Posted by Tom Moertel
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:05:00 GMT
I wrote in an earlier post that one of my photos of British soldier lichen was going to be published in an upcoming issue of a popular Pennsylvania magazine. Now that the issue is out, I can reveal that the periodical is none other than Milford Magazine. My photo appears in the August 2007 issue, on top of the second page of the lichen feature, “The Secret Lives of Lichen” (PDF).
Do check it out. This may be your only opportunity to read an article that celebrates lichen in interview form.
I kid you not.
Posted in photography
Tags lichen, milfordmagazine, photography
no comments
no trackbacks
Posted by Tom Moertel
Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:40:00 GMT
Yesterday, in the middle of a beautiful, sunny afternoon, a storm
front came out of nowhere and cut across southern Pittsburgh. I was
in my backyard at the time, and I could tell by the sudden icy wind
that something unusual was happening. A few moments later I heard a
sharp thwack! as something struck my deck and bounced into the
yard – a nickel-sized hailstone. Then, another one. Thwack!
Then the hail fell like rain – thwack! thwack! thwack! – faster
and faster, until the air was filled with icy missiles, some bigger
than quarters, streaking to the earth around me. As the
deluge intensified, I was deafened by the sound of a million berserk
carpenters hammering away at my home, my deck, and my garden.
In a few short minutes it was over. The ground was littered with ice,
leaves, and small branches. My home’s window screens had holes
punched through them. My garden was torn to shreds.
If you haven’t experienced the combined effects of hailstones and high winds,
count yourself lucky.
Photos
If you wonder what the storm and its aftermath looked like, I put a
set of hailstorm photos on
flickr.
My neighbor and fellow programmer Casey
West had his new iPhone handy and snapped
some great photos,
too.
I also captured the storm on my front-yard webcam, which looked into the
oncoming hail. For reference, here is what the webcam saw just before the
storm:
If you look in the upper-right corner of that photo, you can see the
first few hailstones streaking into the frame.
Then, the storm hit in force:
The wind was so strong that it drove the hail horizontally at times.
When the storm ended, just 3 and a half minutes later, the ground
was littered with ice. In the photo below, that’s not snow in the
driveway:
In the garden, it was easier to see just how much ice
the storm had dropped upon us:
The garden, itself, was shredded:
Amazing.
Posted in interesting stuff
Tags damage, garden, hail, hailstorm, photography, storm
2 comments
no trackbacks
Posted by Tom Moertel
Thu, 31 May 2007 04:01:00 GMT
Earlier today I received an email from the editor of a
Pennsylvania-based magazine. (I won’t mention the name of the magazine
in case what I’m about to write next amounts to a spoiler.) He asked
if I would allow the magazine to publish one of my photographs of
British soldier
lichen
in an upcoming issue.
Of course, I said yes. (I’m always looking for ways to spread the word
about British soldier lichen.)
My fee? I asked for a free issue of the magazine when it goes to
press. They said it will be in my mailbox.
Cool.
Posted in photography
Tags fun, lichen, me, photography
no comments
no trackbacks
readers
