Flameleaf sumac and sinuous clouds
Click for greater clarity and better color.
I made this picture at the Shin Oak Observation Deck of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge on RR 1869 in Burnet County, about an hour outside Austin, on November 18th. I don’t like aiming into a grey-white sky, but this one at least had some enticingly sinuous clouds in it.
If you’re interested in photography as a craft, you’ll find that point 8 in About My Techniques is especially relevant to this photograph.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
The clouds reminded me of some near us a few years back.
Jim in IA
December 13, 2013 at 7:00 AM
From what I see on the news, I get the impression that you have more “weather” (violent storms and especially tornadoes) in Iowa than we do in central Texas, so today’s picture probably doesn’t look as unusual to those of you in the Great Plains as it did to me.
Steve Schwartzman
December 13, 2013 at 7:28 AM
Frame-able picture. Just gorgeous, the pointy-raggedy-red sumac meeting the wavy grey sky lapping over the horizon. For me, seeing sky is an absolute requirement of mental health.
beeholdn
December 13, 2013 at 7:48 AM
I think your description as “frame-able” is a first among comments here, so thanks. As many times as I’ve photographed flameleaf sumac, I’d never had as dramatic a background as this.
It’s funny, but I initially misread your words as “wavy gravy” instead of “wavy grey.”
Steve Schwartzman
December 13, 2013 at 8:26 AM
I really like the contrast between the sumac and the clouds. It’s a great combination of textures. I like the clouds, too. I’ve spent a good portion of my recent working years trying to learn to “read” the clouds, and these are particularly eloquent. I’d guess that they’re stratus undulatus.
shoreacres
December 13, 2013 at 8:12 AM
Although I couldn’t read as much into the clouds as you’ve learned to do, what I did read into them was that they’d complement the sumac in a dramatic (and for me new) way.
I’ve not heard of stratus undulatus clouds, but my description as sinuous—a word that’s the sine of a trigonometry teacher—came pretty close to undulating.
Steve Schwartzman
December 13, 2013 at 8:36 AM
Who knew? Some clouds speak sine language!
shoreacres
December 13, 2013 at 9:47 AM
Yes, and a sine of the times, too, so you might as well resine yourself to it. And I’d better sine off now.
Steve Schwartzman
December 13, 2013 at 11:14 AM
I really like this one Steven. Glad you are ever hunting with your camera.
Dave
December 14, 2013 at 1:13 AM
Thanks, Dave. I’m definitely a hunter with my camera, and there are times when I get some unusual prey.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2013 at 8:32 AM
Glad you prevailed with the great-white clouds. They’re a perfect backdrop here.
Susan Scheid
December 17, 2013 at 7:12 PM
It’s rare to see clouds like those, so I knew I had to incorporate them into some pictures. I wasn’t sure how to do that until I found this sumac.
Steve Schwartzman
December 17, 2013 at 9:59 PM
[…] trip down RR 1869 in Burnet County on an overcast November 18th that brought you the picture of flameleaf sumacs and sinuous clouds, I made this one showing several of those trees, young but already colorful, along with an animal […]
Flameleaf sumacs and two curious observers | Portraits of Wildflowers
January 3, 2014 at 6:04 AM
beautiful plant- and amazing undulatus in the background
martine
January 4, 2014 at 8:41 AM
Flameleaf sumacs turning colors are a familiar sight here, but I’d rarely seen undulating clouds like these anywhere, so the combination was something I couldn’t pass up.
Steve Schwartzman
January 4, 2014 at 8:50 AM
they’re rare clouds! but getting more common… for the last couple years the Cloud Appreciation Society (!) has been trying to get classified a new type of cloud, an extreme undulatus provisionally called ‘asperatus’- worth googling for some incredible images- some from uk but have never seen anything like it myself… one day!
The sumacs are stunning.
martine
January 4, 2014 at 8:56 AM
I found this article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undulatus_asperatus
and these pictures
https://www.google.com/search?q=asperatus+clouds&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3S3IUqTtBuam2gWLsoGwCA&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1542&bih=1176
Steve Schwartzman
January 4, 2014 at 9:53 AM
just incredible. (will post links in future!)
martine
January 4, 2014 at 11:22 AM