sunrise

South Main Road, over the Tonawanda, Batavia. Photo by Chris Suozzi.

Oakfield. By Kristin Smith.

Lockport Road, Oakfield. 

Photo by Kristin Smith.

Photo by Guy Clark of sunrise over DeWitt Recreation Area.

Photo by Frank Capuano.

Brandan Smith submitted this photo of this morning's sunrise in Bergen by his uncle Dan Maher.

Photo by Bryan Bartholomew.

Frank Capuano shared his photo with us of this morning's sunrise.

Taken this morning from Assemblyman R. Stephen Hawley Drive, just off the Genesee Community College campus.

There's plenty to be said for rising early. In the above photo, rays of sunlight permeate our yard as the sun begins its ascent.

The calm of early morning provides a mirror image on a placid surface.

Mist rises from a stretch of Tonawanda Creek. Regardless the time of day, this is always a nice spot to take photos as little light penetrates the treetop canopy.

Gathering clouds have a filtering effect and cast a pale-orange glow on the horizon.

The full moon looms large immediately after rising...........

but not until the full moon climbs high in the night sky are we bathed in soft lunar light and moon shadows.

Normally, the sky serves as a backdrop for innumerable photo subjects and under a variety of conditions. But there are those times when the sky itself is the subject. On such occasions the sky needs no help, no setup, all by itself it steals the show...this sunrise as seen from Genesee Community College literally stopped me in my tracks. After I snapped the above photo, the following moments were like looking into a panoramic viewfinder as the horizon went through some rapid changes...

Shape-shifting clouds, intense yellows, red and orange. Whether it be described as moving, inspirational or spectacular...it was totally surreal.

The pics hardly do the scene justice -- what you see in the photos spanned the horizon from north to south, an unbroken view of the entire surrounding area.  There is certainly something to be said for rising early.

Once autumn foliage is gone, bony branches and various moon phases offer a variety of photo ops. This pic has a Halloween look to it.

Playing a waiting game with the moon, wind and clouds...

It was a crisp, cold winter night when I pointed to the crescent moon and my dad promptly told me it was one of his fingernails he had thrown into the sky. Yeah, I believed him...I was of pre-school age at the time.

This is one of Claudia's favorite evening photos taken from our back yard. 

Another of Claudia's photos...it reminds me of  a '50s and '60s TV ad...hint: "plop, plop, fizz, fizz."

Late in the day cloud bank, August 2011

Lunar nocturne