Three cats enter the season of light; four blurred basketball shots, Point Hope v. Klawock
Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 4:00AM ;)
It is official.
We have entered the season of light.
LIGHT.
Wonderful, wonderful, glorious, light!
Sweet, sweet, northern light.
Charlie and Slick in the light that pours into Melanie's house.
Slick, you should know, is also known as Bear Meech.
;)
Diamond glitters in the light.
;)
Melanie, Charlie, and Poof Cat - all soak in the light at what not so long ago was a very dark hour.
But now it is the Vernal Equinox - the Spring Equinox.
And on this day, everyone in the world had 12 hours of sunlight.
People at the equator would have seen the sun pop right up in the east and climb high fast until their shadows disappeared beneath their feet at high noon. From there, the sun would have just dropped, fast, straight down toward the west.
People standing on either pole could have watched the sun skim the horizon all day long. At the north pole, at the end of the 12 hours, the sun would have risen low into a day six months long and at the south, slipped away to a long, extended, twilight, thus beginning the six month night.
To you to the south - our days are now longer than your's.
But not as long as Barrow's, where the sun will climb higher and higher each day, and each day will stay up for about 15 minutes longer than the day before until finally, come May 10, it will stay above the horizon all day and will not set again until August 2.
Here in Wasilla, there will never be a night that the sun does not set, but soon the darkest part of the night will still be a light version of twilight and it will be wonderful.
;)
Not so long ago, Slick was a creature of the night.
Now he is a creature of the light.
;)
I went to three basketball games today, the final being the 2A championship game between Point Hope and Klawock.
Just before the game started, I set my cameras to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second.
Then the game started and some good action happened in front of me immediately.
But, somehow, a knob on my camera had rubbed against something in such a way as to drop the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second.
Basketball players can move significantly in 1/20 of a second.
I would shoot seven frames before I discovered the error and every one would be blurry.
So here is one of those motioned-blurred frames.
;)
And here is another.
;)
Plus a third.
You can see the action is good and they do work in an artsy-kind of way, but they will not work for what I want them to work.
;)
I was very disappointed that I blurred the shots, but I took a lot more afterwards, so I will be fine.
They are still downloading and I haven't had a chance to look at any of them, other than these blurry ones. These were right at the beginning of the take, so they popped up right away. The rest of the disk is still downloading and when it is done, I have two more disks to download.
But it is 1:09 AM, I am very sleepy and must go to bed.
So I will wait until tomorrow to download the other two disks.
Reader Comments (9)
I'm an absolute armature but i know the disappointment when a would be great picture doesn't turn out. i love the cats.
YAY for light
I like the blurred shots - gives a real action feeling, and the color is great.
Oh I am LOVING the light.. it's amazing how this works.. as a new alaskan I am treasuring EVERY minute of it!
It's staying up til almost 930 now! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA for light!
"To you to the south - our days are now longer than yours."
Oh, I do so hope you are merciful and will not rub this in all summer to those of us with lesser light (speaking in terms of sunlight). I don't think I can stand it if you do for I am a creature of light as well. No, no, I won't be able to stand it!
Cease and desist!
I must admit, unlike others I do not rejoice at the arrival of more light. I prefer winter and our cold, dark days. If I could live somewhere with cold, snow and darkness every day of the yr I would be quite happy. However, my family does not agree and hubby is already planning fishing excursions. As we get the longer days of daylight I'll just bring my bedroom into darkness and go in there at times to count down the days until our winter season is upon us once again.
What a cheerful little post! Yes. Things certainly do change once you see the light.
very descriptive, bill! also amazing that lisa comments how she loves the darkness. today the u.s. of a, our country, finally saw the lite by passing the healthcare reform bill. gee, it was a long time coming but so many people will benefit. (i also enjoyed your blurry b'ball shots. maybe it's cuz i luv abstract art.
Sure glad you discovered the wrong setting almost immediately. However, being
an artsy person, I like your 1/20 sec photos and am glad they made your post. Personally, the blurred motion gives me the feeling of involvement---of being there.
Happy that 'LIGHT' has finally come to Alaska.
Yippee, you went to bed before the rooster crowed!
this is a amazing blog. I give you A+ nice!