A Moment of EnLitenment » weather

At last -the lake…

Andrew — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:14:29 +0000

We scurry to get the project started -productivity depends on the wind, rain, and the blunders of bats. Predicable for sure… One of the great things about grad school is you never know what new, exciting project will turn up next. So it is for my buddy and I as we were handed an interesting project this spring. I has nothing to do with either of our thesis research projects but has managed absorb every spare moment and energy resource we have had over the last month or two. It will be a fantastic advancement -if only we can actually pull it off.

The past couple of weeks I have found myself lodged on the shores of Lake Erie in northern Ohio. I love the wildlife and the lake can be beautiful -but I haven’t had much time to observe.

Luckily, one night this past week was far too windy to chase after bats and I was able to grab my camera and hit the beach.

I nabbed a few pictures before the sun sunk too low.

Life never moves slow these days -this week I start the final season of field work for my thesis project and try to keep the work at the lake moving forward. Regardless, I think the worst of the time crunch is over and perhaps someday soon I will be able to find the rest of my life again.

Falling

Andrew — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:02:23 +0000

It started as a cool, cloudy, wet day in this big mid-westernish city. But leaves were falling and I couldn’t resist. I hit the woods but my luck was limited at best. I did find a fire lookout tower that provided a bit of a view…

Boring I know -but hey this is Ohio. Nothing like a mountain when you’re looking… Actually I should have done better -but at the moment I was standing, if you want to call it that, on a 2×3 foot platform 80 feet in the air with 40mph winds threatening to blow everything I owned over the side. Let’s just say I was thinking a good bit more about holding on than I was about taking the picture. I did get this.

Oh well, I tried. Things got a little better when I found Cedar Falls.

Not bad, but it would have been better with less beach. It does crop to a 4×5 format nicely though. Notice that overhanging rock -I brought it out of the black by a little flick of light from my sb-800.

This turned out ok too… lucky for me. Many of them didn’t. There was this other little issue of falling things -precipitation. Not that I mind really -it helped clear out the swarms of people and my camera doesn’t mind a few drops. But my lens… for some reason I didn’t notice the drops.

I lost dozens of images to the spots. Oops. Guess next time I will pay more attention.

Hunter vs. Snow

Andrew — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:45:32 +0000

Lately I’ve been poking around in the woods with my camera as usual… but I’m not looking for pretty pictures. Graduate courses in wildlife identification are no joke. As part of my class this quarter I have to document the presence of a certain number of species of mammals and birds. It sounds simple enough… until you have all the easy ones and subtract from the number required. Thankfully, the snow has come.

I’m still not sure about this one. But the one below everyone should know.

Only one problem -I still don’t have enough.

Where I come from…

Andrew — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:42:36 +0000

Perhaps you’ve always lived in the same area -or at least have a favorite spot you migrate too at certain times. For me, this is the first winter I’ve spent away from the Appalachian Mountains in a long time and I sure am missing them.

This hazy drab gray sky that has been hanging over us here in central Ohio for the past week is getting on my nerves so I am striking back. I pulled a few files I took about a year ago and am posting them here to show the weatherman that where I come from we don’t hesitate to combine the words “winter” and “sunshine”.

Right now I’m a little excited. I just checked the 7 day forecast and found one day where there is a slight chance of sunshine -not of course to mention it’s Friday. I think I’ll put my camera batteries on to warm…

Someday I’m sure I will learn to find the beauty in these drab days… until then there is one thing that always seems to cure me. All I need to do is replace my forehead over my statistics book for a few moments and presto -I can shoot anything.

On tails of Ike

Andrew — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:36:25 +0000

Living in Ohio I really didn’t think I’d have to worry about hurricanes… I did hear on the weather that they said it might get windy when the remnants of hurricane Ike passed by -and for once at least, I think they were right.

We were pounded with strong wind all afternoon today stripping branches from the trees and knocking out power to… well my apartment and the streetlight down the road at least. Gusts over 66 mph were recorded at the Columbus airport and other places say more -let me tell you it they weren’t kidding when they said windy.

The city looks like it just had a decent size ice storm blow through… only it wasn’t wet or cold. Branches are laying everywhere and there is some damage to buildings. With no power in the apartment I decided to take a little hike down the road to experience the blow. It was a little humorous watching the porta-jons being pushed all over the parking lot like a puck on an air-hockey table. I doubt the guy with the tree on his car is getting quite so much enjoyment out of it; neither is the maintenance guy when he shows up in the morning.

**I’m back now. I was in the middle of writing this post and then it started getting dark and I started getting hungry so I thought I would go get something to eat -big mistake. Everyone else also had the same idea about then as well. There are some places with power… but they are scattered about randomly and the restaurants that are open have lines like you wouldn’t believe. I just looked it up online; there are 236,000 + people without power… in this county!

I’m writing this post on my laptop with my big UPS keeping my router and cable modem alive -nothing like technology when you need it… sure wish I had a candle right now…

I’ve been planning for weeks what I have to do tomorrow… it’s the last final piece of field data for the season. I have to go out to my fragile dead roost trees and… collect vegetation data…! Maybe there’s something left -that’s research.

[Update 9-22-08: The aftermath of Ike and the millions that lost power because of the storm is probably old news now but I thought I would put this post up anyway. Originally it was cued to go up a week ago from my laptop with the power out... but I had issue with the image files and wasn't able to get it up until today. I hope someone enjoys it anyway.]