thematic photographic 108: shadowy - last night's storm

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thursday challenge #70: "weather"

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Eighteen Percent Gray #16

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"Don't Look Down"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

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TTL #19: "Winter Of Content"

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"Bent, not Broken"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

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Photographically Challenged #33: Offshore Storm

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"Cloud Wrapped Lightning"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Thematic Photographic 86: "Water In Any Form" v.7.0 - A Clean, Well Lighted Space

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"It doesn't glow that much"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

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With the "Water in any Form" theme winding down I figured I'd show you the water that's been on everyone's mind around here lately. I'd thought with all the white around reflecting every little bit of light there was, this would be an easy shot to take. Not so much it turns out. There's a big difference between "bright" and "well lit". Because no matter how bright the reflector is, you still have ot have a light source. Should've waited until the next night I guess.

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Thematic Photographic 86: "Water In Any Form" v.6.0 - Light and Heat and Ice

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"I'm Melllting!"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

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Back in 2007 during the Drought of the Century we put out rain barrels (which made little sense since ... it didn't rain) to grab the water off the roof when any kind of rain came. You'd be amazed at just how much water you can gather this way -- and fast too. I forget the forumla just now, but on a roof of 1000 square feet I think you can collect 600 gallons form an inch of rain or something like that. Anyway, I remember being a little shocked at the notion that the roof on the house and the roof on the garage could combine to catch close to 2500 gallons of water from a half-inch of rain. I digress. This is one of those rain barrels, equipped with an overflow pipe that drains excess water from the back (Yeahright. In a downpour like we usualy have, this is about as useful as trying to shoot a firehose through a funnel.) During the recent "wintry mix" though (which always sounded more like a partuy snack than a forecast to me) the drain was actually doing its job since the ice in the top had to melt before it could drain. Of course, the ice in the drain had to melt first. But ulitmately the spring thaw will sort it all out.

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My World Tuesday #68: My World In White

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"3:00 AM - And still coming down"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

"3:00 PM - This shouldn't have happened until tomorrow!"
Raleigh, NC - January 2010 (Click to embiggen)

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Snow is a rarity in my world. For the better part of this century (so far) we only saw snow once in every four years in Raleigh (though 25 miles west in Durham it was a different matter). So it looks like we got some, right? Yes and no. There is some snow in this mix, but I only know that because I saw it falling with my own two eyes. And it's neatly sandwiched between two layers of ice, which is they typical form frozen stuff takes when it falls from my sky. the difference between snow and sleet has something to do with the temperature at various places in the atmosphere and what freezes where and when. I'll let the alpha geeks explain that one. What I can explain is the reason for the ice cream sandwich effect. Simply put, the pavement was still above freezing when the snow started. It takes a long time for something as dense as concrete or asphalt to surrender its heat, so normally -- unless it's been below freezing for several days -- the first of the snow to fall will melt on contact, which bleeds more heat energy off from the pavement, and results -- ultimately -- in a thin layer of ice between the snow and the ground. The ice layer on top was simply sleet that fell on top of the snow. That's not nearly as bad as the light freezing rain that fell on top of it back in 1996. That turned things very nasty -- fast. And there's some talk that we'll have a encore performance of this phenomenon this week since daytime highs aren't expected to get terribly far above freezing, and rain/freezing rain is in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday. This could get ugly.

Not that the weekend was any day at the beach. What you'd expect is for the day after the stuff came down -- when there'd been a cycle of thawing and freezing -- that the sandwich would become more dense and break off in slabs. In this case however, it was built in slabs. The photos in the second panel were taken just a few hours after the precipitation stopped. My brilliant idea was that if I shoveled the ski jumpdriveway while the stuff was still light and fluffy it wouldn't be so hard on my back. Problem was that it was never "light and fluffy". It was breaking loose in slabs and floes and bergs and stuck to the concrete like glue. In the right hand photo (if you look closely at the embiggened version) you can see one of my footprints that sunk maybe a half inch into a 4-inch layer of snowsleetice. At 185 pounds, if I'm not breaking through the top crust any better than that, it's got to be pretty stout stuff. After it took an hour and a half to go maybe 20 feet -- and with at least twice that far left to go, I decided to wait and see if the next day's sun would loosen it up any. Thankfully it did. And a couple more hours of scraping and a bag of Blizzard Wizzard later, I'm hoping I can get down it tomorrow without driving through my neighbor-across-the-street's bedroom window (because eeyah! *shudder*).

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Thematic Photographic 86: "Water In Any Form" v.4.0 - A Rarity For Around Here

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"Paging Mr. Damocles. Your Party is Waiting."
Raleigh, NC - January 2000 (Click to embiggen)

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By now you've probably heard me say that the word "Raleigh" is Cherokee for "It don't never snow here". And the fact is that I'm writing this on Thursday night and it's a balmy 50° outside at almost 11 PM. Word on the street (or the Weather Channel anyway) is, though, that all that's about to change drastically in the next 24 hours. The forecast is calling for snow, sleet and general unpleasantness starting Friday night and continuing through Saturday. With temperatures that threaten to keep it around longer than the usual 24-36 hours it usually lasts on those rare occasions we get any at all. Last time that happened was about this time of year back in 2000. And that is something the folks 'round these parts who were on hand to witness it will be talking about for a generation or two. It's generally referred to as "The Blizzard of 2000" and you may have heard that term on this blog a few times if you've been hanging around here long enough. Now in some parts of the world 22 inches of snow is all in a day's work. But here it was history in the making. And there were some pretty deadly-looking stalactites hanging off my roof for several days. These weren't the deadly ones -- yet. Here they were just starting to form. Before they were done the biggest of them were a good 2 or 3 inches in diameter at the base and 2 feet long. The impending storm isn't predicted to have nearly this kind of impact, but as I recall... neither was this one. Stay tuned. If my power stays on I may be bringing you more of this (almost) live.

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Two Stops Under #15 Carpet Shock Writ Large

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"Electrifying!"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to Embiggen)

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Thematic Photographic 84: "White" v.6.0 - Embracing the Cliche

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"No Parking"
Raleigh, NC - March 2009(Click to embiggen)

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You had to know that snow was going to facotr into this theme somewhere, right? I figured it would be every other entry this week -- across all entrants I mean -- so I almost didn't even run this one. But it's not like we get so very much snow that I can afford to waste the shots. This was the second snow of 2009. I don't recall us getting two snowfalls of any significance since January of 2000 when we had one of 6 or 7 inches that melted by the end of the week just in time for a 22-inch record breaker. This snow was pretty much gone by the day after I took this shot. It comes infrequently and goes quickly here.

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Window Views #32: "Quick! Call Ripley's!"

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"This is next year's snow in advance I bet"
Raleigh, NC - March 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Sky Watch Friday #66: You Better Run

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"You Better Hide"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Thematic Photographic 80: "Abstract" v.3.0 Abstract by DOF

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"April Showers"
Raleigh, NC - April 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Back in April one photomeme or another presented the prompt "Rain" for the week. I don't know if you realize it or not, but rain in its free-falling state is damned hard to capture unless it's coming down in sheets thick as lead. And even then you could easily mistake it for fog. Being tramsparent and falling at terminal velocity by the time it reaches the ground, it's nearly invisible to the camera. So you have to be a little creative to get the shot for that theme. Usually you have to catch it hitting something, or in this case, after it's hit something (like my windshield). The neat part is that in focusing on the drops on the windshield, the focal plane is so close to the camera that depth of field is almost nonexistent giving any lighting in the background a really nice bokeh.

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Lensday #37: "Rain"

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"(Probably Not) Singing' in the Rain"
Raleigh, NC - April 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Photographically Challenged #18: Thinking Green

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"Where the Water Falls"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Thematic Photographic 70: "Hard" v.3.0 - Hard Luck Story

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"'Good tires', Bob mused, 'But definitely not great tires.'"
I-40 West near Mebane, NC - August 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Note: Please take a moment to stop by the Written, Inc. and visit this post. And pay your respects to TP's creator, Carmi, on the sudden loss of his father. Best thoughts for you and your family Carmi.

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My son has a quote he likes to whip out every time he has to drive in the rain: "Instant Idiots. Just Add Water!" And sadly, I fear he's not far from the mark in this sentiment. Submitted as Exhibit A, this little Honda sport coupe that has somehow found its way down the shoulder to straddle a ditch. I have to wonder if one of the other two shoulder-bound vehicles assisted in this experiment in the off-road capabilities of a Honda Del Sol. Or if the sedan just out of sight around the curve ahead that is sitting sideways with the front bumper dangling from its one remaining mounting bolt had some influence here. It must have been a fairly recent occurrence whatever the case, because this is pretty much as bad as the traffic jam got for me. For which I was eternally grateful because I was on my way to help my son (yes, that son) unpack and assemble all of his furniture.

Your Turn: Got a "Hard" photo to support this week's theme? Feel free to share a link in the comments. If you're new to Thematic Photographic or just wondering how this works, you can find out all about it here or better yet, here at TP's usual home.

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Thematic Photographic 67: "Temporary" v.4.0 - Firepower

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"Danger: High Voltage"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Note: Please take a moment to stop by the Written, Inc. and visit this post. And pay your respects to TP's creator, Carmi, on the sudden loss of his father. Best thoughts for you and your family Carmi.

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Even more temporary -- and more deadly -- than yesterday's fireworks are nature's own fireworks. From the time man first took notice of the sky above him lightning has been revered -- and feared. The ancient Greeks gave this weapon to their most powerful god Zeuss. And it presents some unique challenges to the photographer to say the least. Special techniques, and a lot of dumb luck are the requirements to capture this phenomenon which is quite literally "gone in a flash".

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