wwp@yahoogroups.com:
NEXT EVENT - Atmosphere - March 20-25
G. Donald Bain 2007-Feb-21 17:30:00
It is that time again, our quarterly event is exactly a month away.
Time to think of where you will be and how you will create another
masterpiece for the World Wide Panorama.
I have composed an essay that may spur your imagination on how to
deal with the theme - Atmosphere.
This essay is also on the WWP web site, along with the rules,
regulations, and procedures:
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp/practical/NextEvent.html
ATMOSPHERE
This may be our most challenging theme yet. The atmosphere is usually
transparent, invisible. It is vital and ubiquitous, but we don't
always notice it. This theme will require thinking and planning,
watching and waiting.
Some of nature's most striking moments of beauty, rainbows and
sunsets, are products of the atmosphere. Clouds are an endless
fascination, lightning is thrilling. Atmospheric effects, such as
distance haze and fog, make for dramatic photographs. At high
latitudes the auroras make an unrivaled natural lightshow. Seeing the
sun break through clouds, projecting rays of light to the ground, is
truly inspirational.
We walk upon the lithosphere (the solid earth) and live in the lowest
level of the atmosphere. But birds, bats, and flying insects have
made the atmosphere their home. Flocks of migratory birds, v's of
geese against the sky, swallows catching insects, hawks mating on the
wing, bees carrying pollen, these are all part of the life of the
atmosphere. In the spring millions of ladybugs ride rising air
currents up canyons to the high mountains. Plants such as grasses and
pines rely on the wind for pollination, releasing clouds of tiny
particles, to the great distress of allergic humans.
The activities of mankind have polluted the atmosphere almost
everywhere. Forest clearance and overgrazing create smoke and dust.
Industrial societies live under a blanket of dismal and unhealthful
haze. Cities with abundant sunshine develop photochemical smog.
Resorts in mountain valleys may have the smoke from domestic
fireplaces trapped under an inversion. Famous vistas in national
parks are now compromised by emissions from remote power plants.
Conditions of exceptional visibility, when a passing storm has
cleansed the sky and blown away the smoke and dust, remind us of the
beauty we have lost.
The atmosphere is in the news these days, as we research and debate
how we may be changing the world's climate with gases we release into
the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases from aerosol propellants,
refrigerants, paint fumes, dry cleaning fluids, and petrochemicals of
many kinds are culprits. The simple processes of combustion and
decomposition release carbon dioxide, familiar and unthreatening, and
yet perhaps the most significant agent in climate change. Could a
dairy cow be as bad for the environment as a car?
Climate is the long view, the daily conditions are weather. Water and
heat in the atmosphere, highly variable and dynamic, are the basic
ingredients of weather. Clouds, rain, snow, fog, heat, cold, and wind
are what we see and feel. Unusual conditions in the atmosphere create
drought and floods, storms and gales.
The effects of weather are seen everywhere, in the vegetation, our
homes, our clothing, our daily work and recreation. Regions with dry
climates look and function completely differently than areas with wet
climates. Cold wet days are unpopular, dry sunny days delightful. We
need weather forecasts constantly, to be prepared for the state of
the atmosphere. Weather reports often include UV intensity, ozone
level, and pollen count.
Wind is the atmosphere in motion. It can be destructive when
excessive, bringing down trees and wires, damaging buildings. But it
is increasingly being harnessed as a pollution free and sustainable
source of power, with wind farms being built everywhere. We use the
wind for recreation too, kites, hang-gliders, parasailers and wind-
surfers.
Long distance travel over the last century has moved from the
hydrosphere (the oceans) to the atmosphere. Airports large and small
are vital infrastructure in developed societies. Aircraft allow
access to the most inaccessible places on earth, many unreachable in
any other way. Control of the air is a military priority. The design
and construction of aircraft of all kinds, from unpowered sailplanes
to jumbo jets to stealth bombers, challenges our ingenuity and
imagination.
The atmosphere is sometimes used in unusual ways. Searchlights and
lasers trace patterns on it, agile aircraft write messages on it,
blimps carry advertising over sporting events. Skyscrapers form
distinctive and famous skylines. Jets leave contrails, a human
imprint on the sky.
There is another meaning of atmosphere, denoting the "pervading tone
or mood of a place, situation, or work of art". We say that a place
has atmosphere because it carries with it suggestions of other times,
other places, of feelings and moods. Restaurants, bars and other
social spaces make great use of this sort of atmosphere, cultivating
it or inventing it. Every culture has its own varieties of
atmosphere, from classic British pubs to wild west saloons, ritzy to
Bohemian, class to crass. It is a subtle thing, we know it when we
encounter it, but it may be hard to photograph.
To create panoramas on the theme atmosphere: look up, shoot cubic.
Wait and watch for the weather, for when the atmosphere becomes
visible with moisture or pollutants. Look for creatures of the air
and mankind in the air. Think about what we are doing to the
atmosphere, and what the atmosphere does to us and for us.