Hail in the Cemetery

Caught in a sudden (see later) and vigorous hailstorm, I thought I would see if the hail would show up in a photograph. Apparently it does!

This exposure at 1/60 s shows the hail as streaks, which raises an interesting point. The eye sees the hail as discrete particles, yet the persistence of vision is much greater than 1/60 s. I've believed in 1/25 s since I was first told as a child, and that movies and TV don't seem to flicker because of that. However, I've just seen that Wikipedia claims that the explanation is more complex, and pronounces that "a critical part of understanding that emerges with these visual perception phenomena is that the eye is not a camera [my emphasis]. In other words vision is not as simple as light registering on a medium, since the brain has to make sense of the visual data the eye provides and construct a coherent picture of reality." I shall be interested to see if anyone can provide further input.

At any rate, I thought that the result was a slightly unusual photograph.

This cemetery is nearly opposite our house. It's a pleasant and peaceful place for a stroll, and it's always fascinating to reflect on the lives of, and memorials to, those buried here. There are many distinguished 'residents', such as JRR Tolkien and Isaiah Berlin. But I have never experienced a hailstorm here before!

And sudden it certainly was. According to the EXIF information, this was the scene at 16:58. In fact, some light rain was beginning to turn a little heavier, and you may just be able to make it out. But the sun was still shining, and the rain had produced a reflective glare from the horizontal memorial stones. My Blipfoto is timed for 16:59, one minute later. The photograph was taken from underneath the shelter of a huge old tree. Then, by 17:00, the sun was shining brightly again, and the hail and rain had all but gone.