While at Hollinshead Park, in Bend, Oregon, enjoying the dogs and people, this strange cloud formed in the sunset sky and I took this picture.
A minute later it had changed a little, so I made this longer focal length shot to get more detail.
Five minutes later the details were developing patterns and another picture with a longer focal length got even more detail. In post processing I adjusted the brightness and contrast so you can see how strange this cloud had become.
The colors of photography are never real because as with a painting we are looking at paint, in a photo we are looking at colored pixels on a computer screen, or ink on paper. You are not looking at a cloud! Notice the simulation of an airplane contrail at 4 o’clock in relation to the simulated cloud.
My camera gives the file names with a time stamp, so I can reveal that 71 seconds later that airplane was passing under our strange display of light reflecting off of a cloud of specks of water.
79 seconds later our cloud of transient glory had dimmed and lost most of its apparent pinkness and details. Clouds are constantly evolving, as are we.
3 minutes and 58 seconds later, our formerly spectacular display was an almost invisible circle in the evening sky. We must realize that our lives, with all of their glorious adventures, will be as this cloud dispersing as specks of matter into an oncoming night.