Fair Weather

It's been a few years since I've gone to the Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood, West Virginia.  The festival is in the last weekend in September, and it's either cold, wet and drizzly, or muddy as hell following a period of cold, wet and drizzly.  This year was a rare exception.

I lugged my camera around with me in hopes of shooting something interesting.  Most of the time, however, I kept it slung.  To quote a Warren Zevon song, "It ain't that pretty at all."

Here's a shot to show how nice the day was:

Towards evening, I tried to get a motion shot of the Ferris wheel.   This was taken from the back side, near the street.  I sat on a bench and steadied the camera on my knees.  It's a one-second exposure, cropped to leave out the back sides of some facades.

Dead Friday

For quite some time I been using my original Mensa for Dummies artwork as the opening screen for my iPad.

I decided it was time for something new:

Hooters

 A pair of hooters, sitting way up high... on the back corner of Stewart Hall.  This building on WVU's downtown campus was originally a library, completed in 1902.  It's not uncommon to find stone owls near the tops of old buildings.  These are supposed to help keep pigeons away. 

Then again, the owls are an appropriate motif for a library.  They are an ancient symbol for Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.

Small Faces, Redux

Same day -- different attempt.  Earlier, I worked with four of the stone(d) ladies, but one was rougher than the rest.  In this version, I've taken it down to three, using a different lady I had previously missed.

I tried a different combination of filters on this attempt, modifying the antique plate effect filter to give me more selenium.

Small Faces

Shot these this morning off of the sides of Stewart Hall, on WVU's downtown campus.

There's a home football game at WVU early this afternoon, and there was already traffic around, students on foot, heading for the PRT station and a ride to the game. People in cars driving by were probably wondering about the odd man aiming his tripod-mounted telephoto towards the upper part of the building across the street.

These appear to be casts of real faces. The ones on the far left and far right look to me as if they're related.

I've heard some say that at least some of these are relatives of the architect.  Can't confirm this, though.

Now's The Time

I got to spend a few hours on the main floor of Stewart Hall yesterday, and you know what that means!  I got to photograph the venerable mouse, which appears at the top of four different columns.

This was with a much better camera and lens than my previous attempt with the iPhone, but I can't say that the results are better.  This one is a little harder to see.  Something is missing...

Yes, this is much better...

Slumming Hammocker

Snapped this on my noon-time lunch trek down the rail trail.

There's nothing "special" about this shot, but it left me curious.  Somebody with a backpack has set up a hammock near along the river near McQuain park.  A well-equipped vagrant?  Someone thrown out of the house?  Sleeping it off?  Bought a hammock and just had to test it out?

Glory Hole

Four different f/stop shots combined into a High Dynamic Range image of the center of a Morning Glory.