Upgraded

The storm that affected the Hawaiian islands over the past few days has finally departed, the low has drifted well off to the west now. Fortunately the thunderstorms on the Big Island weren't too bad and the most intense one remained just off the east coast on Saturday morning - the forecasters were saying it would move onshore and the radar images looked ominous, but it stood still for a few hours before moving south. The rainfall was tremendous though, sometimes at rates of well over two inches per hour and deafening on a tin roof!

Some time ago I'd planned to work in the yard Saturday morning before going out for the day but the rain put a stop to that - the yard flooded again which is unusual but seems to have come more of an issue over the last 2 or 3 years - but in any case I wasn't going anywhere until the rain subsided a little. So I spent a couple of hours upgrading software on my PC using my new broadband service which included one or two of the photo processing programmes I use. To test the upgrades, I reprocessed some pictures I took last May at the summit of Mauna Kea as well as one or two I found that I'd forgotten about. I think the results are certainly a lot better although some of this may be due to the fact I understand this photography thing a little better than six months ago!

The top picture is of Mauna Kea's shadow at sunset complete with anticrepuscular rays and the eastern slopes of the mountain. In order to get anticrepuscular rays you need cloud in the west that blocks some of the sunlight and sets up the rays in the first place (below). Although you can't see those rays overhead, they become visible towards the horizon in the east and always look beautiful from the summit.