This week we chased weather and a moon rise. After a rather snowy start to the new year, Mother Nature made an adjustment and gave us sunny days. Time to head out on an atmosphere focused photo mission.
There had been a new moon, considered a super moon, in the sky January 2nd. Unfortunately, that moon had been obscured by clouds. The full moon was set for the 17th of January and those days were supposed to be under clear skies.
A cool fact about winter’s shorter days is the sun can be setting as the moon rises. As the sun slips across the horizon a warm glow offers ‘cinematic’ lighting on any geographic features the moon is rising over. The feature we’re interested in is Fort Rock, a volcanic extrusion jutting up into a high desert landscape.
The mission actually turned into a couple of evening drives. Fort Rock is a half hours drive onto the high desert, but in that short distance there can be significant weather shifts.
Where the Fremont Highway drops down the southeastern edge of Paulina Peak, a bank of low clouds covered portions of the desert. Inside that fog the temperature dropped ten degrees.
The result was a coating of frost over trees, sage brush and even the fence line. This highlighting remained even after the clouds moved on. Along the edge of the cloud, sunlight penetrated enough to offer up some excellent photographic moments.
We’ve been to the area armed with camera gear enough to have marked out specific locations. This makes it easier to time these expeditions. The down side is that when conditions aren’t what had been expected, a shift in agenda is necessary. Actually, that is often the case.
On the first day we missed a perfect alignment of moon to the Fort Rock escarpment, close … but not perfect. Atmospheric conditions that day made for an interesting backdrop.
On the second day the cloud bank had shifted west obscuring Fort Rock as well as the moon. However, the frost coating and cloudy veil presented us with a very different look. Didn’t get the type of photo we’d been hunting, but managed some interesting images.
Fall weather has muted any remaining green and added yellow and orange hues to the hillsides.
We break open the lunch, brew fresh coffee, and enjoy the rush of river. A month ago this spot would have been baking in summer sun, today we are dressed in flannel and clouds flash intermittent bursts of sunlight.
Tip got to do some swimming and we had a brief picnic lunch before the smoke settled back down on us. The weatherman suggests air quality might get better next week. But we have to keep in mind that August is peak wildfire season so we’re not holding out much hope. Glad we managed a few moments on the river.
The ODFW has placed restrictions on Oregon’s large rivers as water temperatures rise from the heat wave.
Tip loves this spot to wade the stream and play fetch. Once started it’s pretty hard to get his focus off the game. We’re glad to set our chairs on the shady bank and take in it’s natural AC.