Stormy Chautauqua

Just enough drop under light illuminates the Flatiron formation at sunrise in Boulder. Silver Lupines blooming in Chautauqua Meadow combined with the dark ominous clouds made for a brief but awesome morning of photography with the help of a little storm lighting. Technical Details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 16-35mm F2.8 L II
Just enough drop under light illuminates the Flatiron formation at sunrise in Boulder. Silver Lupines blooming in Chautauqua Meadow combined with the dark ominous clouds made for a brief but awesome morning of photography with the help of a little storm lighting. Technical Details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 16-35mm F2.8 L II
The parade of wildflowers continues in Chautauqua Park in Boulder. Are wet spring is providing enough moisture to keep the meadow green and the flowers blooming. Currently the flavor of the day in Chautauqua Meadow is Silver Lupines and if things go as they usually do, I would expect the Sweet Pea to start blooming just west of the Ranger cottage shortly.

As I’ve stated before in my blog, I’m a sucker for storm light. Pretty much any subject looks good in storm light, including fast food joints, garbage cans, and even proverbial eyesores like strip malls and cell phone towers.

Some may wonder what exactly constitutes storm light. Clouds of any sort always help to add depth and perspective to landscape photography. Having clouds in your image alone does not constitute storm light photography. For true storm light we need a little bit more than just some wafting and drifting clouds in the sky.

For true storm light we need ominous dark clouds swirling above or around our subject. Dark ominous clouds alone are not enough. We then need the special ingredient of some ‘drop under’ light. There needs to be a small break or opening in those ominous clouds that allows just enough of the sun’s magical first or last light of the day peak through and bathe our subject with intense, colorful, long angle lighting.

Storm lighting is short lived and fleeting. Your only going to have a few seconds or minutes to take advantage of the conditions. This was the case when I photographed the Flatirons from Chautauqua Meadow last week. I had a little over 2 minutes of light this particular to make this image work. It was a fleeting moment, but the storm light over the Flatirons this morning more than made up for the duration of light. Now where are those fast food joints, cell phone towers and strip malls!.