FTLComm - Birch Hills - February 7, 2000

The subtle differences as the sky changes are one of the marvels of existence. Each day and night changes ever so gradually as it works its way into our consciousness only when the changes are quick. The picture on the right would be only thirty or forty seconds after the one above as the sun peeks over the horizon and illuminates the snow. As I was driving back from Prince Albert last night the sun had set but the after glow was one of those with a clear sky and only microscopic particles that scatter the early evening light. The picture is made up of three images blended together that were taken about two miles North of Birch Hills. No modification has been made to any of the pictures on this page, this is just how the old digital camera captured them.

Now this picture was a mistake. I had pulled off the road to get the window open and capture that evening sky. As you can see it was dark and I could not see the camera settings but just got it out of the window and clicked. Sure enough the "automatic" features kicked in and the camera's flash went off. I muttered some complaint turned on the interior light and set the camera for the images above. However, with the flash engaged the camera's CCD works somewhat differently and the image below is what I discovered to my delight this morning. The points of light in the foreground are reflections off the snow and in the distance on the extreme left is likely a farm yard. But the last glimpse of the sun and the sneaky moon are both in the image.