This is a clearinghouse post. Grouping together some small collections of photos that might not be large enough to stand on their own. Plus getting multiple folders “finished off” and filed away to their forever homes.

These pictures aren’t pandemic related, but they did occur in a pandemic. Like every picture I take these days. Some were taken at the Ames Farmers Market. Some in my yard. Some on the backroads of Boone County.

This sculpture is called Eggcited. Eggcited! Get it?

Despite the awful name, I love it so!

From my yard.

My socially distanced trick-or-treat setup for Halloween.

One of the small joys of the pandemic was stopping to photograph this sign and meeting the woman who put it up. She went to school with my Dad and we got to talk about him for a bit.

Self-portrait after voting on the first day of early voting.

My mouth is watering…

One of the reasons I like living in a town with a railroad (besides the obvious economic impact) is that it is…

Like having a new art museum in town every single day. While Boone has an Art Commission (despite the fact that there are a ton of local artists)…

there is a decided lack of public art in town. A mural of a train. A statue of Teddy Roosevelt. A local guy that paints his snow banks…

That is really it. Although I will point out that Boone does a decent job with the performing arts. It just isn’t the same. So thank you Union Pacific!

Good to get all that cleaned out. We’re getting close to my having my backlog cleaned out. It will be interesting what this space will look like when that happens.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SYMMETRY & PATTERNS:

SYMMERY & PATTERNS

I can’t help but think of Shannon when I think of the theme of SYMMETRY & PATTERNS. Back in the day, we would occasionally go to art shows and fairs together. It often ended up being a painful and frustrating experience because the art booths that she would like to stop and look at were the art that actually hurt my soul (at least a little bit) to look at. It was all symmetrical lines and shapes. I always thought, “if this is the kind of art she likes and she likes my photography, what does that say about my photography? Is it this awful and boring?”

On the other side of the coin, she also hated most of the art I liked. Considered it to be derivative of the illustrations one sees in children’s books. Whatever.

I’m not saying you should tap into your inner Shannon when making your SYMMETRY & PATTERNS picture, but it might not hurt. I’m not saying your picture should be boring and uninteresting. I borderline enjoy the theme reveal picture of the bathroom floor in front of my toilet*. I am saying that you should find a pattern and/or a subject that has symmetry. While this isn’t my favorite theme, I do look forward to seeing your interpretations. I bet Shannon will be counting down the days.

When thinking about creating your SYMMETRY & PATTERNS image, think on the following quote from noted Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki:

Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides.

Meditate on these words and you will no doubt, make a completely almost interesting SYMMETRY & PATTERNS image.

Happy photo harvesting!