The Glory of the Heavens - Clouds and Tree - Sky Watch Friday

Clouds and a Tree in Shadow - Sky Watch Friday

I got this shot purely by chance one day. I was outside with the camera getting some nature photos, when I happened to glance up and see this stunning cloud formation aligned perfectly with the top of a gum tree. Had I gone a few steps further in any direction, this scene wouldn't have been as exceptional, as the tree needed to be in just the right position relative to the clouds for this shot to work. As it turned out, I was able to quickly snap this picture.

The composition of this shot is almost the inverse of Rembrandt's famous style, where he uses small areas of bright light to draw attention to important areas of the painting. In this photo, the large dark area occupied by the tree draws your attention, and then you notice the bright white cloud in the opposite corner. Then a trailing wisp of cloud brings your attention back in circle to the right, where the dark tree is.

Another interesting aspect of this photo is the many different layers that appear in the one picture. At least four are distinctly visible - the tree, the dark layer of cloud, the light layer of cloud, and the blue-grey sky. All of these elements again combine to create the "clockwise rotation" of the eye when looking at this picture.

This photo taken with the Fujfilm S9600 digital camera.