Pinhole, Football, Flowers

Yesterday was the first home game of the season, and I planned to take the pinhole camera to the game with me to see how tailgating and parades and the whole spectacle would look through that lens, but it was pouring for most of the pregame yesterday (and for some of the beginning of the game, too), so I took the camera for a walk today instead.

I'm not really impressed with the stadium pictures, and only two came out decent enough for me to even want to share:





The one of the infrastructure is at least sort of interesting, but in my defense it's not really my fault that the front of the stadium is architecturally bland.

I walked around that side of campus for a little while:





(Estabrook actually looks better in dark, blurry focus; that building desperately needs renovation) and then went to the gardens:



Overall, I didn't have a really good day with the pinhole. I wasn't careful about exposure times, and a lot of pictures had light leaks and that annoying red glow. Also, I picked a lot of stuff that just wasn't that interesting. On the other hand, I like the regular pictures I took at the gardens:







I'm especially intrigued by this one:



because that flower looks exactly like a red pineapple. I don't know what kind it is, because the plant didn't have a little info tag in front of it like most of them do.

If anyone knows what it is, please tell me? Thanks.

Pictures of July

Instead of rounding up my leftover pictures, I was sorely tempted to write another entry about Chick-fil-A, but I don't think there's anything left on the internet that hasn't been said about it and I'm not feeling particularly articulate.

Instead, let's look at some pretty (or not) photographs from July that didn't make it into any blog entries:

1) Fainting Goats for Sale



This is taken through the windshield of Elizabeth's car when we were trying to find an estate sale that was way out in the middle of nowhere in South Knoxville. Tennessee is actually known for their fainting goats, so we weren't surprised to see some for sale. It was more that the spray painted sign pointing toward a dead end in the middle of the woods fairly screamed "horror movie".

2) Blind Melon



I wanted seedless watermelon at Kroger, but they only had see-less.

3) Rainy Florals

The neighbor directly above me has several hanging plants with large pink flowers, which tend to fall from her balcony onto my porch. I saw some in the rain, and was struck by how pretty the fallen blossoms were:





I much prefer them to the cigarettes that fall from the balcony above hers, but I often scoop up those cigarette butts in a dustpan, carry them upstairs, and dump them in front of that neighbor's door. I never do that with the flowers.

4) Mr. & Mr.

Target now carries gay marriage greeting cards:



Even in Tennessee.

There's hope for people yet.

more flowers

Sometimes on my way home from work I stop at the University Gardens and take pictures of flowers:



And sometimes I jam the camera right up inside the flowers:



I know I take a lot of those zoomed way in pictures of flowers, and that for the most part all of them end up looking like every other picture I take of flowers, but I find the gardens relaxing. They're quiet, and I rarely see people that I know. Additionally, having to concentrate on steadying my hands so that I can take close up, macro zoomed pictures forces me to focus my mind and slow down my thoughts. It's almost like meditating, and photography is probably the closest I come to that.

So, yeah, four or five more pictures of flowers that look like every other time I go take pictures of flowers:







but those pictures represent an hour when I had nowhere to be and nothing important to think about. Every picture can't be Pulitzer Prize worthy.

Last Weekend, Part 2

Somehow I've developed an exciting, event-filled life.

OK, maybe not, but I did get a little behind in talking about last weekend, and now I have stuff from this weekend to talk about that I can't because I didn't cover that second bit of two weekends ago. I will now remedy that by discussing my return to the Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. When I went last month it was mostly to look around and decide if I wanted to go back, and I'm really glad I did because wow, what a difference a month makes!

For starters, there are actually plants in bloom now:







Even the abandoned greenhouses are starting to blossom:



Some of my excitement was also from it turning out to be a much sunnier day when I went this time. The bright light and blue sky combined with the paths now being sort of leafy and inviting:





rather than stony, gray, and slightly muddy to make the gardens seem much more interesting. Also, flowers actually blooming means that I got to use my macro zoom setting:



(Look! I'm Joel-gia O'Keefe!)





and we all know how much I love that setting.

I even photographed wildlife in its natural habitat when I spotted this tiny lizard in one of the stone greenhouses:



The very best part, though, was when I decided to walk around the grounds again, and explore some of the paths that I skipped last time. Not only did I discover a storybook gatehouse that I missed last time:





but the little sales building, which was closed up last time:



was opened now!



Like Debra Winger said to Robert Redford in "Legal Eagles", an open door is practically an invitation, and what could be better than being invited into urban ruins? And they were beautiful, beautiful ruins indeed:









It was a fantastic day.

Pretty Flowers and Ugly Trucks

Yesterday was supposed to be my "go to the office for a little while" day and today was supposed to be my "go have fun and run errands" day, but yesterday someone above me had a water line leak and water was coming out of my ceiling lights in the kitchen. There wasn't any damage to my apartment since I'm on the bottom and it was several floors above, but I spend about four hours waiting, mopping, and keeping the lights off while maintenance worked their way down. That meant that everything I usually do over the course of the weekend got condensed to today only, and some stuff got dropped.

The trip I would have taken today was one of those things, but to make up for it I squeezed in an hour of walking around the university gardens between going to the office and going to the comic store. Last time I went it was raining, but it was much sunnier today, and I got some pretty shots:



I love that zoom way in setting.









I also saw some strange, waxy berries:



They looked like they were made of plastic, so I touched them while no one was looking and confirmed that they were real. I'm pretty sure they don't actually use plastic flowers at the gardens, but you never know.

I am also super proud of this picture:



I was sure the fly would buzz away before I could get all the way in and get focused, but for some reason he stayed put, and there it is. That's probably one of my best shots ever, and definitely one of the best ones I've taken at the gardens.

After the gardens I went to the comic store, and then was on my way to the grocery store when I saw this in the old K-Mart parking lot:



I turned in to the Taco Bell to loop back around so fast I'm surprised my tires didn't squeal.

"Did that truck say 'homosexual thieves'?"

Not quite, but close.

A few brief notes for the religious panel truck developers:

1) That's way too many words on the side of a truck for a four lane road. People drive fast on that street, and everybody doesn't have the time or inclination to turn around and see what your truck actually says. I got two words off of that, so you might want to trim your message down to that size. I suggest "SIN = BAD!" It's short and easy to read while I'm scanning the road.

2) Location is important! That parking lot is huge, and now that the bank and K-Mart are both closed, mostly empty. Park that thing up by the corner, so that people stuck at the light can read your huge block of text.

3) Spelling and grammar are important.



"Adultry" is not a word, but "adultery" is. If you want to appear to be an authority, appearing educated enhances your credibility. Also, does that part at the bottom say "Hatred is Murder, Abortion" or "Hatred is Murderabortion"? Do the murder and the abortion even have anything to do with each other, or are they two messages with poor spacing between them?

4) Think about your imagery. I didn't even realize that was Jesus on the front side until I'd gotten out of the car, and he looks pretty rough there. Satan, on the other hand, looks like he just got done working his pecs in Hell's Weightroom. If I'm reading this correctly, the truck is trying to tell me that Jesus equals sweaty, screaming agony, and Satan equals Contestant Number Five at the West Hollywood Halloween Party. Mr. Red Abs and McSteamy Facial Hair is not the way to make homosexuality look unattractive.

I'm probably not that truck's target market, anyway, but still, that's my advice.

gardens in the rain

The rain pretty much shot all my plans for the weekend, and then poor planning finish the job. The poor planning was not checking the hours of the place I wanted to go to today to walk around and maybe take pictures, so I drove there only to turn around and drive home. On the way, I decided to stop at the university gardens. Not much is in bloom yet, so I decided to zoom way in on what was there.







Since we had rain, there was also a lot of flooding:





There were also some randomly stacked cups and saucers in the herb garden:





Even though it wasn't my plan for the day, I still think I got some nice pictures. This one is my favorite: