Grandpa said look up at 4pm, and he was right about the mammatus clouds

My grandpa told me years ago that the best clouds show up in the hour before sunset, not at noon, and I finally tested it last Tuesday from my driveway in Reno. Shot 14 frames of mammatus clouds hanging under a storm anvil, way more detail than my usual midday shots. Anyone else find a certain time of day works best for weird cloud shots?

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sagelane21d ago

I mean, yeah, the hour before sunset is gonna give you longer shadows and warmer light, that's just basic photography stuff, not some secret your grandpa cracked. Any photographer could tell you that. Mammatus clouds look cool no matter what time you shoot them, it's not like they only show up at 4pm. I've gotten plenty of good cloud shots at noon with a polarizer, it's more about the storm itself and how you shoot it than the clock. So sure, golden hour helps, but people act like it's magic when it's really just light doing normal light things. Feels like you wanted the grandpa story to be a bigger deal than it actually is.

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