Got totally fooled by a fake lenticular cloud over Mount Rainier last month

I was up at Sunrise Point in the park, trying to get a good shot of the mountain with some cool clouds around it. I saw this perfect, smooth lens shape just sitting on the peak and got so excited, I mean, classic lenticular cloud, right? I took like twenty pictures with my old Canon T3i. But when I looked closer at the screen, the edges looked weird and fuzzy, not sharp. I realized after a few minutes it wasn't a cloud at all, it was just a big patch of snow blowing off the summit, lit up by the sun to look exactly like one. I felt pretty silly, but it was a good lesson to really watch the details and not just assume. Has anyone else had a cloud lookalike trick them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

jasonc772mo ago

Honestly, is it even that big of a deal? You still got a cool photo of the mountain with some wild weather happening. The whole point is you went out and saw something neat, fake cloud or not. People get way too hung up on getting the perfect shot instead of just enjoying the view.

ellis.nina1mo agoMost Upvoted

Reminds me of that time someone photoshopped a UFO into a sunset everyone was sharing.

ben4842mo ago

But what if the fake cloud ruins the shot for the next person?