Red lights suspend sunset chase

Driving into the heart of the sunset down the I-10, held up only by red lights.

Sharp. Distance, Sunset

How does that Yes! song go?  "Sail on, into the heart of the sunrise... Sharp. Distance." This is the I-10 version of that, sunset-style.

Live sundown stage

The Beaumont, TX,  downtown skyline appears as dark stage props against the glowing sunset. "...all the world's a stage."

Cold front greets us

From my cell phone, this shot is heading west toward Lake Charles on I-10 on Sunday.  We were just passing through the cold front passing the area.
Blustery winds and driving rains were just coming upon us.

Muscular crepuscular rays

Crepuscular rays leap over the clouds to add depth to the sky show.  They are called crepuscular because they are more often scene in the crepuscular hours -- near dawn and dusk.  According to the Wikipedia entry, they appear to diverge but it is only an optical illusion.

Clouds capped by jeweled prism

The low-lying sun, roar up the back of this cloud bank and spilled over the top, creating this prism. It was an aha! moment for me when I downloaded the photo.  In the deep attic of my mind, I suddenly had a great appreciation for the term "out of gamut."  The bejeweled greens that sparkled through saucer like laser lit emeralds just are nowhere to be seen here.  They are out of gamut -- in a color range that the camera cannot capture.

Cloud play

You know that old child's game where you grab the bat with one hand and then you and the other teams' leader keep swapping turns as you alternately put your grip above the other's grip.

You both work your way up the bat until one of you get to the top and someone caps the bat.  They win the first at-bat.

I am convinced the clouds on this day were playing a game like that, each one covering the one below until a winner emerges on top.

Night for herons

The sky is rusting and its brilliance is tarnishing fast as these herons feather in for a night together in their secure tree-top motel.

Hotter than hell and lighter than air

At the Hot Air Balloon festival in Gonzales, LA, a pilot pumps a flaming plume into his eagle-shape airship to give it lift into a lightless sky.  The event, at the Lamar Dixon arena was a great hit for kids and us older kids.  It was my first time to see the Moon Glow of hot air balloons

Egrets fight for landing rights

This shot from Lacassine, Louisiana, reminds me that crowded skies are not just a human problem. The herons (Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Blue Herons and more) come to this spot each night for some camaraderie. They start showing up about an hour and a half before sunset and quickly the supply of available branches approaches zero. This incoming feather ball seems to be saying, "clear the way for landing or we all end up on the ground!" 

This was the sunset by the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge the other night as I was driving to Beaumont, TX.  The sky was a giant maelstrom of sorts. It was very distracting.

A cloud's brief life in the heavens

Clouds climbing on top of each other push upward into the thinning sunlight at day's end.  Without the sun's help, the vapor hordes will lose their urge to soar and shape-shift into huge lawn sprinklers.

Featherly evening festival amazes

The birds come flying in for the nightly confab at Lacassine, La, on Interstate 10. Hundreds of birds fill the trees near the I-10 exit.  The birds send up a cacophony of squeaks and squawks until each has settled into its short space of limb span for the night.  I was able to see Ibis, Blue Herons,  Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egret, Cormorants, Roseate Spoonbills and even some shore gulls.  It is an amazing site to watch the feathery festival.

Clouds play king of the sky

A lone palm tree occupies a front seat view to the surging summer-lit passions of clouds as they play king on the sky over Beaumont two nights ago.

Sun nixes thunderous conspiracy.

This thunderhead held its head high until the sun refused to go along with his plan to light up the night.  Losing the sun's heat, the cloud started shedding rain drops at nearly the same pace as the Helios' decline.

Exterior decorating -- sky styling

Sundown was very complicated last night. The golden last rays of sunshine were glittering in one corner of the sky.  A massive rain cloud covered the opposite side. Covering the entire sky between the two was a lightly rose-brushed blanket of clouds.

Clouds climb is futile

Billowing clouds punch futilely up into the sky, because the sun has spent his fury for the day.  It did make a nice closing act at the end of the day.

Rain through the clouds

Rain through the sun creates a heavenly vision.

Flying home -- neither wind, nor rain, nor...

I was surprised to see a plane flying below the clouds yesterday when a storm was broadsiding Beaumont.  The storm blasted passed with winds whipping the trees and the clouds swirling one way, then the next.  However, there the high flyer was.  We are driven by schedules and time tables.   Nature has to push harder than this to hinder our plans.

Angry clouds hiss and hurl

Angry clouds crowded the skies today in Beaumont, TX,  hissing rain at the ground. It was good for the plants and cooled things down, but thunderous lighting was being hurled across the sky sizzling through the rain shrouds.

Pushing back the darkness

Early in the morning heading East on I-10.  The sun is pushing back the darkness and raising the curtain of black clouds.

Foggy droplets make spider web sparkle

A spider guards his pearl-covered web -- the tiny droplets came from a morning fog that settled in thick in the woods of Mandeville, LA, over the weekend. I suppose the spider was having a panic attack about what the weight would do to his handiwork.

The changing of the guards

The sun, sapped of its strength, passes reign over to the misty night, in the slow hush of night fall.