Photo Non-Contest #147 -- Got The Blues

Written Inc's theme this week is "the Blues."  Now just last December we did the color blue as a theme, so I have to stay away from that.  And I had this great shot of 2 of my academic team boys looking depressed when a game wasn't going well, but I can only post kids' photos on the school blog now, so that's out.
So, cemeteries.
Yup, that's what I came up with: cemeteries.
I actually have lots of European cemetery photos taken with a film camera, but not so many with digital, so here's one great got-the-blues/death-is-sobering snap of a lonely cemetery in Orphir in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland.  The light's nice on this one, I think.

And, in contrast to this green cemetery on an island (the sea is right over the hill), here's a dry, dusty shot taken on an autumn day so hazy you can't even see the mountains across the valley.

The sandstone headstones here are unmarked because very little is known about the people they represent.  (The small ones are children; the larger ones are adults.)  In the 1980s, construction workers in downtown Salt Lake City found a small burial plot that turned out to belong to some of the earliest white settlers in the valley.  Long before DNA testing was available, it was impossible to verify more than a couple of the identities.  Originally, the plan was to put the bodies in the city cemetery, but then someone suggested that they be placed up the mountainside from Old Deseret Village, a living history museum at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, which was the entrance point to the valley before roads and trains came through.  So, the graves overlook the valley their inhabitants once traveled over a thousand miles to find.  It's a bittersweet tale, just right for the blues, I think.
(Remember to click on the photos to see them full size.)

Photo Non-Contest #145 -- Vehicular (Part 2)

Written Inc's theme this week is "vehicular."  Yesterday I did boats, so today it's a different form of transportation:

I took this last summer.  It's a row of replica handcarts on a street in the living history museum of Old Deseret Village in Salt Lake City.  Between 1856 and 1860, ten companies of Mormon pioneers who were too poor to afford covered wagons and oxen, which were the favored mode of transportation for those coming West, traveled with their belongings in handcarts, which were basically just big, wooden, wheelbarrows.  Obviously, many of these people died along the way, and, in retrospect, it does seem incredibly foolish that these poor immigrants didn't find work in the East first and earn enough money to come West with more stable protection.  However, the handcart pioneers are revered by most Mormons today, and the handcart has become the symbol of pioneering, faith, and endurance.
Personally, I'm glad that my ancestors had the sense to come by wagon, as every last one of their families made it to the valley in reasonable health, but folks like that don't seem to get the glory of the less sensible ones.
In any case, these particular handcarts are dragged out for a parade every 24th of July, which is Pioneer Day in Utah, a state holiday that marks the arrival of the first Mormon settlers on July 24, 1847.  The irony is, of course, that the first handcarts didn't make it on the scene for nearly a decade after that date.
Anyway, I like the wheels in the picture.

Photo Non-Contest #145 -- Vehicular

"I dreamt last night I got on the boat to heaven,

And by some chance I had brought my dice along.

And there I stood, and I hollered, 'Someone fade me,'

But the people, they knew right from wrong.

"And the people all said, 'Sit down!  Sit down; you're rockin' the boat!'

The people all said, "Sit down!  Sit down; you're rockin' the boat!
And the devil will drag you under by the sharp lapels of your checkered coat.

Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down!  Sit down; you're rockin' the boat!'"

("Sit Down; You're Rockin' The Boat" from the musical "Guys and Dolls")

This week's theme: vehicular.  Courtesy of Written Inc.
Max will do all the car photos, so I figured I'd do boats.  I took all these photos on my trip to Oregon last summer.  (Top: the Mary D. Hume, then the harbor in Crescent City, CA.  Then two shots of Wheeler Bay.)

Photos I Didn't Take: Princess Beatrice's Hat

And today's award for "Who Can Do The Stupidest Thing To Attract Attention On The Royal Wedding Day" goes to Princess Beatrice and her hat.
Here's the original, unretouched piece of fashion ridiculousness:

No, it's not an alien sucking out her brain; it's a hat.  And she's wearing it in front of millions of viewers in a daring statement of "I will do anything to get attention today."

Here's one photoshopped upgrade, the BeaKracken Hat!!

And here's the BeaCleo look:

And my favorite, the Raiders of the Lost Hat:

I didn't take any of these or photoshop any of them.  I pulled them off the internet for humor only.
Enjoy.

Photo Non-Contest #143 -- Please Be Seated

The theme at Written Inc this week is "Please Be Seated."  Max got really creative with this and took a whole bunch of spiffy shots.  I have merely dug through my iPhoto files to find anything that might possibly fit the theme.  So, without further ado, I give you:

about a third of the seats at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, jammed with people waiting for the Paul McCartney concert.  (There were plenty of people to fill ALL the seats, but 1/3 is about all I could fit in one shot.)

And here we have an antique barber chair in a shop in Midway, Utah, taken this past Wednesday while I was there with my parents.

Speaking of antique seats, this is a group of vintage saddles housed in Old Deseret Village, a living history museum of pre-railroad Utah in Salt Lake City.  This particular photo was shot during my visit there with Max last summer.

And relating even more closely to Max, this photo is of my little neighbor, seated and "driving" Max's convertible on a visit to a fellow car nut's house.  (If you think the boy looks thrilled here, you should've seen his face when he discovered the garage door opener!)

More Blossom Time

So, I couldn't resist playing with the photos once again.
Here are my bizarre blossom enhancement photos.  ;)

Blossom Time

I went for a little walk between rainstorms today.  The lighting wasn't good, but I had fun anyway.

And these aren't trees in blossom, but they're certainly not trees in a drought.  The creek here has gone over its banks, swamping the trees.  Come August, this creek will be a trickle.  Hard to believe right now, isn't it?