Archive for November 2007

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Don't Follow that Horse too Closely

It's still funny. Every time I see this prank I laugh. You're young, you're bored. Go get some soap and watch the fun. It's better than setting something on fire or tagging a building. Yes, this picture was not taken today, it's from this summer. I said I would post a picture everyday, not necessarily take one everyday. This fountain on the North West corner of Lake of the Isles is a drinking fountain for horses — but not today. If you manage to dart through traffic to this little fountain in the middle of the road, you'll see a plaque on it stating that it's a horse drinking fountain dedicated to the horses of a specific artillery regiment in World War One. Now there are no horses pulling the rich and powerful around the lake on Sunday morning, but there are still mischievous whipper-snappers running around it at night. My how times have changed and stayed the same. I composed this image to include the lake and surrounding elements to show that it is in a park with an idyllic setting to contrast the sudsy subject. The angle to the sun was used to give dimension to the fountain and the soap bubbles. The bubbles were really hard to get a shadow on, they came out as just white blobs until I got the exposure down far enough. I really don't like dead-centered subjects (just ask my dad). But I centered this one intentionally. A centered subject is very static, which can be boring. Having the subject off-center, ideally on a third line, gives the image a dynamic quality, moving the viewer's eye around and adding interest. By centering the fountain, I was contrasting a calming composition with the humorous subject matter of the soap bubbles. So grab that camera! Get out there and have some fun taking some pictures! If that doesn't do it for you, bring a box of soap.

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Rule Number 18, Limber Up

It's the first of November and it's time for these web-footed holiday dinners to get ready for the big trip. I've been observing the canucks training since August, seeing small vees chugging across the city, but now they are forming bigger groups. I watched a thirty-something-goose-flock strafe Lake Street on my way home from Caribou yesterday. If you watch them this time of year, you can see that they are going slow and working to stay in formation. When I head South myself for Thanksgiving to Kenosha, I see several hundred-plus-goose formations on the wing, so they have a few weeks to go. In the mean time, they will be slickering up the trails and hissing at me. OK, I go asking for it, can't help myself, how often can you get a bird mad at you? Don't try this at home though, they can be pretty tough, those big wings can give you a good beating if they grab you. When I was in high school, a teacher's adult golden retriever chased the geese and they turned on him — and killed the dog. So don't mess with the geese. So what's the deal with Minnesotans and "gray duck"? Over in Wisconsin when I grew up it is was duck, duck, goose. Seems that Iowans are gray-duckers too.