Dawnwatch 29/01/2012 Phoenix Dawn

Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

Know your angles.  By now I know exactly where to stand on the balcony and point my camera to capture the various views of the dawn for best framing purposes, but back in January I was just beginning.  From the debatable best of a collection of sorry photographs you can still make out the truly spectacular dawn that took place on Sunday, 29 January 2012 and that gives rise to this dawn’s name:  Phoenix Dawn.   

Phoenix Dawn:  Sunday, 29 January, 2012

According to my notes, this dawn was hot and humid with no wind, yet the clouds moved...which was just as well, because the initial pre-dawn pinks were masked by low and thick clouds.  Maybe the humidity explains why half the photographs were out of focus.  Anyway, with little morning light, the long time exposure to take the initial photographs ensured that they would be blurry.

Moving along, the stippled clouds at the back turn gold.  This dawn was almost called Gold Nugget Dawn - until I saw how badly the photos had turned out.  I’ve seen this gold nugget effect, as I’ll call it, in several dawns, but I have to say that Phoenix Dawn is the finest example of it.

At the spectacular height of this dawn, you can see those gold stippled clouds dominating the sky with gold tendrils in a phoenix-like design.  Simply fantastic.

I sob now looking at the paucity of photographs I took.  Always, always shoot off at least three photographs exactly the same, for the first one or two may not turn out.  If you know that one of those photographs didn’t turn out quite right, take another one or two.  On occasion I’ve taken four photographs in rapid succession and none of them turned out properly.  And do remember to capture the scene with as many angles as possible; you won’t know until after afterwards, when you blow up the pictures and carefully study them, which angle or photo is the best.

The greatest dawns contain stages, each of them magnificent in their own way.  Phoenix Dawn is one of them.  Beginning with the pre-pinks, then the golden nugget climax, and now we enter the third and final phase, Painted Dawn.  The incredible last photographs of this dawn look as if they have been painted.  And you can see the sun rising behind the painted clouds.  A memorable finish to Phoenix Dawn, terrible photography notwithstanding.

See the entire video of Phoenix Dawn on YouTube here.

Souvenir posters and mugs of this dawn are available from the Gagothicfunk store at Zazzle.com as displayed below:

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.

Dawnwatch 02/04/2012 Dynamic Dawn

Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

This is the closest I’ll ever willingly get to a lightning storm.  It didn’t seem dangerous because there were no terrifying crashes of thunder and the storm seemed to be confined to the clouds quite some distance away.  Otherwise, I assure you, I would be huddling under the bedcovers.  Leave the standing in a thunderstorm for dramatic pictures to the professional photographers who presumably either know what they are doing and/or are covered by comprehensive life insurance.

Dynamic Dawn:  Monday 2 April 2012

A grey dawn of no interest whatsoever; a thick cloudbank with no break up to the treetops. I decide that, since I'm up, to drink my morning cuppa in the fresh morning air - with loaded camera just in case, of course.  And the just in case happened.  I couldn't help but notice these flashes of light exploding on an otherwise dull and grey morning.  What was causing it?  What was happening?  Where was it coming from?

Turns out there was a lightning storm over the horizon behind the oak tree, pretty much where the sun would be rising.  I took quite a few photographs before facing the fact that if you want to shoot lightning storms, you have to use video.  Very nervous doing so for fear it would fill up my camera's memory card quickly, and half way through I ducked inside to empty said card onto my computer and rush back outside for more video capture.  I have posted the results on YouTube with the following links.

The first video shows a lightning flash.  Mystery solved as to the where and the what of the lightning flashes.  From this perspective, it looks like the lightning is hitting the shedding oak tree.  The second video gives you a light display, flashes of light from the lightning.  The third video starts with one almighty kaboom of a flash; if you blink, you’ll miss it.  I cut the video short to edit out the roar of the garbage truck.  In fact, if you listen, you can't hear any thunder - I didn't at the time, either - and instead you'll hear the chirrupping of early morning birdsong.

That was the other interesting thing about this dawn - the birds.  They were out in force, along with the bugs, namely, mayflies and dragonflies.  I think dragonflies eat mayflies.  There was no reason for the dragonfly to fly into and play with the ball of mayflies.  Of particular interest was the Indian myna that appeared very, very proprietorial about the telegraph pole.  I have seen that myna a couple of days ago perching on the telegraph pole, but this time...well, see for yourself in the videos below. 

In the first video you’ll see the Indian myna beginning his investigation of the telegraph pole.  The second video is actually a continuation of the first; I accidentally switched the video off.  By the time I had switched the recording on again - just a few seconds - the myna had jumped up to the top wire and continued its most thorough investigation.  

Video number three is a series of pictures where I really, truly wish I had had the video function of the camera going, but I’m still wrestling with how to use it.  Sort of like the myna trying to make sense of the telegraph pole, because this video shows some truly bizarre gymnastic investigative work.

After yet more investigation of the telegraph pole’s wires, the fourth video suggests the myna is surveying the nearby trees for a possible nesting site.  I think.  Whether the lightning storm had any connection with the bizarre antics of the myna bird will forever remain a mystery.

No posters or mug souvenirs today.  The charm of today's dawn rests entirely in the dynamics, which give rise to the title.  Stay tuned for another myna update in two days' time, for the dawn of Wednesday, 4 April 2012.

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.

Dawnwatch 13/02/2012 Lava Dawn

 Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

Current affairs have influence on this dawnwatcher.  Instead of finishing off the early April dawns in the pipeline, I am digressing back to this date because ABC News 24 is still airing the picture of this dawn, initially screened in the weather segment, now moved to the sports segment.  You’ll recognize the beach scene of young men carrying surfboards in the foreground.  The background is Lava Dawn.

Lava Dawn:  Monday, 13 February 2012

Today began as a dark and grey cloudy dawn.  None of the first pictures turned out properly; I’ve selected the least blurry to start this dawn sequence.  In fact, the sky remained under a blanket of cloud all morning, with one brief exception.  Two cloudbanks, actually; a lower bank and an upper bank, which later became very significant.  However, from the way this dawn began as a near washout, I wasn’t expecting much.

Well, the golden sun began to rise, and things began to get a bit interesting.  On a plain grey dawn, there’s a hint of pink lipstick applied below, then yellow blusher above, and generally the dawn proceeds like a plain woman in the process of applying make-up to her face.  This is one of those dawns where the beauty is in the close-up details. 

As the sun treks up through the lower cloud bank, the dawn takes on an exotic tropical look at telegraph pole level.  It certainly appeared that way on the beach, as the ABC News 24 photo proves - I'm coming to that.  High above, the upper clouds turn brown.  On only one other occasion this year to date did this happen, actually just the next day, which was otherwise a washout of clouds in a darker brown colour and so may never be reported on this blog.  Two other occasions, if you count Old Gold Dawn, where the clouds were chocolate brown in colour.

Returning now to the ABC News 24 photograph previously mentioned, it was taken from sea level on the beach looking up.  I’m trying to capture the dawn sun rising over a ridge and treetops.  But this is the time of the dawn when the ABC photographer took the shot that’s screening on television.  Editors have since omitted the higher brown clouds.

 As the sun rises over the low cloudbank, the visible sky turns 24 carat gold.  The higher cloudbank of stalactites reflect back the captured golden sunlight. Gold and brown make a beautiful contrast.

However, the best of this dawn occurred at sea level early on, below the lower cloudbank, most of which was sadly out my range of vision.  There are dawns where I wish I had a better position to do their beauty justice, and this is one of them. 

See the video on YouTube here.

Souvenir posters and mugs of this dawn are available from the Gagothicfunk store at Zazzle.com as displayed below:

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.

Dawnwatch 03/04/2012 Lurking Menace Dawn

Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

A dawnwatcher must expect the unexpected.  Even though I can’t photograph the dawn proper any more, and in autumn the sun rises at such a low angle that the clouds have to be high altitude to catch the early glory pink light, you can be surprised.  I certainly was on this dawn.  The photographs and the video of this day’s dawn I have watched over and over trying to catch out the trick.  But I won’t spoil your surprise; read on.

Lurking Menace Dawn:  Tuesday, 3 April 2012

I awakened to a perfectly clear dawn.  Usually when the dawn is clear like this without a trace of cloud, I either go back to bed or resume writing my current fantasy novel on the computer (The Stone Wizard of Quoth:  Book Two of The Witch, the Hero, and the Princess).  It's not as if I can see the sunrise any more.  Well, actually I can, except it's but a glimpse through the northern trees and can't be photographed from the angle of my balcony.  However, after my encounter with the Indian myna yesterday, I was hoping for another instalment.  In that respect, I have to tell you right now, I was disappointed.  All was quiet; the birds stayed abed on this day.  By the end of this dawn, I found out why.

I was pleasantly surprised when a few shreds of cloud drifted over, enough to turn a brilliant pink for some lovely pictures.  Note though the strange grey wisps veiling the pink.  I was snapping away with my camera and wondering what to call this dawn, what made it special, and considered calling it Veiled Dawn.  As you know, by the time the sun rose, I had changed my mind.  The grey wisps should have clued me in as to what was happening.  

Well, the dawn proceeded as normal.  The clouds faded to yellow, then pearl, then washed out sand.  And then, I don't know what, why or how, a bank of fog covered the sky!  It happened not in minutes, but in less than a single minute, within seconds.  The fog descended so fast and completely, it was incredible.  No wonder the birds stayed in bed; they don't fly in fog.  

I couldn't wait to load the photographs onto my computer and check what I had just seen yet not seen.  Had there been any indication that the bank of fog was coming?  Those grey wisps of cloud!  That had been fog.  And checking the photographs, yes, there was the typical sandy dawn phase, but the sky was beginning to fog at that point.  But the exact transition point came so fast that, even looking at the photographs, I can't pinpoint it.  The fog didn't appear like a cloudbank rolling in from across the sky, it was just blink, and it was there and everywhere.

The fogbank struck before the sun was properly clear of the horizon, so here's pictures of the solid fog and the sun's red glow at the bottom.

However, the fog was descending to ground level, until it was everywhere, and everything was grey.  You'll have to take my word for it that I stopped taking photos only when the sun appeared off to the left through the trees.  An hour later, you'll be pleased to know, the fog had almost entirely dispersed for a warm and lovely autumn day.  But what a shocker of a start off morning.

See the video for yourself on YouTube here.  

Souvenir posters and cards of this dawn are available from the Gagothicfunk store at Zazzle.com as displayed below:

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.

Dawnwatch 19/02/2012 Voldemort Dawn

 Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

What you see in the video is the director’s cut.  The photos are selected to represent a significant change during the dawn, and attempts to cull unnecessary intermediate steps.  Culling is hard; I cheat by posting photos that don’t make the grade for whatever reason - incompatible aspect, too long a sequence - here on my blog.  I use Windows Live Movie Maker to make the videos; assemble the photos, add in transition effects, and set the timings.  This free program comes with Windows, and you’ll find it by typing “movie” in the search panel on the start up menu.  With today’s dawn, I really had to be ruthless and cut, otherwise the video would have been hopelessly large to upload.

Voldemort Dawn:  Sunday, 19 February 2012

I should have known I was in for an extra special dawn when ET popped up under the moonlit sky.  Only I never noticed ET was there until I studied a larger version of the photograph on my computer later.  There he was, on the horizon.  As far as I was concerned at the time, the dawn began bright and clear, except with that strange line of cloud stretching across the sky.  But don’t be fooled; the weather on this dawn was utterly miserable.  It was cold, it was wet, it was windy, and the mosquitoes were out in force.  Mosquitoes qualify as dementors working for Voldemort.

The clouds cleared, only to march in again worse than ever.  Dark clouds determined to block out the sun.  Rain clouds - you can tell it’s raining by the slanting lines.  At the same time, as the sun rose below the horizon, a swathe of colour appeared in the sky.  Voldemort’s vortex?  A Death Mark?  At the time of writing, ABC News 24 still occasionally features a picture of this swathe in their weather reports.  If you see it, you’ll know the photograph was taken on the dawn of Sunday, 19 February 2012, because it hasn’t been repeated. 

The colours fade to a golden glow as the red sun rises into the low cloudbank.  As the sun burns through them, the low clouds glow furnace red.  The cloudbank tries but cannot hold the sun imprisoned.  Little puffs of cloud chase themselves across the sky so that the telegraph pole looks like it’s adopted that unhealthy addiction of smoking.  I am watching a rimfire dawn.

The sun rises higher, despite being hampered by clouds, and touches the oak tree on the left.  Dawn is strictly over since the sun has cleared the horizon, but the best is just about to happen right now.  Where’s that ABC photographer?  Packed up his or her camera and gone home too early?  Because now the Dark Lord launches another attack, his most brazen yet, by reaching out a long, dark hand in an attempt to snuff out the sun.  What an awesome sight!

The clouds are on the same plane as the sun.  You can tell by the way the clouds and the sun and the light interact.  These clouds are reminiscent of the landscape scenes painted by the Old Masters (see OldMasters Dawn) and they remind me of a painting I’ve seen in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, but not quite.  The type of clouds and their colouring definitely look familiar.

The attack on the sun fails.  Light prevails over the dark.  The glowing sun emerges victorious through the clouds.  But Voldemort hasn’t finished yet.  He sends his servant Wormtongue on another sun-smothering attack.  Is that or is that not a giant rat or a kangaroo in those clouds?  The scene is changing with every snap of my camera, as the clouds are moving along at a fast clip in the strong winds.  Culling the photos was so difficult!  On this dawn, I took over 500 shots, a record at the time.

As it turns out, Wormtongue was merely the spearhead for the blackest bank of smothering cloud yet.  This time, Voldemort succeeds in his aim of blotting out the sun.  This isn’t really captured properly in the last shots of the video; you need to step back to really understand what is happening.  So I’ve posted a photograph that includes the oak tree here.  Pretty dramatic, isn’t it?

It’s more cold, more windy, and raining harder than ever.  What a miserable morning!  What an epic battle I have witnessed!  Lord Voldemort is triumphant on this dawn, with apologies to JK Rowling.  And I can’t wait to get back inside and inspect my arms.  As I suspected, the dementors - sorry, mosquitoes - had actually flown down my loose long sleeves and left a couple of giant-sized welts several times larger than the dementors themselves.  Dawnwatchers note:  never, ever wear a sloppy Joe with loose sleeves.  Whatever long-sleeved jumper type top you wear, it must have tight cuffs to keep the dementors out.

This dawn is for you, JK.

See the video on YouTube here.

Souvenir posters and mugs of this dawn are available from the Gagothicfunk store at Zazzle.com as displayed below:

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.

Dawnwatch 15/02/2012 Old Gold Dawn

Dawn from an East-Facing Balcony in Sydney

All photographs used in the videos and on this blog appear in strict chronological order.  But I can’t claim any credit; the camera automatically does the sequential numbering for me.  I use a 5.1 Megapixel digital camera with 10x zoom, and that’s the minimum a dawnwatcher requires.  Although my camera is only a few years old, it is already sadly out of date.

Old Gold Dawn:  Wednesday, 15 February 2012

This dawn began with the sky smothered in dense grey cloud, so I didn’t bother snapping panorama shots.  My attention was focused hopefully on the clear gap on the horizon, and indeed, it made all the difference in soon producing another unique and spectacular dawn.

As the sun rose from somewhere below the horizon, the usual pre-dawn pinks never eventuated.  Instead, dazzling golden light escaped through the gap and caught at the dark clouds, catching on edges of what was otherwise just a monotonous dark blanket.  The thick dark clouds turned a chocolate brown colour with gilded trimmings.

 Here I do switch to panorama shots, so you can see for yourself the dark cloud blanket, now brown, smothering the dawn sky.  I didn’t include the vertical shots in the video as I didn’t want to break up the flow, so I’m posting one here on this blog.  Dark, beautiful, fascinating, incredible, so very different from other dawns.  Unique.  I have never seen anything like it.

What caused the clouds to turn brown?  I don’t know.  There were no reports of bushfires, volcanic eruptions, or any similar natural disaster that might spew brown dust high into the atmosphere.  Maybe the wind blew dirt from the outback over the Great Dividing Range.  A meteorologist might know the answer. 

The dark gold gilding fades slowly, and all the action switches back to the gap on the horizon where I know the sun will rise.  And it does, in golden glory.  Astonishingly, even with the sun up, as you can clearly see, the morning sky is still dark!  Whatever it is that constitutes those brown clouds, light can’t penetrate it.  The dawn began dark, and even with the sun up, the morning is still dark.

Old Gold Dawn is the darkest dawn I have ever witnessed, darker even than washouts.  There is no blue sky; it’s been blotted out.  The dense brown clouds of this dawn simply absorbed - or blocked - the sun’s light.  A dark start to this day.

Watch the video on YouTube here.

Souvenir posters and mugs of this dawn are available from the Gagothicfunk store at Zazzle.com as displayed below:

Don’t forget your humble photographer also writes fantasy adventure fiction under the name of S E Champenby.  Paperbacks and epubs available from Lulu.com at S E Champenby’s store.