Big Sky Over Black Point

CA-Hwy-1 to Sea Ranch

I almost missed this ­­­opportunity and only caught site of it as I was getting ready for dinner and noticed it out of one the back windows. So it was off to Black Point to find a proper angle to capture the scene. I shot it from several different angles along the bluff and finally settled on this one. I hope you enjoy my “Big Sky” image…and, no, you can’t claim the 35 points unless you actually spot one first hand. Sorry, there are rules.

We had some wind the other day, which for here, is no big news event. In fact, when we first moved here in 2004, people told us that…”the wind is the weather here”. But occasionally the wind conspires with the atmosphere to create some dramatic cloud formations. According to my Cloud Collector’s Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, this cloud formation is called a Cumulus radiatus, or “cloud streets”. Parallel lines of clouds form along the direction of the wind and appear, as in this image, to converge toward the horizon due to the effects of perspective. Anyway, for me it was my first chance to use my new book on cloud types (which gives me 35 points for spotting any radiatus-type cloud formation). Yee-ha!