cmouli

Taken in Parma, Idaho this spring. The beautiful “sun halo” is an optical phenomenon caused by ice crystals – forming a radius of roughly 22 degrees. Literally several millions of tiny ‘hexagonal’ shaped ice crystals are the reason behind this interesting phenomena. In a hexagonal ice prism, the apex angle is 60 degrees and when light passes through, it is deflected twice leading to deviation angles in the range 22 to 50 degrees. The inner circle is reddish (21.84 degrees – red) and the outer circle is bluish (22.37 degrees – blue). No light is refracted at angles smaller than 22 degrees, so the sky is dark inside the halo! Of course, the sun is very bright – so it shines through at the center! To create this image, I used a very wide angle lens (14mm), a steady tripod, low ISO (100) and a very small aperture (f22). Wide angle to get the entire halo and background in the frame, tripod to allow me positioning for the right composition and of course stability, low ISO to avoid any noise, small aperture to create ‘sun stars’. Sun stars are created due to diffraction of light as it passes through the tiny lens aperture and the number of “spikes” seen is proportional to the number of diaphragms in the lens aperture. Comments welcome.

I found this "Teasel" on roadside and was immediately attracted to its prickly stem since it offered a good test to measure sharpness in my image using a macro lens. I learnt that there are about 15 different teasel species (genus: Dipsacus), native to Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. Their name is derived from "thirst' - since the leaves merge near the stem to form a cup to collect rain water. This is an interesting adaptation perhaps to prevent insects from climbing the stem. I used a macro lens with the right depth of focus to get a sharp image and a completely out of focus background. This was difficult due to the unique location on the roadside. It required being in a precarious position with my tripod but I finally managed to get the composition I wanted.

Larry, Thanks for your comments. These were hundreds of multiple exposures for a very long time, at high ISO (2000), largest possible aperture (f2.8) and 30 secs for each exposure for the trails, slightly longer exposure (50 secs) for the sky and glow on the tree branches. All taken on a very steady tripod (Gitzo) to avoid even the slightest vibration (except few critters, no one was around me on this still, dark night!). Nikon D800, 14-24mm lens. Images were slightly processed in camera raw mainly for noise reduction, merged in photoshop, sharpened for web view. Hope this helps.

Clear night, calm winds, distant glow from the city and earliest dawn light contributed to this image of star trails. Taken in Bruneau Sand Dunes, near Boise Idaho on a special night when Perseid meteor showers were at its peak. Star trail images like this take patience and luck (to avoid jet trails entering the scene during exposure!).

Dawn's early light 'igniting' the logs in the prairie amidst Camas flowers...

"Ersa" is the Greek goddess of "dew" (daughter of Zeus and the Selene (moon)). She must have loved bright flowers - in particular, Pansies.

When I saw this bush on the roadside, I noticed an army of ants - and a butterfly was carefully picking the right spots to enjoy the pollen and co-exist..

comments welcome.

Even though this is not a rose, I was reminded of the song.. "dew drops and roses... and these are my favorite things" - from "The Sound of Music", when I took this shot.

Ants on Camas... comments welcome.