Photographer. Citizen science. Nature lover. Night sky and storm chaser.
Paul M Smith
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Last week I caught some of the most phenomenal events in the sky.
These sprites were so strong and so close that their colors reached maximum intensity from my vantage point.
The pink, purple, and blue colors at the lower 40-50km altitude are where the air is denser, meaning where molecules
or very close to, the footprint of the sprite. Something manifesting so far outside of the sprite body raises a lot of questions.
And the human touch? Well, if you look closely enough, you will see that my camera was knocked out of focus. AI would never be clumsy or human enough to do that 😅
bump into each other more often. These frequent collisions quickly 'shut off' the red light of nitrogen excitation before it has a chance to shine, while the bluer light from ionized nitrogen is still visible. The blue, mixed with varying concentrations of red, creates the beautiful
I've been accused of AI quite a bit lately.
I get it, the current social media trends do not foster an environment of trust.
But with real photography, we have the human touch and true imagery of nature that can uncover secrets about our world that an AI eye simply cannot.
Springtime scenes early this morning in Oklahoma
color transitions we see in the tendrils here.
This is why I put hours into chasing. The opportunity to catch a rare glimpse of nature like this fuels the passion.
*Real nature- not AI. Noise reduction techniques may cause false positives in AI detection software.
Like here, Green Ghosts dissociated from the sprite tops in two separate captures 30 minutes apart. Something I have never captured before, but perhaps it will have some significance for science and our understanding of the planet. Usually, I have captured green ghosts only within,
This old house in Oklahoma overlooks yet another storm passing by in the night.
The inhabitants are long gone, but I often wonder about the sights they saw- their experiences that were never shared before the time of social media and photography.
