Atmosphere!

Sunday, December 29, 2019

After a string of days with little or nothing for me to do, today is loaded. The farrier who works on my horses lives in CA and travels to Bend for his local clients. He’s in town and this morning will trim my horses. A neighbor is having a party I hope to attend, at least briefly, before or after working my shift at Costco. Ideally, these three events would be on different days instead of piled into one.

That tro of activities has me thinking about some visuals from yesterday evening. I was trying to capture a small view of Mt. Jefferson and happened to be looking skyward as an airplane flying overhead, heading southeast, was leaving a jet track. The plane’s clean smoke path, alongside a billowing track laid previously, seemed interesting enough to photograph.

As I watched that plane, another appeared, coming opposite and northwest, at a lower altitude, toward that first plane. Hmm, their merging smokes might make an interesting photo.

Woops! Now a third plane, flying way above the second. Two airplanes moving northwest with smoke tracks at different levels and toward Plane 1 from the opposite direction. Their trailing smokes would be a trio stringing clouds that aren’t natural. They could create stories in the sky.

My focus on three levels was off for this shot captured all four smoke levels. Look closely to see the highest airplane’s smoke line. In my mind’s eye, this visual is a powerful version of star wars.

About the photo with Mt. Jefferson, a more distant peak that’s rarely visible from my property. Last evening’s clear and open sky revealed it, and lucky for me, those Canada Geese as well. As if the mountains and geese weren’t enough, the jet stream sightings were piece de resistance.

Dear Readers: We can’t estimate enough the natural beauties that surround us. Diana