I watched clouds form and grow overhead as the sun descended toward the western horizon. The last sunset of the summer of 2014 was a bit unsettled and stormy, but the clouds and colors were awesome. The weather put on a show to close out the summer season.
Storms formed ahead of a cold front near the Manassas National Battefield Park as I prepared to photograph the last sunset of summer from Henry Hill. Rain shafts were visible to the north and to the south, and in the middle brilliant crepuscular rays fanned out from the clouds to the earth. I forgot an umbrella, once again, and I hoped that I would stay dry during the photo shoot.
Suddenly, rain poured down while the sun was still shining. I put a towel over my camera and quickly moved across the battlefield to photograph a rainbow that was certain to appear. Rain accompanied with bright sunshine almost always produces a rainbow in the opposite direction of the sunlight.
A rainbow did appear, but it only lasted a minute. I managed to capture a few shots of the rainbow over the statue of Stonewall Jackson. It was worth the jog across the field with my camera and tripod in tow.
The storm departed to the southeast and the rain ended as abruptly as it began. No lightning accompanied the storm.
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As the storm moved away, it began to slowly dissipate. The top of the storm collapsed as it was sheared to the northeast. Meanwhile, the light from the setting sun beautifully painted the cloud structure of the dying storm. There were no low clouds overhead to block the view.
Sunday’s stormy sunset at the Manassas Battlefield Park was one of the more photogenic weather sequences that I’ve photographed.
In addition to shooting photos with my DSLR, I used a GoPro video camera to capture a time-lapse video of the sunset from the barrel of a cannon. I added some music to the video which is fitting for a Civil War battlefield setting. Note, check out the storm that forms at the end of the video. That’s the same storm featured in the sunset storm photos above. The video is included at the bottom of this post.
A time-lapse video recorded with a GoPro video camera at the Manassas National Battlefield Park, September 21, 2014. The music is by the 2nd United States Artillery & Fort McHenry Guard Fife and Drum Corps. (Kevin Ambrose)
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