Beams of light radiating from the sun become visible when shadows are formed and light is scattered by particulates in the atmosphere. These crepuscular rays can be seen forming at three distinct cloud banks above Lime Lake in eastern Portage County, Wisconsin. If conditions are just right, the rays can be seen traveling the entire sky to the opposite horizon.
Lime Lake is one of the few lakes in Portage County draining initially to the east. A remnant of our glacial past, it was formed by a huge block of ice left behind by the retreating glacier. The ice chunk depressed the ground underneath forming a depression that would become Lime Lake. The image was captured from the western ridge overlooking the lake. Drainage for the lake exits through the gap seen in the distance.
This image is an HDR and was constructed from five separate images. The images were captured using a static aperture but variable shutter speed resulting in a full f-stop between images. Images were combined using Photoshop CS3 and a Photomatix tone mapping plug-in.
MD Leader 
Leave a comment