Posts in Category: storm
Drama at Wood Island Light
In a normal year, especially in winter, I rarely get to East Point Santuary in Biddeford Pool. In fact, whole winters have passed (maybe even the occasional whole year) when I have not gotten to East Point. It isn’t that far: about 30 minutes by back roads from the house. This winter I have been there just about once a week. It is the chance, no, the likelihood, of Snowy Owls that makes the difference, of course, but I find that I am photographing Wood Island Light and the sea around the Point on every trip as well.
Yesterday I featured the waves off Fortunes Rocks, which is just across the bay formed by the Pool and the Point from where this shot was taken. The same heavy seas. The same winter light catching the green in the water. The same wind blowing the sea plumes back. And it was only on Sunday that I posted a similar view of the Light over snow drifts. Still, when you add the view of the Light to the drama of the heavy seas, it makes an irresistible image. Or that is what I think 🙂
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. ISO 100 @ 1/1500th @ f6.1. 95mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
So wild the sea!
Yesterday, I took my, by now, traditional Sunday Photo and Snowy Owl prowl up along the coast as far as Biddeford Pool. I only found one owl, and never got close enough for a photo, but when I got to Fortunes Rocks, the sea was so amazingly wild that I had to park and take a series of photos. A stormy sea is not an easy thing to catch in an image. You can not capture the wind-in-your-teeth feeling, or the sound…and certainly not the emotional thrill, the primal surge of adrenaline, that always straightens our spines even as it sends shivers up and down, when we stand on the edge (the safe edge most often) of disaster. Still, the waves from Saturday’s storm passing offshore were as big as I have seen along this coast, a strong off-shore wind was blowing the tops back into plumes, and the sun was just at the angle to bring out the green highlights in the water as it rose. Altogether impressive.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Collages assembled in PixlrExpress.
Artic Vortex?
In Maine we missed the Artic Vortex. I had to go to Virginia to experience record setting lows 🙂 It was 5 above zero here night before last, and they put the schools on 2 hour delay. Still, before the Artic Vortex made the news, we Mainers had several nights of below zero weather…-17 drgrees…which corresponded to the astronomical high tide and 12 inches of fresh snowfall. What you see here is the result of sea spray freezing on the blocks of granite that make up the seawall by Strawberry Island and Great Head in Kennebunk Maine. It is not exactly an uncommon sight in Southern Maine, but we can go several winters without the combination of wind and intense cold that make it possible.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. ISO 100 @ 1/1000th @ f4. 23mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Scary Sunday (Snowy) Selfie. Happy Sunday!
We are getting our first major winter storm here in Southern Maine today. It started before mid-night and by this morning there was nearly a foot on flat ground and considerably more where it has already drifted. My wife, Carol, had to be at Church by 7:30 so we were both out before dawn, shoveling. Of course, it had drifted the driveway full. She is gone, and I am not done yet by far (besides it is not supposed to stop snowing until noon anyway, and the plow has already put 5 inches back in the end of driveway). It is time for a breakfast break. Hot oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon. Hot oatmeal was specifically invented for mornings like this…I am convinced! And, of course, a cup of hot chi.
Carol refused to give me a kiss when she left, and as soon as I realized why, I was inspired to this slightly scary Christmas themed and Sunday selfie. Didn’t someone say it was the year of the selfie? I can play too! Just, please, if you have small children in the house, please shield them from this. I would not want be responsible for planting this as a Christmas memory in any young mind. 😉
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought: My sincere prayer this morning is for anyone who has to be out in this weather…especially travelers on the highways. I pray too for wisdom among those who might be tempted to go out, without urgent need. This is no morning to be brave. I might get out sometime after noon, if the snow tapers off, for a photo-prowl, but only if the the roads are passable by then. No, this is a morning to draw the comfort of home around you and think cheerful, thankful thoughts. And that inspires a prayer for those who are without the comforts of home…the basic necessities of shelter and warmth and food today, in this storm or out of it. And considerable thanksgiving. Even if I froze my beard shoveling, and even if I will have to do it again before the end of the storm, I know I am blessed well beyond the basic necessities.
Carol might even give me a kiss when she gets home.
Acoma Sky City
Into every life some rain must fall. We decided to visit Acoma Sky City on our way from Gallup to Socorro yesterday. We also decided not to be put off by a little rain. It was the day we had, and it was the last weekday Sky City would be open to the public until next spring, so we went. Of course traditional Acomas would have considered it a blessed day. Much of the energy of their religion goes into praying for rain for the crops they traditionally grew at the base of the Mesa. And it was a blessed day. I shot a lot of HDR from under an umbrella 🙂
Sky City sits on a mesa top 700 feet above the valley. Until the 1930s the only way up there was long climb up foot and hand holes worn into the sandstone. A movie company built a road to film in the pueblo and another film company paved it, so today the tribe shuttles tourists to the top in small buses. My wife and daughter and one other were the only tourists on this rainy last day of the tourist season.
I could go on and an on. It was a memorable experience, but I will spare you. The tribe maintains an excellent Web presence. Just google Acoma Sky City and maneuver around the casino pages, or visit the Sky City Facebook page, and you will find a lot of information.
This shot is of one of the larger “hidden” kivas. The Spanish tried to whipe out the Acoma religion by blowing up the round underground chambers where it was practiced. The Acoma retaliated by building new kivas right out in plain sight, disguised as houses. They had to give up the roundness but it was a price they were willing to pay to keep the tribe alive. You can identify the hidden kivas by the unique white ladders with lightning bolts across the top. The ladders symbolize rain. White for clouds and lightening bolts… All the kivas in Acoma Sky City must of been happy places this day.
In-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the new HDR filter.
Front Passing. Cape May NJ
This is the time of year when New Jersey Audubon has someone stationed on the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Lighthouse State Park every day, counting the passing hawks. It is a long-standing research project, and the scientific community uses the data from this site, and others like it in Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and many other states, to assess the health of the environment as it is reflected in the numbers and distribution of migrating hawks. Besides…what could be more fun than standing on a open platform all day counting hundreds, sometimes multiple hundreds, of hawks of a dozen species coming over? The official counter is rarely alone…and on weekends there can be an actual crush on the platform…and it s a big platform.
I can also be a beautiful place to be, looking out over the marsh and Lighthouse Pond, north up the coast of New Jersey. And on a day with weather, it can be spectacular. While I was there yesterday, the first cold front of the year was passing, piling up the sky with massive clouds, and shadowing the windy landscape. Drama!
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
England in any weather: Happy Sunday!
We have had every kind of summer weather England has to offer at Rutland Water in the past 3 days. In fact most days we have had them all in a single day 🙂 This is a sweep pano showing the little cove where the optics tent (on the left, I am here for the British Birding Fair) is located, around to the Anglican Water Bird Center on the right. It is typical English weather. About to rain or just finished raining.
Still this is a view that has a lot to interest in any weather.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Sweep panorama mode. Processed on the Google Nexus 7 in PicSay Pro.
And for the Sunday thought. I know how blessed I am to be here in England to experience the beauty of these days at Rutland Water. And this, my birthday week, I realize how blessed I am to be here on Earth to experience the beauty of this life. I am not sure I give enough back, but I am sure this is part of what I have to give: these images and these musings.
Sky drama over the sea
I went out yesterday looking for dragonflies, but I could not resist a short side-trip to the beach to catch the amazing sky over the ocean. This is another shot from my new Samsung Galaxy S4’s camera…using the built in Rich-Tone HDR mode. It has then been tweaked using my one of my normal processing presets in Lightroom. The result is high drama indeed!
Yeah. A phone camera. The thing is, it works. At first I found myself using it, even when I had my Canon with me, simply for the novelty. New toy. But, the thing is, I continue to pull the phone out when faced with a scene like this…because it works. Especially the HDR mode. I would have needed a tripod for even the Canon SX50HS’s in-camera HDR, since it takes three images…and it would have blurred the waves for sure, since they are moving. The Galaxy manages to do capture a decent HDR effect in one shot..or it shoots the multiple exposures so rapidly that there is no lag between. It works. 🙂
Swan in Flight: Happy Sunday!
To me there is a “wild beauty” in the lone Tundra Swan flying against the massed clouds of a gloomy Ohio day along the Erie shore, that simply lifts my spirit. (To get an idea of just how big a swan is, this is a 24mm equivalent wide angle shot, and the swan was actually on my side of the trees.)
The image was taken while at The Biggest Week in American Birding, on the “other” trail at Magee Marsh, off the boardwalk. The Crane Creek Estuary Trail, during the festival, was open all the way from Lake Erie, along Crane Creek, across the marshes, deep into Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. During the slow days between the two waves of warblers that hit while I was there, Crane Creek Estuary Trail became very popular, as there still were a few birds happening there each day .Â
If nothing else, there were swans, gulls, herons, egrets, shorebirds, and various other open water birds in the Estuary itself, and in the larger enpondments on the other side of the dyke. Tundra Swan winters in Ohio, and, of course, there are increasing numbers of the unambitious, invasive, and troublesome Mute Swans. I was happy to see, when I looked closely, that this swan is a native Tundra.
Canon SX50HS. Sports Mode. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A little extra attention to the sky with the healing brush set to clone to moderate a few spots where the white burned through.Â
And for the Sunday Thought. I took this image several weeks ago now, and consciously set it aside for a Sunday post (and then, of course, forgot to use it until now). It is, to my eye, one of those evocative images that sets the spirit yearning for release. Not release from “this earthly coil…this too encumbering flesh”…no hint of death-wish here. Release from gravity. Release from everything and anything that keeps our spirits from cutting across the cloudy skies in beauty, from wringing every drop of significance and substance from each day. Freedom from the habits and passive acceptance of compromise that fog our days with mediocrity. A wild desire to soar, to unfurl our hidden wings, and leap into the sky to meet the future that is growing from our days. From days like this, with swans aflight against the drama of a stormy Ohio day.
Snow Before Dawn: Happy Sunday!
Carol had to be at Church early so both she and I were up well before dawn to shovel out the cars and driveway. Before last night’s storm, we had a good six inches of snow on the ground that fell wet and and packed down, and we woke to about 8 inches of new snow on top of that. It has been a long time since we had this much snow on the ground. And, unlike the Christmas Day storm, the snow last night stuck on the trees, creating a more traditional winter-wonderland look.
I had to try for a few before-dawn ambient-light shots…straining the limits of even the Hand-held Night Scene Mode on the Canon SX50HS. Even with exposure stacking, the recorded ISO was 6400, and while the images were pretty amazing for what they were from a small sensor camera…they required some additional noise reduction and some fiddling with shadow and high-light colors to be really pleasing renditions of the scene. Still. It is totally awesome to get anything at all in this kind of light! And hand held at that.
That is the moon showing through the pre-dawn snow clouds and the snowy trees.
By the time we had finished, first light had come.
And for the Sunday thought: The God who has commanded my faith is a desert God, but the faith is at home in any kind of adverse conditions. The desert puts a constant strain on life…on living. Mindfulness is required all the time just to stay alive. Oaseses are few and far between, and the days of green plenty are short and separated by long dry seasons. The home is a place of shade, relative coolness, and comfort. While God transcends all time and place, the metaphors of my faith were formed in the desert…and it is impossible to completely escape the ways that shapes my understanding of life and spirituality.
For us in the Temperate Zone, winter is our desert, producing, if we let it, something of that same desert mindset. I go out to shovel snow before dawn, but also to encounter my God in the extremes. It is good for faith. It is good to come in the warm house, and settle back with tea and give thanks.
Later on I will go back out into the white desert of the day to find some images with more light. But for now, it is a Happy Sunday morning. Dawn has come. Thank God.