It was supposed to get really cold(LOL.......as if the high of zero the day before wasn't) this night, so I opted to wake up again and try for sun distortion or atmospheric optics. It was around -15F now. That is well into the "winter really sucks" category. But out the door I go! I left early when I saw this going on from my apartment window. I can barely see what the plant steam is doing from home. I back out of the parking area and the horn goes off. I thought, hmmmm, boy it sure didn't seem like I bumped that. This was as a van was going by on the highway, probably thinking I honked at it. So I blow it off and drive straight down the street. I get to the parking lot of the bowling alley(above) and turn in, and the horn honks again! I slow down and turn the car at an angle so I could shoot from the window(hell if I was getting out with a tripod in this crap). What happens again? The horn goes off, but sticks on for a bit as I turn. Every time I'd have to turn the damn horn would sound. Well this gets embarrassing fast. Especially in the "quiet" early morning hours in town. The wind changed and was more from the south, so the steam started to move more left. Yay, that meant I had to turn the car again. Honk!

It looked best when I first got here, since some of it was blocking out the moon some, so it was more friendly to photograph. The plant's steam is more fun to shoot when there is wind. There was virtually none this morning, so it largely just sat there.

I decided to try closer to the plant, further from town and people for the stupid car to keep honking at.

You'd think hardly any wind and a camera mounted to a car window would be very stable and lacking any shake. It would, if I could stop shaking. You obviously have to shut the thing off so it doesn't idle/shake any. The camera is mounted to the rolled down window. So you sit there with the -15F air in your lap. It was funny, I'd try so hard to hold it for the 8 second or so shutters. I'd do it for a couple seconds then simply have to shake. I'm now using the 100-400mm and really, any tiny movement in the car and it really shakes the view.

I did these until my hands were in severe pain. Hell most of the time I had them up in my jacket sleeves, with the cable release. Changing any camera settings though and they'd freeze. It just has a way of building up on you, so that the last time you take them out to change settings they go way over some edge and need warming up right now.

Sun about to rise, time to head over for what I got up for, any sun distortion stuff or halos/sun dogs.

I had just enough extra time to run into Wilson Island real quick, then get back out to my spot. I didn't notice just how cool this looked when taking the shot. The snow texture and icy steam looks kind of cool. I tried to imagine falling in that water and then getting out. I can't imagine. You'd want out of the water, but man, you wouldn't want out of the water. Being wet in the current air temp, well you'd be screwed so fast. It's kind of funny, this is Monday morning. By Friday afternoon I'd be about 90 degrees warmer in southeast Kansas chasing storms(mid-70s compared to -15).

Sun distortion! You could see heat waves as you looked over towards the bluffs south of Missouri Valley Iowa. Probably a combination of any open water/streams(though doubting those were open) and any buildings/houses.

I don't know what happened in this one. Just an odd colored line thingy above the sun, about where you get what is called Green Flash.

There are some cool images on the atmospheric images site showing various "mock mirage" where the sun will look like it's doubled below it. It reminds me a lot of what I have here. http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/mmirsun.htm And look at some of these. http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/smir0.htm

Unlike the day before, you really couldn't see this happening with your naked eye. I just snapped fast shutter speeds as it rose, while trying to not look directly at it through the lens. The day before it was just a lot more obscured with ice crystals.

Not sure where that steam was really coming from. I'm rather stupid for not driving over into that, since maybe one could see some interesting optics, since it is ice crystals making that up. A little hard not to be at -15F.

I messed around along the Missouri till I realized I already have this sort of shot. This time I tried using the highlight tone priority setting on the XSi. I think it actually helped. Shooting this kind of scene with bright sun reflecting off water and a lot of steam, well the camera hates the dynamic range. Using highlight tone priority, getting the shot exposed just right, along with some careful processing and you can get it close to how you saw it. I just love this scene though. Only because it appears like a warm scene, steam and warm colors and all. It's so far from what it appears though! COLD