Walking Rancho Hermosa

An Afternoon with Sky Sculptures...

Bailey's Cloud...look sideways, you can see him in the Sky...

This afternoon after the rains, I decided to walk later in the day for the lighting is so very different than morning and midday. Brisk it is, and meeting my small friend down the street, Rocky, was strutting forward with his usual ambition of making hay when the sun shines...

His 3 o'clock walk...

Looking skyward, I could see mountainous cumulus clouds building in the east. Dark were the under bottoms of these energy laden forms. Thunder storms had been in the forecast, but they seemed to be far away, so eagerly down the hill I went. Having been cooped up for most of the day, like Rocky I was raring to go.

Back lighting is dramatic in photography and painting as well, and though I know next to zero about cameras, I do know how to point and shoot. Of course corrections can be made in Photoshop, and I use it to make my pictures encapsulate the stories I wish to tell.

Heading down the San Dimas Hill I see some of the gardens back lit. The light transforms the shapes and light shines through and around the subject giving a glowing effect. Direct light flattens the subject and makes the surfaces more even, where as the back-lit light makes a halo effect.

Sleeping Indian Hill in the distance

Making my way to the end of San Miguel Court, stopped at my favorite vantage point to see the Valley, the sun is lighting the clouds from the south. The clouds seem more three dimensional when lit this way, and that is why I call them Sky Sculptures. Many pictures taken, I make my way back up San Dimas Hill. Those of you who climb it sometimes think of it as a mountain and in the afternoon when energy is low, it seemed so today.

Later this day, I took some of the side lit hills of the valley. The glow of the last rays of sun made layers of pink and purple. The end of this storm, April storm showers, creates wonderful Sky Sculptures...

                                                     6:30...
10:10 The rains come again..replenishing our good earth, making the air taste sweet again, and the morning will bring once more a new day a gift to us and glowing with the sculpture clouds...

If you click on the pictures, you will see them enlarged...