When I step out onto my balcony and look East, I always have magnificent views. I look towards the ridge opposite my house in the Dandenong Ranges. There are frequent colorful sunrises that materialise behind the dead branches of a large tree jutting through the forest canopy. You’ll find a number of photos from my balcony with the tree top as subject (just see yesterday’s post).

I took this image some time ago and was struck by the contrast between the red rising sun and the black early morning sky. I then wondered, what would this view be like if we were much closer to other star systems. What if a nebula was a nearby neighbor? Here’s my minds eye of what that would look like. I’ve combined an image of nebula NGC 1333 with my tree view.

This image of NGC 1333 was taken using the Mosaic-1 imager and the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak. This star-forming region, located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Perseus, harbors hundreds of newly formed stars less than one million years old. Many of these proto-stars exhibit energetic activity such as jets and strong stellar winds. NGC 1333 credit T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF

A while back, I decided to take a photo every day for 14 days from my balcony. The photos were taken looking east with the top of an old tree in the foreground and the top of a mountain ridge in the background. I arranged the shot so that the tree was the main subject matter and the ridge disappeared behind foliage.

I took these picts over the 14 days. All of them were taken in the morning. Red Dawn was one of these 14 day images that I liked and edited it further to produce a separate image. I compiled the days together into a composite. I have a hankering to re-do this project. I’m not too thrilled with the result and would welcome any suggestion you may have to better display the 14 days.

cheers

From our balcony, when you look east, you see one of the ridges of the Dandenong Ranges. Each morning, about the time I wake up, I am frequently greeted with a stunning sunrise as the sun fires up the sky as it ascends over the ridge. Some distance away, the top of a tree is completely dead but sits almost center of the rising sun. I took this photo of the tree and the sun as it was rising.

I edited the image in the GIMP tweeking the hue slider towards the red tones. This is my second entry into the Creative Photo Contest.

Last night the Weatherman predicted early morning showers. I woke up this morning and as I was having that first sip of coffee, I cracked my eyes and looked out the kitchen window. Lo and Behold, a beautiful sunrise. This photo was taken out the same kitchen window – Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne, Australia.

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