Photo Non-Contest #186 -- Past Its Prime

Written Inc's theme this week is "past its prime."
I've chosen a lovely old truck on Antelope Island, which is in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.

Photo Non-Contest #185 -- Grayish

We haven't actually had winter here in Salt Lake this year, so things have not been anywhere near as gray as usual.  I had to turn to cemetery pics for a gray mood and some gray stone.

Have a look at Written Inc. to see more grayish entries.

Photo Non-Contest #184 -- Curves

Written Inc has declared this "curves" week, so I chose a shot of Scara Brae, a 5000-year-old village with curved walls.  It's rather Suessian, don't you think?

Photo Non-Contest #183 -- Pairs

The theme at Written Inc this week is "pairs."  And I actually found a shot I liked!
Here we have a pair of rotting posts off a pier in Oregon, taken from above on a modern dock.

Photo Non-Contest #182 -- Groceries

The theme at Written Inc this week is "groceries."
I do take a lot of food pictures, but usually after the food has been prepared.  I had to go back to some of my old still life shots to get some groceries for this week.

To be perfectly honest, though, those apples were off a tree in my yard and not really from a grocery store.

Photo Non-Contest #181 -- Screens

This was a tough one.  Written Inc has suggested techy screens, but I couldn't think of a single interesting thing to do with a snapshot of a computer or TV screen -- or even my iPod.  I guess I could've shot a photo of a photo on my iPod.......   Uh, maybe later in the week.
But then I remembered screens on the crypts that Max and I visited the last time we went to the cemetery together, and I thought of this shot of light hitting a tomb through the heavily screened ventilation window in the crypt:

It's odd, but it's kind of pretty.  And it sort of fits the theme.

Photo Non-Contest #180 -- Movement

The best I can do this week is to use a take off on Written Inc's bird in flight for these theme.
Here are some snow geese flying over Delta, Utah in late winter.

They don't look like much unless you enlarge the picture by clicking on it.  Just trust me that they were truly spectacular in real life.  :)

Photo Non-Contest #179-- Glow

Written Inc's theme this week suits me better than the last few have.  Or at least I think I found a decent pic this time, anyway!

Here 'tis:

It's the early stages of sunset tinging some autumn leaves near my home.

Photo Non-Contest #178 -- After Dark

I own a point-and-shoot only.  For this week's theme, this is the best I could do: snow falling last winter.

Photo Non-Contest #177- Favorites

So this week, Written Inc. has requested our favorite photos we've taken this year.  This would have to be mine:

This was taken early last summer at Old Deseret Village, a living history museum in Salt Lake.  It's a row of replica handcarts used every year in the 24th of July Pioneer Day parade.  
Personally, I've always thought it was stupid that Utah chronically glamorizes the handcarts, as they were the stupidest thing every dreamed up for crossing the Plains, and many, many lives were lost because of their encouraged use (my ancestors came in covered wagons, thank you very much).  But that doesn't stop me from thinking these make a pretty cool snapshot.

Photo Non-Contest #175 -- The One

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do......"

This is my lonely rock at Oswald State Park in Oregon for Written Inc's weekly theme.

Photo Non-Contest #172 -- Muted

Click on Written Inc to see this week's photo theme.

I've used most of my really good overcast sky photos before, but here's a new one wherein the tree's autumn leaves have their colors muted by the covering of snow.  (This was taken last year in an early storm.)

If you click on the pic to enlarge it, you can see the interesting patterns of the twigs beneath the snow.  That's my favorite part of the picture.

Photo Non-Contest #171 -- Classic

Written Inc's theme this week is "classic."
I was trying to think of something that did not involve cars or books, and I ran across this photo.

Yeah, it's waxed paper, and it's so old it doesn't have a bar code on it anywhere.
Last summer my nephews were over for a picnic, and I opened a drawer to get out some plastic wrap for leftover food and found this instead.  It seems Mom had just found it on a shelf in the storeroom, left over from when we cleaned out Grandma's house after she passed away -- in 1976.  No doubt, Grandma had had it on the shelf awhile, too, as you never know when you're going to need waxed paper, and it doesn't exactly spoil.  Yup, my family's like that.  (I have a squeeze bottle of Bactine spray for cuts and scrapes marked 39¢ from a pharmacy that's been out of business for nearly 4 decades.  I used it some of the spray on an insect bite just a few weeks ago.  Worked great.)

Photo Non-Contest #169 -- Brick and Mortar

Okay, it's sandstone, not brick.  But it's functioning like brick.  And there is mortar in there.
I took this a few weeks ago because I liked the color of the sandstone against the sky (no color altering took place here).

Written Inc's theme this week is brick and mortar.  This is the closest I have for that.

Halloween: A Little Tour Of A Cemetery

This weekend, to take a break from grading papers, I went for a walk in a cemetery I'd never visited before.  I'd passed it numerous times, and even glancing through the fence I could tell it wasn't your usual Utah cemetery with all-flat gravemarkers that make life easier for lawnmowing crews.  No, this cemetery was filled with the less-usual.
Some markers looked rather European in style:

(Note: I have not tampered with the color on any of these; the sky really looks like this in October in Utah.)

And lots of the markers had Greek names on them, but I took far too many photos to post all of them.
A few of the markers were clearly NOT European:

There were many huge, pretentious markers, some that were decorated to the point where there appeared to be no sense of dignity left for the dead, and one that I found mystifyingly tacky:

So, some guy who really, really likes athletic lettering styles buried his two wives (this is Utah, so they might be simultaneous wives and not merely successive wives) under a four-foot granite letter?  Okaaaay, then.  Wow.  I wonder how the folks at the gravestone company kept straight faces while discussing this order.

This cemetery even had crypts!  (Not common at all in Utah.)

And while I was photographing several crypts, my eye caught a twitch of movement beyond one of them.  Yes, I was being watched.  In a graveyard.
But it wasn't anything spooky; it was a couple of mule deer.

We stood and stared at each other for a couple of minutes, and then the deer casually walked away.  But as I went up the hill, I found they had a few friends over:

(Look in the background by the fence.)
There must've been about 35 does and half-grown fawns grazing rather unconcernedly in the cemetery.  (I didn't see any antlers, so I'm assuming no bucks were present.  Maybe this was girls' night out or something.)
Anyway, it was an interesting little tour, and I took about 100 shots in all.  (Max would've taken at least 700 in the same place, I'm sure.)

Photo Non-Contest #167 -- Edible

Last week's post got quite a few comments on a photo of an old spinning wheel in a living history museum of a farm in Orkney (north of Scotland).
This week, Written Inc's theme is "edible," but I've posted so many of my food photos before that I didn't think I could find anything original to use.  Then I remembered the Orkney photos.
The light was so unreal that day, and the subject material so different from anything I usually take.  So let me now share with you a couple of photos of farm food in the prep stages -- at least from an Orcadian farm of a century ago.

Fish drying by the fire (oh yes, they were real fish, dripping oil all over the stone hearth and smelling to high heaven).

I love this photo; it's almost surreal.


And here's a chicken pecking at the flour made with a quernstone.

There you go.  The stuff's edible (even the chicken), and here's hoping it'll be a different take on the theme than what most people do.
Remember to click on the pics to see them full-sized.

Photo Non-Contest #166 -- Triangular

Check out Written Inc's theme for this week: triangles.

I apparently prefer round shapes -- because that's mostly what I found in my photos.  However, I did find a few triangles.

Here are some snow triangles in a chainlink fence:

And here's one I don't think I've posted before -- a spinning wheel in a living history museum in Orkney.  (The triangles are made by the spokes.)

And finally, one I have posted before -- Max and I are looking at our shadows in a river outside of Moab, Utah.  The bridge had some nice triangles in the railings.

Photo Non-Contest #165 -- Welcome, Autumn

Written Inc's theme this week is one I think I anticipated when I took a break from grading papers over the weekend and went with Mom and Dad up a local canyon to see the leaves.  (Unfortunately, half of Salt Lake City also went, and it was crowded as all get out and not very relaxing at all.  Still, I got a few good shots.)
Sometimes I get tired of being reminded by people that the fall colors are "much prettier back East."  Okay, I'm willing to give in that the climate on the east coast is probably more conducive to variety in leaf colors than is our desert.  But it's hard for me to believe that "back East" is always prettier than the contrast we get with aspen and pine against rugged granite mountains.  Try some of these looks on for size:

Here's Silver Lake at Brighton Ski Resort (and about a million people around it):

(We're at the top of the resort here.)

And here's a shot from Moose Meadow Lane on the way up.  (Yeah, that's Dad taking a photo at the near the parking lot there.)

And here's one that's a bit blurry because I took it out of the window of a moving vehicle, but I love the contrast anyway.

(Again, the mountains don't look high here because we're nearly at the summit.)

Remember to click on the photos to see them full-sized.
Happy autumn.

Photo Non-Contest #164 -- It's In The Details

Written Inc's theme for the week is about details.  Most of my new photos aren't really about details, but I did snap this one the last time I visited Max's house.

It's part of his front door.  (Max has plenty of spiffy antiques in his house.)
Remember to click on it to see it full-sized.

Photo Non-Contest #163 -- Eat Your Veggies

Fortunately, I like to photograph food -- because veggies are Written Inc's theme for this week.

Here we go with a veggie tray made by Dad:

And here are some grilled veggies: fajitas at a great little Mexican restaurant in Moab, Utah:

And a hotter-than-Hades jalapeño burger at Old Desert Village in Salt Lake City, Utah:

Yeah, there were about 4 really hot peppers under that chees and salsa.

And here's where I start cheating a little.  These are some funky flavors of potato crisps I bought in Cambridge, England.  We certainly don't have these flavors in the US.

And this is Keenan, my friend's baby, eating his veggies.  Or at least a popcorn/rice cake, anyway.  (Hey, a child will count popcorn as a veggie.)

And my favorite veggie photo:

Yeah, click and enlarge the photo.  You'll see that those are naked baby carrot jockeys riding around that cake.  If you're a fan of cakewrecks.com, you'll understand immediately.  I snapped this shot at a booksigning a year ago.