Webcam article in Meredith News January 24, 2008

[Island Girl]

The Meredith News has printed the following article. It is here in it's entirety with permission from the paper.

All eyes and lenses on Lake Winnipesaukee
Sarah Schmidt
sschmidt@salmonpress.com
>

Photo Cred: Sarah Schmidt

Carolyn Murphy, owner of the Snake Eyes Web camera on Island shows off the new model that will replace the broken one, once she can cross the ice safely.




LAKES REGION — From Mike Colclough's dock on Rattlesnake Black Cat Island, you can see clear across Lake Winnipesaukee to Gunstock Mountain in Gilford, Mount Major and Cates Hill in Alton, and Dollar Island in Meredith. Since he set up a Web cam last year, everyone else can see them, too.
Web cameras have grown in popularity around Lake Winnipesaukeelace, from the WeirsCAM overlooking the beach, to a site where 26 different web cameras with lenses trained on the Lakes Region are listed.
The purpose of a web camera is ostensibly simple - to provide an image of the current surroundings of the camera at the click of a button. For those operating cameras on Lake Winnipesaukeelace, however, their endeavor has provided weather warnings, peace, and a sense of comfort for those far from these shores.
"(When I began) I thought I'd get maybe 50 visitors a week," said Richard Laronde, owner of the Bear Cams on Bear Island in Meredith. "Last summer I had to move to a new host for more bandwidth."
Laronde's cameras have logged well over three million visitors. Since June of 2007, Colclough's camera has logged about 44,000 visitors.
From the lone WeirsCAM that started up in 1999, Web cameras have exploded in popularity around Lake Winnipesaukeelace. At the heart of this interest, according to three local camera operators, is the desire of people to enjoy the lake, whether in the immediate future, or from thousands of miles away.

Weather
Carolyn Murphy and her husband got their first web camera for one very important issue - safety. With a house on Rattlesnake Island in Alton that faces the Broads section of the lake, they needed to know if conditions were too rough for them to safely dock. Murphy is now waiting for ice-in to get to the island and replace the camera she runs now, "Snake Eyes," which suffered some mechanical failures.
"If there's an 13 mph wind coming from the northwest, I won't go out," said Murphy. "I wouldn't be able to land my boat, and I've done some hairy landings."
For Lake Winnipesaukee's island residents, weather is a serious factor in being able to get out to their homes, and Web cameras provide them with a picture of the conditions on the lake. Murphy said that sometimes if she was away from her computer, she would call up her daughter in Seattle to tell her what conditions were like on Rattlesnake Islandlace. Until ice-in comes and Murphy knows whether or not she can use a snowmobile to reach the island, she calls a friend on the island to take her back and forth on their airboat.
Between ice-in and ice-out, Web cameras generally get more attention as people look for signs of ice formation for fishing and snowmobiling, and also for signs that the water is clear enough to navigate. Colclough cautioned against using the cameras for determining ice condition, as the ice can sometimes look like water, and the camera's view can't determine the ice thickness.
Of course, some signs are unmistakable.
"One morning, I woke up and Dad called me - he said there was a nice picture of a truck driving by on (my) camera," said Colclough, recalling the 2007 ice-in. "Within a day, I saw a lot more pickup trucks out on the ice. I know people check the camera for the presence of bobhouses and trucks."
Both Colclough and Laronde also display weather conditions at their camera sites, with everything from wind speed to dew point available. Colclough, once a meteorology student, has outfitted his cabin with several weather stations to observe the lakeside conditions, which can be significantly different from mainland weather - once the April nor'easter had calmed over the rest of the area, Colclough's cabin was still being battered by 45 mph gusts. Keeping a camera and a weather station out there, he said, helps some make the decision of whether they really want to go out on the ice that day.

Setting up
Web cameras don't run cheap - purchase of the camera itself can run several thousand dollars alone, and repairs aren't cheap. Murphy bought her camera in 2003 on e-Bay, and spent the next little while tinkering with it, and ended up spending "a fortune" to make up for a few errors.
After his daily shots of New Hampshire landscapes became popular with online viewers, Colclough decided that he wanted to connect his love of weather and photography and install a camera. The only problem was the camera's hefty cost - a problem solved by an unexpected windfall.
"I got a call from a desperate bride in October who wanted me to take pictures at her November wedding," said Colclough, a freelance photographer. "The price was exactly what I needed to buy the camera."
Colclough now supports his site's costs by hosting Google ads on the site.
Wanting to share his view of Lake Winnipesaukeelace became a trial for Laronde - not because of the camera, but because of the lack of cable connection to the islands. After getting turned down a few times by Metrocast, he said, Laronde was joined by others on the island who wanted cable connection, much faster than the dial-up found on other islands. It took a few years, but Bear Cam now links to the Internet through a cable, and not through dial-up.
Many of Lake Winnipesaukee's Web camera owners support each other through the Winnipesaukee Forums, which hosts a discussion forum for Web cams and camera users on the site. Laronde also keeps a tutorial on his Bear Cam site now, with links and advice for first-time camera operators.
"Warning: Setting up a webcam for the first time is a rewarding project, but involves frustration and hair pulling," Laronde wrote. "How much depends on how computer literate you are."

The Human Effect
Though each shared individual stories and struggles with their cameras, Colclough, Murphy, and Laronde each reported that they received e-mails of thanks and support from those watching the lake through their cameras. Offering a window of tranquility for some or a glimpse of home for others, the cameras' effects have been felt across the nation. Murphy reported that in her daughter's Seattle office, her co-workers, some who had never visited the lake, would periodically watch the camera for a breather. Back when Colclough did his picture a day, he remembered the thanks of two friends, one in England and the other serving in, who said the pictures helped them from becoming homesick while overseas.
"Everyone does it for their own reasons, but mostly because it's fun," said Murphy. "The reasons people watch it are fascinating."
The camera operators also all reported an odd phenomenon once their cameras started getting traffic - people would cruise along the shoreline, looking for the cameras.>>
"When I first put it in in 2004, people would come by on their boats, and we'd see them calling on their cell phones," said Laronde. "They were calling someone on a computer to ask if they were showing up on camera. We expect it now."
Laronde's site can be found at http://www.bearcam.qv99.com/.
Murphy's site can be found at http://www.rattlesnakecam.com/.
Colclough's site can be found at http://www.blackcatnh.com/index.html.
A listing of 26 Web cameras in the Lakes Region can be found at http://www.rattlesnakecam.com/lakecams.htm.