June 2016

Four-Hundred Years On
Wichita, Kansas
2016

Whoever parked the yellow car in front of this mural has an impeccable sense of composition. The mural, by Jordan Tarrant, is titled “99 Words and Phrases Coined by Shakespeare;” created I’m sure in honor of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. I can’t imagine anything original I say today being common vernacular lasting 400 years. I wonder if old Bill had any idea his words would.

Just Me
Wichita, Kansas
2016

One last blackboard photo (promise). My sister decided to get in the act. She went for a photo-realistic portrait. I think it came out quite like the real thing.

Me and Mini-Me
Wichita, Kansas
2016

Staying with this goofy blackboard art scheme, here is my brother-in-law posing with his self-portrait. (Now that I think about it, maybe it’s my brother-in-law and not the blackboard that’s goofy.)

Try Your Hand
Wichita, Kansas
2016

The Fashion Queen demonstrates her artistic prowess at the blackboard.

Blank Slate
Wichita, Kansas
2016

In one of the galleries at the Wichita Art Museum (in fact the same gallery where my Elevations exhibit hung in 2009) they have installed a large black board, presumably to let budding artists try their hand. I didn’t draw anything; I decided that an abstract photo featuring the board itself was better suited to my talents. To me the photo suggests a freeway bridge with trucks passing by in front of an approaching storm (or perhaps it’s just night coming on).

Someone to Watch Over Me (Whether I Need It or Not)
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
2016

She may look like she’s up there enjoying the scenery, but her main purpose for standing on the edge of this dropoff in the Badlands was to make sure she could see which of the many gullies I fell into if I got too careless while exploring the finger of land forming the convoluted canyon rim below.

The Gesture #12
Wichita, Kansas
2016

When I am out and about with both my camera and the Fashion Queen, she will sometimes calls my attention to something and suggest it might be picture worthy. Much as I like to think I see all that I need to see and don’t need help finding interesting compositions, her suggestions sometimes do result in an interesting shot I would have otherwise missed.

Dinos and Diesels
Wall, South Dakota
2016

Downtown Wall
Wall, South Dakota
2016

Wall Drug (in the lower right hand corner of the photo) may be the biggest tourist attraction in Wall, but it’s not the biggest attraction to the eye when first arriving on the main drag.

To 90
Wall, South Dakota
2016

Another set of grain elevators in downtown Wall, South Dakota.