Sunday, January 2, 2011

Sublimation

I would prefer to see the sun today, and it's possible that I will as the day goes on, but when I got up this morning and stepped out on our back deck, this is what I saw:


This kind of fog from sublimation of the snow (passing from a solid state to a vaporous state without first going through a liquid state) usually only happens in the spring, but today's temperature is a relatively (for Massachusetts on the second day of January) balmy forty degrees. I am not going to get my hopes up for a REALLY early spring, though... I know this is an anomaly. -- PL

4 comments:

FF said...

Hey pete love the pic. Do you do that on a camera setting or do you take pic and fit them together. I remember you saying you did the later at a beach but unsure.

One more question if I send a letter to your mirage group address would you get it if I addressed it to you?

PL said...

"FF said...
Hey pete love the pic. Do you do that on a camera setting or do you take pic and fit them together. I remember you saying you did the later at a beach but unsure. "

For the last year or so I have been using a Mac program (I'm not sure if it is available in a PC version; it very well might be) called "Panorama Maker 5" to stitch my photos together into panoramas. I find that if you take the right kinds of shots, it works really well, and is pretty quick.

"One more question if I send a letter to your mirage group address would you get it if I addressed it to you?"

It is very likely that it would get to me if you did that. -- PL

Anonymous said...

Wonderful photo. And you're right about sublimation not happening often in a New England winter. Here in England, though, it's happened twice this winter already -- astonishingly beautiful both times.

PL said...

"amygreenfield said...
Wonderful photo. And you're right about sublimation not happening often in a New England winter. Here in England, though, it's happened twice this winter already -- astonishingly beautiful both times."

Because it happens more often in the spring, when temperatures can shoot up quickly during the morning, I have come to associate the fog of sublimation with the first motorcycle ride of the year. In past years it has meant getting out the cold weather riding gear and cautiously heading out for a short ride. But it is certainly way too early for spring as of yet, and I will be waiting a few more months for that first ride, I'm afraid.

By the way, even though I did leave a comment on your blog about this, it bears repeating -- those "Jack Frost" photos you took were fantastic! I especially liked the frosted spiderweb. One wonders if Charlotte ever had to put up with that kind of icy decoration. (Although, if memory serves, her webs were in the barn, where I guess it was probably warmer.)-- PL