Category Archives: Weather

Vanishing point

Posted on by
Reply

One interesting bit about the fog this weekend was that it made things nearly impossible to see from a distance, including the landmark capitol building! Even from the pioneer statue at the bottom of the capitol mall the building itself was completely obscured. That gave me an idea, and it kinda worked out the way I planned.

The plan was for the capitol to actually vanish into the fog as I perched at the bottom. Interestingly, the fog didn’t work that way; while it was certainly thick enough looking horizontally through it, the fog wasn’t dense enough to totally obscure things while looking vertically while remaining as close to the building as I wanted. Standing far enough away to allow the building to be obscured by fog blew the perspective I wanted to achieve. In any case, it’s still a neat photo even if the effect is somewhat less than I’d anticipated. I didn’t freeze my fingers for nothing.

While I didn’t bump into him, it turns out I wasn’t the only other photographically inclined person poking around the capitol grounds at night. Check out a brief video of the weekend’s foggy festivities by Sam Sprynczynatyk by clicking here!

Spiky Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I took advantage of the conditions and bolted out to some of my favorite rural haunts to see what the weather had in store. I knew the night fog would leave behind some photogenic traces, but also that I needed to find the right location to capture them. Out of town, the spikes of frost were up to an inch long!

I was in a little crunch for time and burned much of it pursuing a snowy owl without result, so I mostly hung around this one fence. It had a really cool way of securing the gate, using a chain from an old thresher or bailer. Naturally such a neat metal structure was the perfect place for frost to set up shop, and I was there to catch it.

Daylight began to break later in the day, and I actually came back after we got the afternoon’s festivities handled. Most of the frost was gone from the fences, but a few low-lying areas and shady spots were still adorned with what my four year old said resembled a porcupine’s quills.

Yes, that’s right…I didn’t come out here alone! I had one of my little guys along for some quality Daddy time. We had a blast just roaming around and talking, and we even spotted a new windmill for our collection! He has the same fascination with these structures as I do. We got to take some photos here, and I got to let him touch and break off some of the frosty spikes and see how they felt and melted.

As soon as it started, the day came to an end. The sun approached the horizon and we began our journey back to town. We got to witness some of the wonders of God’s creation, had some great Daddy-son time, got some cool photos, marked a new windmill in the GPS, and simply had ourselves a glorious day.

Frosty Friday

Posted on by
Reply

I took the day off today to accompany my little fellas on a field trip and then to teach a quick introductory karate lesson to the group of kids. Getting up early, I realized there was a lot of fog and just enough time available to bolt out east of Bismarck and look for something frosty. Bonus.

Barbed wire is always a safe bet if there is frost about. Not only is it a good candidate for frost to form, but it’s also quite photogenic in the first place. A while back, when I bought and outfitted my new camera, I had to sell my beloved macro lens in order to afford some accessories (I’m still smarting from that). Even so, I have a couple of lenses in my kit that do a remarkable job of interesting closeups when the situation requires.

Melange and malady

Posted on by
Reply

At last – some snow! It’s a couple feet less than I prefer, having grown up in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, but it’s a start. Of course, I set things in motion when I took my snowblower in for a tune-up…but this isn’t even enough to bother with it. I have a little boy who LOVES to shovel snow, so we turned him loose instead.

I managed to capture this incongruous mixture of random rural elements while out on some remote gravel road, as usual. This particular photo is actually from quite a while back; I spent most of my weekend unconscious while trying to sleep some sort of cold/flu/sinus malady instead of outside with the cameras.

I sure was excited for the Northern Lights which resulted from a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun over the weekend – but of course it was cloudy! I actually don’t mind that so much, since my ailment had me bedridden (or couch-ridden) anyway. If conditions had been right overhead and I’d missed the event due to illness, I’d have been plenty frustrated!

Here’s to the start of another great week.

Some people really like taking cold, wet risks

Posted on by
Reply

These photos are from a while back when a friend and I ventured out on the ice at Lake Audubon. As you can see, the ice was very thick at the time…nearly three feet in places! The slab pressed upward by the pressure ridge in the photo above is around twelve feet tall. Ice that thick is easily capable of supporting a vehicle or ice house. What about the lake today?

This sort of ice hasn’t had the time or the cold to form yet, but I’m told there are plenty of guys heading out onto the ice with their big pickup trucks and fishing gear. A friend of mine drilled a test hole this weekend and found the ice to be twelve inches thick…essentially the bare minimum for that sort of thing. Then we had 50+ degree weather yesterday, which couldn’t have helped things much.

I wonder how long it’ll take for the ice to thicken, and whether or not someone’s going to “take the plunge” before that happens? As for me, I think I’ll stay on terra firmer for a while until the ice sheet gets a little more fortified.

It’s easy not being green

Posted on by
Reply

This little cluster of nonconformists stands out now, but leaves are starting to change color all over the place. Fall’s right around the corner, and photographers like myself try to make the best of it. Last year the leaves didn’t bother with color; they simply fell off the trees, and the snow fell. Let’s hope we get to at least enjoy a typical autumn this year!

Cloud Chasing

Posted on by
Reply

A few Fridays ago I spotted some pretty wild clouds overhead and had some time to pursue them. As it turns out, the sky provided a pretty good variety for me…it just took a little legwork.

Although the previous photo was taken from the parking lot of Bismarck High School, I knew I needed a better vantage point in order to capture some of the more spectacular sights. I headed for Promontory Point to catch the tail end of this weather system. It had some pretty astonishing lift, making for some really visually appealing artifacts in the clouds.

Here’s the trailing edge of this weather cell. While it looks pretty cool on its own, it’s what was taking place within the clouds that was most exciting.

As you can see, the lines forming within this group of clouds are pretty neat all on their own, illustrating some very unique dynamics within the system. I decided I needed a better look, so I decided to head to Fort Lincoln.

Sadly, I was told at the gate that the blockhouse hill had been closed because of these very clouds. I was extremely ticked; I mean, why do I pay for a state parks pass if they close whenever it’s most useful? The blockhouse hill is closed until the sun has risen, it closes at sunset, it closes for weather… it’s ridiculous. I retreated to the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery for a hasty shot before the sunlight went away for the evening.

Out by Huff I noticed that I once again had feathery company in my observation of local weather patterns. On the way back I saw several more of his counterparts perched atop power line poles along the highway.

As always, I maintain that North Dakota has some of the most dramatic skies. Keep looking up, or you just might miss ’em!

Foggy Bottom Boy

Posted on by
Reply

After breakfast with some friends last Saturday morning, I ventured south toward the river bottoms to see what sort of photographic opportunities were presented by the morning fog. It was still during the 6 o’clock hour when we wrapped up breakfast, so I was able to get ahead of the sun and sky a little bit. I stopped by this bridge near the entrance to Fort Lincoln and decided perhaps a refreshing morning hike up to the blockhouses would be a perfect way to enjoy the morning.

At first, I expected the blockhouses to be above the fog, since their elevation is so high above the river level. I was wrong…when I got up to the top of the hill, I saw that they were socked in with a thick blanket of fog too. In fact, when I was taking this shot I could see the airborne droplets dashing past my face between my camera and me. It was strange but intriguing, something I hadn’t witnessed since my days of living and working at very high elevation in Montana.

The sun was working on punching its way through the fog, but thankfully I had a pretty good window of opportunity before the morning blanket started to burn off with the rising sun’s rays.

As you can see, from the top of the blockhouse there wasn’t a whole lot of visibility at first.

Slowly the fog up at my level began to dissipate, leaving a thick covering over the river valley below. The sky above was perfect, a beautiful blue and crisp with the morning.

For a brief while I had a little companionship. I have an agreement with the birds; it’s not complicated, but it’s hard to explain. He didn’t care for the idea of me putting on a larger lens to get an extreme close-up. I guess that was the last straw. He left as suddenly as he dropped in.

The sun climbed steadily higher, and with that it dissipated more and more of the thick fog below. As the fog began to recede, the flooding of the Bismarck-Mandan area began to reveal itself.

Soon the view of airborne water was replaced with the view of ominously expanding riverbed water as the Missouri continued to rise and reach out further and further from its normal channel. Vantage points like this are important because they can give a good frame of reference as far as the amount of water we’re dealing with right now.

The fog was suddenly just…gone. The thick covering was replaced by amazing blue skies and a warm, friendly sun. This allowed me to take some photos and video of the blockhouses with brilliant green grass and stunning blue skies. I did plenty of that and then pointed the truck for home.

As much as I like to sleep in, as a photographer I appreciate the morning. You can’t duplicate morning light.if I hadn’t gotten up early, I’d never have seen any of this. As luck would have it, I was able to play with my cameras quite a bit before the clouds rolled in. That’s how I like it.