POTD

Nine O’Clock Shadows
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
2015

The morning shadows on the front of the Painted Desert Inn suggest a row of those vertical wall mount sundials you see now and then. I don’t know how accurate these viga shadows would be at actually telling time over the long term but they seem reasonably accurate for the day the photo was taken. At sunrise that day (approximately 6:30 a.m.) the shadows would have been nearly horizontal on the left (west) side of the vigas. At noon they would presumably be pointing almost straight down, assuming the wall was facing directly south as it seemed to be. Since 9:40 a.m. when I took this photo is about midway between sunrise and noon, it makes sense that the shadow would form about a 45 degree angle, half-way between horizontal and vertical. (Perhaps one of my brother’s science and mathematically inclined students would like verify my logic for some extra credit in his class?)

Whether or not they could tell time accurately, I enjoyed the repetitive pattern of the shadows in the rather minimalistic scene.

Down the Middle
Tucson, Arizona
2015

I always enjoyed the gnarled old Russian Olive trees on the University of Arizona campus when I was in graduate school there way too many years ago (40 to be more precise). My photography interests were rather dormant back then so I never photographed them back then, but I remedied that on our visit in March. I believe the last four decades are more noticeable on me than they are on these trees; they look very much the same as I remember them back then.

Alligator Juniper
Mt. Wrightson, Arizona
2015

The bark on this tree should make it quite clear where the species got its name.

Standout
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Under the Gum Tree is a “literary micro-magazine” that is published both electronically and in hard copy. They specialize in creative nonfiction writing and also the visual arts. Recently they asked me if they could publish some of my work, in particular parts of my Lives Real and Imagined project.

When I got my hard copies of the magazine I was impressed with the quality of the presentation, both of my work and that of Gale Hart, the visual other artist in that issue. They may be a small outfit but they do an impressive job. My work presents as well there as it did when it was published in Lenswork magazine in 2013. (Technically the printed images in Lenswork are of better quality, that is just one aspect of how work comes across in a magazine.)

In conjunction with the publication, the magazine interviewed me via email. If you are so inclined, you can read the results on their blog here.

Breakfast at McDonald’s
Bozeman, Montana
2015

A raven checks out the offerings in the parking lot at McDonald’s. While there was a lot of trash to investigate, it was slim pickings as far as reward goes this time.

Pow Wow Players #4
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Pow Wow Players #3
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Pow Wow Players #2
Bozeman, Montana
2015

If I didn’t know that there was a balloon falling down out of the air, I’d wonder what kind of ritual the two kids on the right were performing.

Pow Wow Players #1
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Watching pow wow competitions all day for several day can get to be too much of a good thing, especially if you have a short attention span (think kids, and most social media addicts). I wasn’t bored with the dancing when I came across these kids on the edge of the arena, but watching them fill balloons with air and then letting them go shooting up into the air provided another kind of entertainment. They were obviously having great fun.

In this shot, while the three kids in the foreground were just getting ready to release a balloon, their friend in the background is waiting for his to come falling down after expelling all its air some ten or twelve feet above him.