with several snapshots, each created to optimize a specific portions of the image. I will then open the snapshots in PS and blend them as required. In this case the amount of underexposure you'd have ended up with in the foreground  in order to tame the sun in the background would make wringing out a good clean result unlikely. I don't think that cropping out the foreground is the answer. You need the mountain as an anchor.  Perhaps letting the mountain fall closer to a silhouette and cropping some of the near foreground would split the difference. At any rate a spectacular example of a sun dog and imo most assuredly worth some extra time spent in post to optimise the file. 

Steve, you know how it is, sometimes the worse weather yields the most interesting or unique photos.  This hike is about 35 minutes from home so I go up often to unwind.   It’s a very natural way to “get high” at 10,000 feet.

Gordon, thanks for your input on both photos.  I’ll try splitting the difference as you suggested.  I have shots of the parhelion alone, and others shot horizontally with different foregrounds.  If I am able to come up with something different, I will post it.

In the meanwhile, I went up again yesterday and captured rainbows that are unique enough to be near unbelievable.  Maybe I’ll get them posted this weekend.

Thanks everyone for the input.  Aloha.

An update!  Another member, Mark Zell, let me know this phenomena is not a "sundog", but a "halo".    Nor is it a parhelia.   Thanks Mark!

Cool I have never seen anything like this, congrats that you got the chance to capture it and you captured it well. Great work.

Best regards Tore 

Wow ! Breathtaking shot Dominick. I have never read or heard of such a spectacle before. Excellent work. Rated 7.

Best regards.

Sagnik

Never seen anything like this.  You are a really lucky man.  Very exciting.  Thanks for your description of how you got it and your experience.  Best regards,

Great halo shot.  You would have four potential sundogs from this angle: one above, one below, and one on each side.  From mountains and aircraft one can occasionally see (through the cirrus) the entire halo with brightly colored (red to blue) sundogs at each of the four points previously noted.

Here is a single sundog from my front yard:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=10185972

Most often, one sees sundogs through cirrus in the late afternoon when the sun is getting pretty low.  At such times one typically sees sun dogs only on the sides (one or both), not above and below.  I have only seen all four at once in an aircraft flying through the cirrus plume of a thunderstorm.  The halo was clearly visible, too.  It was awe-inspiring.  There was a circle with red-blue spots above and below, and to each side.  (Mountaineers often report them, but I have never actually seen the halo with all four sundogs visible at the same time in the mountains myself--only that one time from the aircraft.)

Here are some other shots of sundogs, with and without halos:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

http://www.bismarckmandanblog.com/index.php?m=01&y=09&entry=entry090123-222818

The colors can be quite bright, but usually are not as bright as shown, where computer enhancement (increased color saturation above all) has been used.

--Lannie

Dominick,

Just love it and look forward to the pleasure of seeing your new works.  Best Regards,

Ohhh Boy, . . .   I like this sky very much. I wish, I can see and photograph such a atmospheric phenomenon.  You captured the event excellently. Bravo, Dominick.