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I've looked at clouds...
By juliezavala in My Turn
October 11, 2011

Image Cloud hand

I have a thing for clouds.

It started at an early age, this fascination. I remember one evening my parents called me outside to show me a spectacular sunset with clouds of bright pink, purple and gold. "Which one is your favorite colored cloud?", my Mom asked me. I chose pink - I thought it looked like cotton candy.

From that day onward I began taking notice of the many shapes and sizes of clouds. To me, clouds were sort of a 'mood setter' for the sky; the tall, puffy clouds added grandeur and interest to an otherwise bland view. Storm clouds seemed mysterious and sometimes a little (or very) menacing. High, sweeping clouds reminded me of the seashore with their thin washes of flat cloud upon flat cloud, like ripples in the sand. In fact, even the absence of clouds made a statement in the way the sky looked. I was on to something.

I remember, when I was about 8 years old, I went outside to help get the clean clothes of the clothesline and when I looked up at the sky I saw that it was covered with small cotton-ball sized clouds, as far as the eye could see. It kind of freaked me out, but it was still cool.

Now that I'm older, I've started taking pictures of the more impressive clouds. Once, when my husband and I were driving down John Stockbauer on our way to the mall, I looked out the car window and saw a cloud that had a perfect dome on top, like a scoop of ice cream, with a thin mist swirling around it. Robert pulled over so I could snap a picture of it.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a cloud with what appeared to be a hand reaching out from it (see above).

In my opinion, clouds are best viewed in the morning as the sun is rising or in the evening as the sun is setting--there is a certain luminosity to them that's missing when the sun is higher in the sky.

And like Joni Mitchell's song; "I've looked at clouds from both sides now, From up and down, and still somehow, It's cloud illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds, at all."

But I'm working on it.