Cloud Magic

Guten Morgen!

A couple of days ago, I photographed (while standing on our patio) the strangest/weirdest/unusual/most bizarre/alien-like cloud I have ever witnessed: That particular morning we had a super red sunrise, with quite a few clouds around and these clouds were illuminated in bright, crimson red. Absolutely spectacular! I especially noticed one stunning cloud, hanging over the Wet Mountains, in the direction of the sunrise. I was just starting to take some photos of this elongated , iridescent vapor mass, when the light of the rising sun changed and the colors all around changed to a more muted shade of red and purple. But I somehow felt I should keep my camera pointed at the long cloud, sitting seemingly motionless over the Wet Mountains, while all the other clouds were clearly drifting with a good clip above the landscape. No doubt, somehow it felt this cloud was different from the rest of the moisture-carrying structures floating by this early morning. I was just studying the details of this cloud through my zoom lens, when suddenly this cloud completely changed its color like a giant chameleon in the sky! One minute is was deep red, but just brief moment later this crazy thing changed to magnificent blue tone. Beautiful, but definitely also quite erie. As if somebody had flipped a switch! But to make things really interesting and downright FREAKY, shortly thereafter only the outside edges of the cloud began to pop up in a brightly lit red line, as if something drew a glowing outline on this cloud! I stood totally mesmerized, watching in utter disbelief this bizarre cloud-thing, draped over the mountain, still changing blue tones, like a huge wave on its trek across an ocean, while installing bright red neon lights on the contours. Magic in the Sky. And the neon-red line grew more and more intense. The big cloud was now so highly unusual looking, that it resembled NOTHING I had ever experienced in my life before. I kept on taking photos – documenting the unique spectacle above the ridgeline of the Wet Mountain - since most likely nobody would believe me later, if I would simply try to describe what I had experienced. Without being able to explain what my eyes had witnessed…

Nikon D850 with Nikon 70-300mm lens, Manfrotto tripod

minor adjustments in LIGHTROOM