This line, written by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton in 1830 in his book Paul Clifford, is probably the most quoted example of a terrible opening story line. Be that as it may, last night was truly dark and stormy. When storms approach with their billowing dark gray clouds, the light in the sky can often become very fascinating. There’s a lot of contrast and a lot of interesting shapes that change at the whim of the wind. I’ve tried to capture the look and feel of a stormy day in photographs, but am often not totally pleased with the results. It can be difficult to catch the portrait of an elusive storm.
I took this picture last August in Yellowstone National Park. We were leaving via the Northeast Entrance Road and were still a few miles west of Barronette Peak when we stopped at a roadside turnout for lunch. While we ate our sandwiches, alone except for a single bison, the clouds started to roll into the valley towards us. I took a number of single photos as well as groups of three that I could merge into HDR photographs. This photo is one of the HDRs that I merged in Photoshop CS5. I’ve only recently been trying some HDR images, so more experience with that may allow a better rendition in the future.
You’ll notice from the caption that I did not use the infamous Bulwer-Lytton quote as the title of this image. You may recognize, however, that this is the opening line from John Denver’s song Back Home Again.