Friday, February 10, 2006

Sun snow shadows

snow in car shadow
Coming to work on Thursday gave a good example of the power of the sun, as it melted the snow precisely around the car's shadow. The little bit of overlap is the Sun's motion across the sky combined with the time it takes to melt the thin layer of snow.


Click here for another example.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the snow shadow photo. I’ve seen this sort of thing in the woods in western PA a couple times in early afternoon. There were quite long snow shadows from trees, with remarkably sharp edges. Of course, the snow must be right on the edge of melting for this to work. There must be a window of direct sunlight during an otherwise prevailingly cloudy day. In this way the snow can actually be considered a very slow acting photographic medium.

    Ken P.

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  2. Hi Ken--got your comment and on the way to work your note made me realize they were out again:

    Snow shadow from car

    Snow shadow from fence

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