The “Local” Moai

I have always been fascinated with rocks of any kind. Being raised in New England, huge boulders deposited by retreating glaciers are a common sight. Our back yard had several that were larger than a VW Bug; we frequently used them for hiding places while playing hid and seek. So in every sense of the word, I was raised among the rocks.

So you might wonder why I became a forester as opposed to say a stone mason. Well, I also loved trees and fire; as a forester I was able to work with both. Fortunately, a career in forestry also gave me the opportunity to hike and climb on rocks of monstrous proportions, so in a sense I had the best of both worlds.

If I had a bucket list, it certainly would include a trip to the Easter Islands to hike among the giant Moai. The pictures I have seen of them are absolutely breathtaking but a picture only goes so far; there is no substitute for being there!

More Hidden Treasures

These images are a few more "hidden treasures" from my abandoned Pullman rail car project . The more I review the entire collection, it makes me wonder if I should offer them to the local psychologists as an alternative for ink blots. Maybe I could derive a few dollars to reinvest at our local Starbucks.

The eye of the bat

The walking bat

The old warrior

Finding Hidden Treasures

This past summer during my daily bike ride, I would frequently pass this old Pullman rail car. In its day, this car would have been the pride of the rail line, but now it's little more than a pile of rusting metal and rotting wood. In many ways the old car has become an eye sore; most folks pass by and likely just ignore it.

One morning while passing by as the sun lit up the car's side I noticed the most incredible designs that were formed by the peeling paint. I returned several days later with camera and tripod and spent a good deal of time photographing the "mystical beings" that were formed by the paint and rust. Over the course of the next month, I returned to photograph each side of the car and made a couple of hundred images. Over the last few weeks, I edit the number of images down to a couple of dozen have choose the following as two of my favorite "mystical beasts".

Ugly Betty sitting in all here glory

The ice dancers

The archer slaying the two-headed beast

Lurking In The Shadows

I have always been interested in photography; if my memory is correct, I received my first camera in 1965. At the time, I was the proud owner of a Kodak Instamatic ; the thing was build as solid as a brick. That's a good thing because the camera got dropped a lot! The quality of the pictures it produced were also reasonably good considering there was nothing to adjust; just frame and shoot. It's been a long time since life was ever that simple!

I have always been interested in black and white images, especially those with have areas of shadows or reflections. To me, the shadows or reflections add a sense of mystery or intrigue to the photo. In a sense, they are like a bonus, adding an "economic stimulus" so to speak to the photo.

I was headed home last week when I spotted the shadow cast by a sign onto the side of a church in my neighborhood. Over the past twenty-five years I have passed by this church countless times but it never has appeared so intriguing as on this afternoon.