Stamp has Utahn on cloud 9

The vital part clouds play in the weather and in a Logan photographer's work are featured in a new set of U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamps.

Cloudscapes, to be unveiled today, includes a photograph by Scott T. Smith, a Logan freelance photographer raised in West Valley City. He is among 10 photographers chosen for the series and becomes one of the few in history — including Ansel Adams — to have work displayed on a stamp.

Smith is known for his wilderness and outdoor photography, which is featured in several books and calendars nationwide. His favorite subject, he said, is the natural world.

"The clerks in the Logan post office said, 'You'll like the new stamps coming out next week,' " Smith said. "They didn't know one of the photographs was actually mine."

Smith's photograph was taken at sunset near Las Cruces, N.M., in 1988. The accompanying description in the set, which is intended to be educational as well as pretty, states that "altocumulus stratiformis clouds are primarily composed of water droplets and . . . reflect glorious colors at sunset."

Smith was contacted in 1997 by a photo-research company hired by the Postal Service to seek out the best cloud images. Nearly 200 of his photographs containing clouds were chosen for consideration. One of his images made the final cut and is featured on the second row of the pane of 15 cloud images.

Brian Sperry, USPS regional spokesman, said that using existing photography was easier than sending someone out to capture the many cloudscapes they wanted to feature.

The number of requested subjects far exceeds the number of topics that are actually chosen. Sperry said approximately 50,000 subject ideas are submitted by the public each year through the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee. Only 25 to 30 stamp subjects end up being released.

Cloudscapes is being released during National Stamp Collecting Month. This year's theme, "Reach for the Sky and Collect Stamps," includes an alliance with the Weather Channel, the American Meteorological Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service to educate stamp collectors about atmospheric sciences.

"In Cloudscapes, the sky is an ever-changing, visual feast, and students can learn to appreciate the sky and their surrounding environment," Sperry said.

The Cloudscapes stamp pane includes 15 stamps based on photographs of nine cloud formations and are arranged on the sheet according to altitude. Information about each cloud is on the back of the pane behind the stamp. The shapes and altitudes of clouds, as well as the sequence in which they develop, are a sign of changing weather patterns and aid in forecasts. The prefixes "cirro" and "alto" distinguish high- and middle-altitude clouds, respectively.

Smith will be formally recognized at the Logan post office at 10 a.m. Tuesday. He is to receive a framed enlargement of his stamp as well as a framed sheet of Cloudscapes stamps. He will also receive $5,000 from the Postal Service for the use of his photograph, which will be printed more than 8 million times.

One-hundred-twenty-five-million copies of Cloudscapes will be issued to the public after its dedicatory release Monday in Boston.

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com