Sunrise 47: Ault Park (More Spring Blooms & Scented Geranium Garden)

Orange Bloom. Love the center of it.
A harvestman. I love his white and black pattern.
This morning was another beautiful sunrise in the Cincinnati Valley. The sun seemed to come up about 10 minutes late from the scheduled time, something that bothers me when I think too hard about it but I know can’t be possible. In fact I didn’t even see the sun until about 6:25 due to the haze in the sky. By the time it made itself visible it wasn’t even that far above the horizon. Weird…
Looking at Armleder Park through the shallow mist.
Purple Sunrise through the clouds
A deep orange/red sunrise through the haze
I decided to stay in Ault Park this morning and enjoy the clear sunrise. With my recent bouts of wanderlust I haven’t had a great chance to get pictures in that small window that occurs after the sun is above the horizon but before it gets so bright that you can’t stare directly into it.
Lookin’ at the layers of fog across the trees.
There is a small period of time, maybe 3 minutes, where the sky sheds the red/orange hue and takes on a brilliant orange gradient. Soon the sun light becomes strong enough to hurt the eyes and any pictures featuring the sun will be washed out. It is hard to guess when this window will occur, but that’s half the fun. On morning like today when the sky is clear but the humidity is high, the window occurred about 25 minutes after sunrise. On an overcast or foggy day, that window might not be for 45 minutes to an hour after the sunrise. On a low humidity day with no clouds, the window could be as early as 8 minutes after sunrise.
As I was standing at the overlook taking a final picture before the sun became too bright, two things happened in a row that provided perfect picture opportunities. The first thing was that a crew of canadian geese flew right into the sunrise as I happened to have the camera on and ready to go. About 10 seconds behind them came the familiar jet that took off from Lunken also into the sunrise. I’ve seen this jet probably 5 times now, sometimes I refer to it as the jet “with the wing tips folded up or down”. I think it is an old WWII jet but I’m not certain. I wonder where it has traveled to since I saw it last week.
Once the sun light started to become more intense I realized that it was another perfect morning for checking out the spring flowers. This time I ventured down into the arboretum along the tree-lined sidewalk.
If you’re on the front page, click to continue and see more pictures –> (more…)