POTD

Don’t Always Think
Denver, Colorado
2015

Lectio #55
Denver, Colorado
2015

Part of Zippy’s summer fitness program.

Being a photographer isn’t a particularly physically demanding activity, especially when you consider how much of the effort is spent sitting in front of a computer screen. So I have to look to other tasks to get some exercise. In this case I’m digging back the hillside that we built our garage into, something I’m quite an expert at anymore as this is the third time I’ve at least partially dug it out.

When we built the garage into the hill, I designed it to have dirt back-filled clear up against the wall. I had to do the backfilling by hand since I couldn’t get my backhoe in there to fill it. After about 10 years I noticed the pressure of the dirt had bowed in the wall an uncomfortable distance. To relieve the pressure, I dug it down part way–by hand.

Then last year I decided it needed be dug out further, so I dug down all the way to the base of the garage, about seven feet–by hand. I lined the exposed dirt with rocks to prevent erosion. Last winter that all collapsed, so I’m now digging it all out again–by hand– and trying to slope the hillside back more to prevent another collapse.

Through this relatively Sysyphean task I’ve learned a couple of thing: there’s not as much conservatism in structural load calculations as you might think safety would dictate, and I really don’t have as good a grasp of the practical aspects of angle of repose as perhaps I ought to. (Angle of repose is a geological term, and also a fine novel by Wallace Stegner.) Until I grasp these concepts more fully, I imagine I’ll be getting plenty of exercise.

5th Floor
Denver, Colorado
2015

Turn the right half of this image 90 degrees clockwise and you’ll see the original shot I took. It shows the spot on a concrete wall where a sign used to be next to the door of the 5th floor of the Denver Art Museum. I’m guessing as to what the sign actually said, based on extrapolating from the intact signs I saw in the stairway on floors 1-4 as I was walking up. (Oh, and the left side is a mirror image negative of the right side.)

Lives Real and Imagined #37
Denver, Colorado
2015

If you haven’t already read my current newsletter, please check it out. While you’re there, sign up for a chance to win a matted print of the image below. You can access the newsletter here. (Note, entering the drawing for the print will also get you on my email list for newsletters when they are produced–several times a year if I ever get back on schedule.)

Freeman Park Fog

Lectio #54
Denver, Colorado
2015

Faux Intimacy
Denver, Colorado
2015

I’ve never photographed nude models, and imagine I’d be pretty uncomfortable doing so, but this worked pretty well. This is actually an extremely life-like sculpture by John DeAndrea that was on display at the Denver Art Museum. Here’s what the whole thing looked like:

Lectio #53
Denver, Colorado
2015

Looking Down
Denver, Colorado
2015

A security guard at the Denver Art Museum looking  from the top of the vertiginous stairway view. One might suppose he’s hanging on due to the disorientation, but it’s actually not so confusing looking down compared to looking up.