Taming the Raging Lake

Wakatipu is pretty frequently angry. Like, really angry.

On this particular evening, the wind was blowing so hard that opening the car door was a calculated risk, much less balancing a camera out in the elements for any extended period of time.

However, I could tell from the living room that the light was going to be Worth It, and for once, I could visualize the photo I wanted to make, so off we went to brave the full force of the southerly. And goddamn it, this is why I've invested in robust camera gear.


Nice place to dip yer toes

Fortunately, if you keep the shutter open long enough, and hang onto the camera+tripod reeeeeeeeaaaaal tight, you can turn chaos into peace. Not sure if there's a lesson to be learned from that. Well, it wasn't meant as such. Anyhow.

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Galactic Plane

I don't think I'll ever tire of craning my neck up under clear dark skies and contemplating our place, or lack thereof, in the universe. Or multiverse. Or hologram. Whatever you fancy.


Gas, dust, and pine

This photo came from a special spot in Glenbrook at Lake Tahoe, on a particularly perfect summer night. Light courtesy of the ol' pocket supercomputer.

Speaking of cool space stuff: I think if I had "it" to do all over again, I'd be somehow involved with the Solar Dynamics Observatory, in part because telling people you're a heliophysicist would be pretty rad, but mostly because of stuff like this: SDO goodness (youtube).

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Hawaii: All Good Things

On the last day of our short trip to Maui last year, we found ourselves some beach somewhere that looked like it was good for beachy things.

If I recall, it was something of a matter of low-hanging fruit, because I was smashed from the Haleakala mission and we had probably just gorged ourselves on lunch, but hey, beaches are kind of for recuperating anyway. On any other day, I would have suggested (or assented to) some 5-mile jungle scramble to some deserted patch of sand, but this was simply not the day for shenanigans like that.

Ethel has not spent a lot of time in the ocean (and neither have I, for that matter), and the camera catches all indiscretions and mistakes.


Murphy gets worked

I do admit to being a little leery of the ocean in general. Lakes I'm good with, especially cold freshwater lakes that tend not to be home to anything capable of eating me. The ocean, on the other hand, is this vast expanse of predatory unknown, so I'm a little less cool with it. But on a blazing hot day, well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.


Enjoy the view

Our trip had reached its end, and I definitely won't complain about getting whisked away from winter to a tropical paradise for Not as Many Days as I Would Have Liked, so instead I'll continue my run of sharing photos from airplanes with this, which was surprisingly hard to line up just right:


Take me home, glowing oracle

'Til next time, Hawaii.

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