Not A Forest Fire

It may look as if a forest fire is raging out of control behind this line of trees. In reality, the scene was merely a large bank of clouds moving swiftly away from the camera toward the southeast. The three-second exposure at f/3.5 with an ISO of 500 created a pastel colorization of the clouds, a reflection of nearby parking lot lights at Bowman Woods Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In less than a half hour, all clouds were gone. Peeking through the partial clearing at upper left are dimmer stars and the bright planet Jupiter. This image was captured around 10:35 PM on Wednesday, November 3, 2010.