Tag: my photos

One Spring’s Month

A month in the spring can make a huge difference. Move your mouse over the image (or click the image) to see the difference between April and May on the Fulton School campus.

The full sized images can be seen here.

Note: To embed the image above use:

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Albedo and Absorption

Ice melts around an embedded leaf, taking the pattern of the leaf.

Darker colored objects absorb more light than lighter colored objects. Darker objects reflect less light; they have a lower albedo. So a deep brown leaf embedded in the ice will absorb more heat than the clear ice around it, warming up the leaf and melting the ice in contact with it. The result, is melting ice with shape and pattern of the leaf. It’s rather neat.

The Creek in Winter at Night

The creek under a waxing moon.

Trivia night let out at midnight. The ground was still covered with a smooth layer of snow. The meltwater from the daytime sun had refrozen to make the snow crisp on top, like a cold crème brûlée. The moon was close to full. I had my camera.

The moon reflected in a pool partially covered by ice.

I spent about twenty minutes traipsing through the woods along the banks of the creek. Not having a tripod made it impossible to get long-exposure without setting the camera down somewhere stable, so I ended up lying prone on the snow. Whilst my jacket and sweater made my top half well insulated, there was just a single layers of broadcloth separating my legs from the snow. I didn’t have a problem with the cold, but my body heat melted the snow, and I got wet.

But it was worth it.

Caving

Looking into the narrow passageway that our guides called the "Birth Canal".

They took us into a sculpted, limestone cavern they called “Twins Cave”. The entrance was large, but, for those with the predilection, there were narrower passageways that required crawling, wiggling, and a definite lack of claustrophobia.

Apart from the wonderful speleotherms, the cave was home to some charismatic fauna.

An owl sits amid the stalactite formations near the roof of the cave.
A salamander wanders the floor, picking its way through the limestone debris.

Though I did not capture any pictures of bats, they flew around us, and we found evidence of their presence just under the cloying red mud that covered most of the cave floor.

Much of the cave was floored with a sticky, red, residual clay, which, in places, covered deposits of bat guano.

The limestone precipitated cave formations were quite beautiful: fluted, cathedral-organ-like stalactites;

Fluted stalactites reminiscent of Gaudi.

thin, precise straws hanging from the ceiling:

Looking up at the crystal encrusted straws hanging from the ceiling.

The juxtaposition of the beauty above us and the mess beneath our feet brought into focus the idea that happiness is not an absolute thing, but rather comes from the difference between misery and joy.

(Eminence Immersion)