I’ve just become a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and, to celebrate getting my badge and certificate, I thought I’d post a cloud pic that I took outside my house last summer.
Steve
We’ll just call you Steve Nevis from now on.
I appreciate clouds. How would one become an offial cloud appreiater then, Steve? I’m intrigued.
Mark
Wow, I’m joining! I could spend hours looking at clouds.
Steve, it says they have a shortage of badges…did you get yours?
Susan
I’ve always been interested in the weather (the true “British disease!” 
) and I’ve still got weather diaries that I kept from the '60s - I used to copy the weather charts off the telly weather forecast every night and try to do my own forecasts! Understanding what all the cloud types mean is an important part of being an amateur forecaster. When you’ve stared at clouds for a few years you get to realise how beautiful they can be. One day the sky can be pure blue, and the next day you’re standing at the foot of a thunder-cloud glinting in the sun that’s bigger than Mount Everest but which can have evaporated within the hour. These days it’s dead easy to take pics of nice-looking clouds if you have a digital camera because you can point it at the clouds and press the button half-way down whilst watching the screen to check your exposure, and take lots of pics knowing that you only need to save the best one.
Yep, got my badge and certificate today. The badge will join my National Harmonica League badge on my Tilley hat! 
Steve
Mark, if you click on the blue words in Steve’s post they will link you to the website where you can become an official appreciater. I think that is what your question meant.
Steve, lovely photo and very neat website. How cool is it that the mystery storm photos on that website turned out to be from Nebraska, right next to good old Iowa? My mom is from there. Hooray, Nebraska is famous now 
! I must say though that when I am driving and headed toward a scary looking sky, cloud appreciation is not generally the first thing on my mind.
Not having a fenced yard but having a dog who must be taken out several times a day (and frequently at night), I find myself with a lot of time on my hands to stare at the sky, day and night. Because I live between the Great Salt Lake and the mountains directly on my east, the sky and cloud changes are incredibly dramatic. The nighttime clouds, especially, can be gorgeous and I wish a lot that I could photograph them at night. Clouds are wonderful!
Susan
You can take pics of clouds at night. I’ve got a little tripod about six inches high that screws into the base of my camera and I just sit the whole shebang on a wall or something convenient. I use the night setting and the time-delay on the shutter so as not to shake everything when taking the pic. I haven’t had the tripod long so I haven’t got much to show as yet, but here’s a pic of some noctilucent clouds that I took from my back garden last summer. The bush is slightly lit up because I forgot to turn off the flash! 
Steve
Ah, yer just an old flasher.
I can appreciate clouds, though in some cases I almost get the feeling that clouds don’t appreciate us.
Doh! I hate it when I miss the obvious. Thanks.
Mark
I just joined–can’t wait to receive my badge . The cloud art on that site is gorgeous.
Susan
Steve
Took my dog out early this morning and the clouds were great! There were all these ethereal wisps streaking down:
The clouds above the mountains were more fiery from the sunrise:
Susan
Beautiful, Susan!! The 2nd one does look like the mountains are on fire. I love it!
Hey, did you get your badge yet?
Steve, if you haven’t already got one, and you have a camera that accommodates filters, get yourself a polarizer. Turns normal clouds into fairy clouds. Great for rainbows and tide pools too.
PS: I didn’t know you were a hockey fan!
Oh yes, long ago.
Susan
Those streaks under the clouds are called virgae and they are precipitation falling from the cloud which evaporates before it reaches the ground. Here’s some virgae underneath cirrus clouds, pic taken from my garden:
Here’s my favourite virga pic which I took in September 2003 near Bude, about three miles from my house. These clouds, all over England that day, were so striking that they even made the BBC news! Apparently they were snow showers five miles above the ground, though at ground level the temperature was 25°C (77°F).
I used to use a polarizing filter when I had a big old cheap East German SLR years ago (damn good camera it was too!), but I just have a cheapie digital snaparoo these days. All that weight and gear to lug around, on top of my mobile, mini-telescope, harmonicas in D and G of course, car keys… I get quite good cloud exposures by aiming at the clouds that I want to be the centre of attention, doing that half-press thing with the shutter button to get the camera to find a good exposure, then, still holding the button half-down, frame the pic then shoot.
We had a day of glorious cirrus clouds in a deep blue sky last Thursday:
(I posted another one from that day with nice cirrus on the “Let’s Hear it for Geology” thread).
PS: I didn’t know you were a hockey fan!
Neither did I ! 
NHL = National Hockey League.
Nice photos! (If I’d seen those first I would have realized you already have a polarizer. Ha. Should have known.)
(Edit: Actually, I ought to have noticed the polarizer in the first shot too.)