Morning Light: The early sunrise light of a January morning begins to illuminate the sky and water surface of a lake in southern New Mexico. The red morning sky gives way to orange and yellow, which reflect in the water creating a colorful start to the day. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Late Light: While stopped for the night on our way home to Colorado in early February we stayed at an RV Park just east of Clayton, N.M. The skies were mostly clear except for a few light clouds. The sun had set and the glow of the evening light created an interesting scene with the nearby windmill and trees in the foreground. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
While traveling around the country in our RV, I often take photos of various places, things, events or whatever catches my eye. When reviewing the photos for the Post From the Road, I usually feature one specific place, event, person, etc. but occasionally I like to mix it up a little and feature some photos that are more “stand alone” rather than part of a series of photos.
As I was reviewing photos for this post I realized the images that caught my eye fell into a couple of categories: photos of weather events and photos with more dramatic lighting such as sunrise or sunset.
These are photos from our past two trips the first being southern New Mexico and southern Arizona in January and February and the later was a trip to Texas in March and April. Since these photos are unrelated to each other all information and location will appear in the captions of the photos.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Mushroom Cloud: While stopped for the night just west of College Station, Texas this amazing cloud formed to the west just before sunset. The huge mushroom cloud was back lit by the setting sun and was glowing as it lit the western sky. Later that evening photos of the cloud were shown on the local TV weather report. The cloud is a cumulonimbus cloud and had formed in the Texas hill country well over 100 miles west of where we were located. Clouds form in the lower atmosphere up to about 30,000 feet. Above that elevation they cannot form and begin to flatten on top, which forms the mushroom effect. This is why planes fly at about 35,000 feet where the air is free of clouds and turbulence. The colorful event lasted for several minutes, which allowed everyone ample time to see and capture photos of the phenomenal cloud. The cloud began as a golden color but changed to this magenta color as the sun set. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Morning Glow: While visiting the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, N.M. in January I photographed many landscape photos around the area. This scene developed as we were watching the sandhill cranes and snow geese. I took a few minutes and walked near the roadway and captured several images as the sun began to rise above the horizon creating the gold and orange coloring across the plants and the horizon. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Desert Rain: While driving across southern Arizona in late January this thunderstorm formed in the northwest as we traveled toward Yuma. We watched the clouds form for a while until finally I had to stop and get the camera out. The late afternoon sun was still shining where we were traveling, which lit the desert and saguaro cacti and other plants near us in the foreground while the distant clouds were very dark. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Desert Light: While camped in the desert east of Bisbee, Ariz. we were treated to beautiful sunsets each evening. This photo was captured not long before sunset as the light skimmed the desert floor on a windy January afternoon. The Yucca plant in the foreground was emphasized to create depth to the scene. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
