It was a misty & foggy morning today. Silent & serene. A relaxing ride to work out some of the kinks & stiffness after this past weekend’s Triple Triathlon.

This morning started out with a pastel wash of clouds. Nothing too exciting.
That is until the sun made it over the horizon…

Because THEN… it became pretty spectacular.
Not really the sunrise per se, but the actual sun itself. Like a big red ball in the sky!!!

Sure, if I zoom back out, you get clouds, my bike and “normal” sunrise.

But it’s much cooler to zoom back in!!!

When you have this many gray clouds in the sky, you can only capture their oppressiveness with a bigger, wider photo. Thankfully that really cool sunburst is there to compensate for all of those gray clouds, huh?!

Okay, since I’ve been on Instagram, I’ve been taking more photos with my iPhone 4S.
Just easier to post to Instagram “instantly” as intended. And I’ve noticed that the photos I get on my phone are frequently different than those on my camera. The exposure, the color, and these crazy-cool sunburst effects I keep getting?! Maybe I just need to clean the camera lens on my iPhone?… and lose these cool sunrays?… maybe not…

Okay, so I’m getting a little tired of these cold & cloudy August days. It’s supposed to be summer still!!! And I don’t like wearing long-sleeved jerseys this early in the season. I want sun. I want warmth. I want a beautiful sunrise!!!

Okay sure, you can focus on all the gray clouds in the sky…          or… more to my style…
you can zoom-in and focus on the pretty!

All too soon the sun tucked back in behind the clouds. Gone for the day.

Oops… started zooming back out… too many clouds… let’s go back in!!!

Back to reality… More clouds. More gray. Not so pretty any more.

And yet still further away…
See what a difference a little ZOOMING can do for a gloomy sunrise?!

Lots of clouds this morning. A blanket covering the city.

By the end of my ride, the blanket of clouds was passing through. You could literally see the “edge” of the stormfront as it left leaving blue skies in its wake.

Looking to the North…

Looking to the South…

And the middle section. Blue skies & white clouds… wafting above the layer of darkness.
You know how on the evening news the weatherman presents the map with a bold dashed line showing you where the edge of the storm mass is?… well, this morning I think I actually saw that dashed line up in the sky!!!

Clouded skies. Rusty pulley. Climbing mandevilla vine.
The perfect silhouette combination on my back porch.

With a lot of clouds sweeping the morning sky,
sometimes a wide panoramic shot is the only way to properly capture its beauty.

This morning was more clouded than yesterday with a chance of rain later today.
So I took the opportunity to ride further south to get more miles in before the rain.
You could feel the change of wind & temperature as my ride continued… nice tailwind though!

A nice, dramatic view of the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

Low-flying clouds with a dramatic glow.

Nice sunrise ripples refelcting the morning sun at 31st Street Marina.

Yesterday morning was clear & very orange. Beautiful rippled reflections.
An incredible summer day in Chicago!!!