Moonlore: Our Verdant Satellite that Never Was

One August morning in 1835, New Yorkers awoke to the increasing heat and humidity of a typical northeast summer. Any one of them wanting to read about the events going on around them in the world before starting their day had only to buy a newspaper. On this day, The New York Sun had plastered an unusual headline across its front page:

GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES
LATELY MADE
BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL L.L.D. F.R.S. &c.

Hmmmmm “Great Astronomical Discoveries.” That would make me put aside my coffee for a few minutes. What the reader discovers for him/herself however is nothing short of astonishing — An astronomer did it!  Extraterrestrial life, finally discovered! ON THE MOON! Sir John Herschel purportedly created a telescope capable of resolving objects as small as 18 inches sitting on the surface of the moon! Even today our best telescopes can’t come close to that. But Sir John Herschel was a respected scientist of his time (as well as an experimenter in early photography). Maybe it was true.

Ocean Rocks, Remote and Romantic — A Series for Those Who Stare at Maps

I’ve always loved to think and daydream. And maps and globes have always been catalysts to my daydreaming and pondering — particularly the little dots in the middle of nowhere with barely a name to indicate they are something other than a map printer’s error.

It sometimes feels like every square inch of land, and much of the sea, is bought up, owned, used, and mapped. There are still some places however, due to remoteness, inhospitableness, or just plain lack of interest, that remain uninhabited and mostly unmolested by humans. These places are often called “ocean rocks” or specks of land seemingly out of place and time, jutting up from the depths and offering little to the traveler in the way of rest or comfort.

For this series, I need to narrow things down a bit. The tiny specks of land I’m interested in are islands, it’s true, but there are thousands of tiny islands throughout the world. My criteria are loose and subjective, but boil down to islands that are:

1) Pretty remote
2) Uninhabited by humans
3) Difficult to access even when reached
4) Above water under normal circumstances (i.e. not inundated in high tides)
5) Unappealing to normal people

Since very long blog posts seem to be something best avoided, I’ll break this subject up into parts. Note: None of these images were taken by me, unfortunately.

Part 1. Rockall

(Above image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rockall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1048818.jpg)

Bioluminescence Comes in Many Forms

It seems as though it is that time of year again, when I become intrigued and enchanted by fungi. I always am, of course, but now in warmer weather I expect to find more fungi around — hopefully all outdoors. I’ve got it in my head to find bioluminescent mushrooms to photograph. I love mushrooms; but glow-in-the-dark mushrooms are like x100 on the cool fungi scale.

An Unassuming Click Beetle (Elateridae)

I Did Something Very Odd at a Wedding

A Shallow Depth of Field Can Yield a Dreamy Effect

I photographed it. Last December. This is not at all in my character. One reason I love photography is it lets me focus (pun intended) on a subject and get into deep thought about it. How can I change how the image will be recorded? I can change the lens, play with technical aspects of the photos like exposure and depth of field, alter composition, and experiment with artificial and natural lighting. But with people, I don’t like telling them what to do. Even if they’re listening and willing, they rarely pose (or don’t pose) how I intend — which is my shortcoming, not theirs.

Corralling dozens of people who are maybe nervous, hot, tipsy or uncomfortable into my vision of a decent photo sounded both intimidating and appealing to me. But it was a rush: a combination power trip/covert operation. Besides, my good friend Raquel asked, even insisted, that I be her wedding photographer. I was honored. I also know that she knows I’ll pretty much do what she asks.

I learned many things that night:

1. Take a lot of extra batteries for your hotshoe flash. I went through two sets of four in a night. When you notice the recycle time between flashes increase, change the batteries. It doesn’t pay to get a few extra flashes out of them only to miss important shots.

An Unplanned Shot that Would’ve Been Impossible without Flash

2. Girls like shoes and girls like pictures of shoes.

Oh My God! Shoes!

3. Bring Your GPS. I’ve lived in Miami 17 years and I got lost between the ceremony and reception. I hate getting lost.

Photographers: Lyrid Meteor Shower to Peak This Weekend; May Be Best in Years

If you dig sky photos, look up this weekend:

Lyrid Meteor Shower to Peak This Weekend; May Be Best in Years.

Free White Noise Generator on the Internet

Quick post to let you know about a cool discovery I made today. It’s a free, online white noise generator to block out extraneous noises like annoying coworkers (not that I have any of course). Try the pink noise and, my fave, the brown noise (not as high pitched, more like a waterfall):

SimplyNoise – The Best Free White Noise Generator on the Internet.

Where was this when I had to run a fan all night long to sleep?

Sun Dogs, Moon Dogs, and Halos

I saw the coolest thing on April 1, and this is not a belated April Fool’s prank. The midday sun was encircled by an enormous bright & beautiful halo. It looked like a giant eye, with a very clear blue sky as background. The intensity and clarity of this halo was almost alarming, quite eldritch really. I had once before in my life seen a halo around the sun, also in South Florida. Somewhat ironically, given my sub-tropical location, these halos are caused by ice particles in the atmosphere. A strong light source interacts with the ice crystals, which can reflect and refract the light, sometimes breaking it up into its component colors, all depending on the shape of the crystals themselves.

Sun Halo, Islamorada, Florida Keys

I had believed this phenomenon to be called a “sun dog,” but have since learned that sun dogs are bright spots of light sometimes accompanying a sun halo such as this. Sometimes called a “second” or “mock” sun — more formally a parhelion — I couldn’t make out any sun dogs with this halo.

Things I’ve been bitten by

I got to thinking about all the animals we get stung or bitten by in our lifetimes. I’m sure there are so many we don’t ever even become aware of, which may be nature’s way of stopping us going insane. It seems to me animals bite/sting us for defense (or play defense), to check us out, or to feed from us.

In an attempt to amuse and entertain, I’ve decided to list the creatures I am sure have bitten or stung me, in no specific order:

I Met a Scrimshander

I was lucky enough to meet a very talented man many years back, with interests similar to mine (nautical art & oddities being one of them). He, however, didn’t just buy artwork; he created it:

Scrimshaw whaling scene by Art Weber

This whaling scene on two sperm whale teeth was created decades ago by my wife’s grandfather. I carve, but into wood. That’s pretty easy — wood is giving, and forgiving. But teeth are almost as hard as rocks. And sperm whale teeth are as rare as, well, sperm whale teeth.

Planet Mold

Look at this amazing Earth-like planet recently discovered and photographed!

Na, It’s just my wife’s lunch. She left the vestiges of it sitting for days in a round glass container. When I took off the lid, I thought it looked like a Google Earth image, so I photographed it and cropped out all but the contents of the container.

Mold can be beautiful! Such delicate, pastel colors. Life is amazing.

Planet Mold