Sunday, November 6, 2016

Ubiquitous


Looking like some odd portrait for a family
of circus acrobats, these chairs are stacked in a backyard
on Indy's Old Northside neighborhood.
The neighborhood is made up of numerous homes
in various stages of restoration, renewal,
and remodeling.


These pictures were taken Wednesday evening
as I walked a couple blocks from 
the bus stop to the Indiana Landmarks Center.
At one corner, a contractor who obviously
 took pride in his work, had embedded
a small plaque in a sidewalk he had installed.
While I couldn't find information
related to the sidewalks in this neighborhood,
Mr. Foster was responsible for the
construction of sidewalks, about a half
mile away, in July of 1893.
Here, nearly 125 years later, the quality
of the man's work is still apparent
in that it is still in use.


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

November Theme Day: Out of Focus


My little camera is too small to take super-sharp 
action pictures. It's too dark in the Natatorium to get
clear shots of the swimmers at speed: 
in natural light, they appear blurred, but when I
adjust the shutter speed, the light goes away.
However, I actually like some of the results, which I
use as reference for my drawings.
At times, the swimmers seem elongated,
 becoming even more a part of the water.
I like to watch how the liquid moves and flows
around their bodies, separates and then
rejoins its fluid self as the swimmer
passes through.
When I am swimming myself, I like
to see the water flowing past my goggles
when I turn to breathe; the more correctly 
I am able to swim, the more
quickly the water seems to pass.
I actively look for it and know to adjust 
my technique if it isn't happening.
And then ... and then, when I look at the bottom,
the water breaks the gridded tile into
facets and even the long black stripe becomes
diamonds, drifting away into a blur.
The theme for the first day of November, 
in case you haven't figured it out,
is Out of Focus. To see how other members of
the City Daily Photo portal have
interpreted the theme, just click on the
nearby link, or on the CDP badge
to the right of this post.