Technically it’s correctly known as a sun pillar but pillar of sunlight was to good an opportunity to miss for day 21 of Becky’s January Squares: Light photo challenge.
Sun pillars form when there are suitably aligned ice crystals suspended in the air at sunrise or sunset. This rather large sun pillar formed behind Chantry Island on Lake Huron, Ontario shortly after sunset. I had been photographing the interesting layers of cloud with a telephoto lens when the sun pillar formed so was ready for it.
12 replies on “January Squares: Pillar of Sunlight”
Well there you go, I never knew why they formed – a fabulous sunlight pillar
Thanks Becky. I didn’t remember if I had used it for an October Lines square with the bands of cloud in the sky but that never occurred to me until I had posted this.
Pretty sure not seen this delight before, you are right though would have been excellent in lines
I may have used an earlier shot before the sun pillar formed as the clouds were better then.
Wow! Sensational sky and I have learned something new.
Thanks. I thought about it for the challenge when making digital copies of some slides of a winter sunrise in Saskatchewan, Canada. I noticed a weak sun pillar in the sky that I hadn’t been aware of.
Wow
Amazing.
Thanks Victoria.
I have learned a few things from
This month’s square challenge and your photo is fantastic David
Thanks. It was a spectacular sun pillar. I have since found older photos from Saskatchewan with weak sun pillars that I hadn’t noticed when taking the photos.
How fun to find them in the photos 😉
☀️
I don’t know if I noticed them at the time and didn’t know what they were or if I didn’t notice them with being busy taking photos and changing compositions.