Given the All Clear

So this is what the road looked like for New Mexico to consider it open. It really wasn't bad. Certainly much better than driving through Oklahoma where I had to get past an accident scene involving at LEAST 5 tractor trailers in ditches, 2 or 3 of which were jacknifed, and the others were pointed the wrong way down the Interstate. Sadly, none of those pictures turned out. I probably should have parked and taken them from the street rather than taking them from the vibrating seat of a truck in park.

Playing Catch-Up in the Snow

Some days my job is pretty easy. In fact, I'd say that most days my job is pretty easy. Today was supposed to be easy. Point my truck East on I-40, drive until I hit Oklahoma City, turn left on I-44 and drive to Missouri. Sadly, not every day turns out how it's supposed to.



I didn't post a picture yesterday bringing my Pictures Owed count up to three. This is two extras, bringing me back down to one behind. If tomorrow's anything like today, I'll have that taken care of tomorrow, and then some.

Ridgecrest, California

It's not often I get to take a picture of most of a town along with the majestic view of the mountains behind the town, but this is Ridgecrest, CA. (Pop. 25,638; Elevation 2289 feet)

This was taken on the way back from Trona, CA, (Pop. 1,885; Elevation 1675) a town that's home to one of only two High School football fields in the country made of dirt instead of grass and very close to being Troma.

Two random fursuiters that wound up coming up to the room and drinking some alcohol with us. To give you an idea of the variety involved in the convention, one of these two is in his forties, the other is German. I don't think they even knew each other before the con, they were just hanging out in suit and talking. They didn't even take their heads off to drink, just shoved the bottle into the muzzle, and tilted the head back.

Those of you who are observant may notice a two day gap in posting of pictures. Namely Saturday and Sunday. I spent most of the con in Suit, and thus have no pictures from that time. Cons are apparently more difficult to shoot when I'm actually doing stuff not photography-wise.

A Night At The Park

I don't think that this picture really needs any commentary. I mean, I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Don't you?

This is the view out the window of our hotel room. Off in the distance are some mountains, and between here and there are nothing but a city full of lights.

The ride up here from Los Angeles was interesting. Torrential downpours, hydroplaning all over the road, people driving slow, and of course mud-slides. There was even a rest area with a river running under our rental. It was only an inch or two, but with a little more rain it could have been a real threat.

Balloon Twist

Just a quick shot taken at night with a small flashlight to light the windcatcher. It gives it a touch of the effect that I get when I take pictures of people dancing in glowsticks in dark rooms.

Under the Boardwalk...

We'll be having some fun! And watching the waves crashing against the pier.

Most of the time the sun and the clouds are just hanging out up in the sky, but on occasion they do things that make it hard to keep the eyes on the road. Sadly, it's hardly safe to pull over, so all I can do is slow down a bit more and let traffic flow over to the left, which they're usually doing anyway since the speed limit is 12MPH faster than my truck will go, and I usually go less than that anyway.

Tight Pass

If you ever get the chance to drive from Denver to Vail, or heck Denver to Las Vegas, I'd highly suggest it. There's tons of spots to stop along the way and look around or take pictures, and some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. I also recommend Western Montana/Northern Idaho or US2 across upper New England in the fall, but those are completely different.

If you look at the other lane in this picture, where the tanker truck is, this is just after coming out of a tunnel where the mountains are so close together they had to stack the roads on top of each other before boring a pair of holes. The highways are stacked like that for about 5 miles or so. Also, there's a rest area at the west end of it that trucks can't fit into. It really is a neat drive.

If you do decide to take the trip, make sure you've got a vehicle with a good transmission as some of the roads can be a bit steep. Also, I'd like to take this trip in a van with someone I'm close to because there's this Rest Area that's got a Gazebo on top of a hill, you can see for miles around, and in the colder weather it would be great for public sex. Not that *I* would ever do such a thing or anything...

Maybe on the way back from Route 66...

Under the Interstate in Denver, Colorado

Not every bridge has a troll beneath it. Some of them have roads and columns.

Nebraska Sunset

This was just to the left of the direction I was heading. Makes it a little difficult to drive, but not impossible. The salt on my windshield didn't help any.

Can Can Cows.

This is... ummm... yeah. It's... Well, see for yourself. This is in Belmont, WI, but I've seen others around the state. People from Wisconsin are weird.

Huddled for Warmth

Were this in the middle of the summer, or even just a time when there was no snow on the ground, these trucks would be parked in a (more or less) straight line. For some odd reason, snow makes truckers lose their ability to park in a line with each other. Also, during the summer it's better to be parked out on your own or on the end of the line, in the winter it's better to be in the middle. That way you're less affected by the wind and it's easier to keep the truck warm.

Allegheny Mountain Tunnel on the PA Turnpike, east side.

When I first drove across PA, I discovered that there are quite a few tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Certainly more than I ever thought there would be. Mainly because when I used to think of Pennsylvania, the word Mountainous never really came to mind. But when you drive a tractor-trailer and you need to pull 70,000 pounds worth of vehicle and load up these 'hills', they suddenly look a lot steeper.

There's one tunnel in particular that's not just one tunnel, it's two consecutive tunnels with a space of about 50 yards or so between them. That's where one of the most surreal moments I've ever had in driving was. It was clear, blue skies going in to the tunnel, rain in the middle, and simply cloudy on the other side.

Philadelphia Skyline

I don't know about this shot. For some odd reason it almost looks like a painting to me.

Well Hidden Cat

This little.... ummm... guy? (I didn't check, honestly) was hanging around the drop yard in Mogadore, OH where it hopped into one of the dumpsters and where I discovered that my battery was absolutely dead. After charging for about 60 seconds or so, I had enough life in the battery to chase it down and snap this shot. I then made my little "Come here, Kitty" noise and it came running right over.

It was conditionally affectionate and was rubbing back and forth across my ankles, twining around them while meowing and making all manner of attention noises, but any time I touched it, I was rewarded with a paw full of claws or some teeth, and not in a playful way. After it lunged at my ankle with both claws and tried to bite through my jeans, I shooed it off.

The cat has a sore in its mouth that looks like it could use some attention, but otherwise it's a bit thick, certainly not starving under that winter coat.

Night Lit Barn

Back in 2003, before I moved there, Ohio had its Bicentennial. In celebration, they painted a whole bunch of barns all over the state to look kinda like this one. Many of them have fallen into disrepair, but this one appears to have been kept up fairly well.

The Dock of the Bay

One of these days I'll catch up and post two on a single day.

Feta Mountains

It looks like a gigantic, delicious mountain of feta cheese, doesn't it?

This is actually a mound of snow collected by plows from a single parking lot. It was one of four piles and as it stands in this picture, if I were on top of it, I would be able to step down to the top of my trailer. They're about 15 feet tall. Also, this is not the sepia setting on my camera. That light is actually the ambient light.

Sadly, I missed my first picture. It was a car stuck in the snow in the median. The driver was still in the car and he had the window rolled down. Sadly, I was going a bit too fast to take a good picture.

Gosh I'm Tired!

Sadly, the original idea that I had for this evening's picture didn't work out. There's just nowhere in New Glarus to park when the roads are all snowy. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get a picture of it at some point...

Green means Go!

Another picture of footprints in the snow, this one under slightly different circumstances. I like shots that show a great deal of perspective lines, whether the lines are vertical or horizontal. Don't know why.

Taking this picture has given me an idea for later this year, when I get a bit better at picking the targets of my photography within a day or so. I'm going to have Theme Weeks. The themes will be very broad, like "Green" or "Cars" to start off with, but I may get more specific later on. And if I actually get any followers, I might take suggestions.

Footprints in Snow

Taken with my zoom lens because I forgot to grab my bag on my way out the door of my truck. Kind of reminds me of that poem about walking on the beach and stuff. The one where God makes bad crap happen to you just so he can carry you because, I don't know, he gets off on carrying people on beaches or something.

Tennessee Sundial

Taken in a rest area in Tennessee, this sundial has small plates representing all of Tennessee's counties. The one in the Foreground, Shelby, is where I spent a vast majority of my teenage years. Some of the plates were larger than others, but there wasn't anything describing why they were, in fact there was no information about this at all.

Shelby is in the southwestern-most corner of Tennessee, but on this, there's one one plate that's more south and west of it. Also, there were animal paw/hoof/foot prints all over this in the concrete.

Life can be dangerous

Photography!

One of the two things that I enjoy more than any of the other diversions that I take part in, the other being Driving which I do for a living. I don't have a whole lot of time to wax philosophical about this at the moment, but given that this is a blog, I'll probably do so at some point in the future. For now, a simple statement of purpose will have to do in its place.

This blog is an attempt to force me to engage in random acts of photography more often in hopes of improving my skill with a camera and my eye for composition as well as keening my brain for subject matter. If I intend to do this professionally one day I'm going to have to... Oh wait, I don't want to do photography professionally. I just want to take better pictures.

It's a new year, this is a new blog, here's to hoping for the future.

On a side note, I wonder how many new blogs are started within a week of New Year's Day and never posted in after that...


Notes on the picture: This is the passenger side of my truck. Using a pair of gloves and some windshield washer fluid that happened to not be frozen at the time, I wrote that there in the salt that's coating my truck currently in hopes of maybe saving a life. If it works, I'll probably never know. If it doesn't, I'll know immediately.