Weather Weirdness

Two days ago the mercury soared to 66°F here, which blew past the all-time record high for February 20th for Penn Yan by four whole degrees.

Same thing yesterday. I actually saw a kid walking across the parking lot of our local grocery store dressed in flip-flops, athletic shorts, and a short-sleeved T-shirt. (No sunglasses, though. It was overcast.)

And now look at the view out my office window right this minute:

Winter's back.

For a little while, anyway. This has been a very weird February.

Here's another earlier snow picture I like for some reason:

It's just a section of my driveway after the only heavy snow we've had all Winter. I was playing around with the X-T2 after I got it.

I suppose this is as close to meaningless as a photograph can get, since there are doubtless 18 trillion gazillion plain ol' quasi-abstract snow-detail shots floating around the servers of the world. And yet I kinda like it. Oh well, I guess I'm allowed to like it just because it's mine.

Stay warm, or cool, or both, or whatever!

Mike

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Comments

[Eolake]

Hell, I see young men in shorts all the time, even when it’s actually near the freezing point! Nuts.

[Eolake]

And I like your snow picture.
Meaningless sure, but art doesn’t have to have “meaning”, and to me *what* you photograph is the least important bit.

[Jamie Pillers]

Mike,
The Snowed-on Driveway photo is lovely. And it hints at a theme you might consider for one of your Baker's Dozen requests: photos in which the edges matter more than the center.

[MHMG]

Mike, your abstract snow scene cries out "Print me, Print me big!!!". On a nice smooth or slightly textured fine art matte paper perhaps :;) All electronic renderings of it can't do it justice.

cheers,
Mark

[Daniel]

Send a foot or more of snow to us here in North Dakota. North Central part. South and SouthEast is fine but we are hurting. Doesn't even cover wheat stubble in the fields. Farmers are worried about topsoil moisture for planting if spring rains don't come at the right time. North Dakota is your #1 producer of Wheat - so help us and send some snow our way. We are the big producer of Durham Wheat for Pasta - so spaghetti lovers unite and send us some snow.
(will also help me with some winter photos)

[Speed]

Two days ago in Cleveland. Spring has Sprung.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9976263@N04/38613199100/in/dateposted-public/

[Nikhil Ramkarran]

Print sale on shot number two (the driveway)?

Abstract photos like this that are purely about the way the light affects the shapes and colour tones always fascinate me.

I'd buy it.

[DavidB]

Well, I like the abstract snow...

The entire East Coast experienced warm and record-setting temperatures this week. Meanwhile, the Southwest finally got some Winter. Our local lake is still not frozen over—it usually freezes by mid December. Because it remains partially unfrozen, I was able to get some fun photos this morning of wisps of mist rising from the lake.

[Richard Barbour]

It just needs a red chair in it!

[psu]

Just south and west of you in western PA we had a few inches of snow last week and then a 76 degree day at the start of this week, with gradual snow melt in the middle.

It's now dipping back down towards the 30s.

[People say "it's global warming." To myself I say, no, it's the beginning of global warming. --Mike]

[hugh crawford]

Late winter - early spring weather in upstate NY can be hilarious and it's still a month away. I once bought a full-size Chevrolet convertible with a non-functioning roof because who needs a roof when you are 25 and it's spring? The day after I bought it was April 15 and it snowed nearly 2 feet and I had to dig out the driver's side of the interior of the car to drive to the post office to mail my taxes. The thing was one of the best photo props ever as well as an excellent story generator.

Re: 18 trillion gazillion plain ol' quasi-abstract snow-detail shots

Alfred Stieglitz's Equivalent photographs are pretty prosaic and that is their strength.

[longviewer]

Snow and abstraction definitely are a fine team! Our chair and fire-pit, for example:

https://jimages.longviewers.one/#share?id=77b8d236-8520-44e8-b0fb-9c9317189f7e

Black and white under porchlight.
Although at sunrise, I prefer color..

https://jimages.longviewers.one/#share?id=5ec98952-c4c4-44a7-99bc-a2b2412e676f

[kirk tuck]

Rainy and very cold in Austin, Texas but without the aesthetic benefit of freshly fallen snow. A great day to be inside doing post production... In keeping with our mutual pining for retro gear I've sourced a vacuum tube computer and am attempting to load my recently shot images onto punch cards for the reader. It takes many, many boxes of punch cards for the higher res images. Just saying....

[cdembrey]

it's your roadster, and it's dinosaur fuel that has screwed-up the weather 8-D

With F1 using hybrid technology, there is no reason that a hybrid Miata wouldn't sell to enthusiasts. The question is are there any prime buying age enthusiasts left?

[Tim Bradshaw]

In response to edembrey's comment.

In a general sense yes, it is: weather patterns will change as the climate changes, and they will probably get more extreme, at least until the gradient of climate change levels off and things settle down. But attributing individual weather events -- a snow storm or a hurricane, say -- to climate change is much less safe, because such weather events happen anyway as the weather is quite variable. Some things can be said safely: there will be more and worse flooding events, as even if rainfall patterns do not change (which they will) flooding gets worse as sea-levels get higher. But some things really can't: saying that 'this snow-storm happened because of climate change' is a complicated business. There are people whose job it is to do this sort of attribution -- to try and infer whether specific events are due to climate change, and to what extent (I am not one of these people but I work in the same building as some).

And, of course, there is no serious doubt (politicians who make money from fossil fuels and people who just want it not to be true notwithtanding) that the rate at which the climate is currently changing is largely a result of human burning of fossil fuels, and so partly the result of a lot of people with fossil-fuel-based cars. Note that it's the rate at which it's changing that is the problem: everyone knows that the climate has been both much warmer and colder in the past, but it is very unusual for it to change so rapidly. During the most recent deglaciation the climate warmed at about a degree every 1,000 years: it's now warming at about a degree every 100, ten times as fast.

So, yes, you're right, but you have to be careful.

[Adam]

Love the snow driveway shot. My wife and I moved to Maryland from San Francisco last summer, and we've really been enjoying having seasons. Yes, even the cold and the snow. Though this has been a light winter for snow here, it's a real treat to see the place you live in transformed by a snowfall (as opposed to driving to where the snow is for skiing or something). That's something I haven't experienced since I was a kid growing up in London. And then it was 70 degrees this past week...

[Ken Tanaka]

In the words of one of America’s immortal cultural figures, “Yabba, Dabba, Doo!”.

[Eric Rose]

We are experiencing the never ending winter here in Calgary. Started off at -23C this morning. While our 1.5 feet of snow is pretty, I'm getting just a tad tired of it.

Talking of electric vehicles, I had a ride in a friends Tesla. Man if you want acceleration get an electric car!

[Dave New]

We had the same kind of weather in SE Michigan. Evidence of global warming is more weather extremes, as seen by the just completed hurricane season, and these wild swings in temperature, both hot and cold.

[Moose]

I'm with those who like the driveway snow shot - a lot.

It's not only about the edges, contrasted to the smoothly textured middle, it's about the forms on the edges.

Upper left is like shadows that could be thrown by unclothed human body parts, as well as other organic forms.

Along the bottom are shapes strongly reminescent of reclining female bodies, with attractive texture and lovely, subtle shadings of light.

Whether we become aware of these things at a conscious level or not, we respond emotionally by finding them interesting and attractive. In my case, I was immediately attracted to it, then became aware of reasons why that should be so as I looked more and thought about it.

Although it looks good as a monochrome, I prefer it with the blue saturation pulled way down, which pulls the top toward neutral without changing center or bottom.

I'm another candidate for it in a print sale. Subtle color preferred. \;~)>

[Richard G]

The driveway snow shot is a fine picture. It’s not just the pleasing texture and light. There is the Stephen Shore element. The shadow at the top left ought to resolve the ambiguity of what the sheet of white is, but it doesn’t and so it amplifies the mystery.