Just before we take off on a longish trip next week, I am going to do something for me very unusual: Post one single set of images not pertaining to any series and in fact not even related to traveling, but coming straight from my office window, inches away from my monitors - and the set comes with a big handicap.

But let me explain: Whenever we go on a long trip, I bring my camera in for a sensor cleaning, so I can start out with out fresh set of clear images, before these " fiendish" dust particles accumulate their residence in my camera body again. So this time, I was quite a bit early, brought the camera in to my favorite camera shop soon after we returned from the last trip. They always do a super job at this shop and I returned home with a pristine clean sensor - along with a substantial reset of my camera modifications. I am of course used to that, thus the first thing I did was to set set all the adjustments back again to my liking. But - dah - I forgot to check the settings on the camera lens, which I basically never touch, and so did not realize that the lens was no longer set on autofocus but instead rested at the ominous "M" setting.

Normally I am quite a late riser, except for when I do my travel series on UHH. For some unfathomable reason, on the morning of Christmas Eve 2023, I got up uncharacteristically early, and was already working in my office when luckily I realized that there was the first glimmer of a sunrise unfolding at the eastern horizon, well visible from my office window. I grabbed my "always-at-ready" Z7ii, swung the window wide open and started shooting. - When we moved from New York to Ferndale WA and purchased this house 16 years ago, we had a beautiful, unimpeded view of the skyline with Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters well visible, even if only as a rather narrow strip. Unfortunately, in the intervening 16 years, a bunch of not-so-welcome trees have sprung up behind our neighbors' houses and Mount Baker is no longer visible in the summer time, when the leaves on the trees block my view. But at winter time, the outlines of this volcano and the range are still visible, though only through the tree trunks and branches, but these can provide a nice effect. The few images below give you an idea of how the sunrise unfolded. I took a good number of the shots at the wide angle end of the lens, and these came out quite well. Towards the end, I started experimenting with captures of a variety of interesting developing moods, using the mid to telephoto range of the lens and that is when the quality went rapidly downhill. I am including a couple of these unfortunately unsharp images, just to give you an idea of how the light was changing - and I do hope that at some future date I will be able to catch another sunrise unfolding with similar interesting hues.

For completeness sake, I should also mention that for two of the captures I actually moved down to the ground floor entrance area of our home, to get a different angle with a bit more of the neighborhood homes and some Christmas lights on our bushes.

These images were captured with a Nikon Z7ii and the Nikkor 24-120/4S lens (set unexpectedly at manual, as explained above). I shoot Raw and process in Lightroom Classic - and no, I did not unduly "push" the colors in these images, just used my regular processes.


Notes
I am showing just 10 images in this set, if you are interested to see a few more, you can access my "interim album" with the following link - this interim album is not in my regular inventory of photo albums. Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AUvrBF6GrpArWCyJ8

Thanks for visiting, I recommend viewing the downloads and look forward to your comments and questions.

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1 - View from my office window as I first caught sight of the developing sunrise: deep red hues, the rest is just about totally black

(Download)

2 - The reds mellow slightly and a first hint of blue creeps into the top layer

(Download)

3 - Slowly edging into the yellower hues, the dominant Mount Baker becomes better visible behind the trees

(Download)

4 - Yellow is becoming more dominant, the blue in the upper part lightens up

(Download)

5 - View from our main entrance with two or our light-festooned bushes, note at left the glimmer of reflection in the windows of the neighbor's house

(Download)

6 - Another, slightly closer take from the main entrance

(Download)

7 - From the upstairs window again: The morning is progressing, we see the first light blue at left, the upper layer exhibits more blue and pink,the orange/red hues remain at right and an interesting slight yellow sliver is developing at center right

(Download)

8 - A slightly closer take of the above scene, capturing the center of the varied hues

(Download)

9 - One of my severely out-of-focus photos with strong hues and a closer view at that curious yellow sliver

(Download)

10 - My second and final out-of-focus composition with a bird in the sky and potentially interesting hues

(Download)

Great shots Rick, I love the colors, particularly in download, and they seem to be coming out much more saturated in download, I don't think I have ever seen such a difference. Very nicely done!

Interesting action shot, Tom, with the other birds acting like "extras" on a set!

Beautiful captures of this snow event, Tom! - I particularly like how in #3 the colors of the environment complement the colors on the bird!

Great shot, Sergo!

You made good use of a "good weather day", Rob! Love your #3 shot of the tidal slough and particularly #6 with the back-to-back pose - are they showing each other the "cold shoulder" or are they on separate look-out duties?

Beautiful shots, Kathy, I particularly love the jaguar images, really lovely!

Very nice shot, Tom!

Unbelievable shots, Eugene! - So crisp and clear - congratulations on these superb captures!

Very nice capture John, I love this one!

Thank you very much cjones for looking in on this segment of my recently completed series touching on a combination of neat vacation experiences during the last two years over in Europe. I am very pleased to hear that you enjoyed these images from the Bernese Oberland, one of my very favorite areas of my native country.

I believe this is the first time I see you adding a comment to one of my sets - thank you very much, it is always encouraging to hear that the images in a set were well received. In case you have the time and interest, I invite you to scroll back in the inventory of my presentations here on UHH, you might find another few interesting subjects. - No push, but if you are interested, you can easily find the link for the presentations in any of my posts at the bottom under the heading "EARLIER POSTS", or the entire list in my photo webpage under my avatar.

I am off shortly to another very exciting tour down in South America and will soon have to temporarily stop looking at the UHH "traffic" - Have a great weekend. Joe

BTW - like you, I am also mainly interested in landscape photography, but also dabble in architecture and street views.

Thanks Rob, for your always kind and astute comments, I am very glad to hear that you enjoyed these Swiss and European sceneries in this series of posts. Here is to hoping that you and Genevieve can get "over there" and enjoy some of that beauty for yourselves! Cheers!

Thanks Rob, yes, those walks along these "Bisses" in the mountains, forests and along sheer cliffs were very special for us and I am sure the grand kids will remember these well for a long time to come.

Nice, Tom! ... and what a change a rain squall makes ...

Very nice, Tom - I love that silver in the water combined with the gold in the sky and yes, that little bird belongs there ....