Cold summer weather :(

[Joseph O'Neil]

I know the weather varies greatly form one location to another, but in my neck of the woods (Great Lakes region) it's been a very cool and wet summer. Between being extra busy at work, and a large number of rainy days (which always seem to come when I have a few spare hours :) ), I'm finding this is one of my worst years for getting out there and shooting.

Heck, I'm not even putting on much mileage with my digital SLR. Is the weather affecting anybody else this way? Not looking for a solution, just some commiseration.
:)

joe

[Stephen Lewis]

Hi Joseph

Here in the UK we've had the opposite; clear blue skies and temperatures pushing 30 degrees. :( As I'm not a lover of clear blue skies and the harsh contrast, the only thing to do was to go out first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening to find the best light (and cooler temperatures).

The hot spell has broken here now, so we're back to the wonderfull variety of weather we're more used to, and which provides great inspiration. Get yourself a big brollie to cover the camera and go have fun! :)

[Bill_1856]

WHAT cold Summer weather?

[RichardRitter]

Yes cold and wet. June had 24 days of cloudy weather and 7 plus inches of rain more if you got hit by some of the bad storms that would drop 2 to 3 inches of rain. Sun would come out long enough to dry the lawn so it could be mowed and as the lawn mower was being put away it would start raining or go back to the wet heavy mist.

[Denis Pleic]

Same here (across the ocean, Europe, continental Croatia).

June was exceptionally rainy, in contrast to several recent years, when June was dry and VERY hot.... Heck, for the last few years we've had summer hot spells as early as May. This year, a total opposite: I'm joking with my wife that this year we have a real English weather - it rains at least once a day :)

Today it's been raining since morning (several hours now)....

At least we don't have to water the garden/backyard every day, so the water bill will definitely be much lower for June :)

Denis from Croatia

[jp]

Here in Maine, we've been setting records for rainfall and non-sunny days. People are experiencing seasonal affective disorder in the summer, when it's usually a winter phenomenon.

I had one day last month when I got to travel for work to an island and took my camera along because it was decent weather.

There was one other gray day when the sun wanted to come out. I went to the shore to get some photos because the it was good light for some B&W non-scenic photos.

That's it. I usually take about 50-100 color digital photos a week, and like to do a couple LF B&W images as well. It's just not happening.

I've been doing a bit of darkroom work and construction work. I finished repairing my new beseler cb7 enlarger that got damaged in shipping. I built a nice wood table for my two enlargers.

I have one scene in mind that I want to go back and photograph, but it requires a blue sky with cumulus clouds. We've only had one such day recently, but I was too busy at work to get away and get the photo. I'm in the ISP business, so we've had to contend with lots of lightning damage recently to customers and ours wireless and DSL equipment.

[Filmnut]

I'm in Toronto, Ontario, not too far from the OP,s location, and it has been cool and wet here as well. I'm not doing as much shooting either. Sometimes this weather is more condusive to photography, like lots of water for streams and waterfalls, but it has been harder to get out and actually do it!
Keith

[Walter Calahan]

I hear you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But at least the last week has been lovely.

[David Swinnard]

Vancouver (BC) area... we've only had a couple of days of rain since May 26. Very unusual. Many of us have really, really enjoyed the sunny, warm days. Sunny 16 days not gloomy 5.6 days!

It rained Monday, yesterday and is dark and rainy today - they say it will clear by the weekend, but we all know they're telling us what we want to hear. Many fear we've had our allotment of summer early this year and we're heading back into the eleven months of gloom and rain.

[Donald Miller]

106 and clear today. 112 and clear by Friday here in Phoenix. Seems that we have the opposite of your weather here.

Milano Italy was very pleasant (low 80's) when I left two weeks ago.

[Ken Lee]

A bit of a "silver lining" in all of this bad weather: In Massachusetts, the storm clouds have been plentiful. I wish I had time to take more photos of them.


http://www.kenleegallery.com/images/forum/58.jpg

[jp]

Very nice cloud photo. I like the square crop format too. I've liked cloud photos partly based on the influence of the equivalents series, more so than the meteorology aspects.

[Ken Lee]

Thanks !

Last time I saw some, those Stieglitz equivalents are awesome and pretty... mysterious !

[jp]

Thinking about the mystery in equivalents is distracting. Like your photo, they lack scale, reference, location, etc... This creates abstraction, lessening the role of that mystery. They still contain the things you like and have listed.

I'd read about the equivalents a long time ago, but got a chance to see a couple of them a year or two ago when they had a Georgia Okeefe exhibit at the portland maine museum of art. They had some Stieglitz photos and even a couple Ansel Adams photos too.

regarding mystery and abstraction... Sometimes I come across a negative in the darkroom full of goodness. I can figure out the mystery of it by starting at it under a light for a few seconds. But aside from that, I am immediately attracted to it because of various qualities present and look forward to printing it. These qualities are the abstract things we like in most of our photographs regardless of the subject. In the case of the negative the abstracted qualities such as composition, tones, patterns, and other impressions might make a notable impression on the person printing before the actual subject matter is understood by the person printing.

I've never been real big into photographing flowers. If you're looking to express something 100% natural, you really don't know if the flower is representative of someone's masterful garden or something cool discovered in nature, with the macro short DOF etc.. common to flower photos. Elliot Porter has a few nice natural setting flower photos amongst his books.

[Chris Strobel]

I know the weather varies greatly form one location to another, but in my neck of the woods (Great Lakes region) it's been a very cool and wet summer. Between being extra busy at work, and a large number of rainy days (which always seem to come when I have a few spare hours :) ), I'm finding this is one of my worst years for getting out there and shooting.

Heck, I'm not even putting on much mileage with my digital SLR. Is the weather affecting anybody else this way? Not looking for a solution, just some commiseration.
:)

joe

I'd trade that stormy weather for our clear, harsh shadowed sunny days in a heart beat.For me a clear sunny day means either trying to setup something interesting to shoot indoors, or just not shooting at all

[Simon Benton]

I live in Ottawa and the weather so far has generally been cool and wet. Last week my wife and I spent a few days up at our cottage in Quebec (about 1 hour north of Ottawa) and had the wood stove on for most of the time. This is unheard of in July when the temperatures in the past have been in in the high 70's and mid 80's in July and August.

[Michael Wynd]

Here in Victoria, Australia, we're still in drought conditions (in winter). The dams for our state capital are only 20% full. Most of country Victoria has had well below average rainfall and in some cases have had to truck water in. For those who don't know, Victoria is in the south of Australia and normally has good rainfall. Geelong, where I live, normally has 26 inches per year. So far we've only had about 1/4 of that. If you could arrange to have your rain sent here, we'd appreciate it. LOL.
Mike

[Darryl Baird]

silver lining in those dark clouds (over Michigan) is the lowest utility bills I've seen in over ten years... :cool:

[77seriesiii]

Germany has been flat, gray, cold. I like the clouds when you can see the clouds but this crap...Temperature wise, high of 68 and low in the 50s. Missed some great cloud shots yesterday took the dog for a walk saw them and thought, I'll go out later and catch them at sunset...opps, missed that opportunity. Dog loves it so we continue to go on walks and make the best of it.

./e

[Paul H]

It's cold here too, but then it is winter. Loadsa rain, so all the electricity companies are moaning that the hydro lakes are full and they have more trouble justifying ripping the customers off. Loadsa snow on the ski fields, so they're enjoying things! We've even had a bit of sleet and the ocassional flurry of snow, which is pretty unusual. Coldest winter for a few decades.

(As our weather forecast intro reminds us though, Auckland gets on average 1200mm rain per year, but in the late '90's Hokitika (a town on the west coast, South Island) got 18,000mm :eek: )

[Ivan J. Eberle]

It's been unusually sunny and fog-free in Monterey, CA this summer, as the Humbolt Current in the Pacific isn't upwelling cold water to the surface. An El Nino is forming.

[Richard M. Coda]

It's called "global warming" ;)

We had the "coolest" June in recorded history here in the Phoenix, AZ area. We actually had two weeks early in the month where we could keep the windows open, granted I live in far north Scottsdale at an elevation of 2865 ft. and it is a tad cooler up here (we occasionally get snow in winter).

But that's all over now... summer's here.

I see New England and the Mid Atlantic states are enjoying a beautiful summer so far.

[Brian Ellis]

Thinking about the mystery in equivalents is distracting. Like your photo, they lack scale, reference, location, etc... This creates abstraction, lessening the role of that mystery. They still contain the things you like and have listed.

I'd read about the equivalents a long time ago, but got a chance to see a couple of them a year or two ago when they had a Georgia Okeefe exhibit at the portland maine museum of art. They had some Stieglitz photos and even a couple Ansel Adams photos too.

regarding mystery and abstraction... Sometimes I come across a negative in the darkroom full of goodness. I can figure out the mystery of it by starting at it under a light for a few seconds. But aside from that, I am immediately attracted to it because of various qualities present and look forward to printing it. These qualities are the abstract things we like in most of our photographs regardless of the subject. In the case of the negative the abstracted qualities such as composition, tones, patterns, and other impressions might make a notable impression on the person printing before the actual subject matter is understood by the person printing.

I've never been real big into photographing flowers. If you're looking to express something 100% natural, you really don't know if the flower is representative of someone's masterful garden or something cool discovered in nature, with the macro short DOF etc.. common to flower photos. Elliot Porter has a few nice natural setting flower photos amongst his books.

I have a 2-volume boxed set of books published by the Met years ago that has most everything known of Stieglitz's work in it, including all of the Equivalents, at least all he ever made public. Along about the 50th Equivalent you realize you can live very easily without ever again seeing a photograph of clouds.

We've had gorgeous weather here in Bend since mid-May, sunny days, temperatures in the mid-60s - 70s during the day, chilly at night and early morning, very dry, only a couple really hot days though a hot spell is predicted starting today. Undoubtedly the nicest spring and early summer we've had in the four years we've lived here. Bill, I remember those Florida summers that last 6 months all too well, they're one of the main reasons we moved here.

[Sal Santamaura]

It's called "global warming" ;)...The preferred term today is "climate change" so that those who deny the phenonenon exists can't make jokes when local conditions are cooler.

The planet, when one integrates temperatures over its entire surface, is warming. The polar ice is melting. Joking about or denying it doesn't change reality.

[jp]

Weather is finally improved in the NE. Got sunny weather and the cumulus clouds I was looking for! I've been out of town working outside for a couple days, but was able to take a short break today and get the photo I've wanted for a month now.

[Photojeep]

I live in Las Vegas...(yes, That Las Vegas)

In the desert...(109 two days ago)

I'd love to have cool and rainy summer weather... :o

Oh well, November isn't that far away...

We hope to be down to 80 by then...

[Terence McDonagh]

Rain/thunderstorms predicted for the next 9 days here (NYC). At least it keeps things cool.

[walter23]

Blazingly hot here. Outside is a furnace from about 10am till 7 or 8 pm.

[walter23]

The preferred term today is "climate change" so that those who deny the phenonenon exists can't make jokes when local conditions are cooler.

The planet, when one integrates temperatures over its entire surface, is warming. The polar ice is melting. Joking about or denying it doesn't change reality.

We had an unusually cold winter a year or so ago, in Alberta, land of oil riches and broken hospitals. Of course the papers were full of told-ya-sos and such, but the analogy I like to use is this: imagine the average age of a first year university class is 19. Now imagine you ask one guy and he happens to be 27. Does that mean the class is an unusually old class? No. The average can still be 19.

One data point doesn't tell you anything about a trend or an average.