@thirsty_monk Love the peeking peak, and the confusion of sky and ground. I find the image too blue; maybe that’s how it was … were it my picture I’d play with the white balance.
@Chuckeee Taken through a car skylight? What a fortunate picture. It’s smudgy and the frame edges feel arbitrary, but I do like how the intensity of a lighting bolt builds from a nearly empty upper left to an eventful lower right. In my mind’s eye I cropped your picture to just the “action,” but it did not improve; the picture needs the “empty” space for the build up.
@someoldguy Classic star-field, the Milky Way a shape not unlike the silhouetted trees, which lean in to the center of the frame where the “action” is. Love the slight dusk-orange on the horizon. Well done.
@ovbacon Horizontal orange-purples with this sunstreak glare cutting up vertically. I also like the positive/negative balance between light and blocked-up blacks.
@mtbdudex One day last summer my son’s much, much delayed flight got him in to Newark at 5 am, and on the New Jersey Turnpike there was this seemingly same sky. What I remember is how muddy-gray everything was before, and then boom! red sky. It’s interesting too how the red sky just overwhelms the other, previously-dominant reds of tail-lights and roadside advertising.
@Apple_Glen_UK Never knew that name, mackerel sky. It brings to mind how very many names there must be, throughout the world, for various recognizable or distinctive skies. I like how this sky is a gradient in both texture and scale.
3rd someoldguy
2nd thirsty_monk
1st Chuckeee
Just a note about the rankings — to my mind, someoldguy’s picture is the “best” in terms of clarity and contrast and maybe even intent. Meanwhile, Chuckeee’s is something of the opposite, a little junky, feeling grabbed. thirsty_monk’s is subtle and in a contest about skies where one expects drama like ovbacon’s or mtbdudex’s (or like what I'm sure I would've submitted), it’s a slow burn; something similar can be said for Apple_Glen_UK’s subtle pattern and lower contrast.
I ended up preferring pictures that imply movement: one can just imagine thirsty_monk’s peak disappearing and reappearing, and of course Chuckeee’s lighting bolt, crossing the frame towards a fortunate juxtaposition with overhead wires, bravo.
