If you've ever chased a storm or simply witnessed one drift off into the sunset, you might agree that these dramatic skies create some of the most incredible scenes you can imagine. A landscape or storm photographer's paradise. So in the spirit of missing these glorious scenes during the winter, I thought I'd put together a handful of some of my favorite stormy sunsets.
A quick aside: my Twitter account has been locked or (hopefully) temporarily suspended. I'm cut off from all of NFT Twitter and my photography friends I've gained there over the last year and a half, and I really hope I can get my account back. But this remains uncertain, so for now, I'll be blogging here, or you can find me at my newly-created Twitter account.
So anyway, I love stormy sunsets.
I sometimes cannot even believe that what I'm seeing is reality, and that I am lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time, to witness it.
These beautiful clouds are called mammatus clouds; in simplest terms, they are sinking pockets of cooler air within a storm's anvil, or the flat high-level clouds that extend out in all directions from the main storm's core.
Watching them seem to light on fire as the sun sets is incredibly surreal.
When I witness incredible scenes like this, I often wish I had the ability to paint, because I'd love to capture the sky on a canvas. But instead, I capture them on camera, and the atmosphere simply provides the art for me.
The above image is one of my favorite landscape images I've ever captured, especially given that landscape photography is not my best strength as a photographer. But I love the depth and composition, and of course, the stunning atmosphere. This is my favorite elevated vantage point of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Some stormy scenes are just simple in their beauty. I love the soft pastels in this image, the distant mammatus, the dark shadows of the storm in the background, and the leading lines of the clouds trailing into the backside of the storm. This was a moment I experienced alone, and it was so ethereal and peaceful.
This high-based storm was absolutely breathtaking to witness from my balcony overlooking the lake. I was transfixed by the way the light fell on the rain shaft in the center of the image, and the faint rainbow off to the right side of the rain. Just an absolutely unbelievable scene.
This is another simple scene that to me is just so beautiful. I can almost feel the warmth of this image from the setting sun in the distance. This was another situation where the rain shaft from the storm caught the light of the setting sun just perfectly, and the colors of the scene were just so wildly golden and orange. It felt like a scene you'd witness on Mars.
I'll finish off this post with the most vibrant and incredible double-rainbow I've ever scene in my life, near Monument, Colorado on July 5th, 2020. This experience was so healing for me because 2020 was an awful year for so many reasons, and isolation had taken a toll on my mental health. I barely saw friends, traveled, or chased storms that year at all, like so many of us.
And this storm just happened to pop up near my home (at the time) and I was able to get out and capture this rainbow and feel a sense of renewed hope. The universe was letting me know that this was a temporary time, and that there was so much beauty waiting to be captured if I'd only be patient and wait a while longer.
Sure enough, 2021 would prove to be one of my best photography years ever, and it healed my spirit so much to finally dive back into the full creative swing again.
I hope you enjoyed my stormy sunsets! Plenty more where those came from, to be sure!
Until next time.
Jess