I can’t grasp that the shuttle program is actually ending, even though we’ve all known it’s been coming for a long time. Atlantis is due to launch this morning, though weather is likely to be an issue. And then it will come home, if all goes well, for a permanent berth at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

I covered space for four years and was completely immersed in the shuttle program. I haven’t retained the level of detail I knew then, but it was a huge part of my life. I was awed by it, then dismayed after the heartbreaking Columbia accident, but always impressed by this technological colossus and the people who put it together. They’re the ones who have made history.

I’ve put together a tribute to the shuttle – a gallery of some of my favorite images. It’s not complete yet; I still have to upload all the high-res files and write detailed captions. But it helps me share that sense of wonder I still have when one of those shuttles aims for the stars. See the gallery

We had a really nice July 4, first at a pool party, though I dozed off with the dogs for a little while during the sixth hour of conversation about cycling, and then watching the Cocoa fireworks down by the river. Before and after the big boomers, which of course terrified the little dog, our niece and nephew and our friends and their boy went nuts with sparklers. Ah, the simple joy of flying sparks. Only these days, all the kids were attempting to cast spells out of the “Harry Potter” books as they thrust their sparklers at unseen enemies. Fortunately, I was not turned into a were-rabbit, or whatever people get turned into by Harry Potter spells.

As I was on the way to the memorial service yesterday, a mass of rain and storms was rolling into the Space Coast. I stopped for just a moment to get this photo of a toothy shelf cloud moving over the barrier islands. At points it looked as if there were fingers draping over the landscape as I got closer to it and then was lashed by the rain. Florida is king of the shelf clouds.

We’ve had much-needed rain this week in the form of daylong gully-washers. The National Weather Service in Melbourne recorded 2.48 inches of rain June 29, a record. The next day, it noted 1.29 inches. June had 5.9 inches, compared with 16.91 for the year overall – more than a third of the year’s rainfall, much of it in two days!

I’ve spent the better part of two days working on a multimedia slide show that will be played on a DVD at a memorial service. Unfortunately, the service is for a friend. I didn’t get emotional until the end of the project, when I added his name and the dates of his life. The photos are a celebration of his life, but somehow, the text made his passing more real. Tom Breen was a journalist’s journalist who traveled the world and lived a great life. He was a kind philosopher, an obsessive reporter, and a warrior for what he thought was right.

Amid the emotion and creativity, there’s also been not a little bit of technical frustration. I thought I’d share one thing I learned that might help Macheads like myself. I got a new Mac recently, running system 10.6, Snow Leopard. (What’s with the stupid cat names? Honestly, I can’t keep them straight.) I love having a new computer with lots of memory and hard drive space, but the upgraded system also means endless upgrades of software and new trials in attempting to make my old devices work with the new beast. I haven’t tried my old Nikon slide scanner yet, but from what I’ve heard, people are having mixed results. However, I learned that for my old Epson Perfection 1200 Photo, I was probably going to have to pay for scanning software. Epson’s would not install or load (though the driver did, which then had to be updated with Apple’s Software Update). Then I discovered that Apple’s Preview, which is commonly used for a quick look at photos and PDFs, actually works as scanning software, too. And it worked just fine. One hurdle gone.

I use Final Cut Pro for movie editing, but I thought I’d try iMovie for the slide show. It neatly fits your slides to a song and enables lots of interesting transitions, effects, control over timing, and titles. Unfortunately, iMovie ’11 also has its problems. It couldn’t “finalize project” because of a “heap zone” issue (documented by many but not solved in the Apple support forums). This is despite the ample memory and hard drive space on my computer. In addition, at startup, the program wants to update “Aperture Videos Event” (are there Microsoft people writing Mac software now? Is that English?) – in other words, it searches my already massive Aperture library for new stuff for several minutes. So I don’t foresee myself using iMovie all that much. I used to recommend iMovie heartily to anyone wanting to dabble in movie editing, especially because it comes free with Macs. Now, I’m not so sure.

I thought I’d check out the sea-breeze storms on June 23, since they were such a pretty, puffball, popcorn white against the blue sky. But they also lived fast and died young, going up quickly, dumping their rain and pretty much dissipating. Still, it made for a pleasant afternoon driving around what I call Florida’s prairie, the flat areas in the middle where few people live. I sure did see a lot of orange groves near Holopaw, though. And another thing I can note: It’s probably a good idea to take a “no trespassing” sign seriously when it’s posted on a fence next to a big pile of spent bullets, not to mention fire ants.

While you need a storm to shoot lightning, one of the obvious side effects of a storm, the rain, is a real hindrance to lightning photography. And when the severe storms came to the Space Coast tonight …

… they had a fair amount of lightning, but it was all embedded in precip. In other words, a mess. So after the evening’s social obligations, I attempted to get a little shelter under a pavilion in Cocoa Village to catch a few lightning crawlers. Still, the rain was spitting on my lens, and the one awesome crawler happened to fire in the split second between exposures. Ack! Anyway, here’s one, despite everything.

Had a fun evening last night seeing surf-rock legend Dick Dale and trio at the Boathouse in Winter Park, a beautiful bar and a nice, intimate space, big enough for a small crowd and perfect to get a close-up view, as well as a real ear-blasting. I’m so glad I got to see (and hear) Dick Dale! I interviewed him a few years ago by phone, and it was a great conversation.

 

Severe and not-so-severe storms came in waves through Brevard County, Florida, today.

Today was good evidence that east-central Florida’s dry season is finally over, or at least taking a break. We had several rounds of severe and nonsevere storms in Brevard County, but chasing the lightning wasn’t easy. The storms this evening were moving south so fast, I could barely get ahead of them, thanks in part to way too many traffic lights. Makes me miss the prairie!

I’m a year behind the times, but thanks to GalleyCat’s list of Moby Award-winning book trailers, I just saw the one for Sloane Crosley’s “How Did You Get This Number?” You’d never guess it’s for a book, or a book of essays, if it didn’t ultimately tell you, but who cares? It’s a wonderful piece of animation that makes you want to watch it until the end. I made my first book trailer last year for Susan Hubbard’s Ethical Vampire novel “The Season of Risks” and would love to make more. I’ve got to play with animation! Check out the Crosley trailer:

Meanwhile… I just got back from The Hukilau, the tiki festival held in Fort Lauderdale. I shot a lot of video with my Nikon D7000, trying to learn its mysterious ways. One, I’ve learned, even with the external mic, it’s hard to get good sound when bands are playing at deafening levels; and two, the autofocus is pretty awful for video. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see that on the screen in the middle of the action. It’s best to use a tripod, and the camera works best in situations where you can take your time and set up your shot. Of course, reality isn’t always accommodating. Fortunately I also have HD video cameras that are great for action.

I also took a few stills. This is one of my friend Kathryn at the Mai Kai Polynesian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It was just one of those moments when the light was right, and she looked wonderful, and I had to take a photo. Do you agree?

Wow. I found this on YouTube. The wind and debris are incredible as this camera/home apparently just got sideswiped by the Joplin, Mo., tornado of May 22.