Today in Northeast Ohio was sunny in the morning, turning to mostly broken overcast and occasional light rain in the afternoon. I was inside most of the day, but when I saw some bright sun around 7pm, I ventured outside and down to the lake for a look. It started sprinkling almost right away, but I was treated to a small rainbow.

(Upon reviewing the images, I see that it was a double rainbow, but I hadn't noticed at the time, perhaps because I was getting wet.)

This was my first rainbow in a while, since a bunch of rainbows [...]

The clouds, these two weeks while I've been in Ohio, have been wonderful. The weather has been dynamic – clear one moment, thunderstorms the next – and so there have been many types of clouds, mostly really beautiful.

On a typical afternoon, with a deep, clear blue sky hosting towering puffballs of richly detailed cumulus clouds, I marvel at the beauty. Kyoto is normally fairly humid and hazy, so even when it has puffy clouds, they're not set against a deep blue background. Ohio's clouds are better, for sure, but even the locals are commenting at how wonderful the clouds [...]

"The Big Picture" is a thrice-weekly online feature of The Boston Globe, a collection of large high-quality photos on a subject currently in the news. Today's, for example, is on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The images are absolutely stunning.

The images, taken from the news wires and such, are selected/compiled by Alan Taylor (who I assume is on staff at the Boston Globe), and are always of the absolute highest caliber. Jaw-dropping. Awesome, in the true "inspires awe" sense.

The quality of the images that Alan selects are so utterly compelling, you find yourself enjoying subjects that [...]
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In the photo above, non-photographers will see a slightly soft picture of a little boy holding a stuffed Curious George, having something shown to him by his grandma.

Photographers will see the metadata under it and say "Holy Freakin' Cow !  200mm handheld at 1/13 sec !" At least, that's what I thought. That was the first picture I took when I saw them coloring drawings of birds together (at the time, my mom was explaining something about woodpeckers), and after hearing the agonizingly slow slap of the shutter, I pushed the ISO from 500 to 1250. I never would [...]

My 76-year-old dad jogs most mornings, six laps around the lake (about two and a half miles), and Anthony has been wanting to go with him. This morning, he finally could...

Anthony decided that one lap was enough for him. I don't blame him. My dad, who is pretty fit, went on to do another five laps as Anthony and I went back into the house.