Yes, Flowers

I try to stay away from photographing flowers because, well, everyone takes pictures of flowers and I don't like doing what everyone else is doing. I'm a loner like that. However, even I will be tempted by a pretty petal from time to time, especially if it is my mom's flowers because I know she likes that. When I was up at my parents' house in Michigan most recently, in May, I took some photos of my mother's gorgeous peony bush. This half-opened blossom was the best of that bunch:

Out in the natural garden that is their side yard, I found this perfect specimen of a dandelion gone to seed:

And up close:

Pretty, yes?

Mooving Along

Five days on, four days off... I'll get better.

This is one a lot of you have already seen on my Facebook page, but I'm putting it up anyway. I'm working on something else to put up, but my computer is getting awfully hot so I'm afraid it's going to start crapping out on me soon. Plus, I promised to call my parents tonight, I'm about to eat dinner, I have a load of laundry in the dryer and another to fold and I need to be to bed early for an early day at work tomorrow.

Excuses, right? I know. Here's how I feel about that:

That's right. Slightly scary faceless cow. (Secret: it's a creamer. Not so scary now, right?)

Carnival to Festival

As a transition piece, and because I ran out of time to work on much tonight, I'm delivering a series of unedited consecutive photos of Jay attacking a funnel cake at the Charles Village Festival a couple of weeks ago. Accompanied by narrative:

"Are you as ready for this as I am?" Jay asks. "As long as I have my PBR!"

"Hmmm... so fried and powdery and appetizing...""Well, here goes!" "Ah, the doughy crunch...""Oh no! Powder everywhere! Why must you curse me so, funnel cake!""Mmmm...delicious and worth it all."And... HULA HOOP!

Carnivale 4: Mardi Gras!

This is the last of the carnival pics and we're going out on a color explosion!

The fun house had a Mardi Gras theme and this is half of the mural that was painted on it:


That blonde is loving life. (Any of my digital image savvy friends: please don't look too closely at the above photo. I just didn't have the patience or the battery life to do it the right way.) Here let me distract you with a closer look at our buxom Mardi Gras queen:



Of course there was a carousel, and I took a traditional picture of the horse's head that's very nice and stuff, but I find this one more interesting.




I took several pictures of the quiet bumper cars, but because of the drastic difference in the shadowy bumper car haven and the blazing, sunny sky, they will need a lot of work to make them presentable. Work that I don't feel like doing right now. This, however, is the back of the bumper car truck. Everything folds up behind this to drive off to the next town. I wonder who engineers these things.



So that was the Havre-du-Grace carnival. I'm not sure yet what I'll have for you tomorrow. There may be some very appetizing peppers, or perhaps a dead fish on the beach. Or something completely different. I'll let you know tomorrow.

P.S. I did most of this post in a rather dim bar, so I hope the pictures turn out okay. I'll check on them and adjust tomorrow if I need to.

Carnivale 3: Other Stuff

I little less focused today, here are a few photos of other things at the carnival. First is the Tilt-A-Whirl, my favorite when I was young. I liked the merry-go-round at the playground, too. I wonder why I liked spinning so much. I also have a distinct memory of Ally hitting her funny bone just as we were getting on the Tilt-A-Whirl once. The ride hadn't started yet, but they wouldn't let her get off. She spent the three (or so) spinny minutes cradling her arm in one corner and I spent it feeling bad for her. Poor Ally. Fortunately, we spent plenty of other time having fun on rides in our childhood.


This is one of those quarter games that I don't remember how to play and never took much interest in. I was more interested in the water-gun racing games. Now, though, I find the array of prizes fascinating, especially the mixture of Christian and soccer paraphernalia. There's a lot to look at in this picture and the reflection in the glass makes it even more necessary to look closely. The little praying girl kneeling before a shot glass is a little disturbing, though.


This is a car from the Bear Affair ride. Apparently it's fun to pretend you're in the belly of a bear while you ride around in circles. Poor children. This isn't a great picture, but I promised yesterday I'd include the strange bears, I only took two, and the other, though better composed, was all blown out, so here he is in all his purple overall glory:


I'm getting through the better of my carnival pictures, so I'll be moving on soon. I think I can get one more post out of them and then it'll be on to something else. Wouldn't want you all to get bored.

Carnivale 2: Ferris Wheel

I couldn't decide which of these Ferris Wheel pictures I liked the best, so I'm posting five. Which one(s) do you like best?





I loved the colors of the baskets and tried to get as many as I could in each shot. I'm not sure why I didn't think to go around and take some from the other side, as well. I guess I was too caught up in this angle. And there was more to be taken. Tomorrow, Tilt-a-Whirl, strange bears, and some other carnival fun!

Carnivale

On July 3rd I had a day off and with Jay visiting family up in Traverse City I had a three day weekend to fill by myself. I decided to go on a mini-road trip for the day and without really knowing where I was going when I left, I ended up in Havre-du-Grace, MD. It's not too far north of B-more, really, but it was a different enough setting to be stimulating.

It's a small town and on that Friday afternoon before a big holiday things were quiet, but with a distinct promise of activity to come. After a glass of wine, lunch, and a chapter of East of Eden at McGregor's, I set about with my camera. I visited the oldest lighthouse in continuous use in the U.S. and snapped a few shots of the bay and some ducks. Pleasant, but not too interesting.

At the end of the bayside Promanade, however, I found a carnival in wait. The rides sat still and the games hid behind vinyl covers. The food stands had yet to have sizzling vats of fried this and that.

Now, photos of carnivals at night are way fun to take. With all the lights, long exposures can create gorgeous effects. But, it being 5pm in July, and having already explored much of the city in the 85 degree heat with a heavy bag, I wasn't really in the mood to hang around four hours until sufficient night fell. Instead, I went about capturing the carnival in its unnatural stillness.

My first set of photos were of The Samurai:

From there I moved on to the ferris wheel, bumper cars, and more. In tomorrow's post...

Reboot

Alright, here we go again.