Kathleen Thorpe's favorite articles

This article was first written when ipernity management announced the imminent closure of the site, from about the end of January 2017. Things have moved on and, at last (!!! :)) , the site has passed fully to the Ipernity Members' Association. As this is my preferred site for friendly contact with other photographic enthusiasts, might I suggest to those of you who have been thinking of leaving, that you stay around and help make the site all the great things it could be. I've just lo…

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One moment in early March, the ground was covered by snow. Despite lengthening days, the late-starting winter of 2015-16 struggled to hang on. But seemingly the next moment, all the snow was gone. Where snow and ice had once hugged the earth, the landscape blushed in the growing colors of spring. Each passing day, the mild breezes of a rising spring kissed new life into the once-barren landscape. Soon, the ground was covered in an extraordinary explosion of daffodils. Everywhere one looke…

When my brother, Don called me to let me know the temperature in NYC had dropped to –1º F, I had just left church with plans to take a few local photographs. Prior to mass, I had documented a pair of blooming dandelions and several crocuses in the –3º F cold in my neighborhood. Knowing that the temperature had fallen below zero F only a handful of times in NYC during my life (this was only the 7th time to be exact) and it hadn’t done so for a record drought of 22+ years, I decided to race to…

The persistent and frequently severe cold that covered the New York Metropolitan Area produced average temperatures more reminiscent of the spread of the television in the 1930s than the era of smartphones, tablets, and WiFi. In New York City, the mean February temperature came to just 23.9°F (-4.5°C). That monthly average was a record 11.4°F (6.3°C) below normal. No month since regular recordkeeping began in 1869 had ever had a larger cold anomaly. Moreover, only 1885 (22.7°F/-5.2°C) and 1934 (…