Spectacular Solar Halo

I was in the studio this afternoon working on wedding album designs when I decided to take a break and head outside to enjoy the beautiful spring day here on the Cape.  I looked up and saw this amazing 22° solar halo surrounding the Sun..... I just had to run back inside and grab the camera! :-)  To capture the wide field of view you see in the image, I used a 15mm fisheye on the Canon 5D which covers 180°.

A 22° solar halo is an optical phenomenon forming a circle 22° around the sun. It forms as sunlight is refracted in hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere... usually from high altitude cirrus clouds.

You can also find this image on my astroimaging site at this URL: http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/solar-halo.html

Enjoy the view!

Chris

Landscapes from Southern California

I thought I'd share three more landscapes that were taken on my trip to SoCal.  All were taken with either the Canon 5D or 40D and the 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens.  These can also be found on the California page in the landscape section of my website...  http://www.abmedia.com/astro/misc-images/ 
Enjoy the views!

Chris

Check out the magical sweet light just before sunrise!  The mountains in the distance are the San Bernardino's crowned by 11,502 ft San Gorgonio Peak, 80 miles away.

A clearing winter storm over the snow laden San Jacinto Mountains.  The actual summit of 10,804 ft San Jacinto Peak is hidden in the clouds.  It was a facinating sight to watch the clouds swirl around the mountains.

This image was taken near Indio and shows a grove of date palms.... again, just amazing afternoon light.  So cool!!

Sunrise in The City of Angels

Hi all,

I just returned from a week in Southern California visiting family and friends and thought I'd share the first in a series of landscape photographs.  This image of downtown Los Angeles at sunrise was captured on a very clear morning at around 6:15am on March 10th.  It was taken from the top of Signal Hill near Long Beach with a Canon 40D and 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod.  The skyscrapers are over 17 miles away while the San Gabriel Mountains can be seen in the background.

You can also find this image in the landscape section of my website at this link...

http://www.abmedia.com/astro/misc-images/la-sunrise.html

Chris

   

The Wreck of the 'Ruth & Gail'

The 48ft fishing boat Ruth & Gail ran aground the evening of February 28th on Cold Storage beach in East Dennis after losing engine power. The boat was a casualty of the powerful Nor'easter that has been pounding the Cape with snow, rain and high winds for the last several days.

Here's a photo taken this afternoon with the Canon 5D & 17-40L lens.

Chris