The weather this June has been extreme and seems to know no middle ground.
Many days have brought intense heat during the day, followed by violent storms in the evening. At my studio, I watched horizontal rain lash against the windows, hail falling from dark, threatening clouds — and then, shortly afterwards, “piercing” sunshine again.
It really feels as though it gets worse every year.
From a photographic perspective, however—and perhaps this is the one positive aspect—the weather is fascinating. Threatening storm clouds, rain-slicked streets reflecting the last light of day, and all sorts of unusual atmospheric effects can create truly dramatic scenery.
More generally, weather is so important to photography that I would place it on the same level as the subject itself. It shapes the mood and often determines whether an image feels ordinary or extraordinary.
Anyway, enough of my musings. I wanted to share a few photographs from last night, when a thunderstorm front moved across the Thun region.
What struck me most were the incredible colors that the quad-band filter brought out in the sky: shades ranging from green and turquoise to pink edges along the clouds and even deep magenta skies.
There is also infrared light present in these photos, as I additionally used the GRB1 filter.
This is most obvious in the purple-colored trees, but it can also be seen in areas where trees appear both green and violet.
The trees on the left are illuminated by streetlights that emit a comparatively high amount of infrared light.
