Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 6:39PM 
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Finally, some weather stuff to watch
HPC 24-hour precip forecast and flooding risk
The first drops of rain are falling outside as the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay are finally making their way across our region. The HPC precip forecasts show a moderate probability of excessive (flooding) rainfall, with 3 to 3.5 inch totals forecast over much of WV. The NWS seems to disagree, not yet pulling the trigger on a flood watch - citing the speed of the system, the dry ground and the low stream levels from nearly 2 weeks of precip-free conditions. Looking at radar, I'm tending to lean in the direction of agreeing with the NWS - the current precip shield does not look large, intense or slow enough to do much in the way of bringing streams up to flood levels. The caveat, as always, is the mountains, which can locally enhance or diminish rainfall totals. For this reason I would think the higher rainfall totals will be on the eastern slopes, due to the southeasterly upslope flow from Fay's surface circulation. SE flow tends to put Charleston and western WV in a mountain-induced 'rain shadow' of lesser precip rates.
Any flooding we do get will probably be very late tonight or early tomorrow morning, so I don't plan to do much with this event, if anything at all.
Meanwhile, Gustav has reached hurricane status in the Caribbean, and is heading for the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The storm's track is taking into an environment very favorable for rapid and deep intensification. With no major blocking/steering factors expected anytime soon in the Gulf region, this storm will likely make landfall next week along the Gulf coast as a major hurricane.
| Keep an eye on things; The prediction for our area was 5 inches of rain max., however since Monday afternoon we've recieved (at my house) a little more than 9 inches. Flood levels are the highest since I moved here a decade ago.
- Posted by David Rowh from Salisbury, NC |  |  | |
Monday, August 25, 2008 - 10:12PM
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VX2100 comeback: SD's not done yet
My faithful old Sony VX2100 had been living a pretty bleak life during the past couple of years, spending all of its time in the secure darkness of a Pelican case. Quite a contrast to the action-packed duty it enjoyed with all types of severe weather in its viewfinder after I first bought it in 2004. The VX served me well, paying for itself many, many times over through the years. After I invested in my HD camera, I began shooting all of my material with it instead in order to future-proof my stock video archives. So in 2006, the VX2100 was all but retired to the depths of Pelican-land. In fact, I came very close to selling it several times when I thought about how little I was using it. However, since the camera was paid for, I figured it was probably worth more to me as a backup camera than anything I'd get out of it. A four-year old camera that has been through hurricanes, floods, tornado outbreaks, snowstorms, ice storms and two repair send-offs probably wasn't going to fetch too much anyway.
So I've been very pleased that in the last month, my VX2100 has been hard at work on three non-weather, non-TV revenue projects that have netted nearly enough to pay for itself another time over! I'm very happy that I never sold it. The camera has been busy on two CIS client projects as well as a third church project I'm doing on the side. Two additional CIS contracts are in the works that should give it yet another round of shooting days. Also interestingly, but not surprising, is the fact that the camera is making me more this month on non-TV jobs than it did in two or three months of TV work in the past. And for a LOT less time and gas money expenditures too. Hmmm . . . another hint to chasers about the TV business?
All of my current video projects are for the web, which made the VX2100 the logical choice. HD is overkill for this type of web work, and not very practical anyway (increased rendering times, etc). Furthermore my Sennheiser wireless lav mic seems to work better on the VX than on the FX1, most of that probably being because I haven't taken enough time to play around with the audio settings/levels on that camera. Ironically, now it's my HD camera that is "doing time in the Pelican" since the weather has been nonexistent for the past month.
I'm pretty green when it comes to doing this 'corporate video' work, but I'm enjoying it and hoping to delve into it more in the future. The money is not too bad and it is fun to shoot. Not as fun as shooting lightning or tornadoes, but I'll take it - it pays the bills.
The VX2100 isn't the only part of my equipment arsenal that has gotten a reprieve from abandonment. With the quad-core PC at the office now, the old Dell desktop has been re-deployed at my home desk (I'm typing this post on it now). I bought this machine back in August of 2001 - nearly seven years ago to the day. That's a long life for any computer - and it's been running for 99.9% of that time (I never shut down my home machines). For the past year, it's been in the basement doing nothing but webcam duty and collecting dust. It feels a little strange to have it back here on the desk and actually using it again.
Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:17PM
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A tower crane in West Virginia?
click to enlarge
The Spring Hill area in South Charleston is apparently getting a new high-rise building (their first) thanks to Thomas Memorial Hospital's constant expansion. Since tower cranes are used to construct tall buildings, they are not an everyday sight around here. In fact I can't remember ever personally seeing one of these in this state before (not surprising due to WV not exactly being the champions of economic development).
I haven't been able to locate anything on the web about this project, IE how tall the new building will be and what it will look like. The Spring Hill area is mainly a residential suburb of Charleston, and a high-rise will definitely stand out. I will have to do a little fact-finding, but if this building goes over 10 floors, it may be the first of that height built in this area in 15-20 years. I think the Embassy Suites downtown was the most recent one.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 9:17PM
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Shifting gears again
click to enlarge
I took the long way for part of the drive home from the office today, getting stopped by the descending crossing gates on Hedrick Road near Scott Depot. I decided at the last second to grab the camera and mess around with a few shots instead of just sitting in the car. Stuff was blurring handheld (since it was getting dark), so I cranked the ISO to 800 just to get a sharp image. I tried a couple with the (slowly approaching) train in focus and the gate blurred, but I liked this better.
So yeah, I drove home from the office. If you know me or read this blog for very long, you know that I don't kid around when I talk about possibly making changes in life. I'm not afraid to try new things or go back to doing 'old' things if it's what I feel is best, and I usually take the plunge sooner than later, not looking back or second-guessing the decision afterward. And so today, I loaded my home office setup into the car (computer, hard drives, files, etc) and took it to my waiting desk at the CIS headquarters in Teays Valley. I plan to make the daily commute for at least the next month or so. Expensive (about $160/month extra for fuel, which the company is helping cover), but I think that the advantages of me being 'in-house' with the rest of the crew during our new product roll-out will make that investment well worth it.
I never thought I'd say it, but to be honest, being back there felt great. And it also feels equally good to be home in the evening and not have piles of work sitting here in this room. The end of the day is my time now - all of my work activities will be confined to the office 25 miles away. I lost sight of this benefit of having a more structured routine.
You've probably also seen that what works for me seems to change like the wind, so who knows how long this arrangement will last. I may be back home again in 6 months (or 2) - we'll see. It's nice to work for someone that lets me make these decisions for myself - I don't take that blessing for granted.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 2:36AM
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Photoshelter account, slow-motion lightning footage
I decided to sign up for a Photoshelter account earlier this month, and finally got around to configuring my first few images (my catalog page is here). I have traditionally stayed away from the online stock photo agencies because most of them are geared to amateurs who are willing to sell images for nothing (as in absurd amounts like a dollar or two each). However, there are a couple of pro photographers/chasers that I respect that have had some good experiences with Photoshelter. Add to that the fact that the site allows you to charge professional rates, so I decided to give it a try.
On to the subject of lightning. You may have seen a few of these videos floating around the internet lately. Tom Warner of ZT Research in Rapid City, SD has been involved in capturing lightning video with a 7,200 frames-per-second camera. The results are jaw-dropping. I could replace an entire page describing how lightning works by just posting the link to Tom's videos - nothing else I've ever seen shows the processes so clearly. Tom has posted a few of his videos on YouTube, here are my favorites - keep in mind that what you see here happens in nature in the blink of an eye!
Cloud-to-ground discharge
Intracloud discharges followed by cloud-to-ground discharge
And the rest of them:
High-speed camera lightning by ZT Research
After seeing this stuff I'm not sure I have much motivation to shoot any more lightning footage until I have that camera. All of my lightning video seems boring now. At around 70 grand, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon though.
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