Shiny Guard Hairs, originally uploaded by bradipo.
I liked the way the sunlight caught Rapunzel’s guard hairs.
Shiny Guard Hairs by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Shiny Guard Hairs
Tag: Photography
Copper Slough
Copper Slough, originally uploaded by bradipo.
Most of Central Illinois would be wet prairie if it weren’t for a network of drainage ditches, such as the Copper Slough. It runs past Kaufman Lake and then on south and west. It merges up with similar ditches and, somewhere around Sadorus starts being called the Kaskaskia Ditch, after which it, presumably, flows into the Kaskaskia.
I liked the mirror-flat surface of the water. I also liked all the drain tiles emptying into the ditch.
The picture was taken from the bridge on O’Malley’s Alley, looking north towards Kaufman Lake.
Copper Slough by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Empty meter box
Empty meter box, originally uploaded by bradipo.
An empty electric meter box on a telephone pole along Mattis, near the former Kraft plant.
I liked the rusty brownness.
Empty Meter Box by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Rapunzel in the Sun
I liked the way the sun illuminated Rapunzel’s face while leaving the rest of her in shadow. I also rather liked the expression I caught here. It looks just like Rapunzel.
Pretty sky over Country Fair Apartments
Looking west the sunset was hidden by trees and the buildings of the next apartment complex. But looking back northeast I saw this nice view.
Just behind this building is the little courtyard where we hang out when we have barbecues and the like.
Jackie on the Bus
We were both heading out yesterday, Jackie to downtown Champaign for lunch and then a meeting with her fellow spinners, I to the south end of the research park where the Fitness Center was letting local Yahoo employees (and friends like me) renew our discount memberships.
Jackie’s bus left three minutes before mine, so I had a chance to take this photo. I did some pretty heavy processing in iPhoto, mostly adjusting the levels so as to emphasize Jackie’s face at the cost of washing out things like the brick wall behind the bus. I’m rather pleased with the way it came out.
Getting outdoors
I do fine at getting outdoors enough in the summer. In the winter, though, I’m prone to spend far too much time indoors.
There’s a sidewalk around the interior of our apartment complex that makes for a fine short walk. (It takes about seven minutes, so I think it’s probably close to a third of a mile.) In the summer, I might do that walk at any time. In particular, I do it while I’m writing, when I find that the prose isn’t flowing. That’s usually a sign that I’ve taken a misstep in the story, and a seven-minute walk is often just what I need to figure out where I’ve gone astray.
In the winter, though, I don’t do that, because the cold and the snow turn the little walk into a big production. Changing into outdoor clothes (and then out of them again) can easily double the time for taking a quick walk, so instead of being seven minutes it’s a quarter of an hour. Plus, I figure if I’m making that kind of investment of time, I ought to do more than just walk around the block–I should get a real walk in, or run an errand.
That kind of thinking leads to trying to optimize my time–scheduling my walk not when I need a short break from writing to get back on track, but when I need to go to the bank or pick up something at the grocery store. And if I don’t have any such chore to justify the outing, I tend to just stay indoors all day. (One of the few upsides of having a regular job was that it did get me out every day.)
Since I know I’ll feel better if I do get out everyday, even if just for a few minutes, I’m thinking of creating an artificial errand: taking a picture. I figure it’s something that can be added onto any actual errands I have–I can just bring the camera along. If it seems like a day for a longer walk, I can take the camera along for that, too. And if it’s not a day for a long walk–if I’m busy, or the weather’s bad–I can just as easily take a picture on a short walk.
When I get a picture that I’m pleased with, I’ll post it here. This one’s from a day or two ago. When I was a boy, one had to be careful walking across a field of clover because there’d always be bees around. This summer, finding a bee on a clover was a rare treat.
Photography
Since I started writing for Wise Bread (because each post I do there needs a picture), I’ve taken a greater interest in my own photography, and in the creative commons.
I’m taking my own photography more seriously, simply because it matters more. More people see my pictures—and a really good picture can bring traffic to a post.
I’m taking the creative commons more seriously, because it’s provided me with a number of cool pictures for posts where I didn’t have a picture of my own to use.
[Updated 2019-08-19 to add: I’m now hosting my photos myself at images.philipbrewer.net.]