I Swear This ’57 Chevy Has a Face
(At least I think it’s a 1957 from the images I could find on google.
If you think I’m wrong, let me know)
You can see why they made the Pixar movie CARS. Two eyes and a nose and a mouth are perfect and lend themselves to being humanized, animated and given the ability to talk.
Just in case you need a little something to keep you busy on weekends.
It’s only a mile from my house and I keep seeing her look at me when I drive by. Cars are female, right? Like boats? (Except in the movie CARS there are a lot of guy cars) But do you still hear comments like, “She’s a real beaut!” or ” I got her up about seventy on the straightaway.” when referring to a car. How did boats and cars get designated female and is that something old fashioned that is totally out of style? Here’s some debate I was able to find on the subject at English Forums.
Shoot Where You Are
Culled from the day’s catch- didn’t photograph any food making today but here is what I photographed on Saturday.
School’s out for the summer so I’m not in my home territory. Most days I shoot photographs as I drive around the city. But I am seeing different scenery these days. We went to a T-ball game on Saturday morning.
Four Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies fell out of the van onto the pavement and their bright orange caught my eye but I thought, nah, four bitty snack crackers are not worth a photograph since we have to get to the game and haul the fold-up chairs and the bag of snacks for the team. I mean another day I could do a Snack Cracker still life but we were in a rush.
Imagine my surprise when we returned to the van. The neon orange obliterated. Ants working hard to live.
and a close up detail
and then as we pulled out of the school parking lot by the baseball fields, there was a church parking lot and a scene I wanted to photograph. This is when you are probably annoying to your daughter-in-law but she doesn’t mind and pulls over by the dumpster and I got out and took about 4 quick shots on the gray day.
and the detail. My DIL asked if I wanted to come back and pick it up to take back home since it wasn’t broken!
A quick trip to the zoo and the reptile house. The kids got a chance to touch the Rosy Boa. I photographed the Pythons devouring rabbits but it is too graphic.
The Columbus Zoo has a lovely 1914 Carousel, restored. The youngest 3 grandkids took a ride.
and youngest granddaughter Maura in a quiet moment
What I Found on the Sidewalk by School
I walked on by-
nearly passed it up-
even thought it caught my eye.
It’s a rush and a hike between schools.
Time’s always short.
But after I stepped past, I turned around
got down on one knee and shot this little gift
to me- hard boiled yolk, a bit dried,
rolled in sandy crumbs,
abandoned on a sidewalk, fell from a lunch bag
or on the way to the nearby dumpster, missed.
Easter is over.
Didn’t make it to the egg salad bowl.
I drove by after school, to see if it was smashed
maybe rolled an inch, more dry, but still there
all those hours later, just not in as good a light!
Two Upright Sweepers Wait for Pick Up
My family always called these vacuum cleaners but in Pennsylvania you “run the sweeper”. These two are in Clintonville (Laura’s Neighborhood) when we walked on Saturday. The sun shone down on them as they stood at attention.
A portfolio of my work would be incomplete with the garbage studies.
What Would You Rate It? C+
Saw this across the street from the church where I shot a wedding. No way to avoid the reflection. Looked like a rating to me. 
Stale Blue Peeps Still Life
What would you do if it’s June and you found an opened box of Marshmallow PEEPS® on top of your daughter-in-law’s washing machine in the laundry room? My son’s washing machine, too but there they were, sitting there, already opened. Someone had eaten half the double box of the little chicks. And true, Easter was the end of April so how hard and dried out must they be by now? Then I thought to myself, I like them with a bit of stale crust, not fresh. When was the last time you ate a Marshmallow Peep?
Darn, they’re BLUE.
I’m always going on and on about how I don’t like to eat anything blue. Wah Wah Wah. Blue food grosses me out I always say. Blueberries are really deep purple not blue. I never liked those raspberry popsicles, either. Blue food seems so fake, like the frosting on a Smurf Cake!
HA! Okay, I won’t eat one but– there was some great light streaming through their foyer windows, even with the new UV protection film they had put on last week. What to photograph? The older kids at dive team, youngest sleeping, Jack watching Tom and Jerry. I took the box of blue PEEPS, put them on the stone tile floor, turned them a bit, let the light catch on the cellophane and reflect from their sugary skin. Oh yes, I was photographing the stale blue peeps, how interesting the light was. I could see a bit of sparkle from the sugar coating. I wondered if they were still moist inside? When was Easter, I calculated the degree of freshness. That stale factor seemed attractive to me and I what does it matter anyway because remember I don’t eat anything BLUE.
I’ll just separate the one from the herd, flock, group, family, row…..yes, there it was, the white marshmallowy interior of a PEEP. \
The guts exposed.
Let me adjust the white balance on the camera settings with the white insides showing now. See how the light reflects on the white?
Oh I remembered the Mother Goose Rhyme about old Hannah Bantry or maybe she was young.
Hannah Bantry,
In the pantry,
Gnawing at a mutton bone.
How she gnawed,
How she clawed it,
When she found herself alone.
And you know what happened next. I broke the cardinal rule about Don’t eat anything BLUE. I ripped off the tail end of that PEEP and it was chewy and very stale. Dried to perfection. Just seasoned not raw or gushy. Totally disgusting. Delicious. Childhood remembered, but they were yellow then. I ate it, chewed it, swallowed the sweet sweet sweetness of the sugary confection. And photographed the evidence. PEEPS® and I are about a year apart in age.
I put back the other ones in the still opened, airing-out-box of PEEPS®, right back on top of the washing machine in the laundry room.
I confess.
I ate it AND enjoyed doing so but limited consumption to a lone PEEP. Honest. Even though it was BLUE!!
There are all sorts of shapes, recipes and crazy info about PEEPS® and the Just Born Manufacturers.
What will you admit to eating when no one is watching?
Lost Sole
Late afternoon winter light.
When I find these things I know there’s a story behind the scene. The light seemed perfect, causing the edges to reflect the setting sun. Anna, 7, said, “I wonder whose shoe is that.”
*Taking the wordpress challenge to postaday2011.*
Autumn Through the Art Room Windows
Walking into the room this morning I saw the oak tree catch the morning sun, reflect it onto the art room tables. Warm fire aglow. A stunning welcome to the beginning of the work day. I dialed the combination to get the camera out of my locker.
Autumn colors at their peak, through the art room windows.
Flip-Flops Still Life
In the school parking lot. Just sitting there lined up as if someone placed them there to slip into.
Whose shoes?
“It’s the Faces” V said, “the Faces…”
Just the detail of the horses today- they don't make toys like they used to. I did not throw them away. There's a book called HOW TO THINK LIKE A HORSE: The Essential Handbook for Why Horses Do What They Do by author Cherry Hill
What I Couldn’t Throw Out
Purchased in 1977 in New York City at Creative Playthings. Rubbery farm animals. Nice to clutch and carry around when you’re almost two. I bought them for baby Mark who’s 34 now. Maybe the paint is unsafe for the grandchildren, plus they have a hole in their stomach so whatever dirt and mold in the basement the past 20 years is living inside them. I put them in the contractor bag to drag to the curb and I swear the cow’s eyes looked at me. I took them out. Photographed them.
Their faces have the loveliest expressions.
Thai Dancers on Forbes Avenue Squirrel Hill
We went to see I am Love ( I don’t recommend even if Tilda Swinton was good) and coming towards us are two beautiful Thai dancers, flowers falling from their hair. Right on Forbes Avenue – Dancing at Bangkok Balcony.
Sunday Afternoon in Squirrel Hill
What I Saw on Way to Gifted & Talented Education Confratute
Hartford Airport Signage
Looking for Signs
A few years ago I wrote a poem with this title. And after the rainstorm I was stopped on Carson Street, traveling west. Before Station Square. The intersection under the trains. Looked up and saw this unusual sign. Seemed different from regular graffiti. Wondered about the person who got up there and wrote it and for whom did they write this short message? It’s how I feel sometimes, driving around. Trying to remember everything I am supposed to do. Feeling distracted. The retaining wall is dark with rainwater.
Not limited to professors. Thank goodness for red lights to capture the message.
What I Saw on the Way Home From Class Tonight
It’s been a week for baseball. I was driving from Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on the North Side where I am editing a video portrait in a cool class. And I saw the lights! Took the Chestnut Street Exit and over the 16th St Bridge and around back to photograph the enticing light. Like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a magnificent spacecraft landed. The sky aglow. Shot from the car at the red light. At Yankee Stadium in the game today, my cousin Lori threw out the first pitch and served as honorary bat girl for the Yankees.( click link underlined for short video clip of highlights)
If this scene doesn't make you want to buy a ticket and see the game, I don't know what would entice you.
1984- Moment in Motherhood/Childhood
Grafenwoehr Germany. Under the kitchen sink! One of my favorite photos of Mark, Matthew and Laura. Everyone laughing, having a good time. (Mark’s own children are about their ages now).How they decided to get in the cupboard I don’t know but looking at this picture always makes me happy. Scanner not working so photographed the photo.
Looks like an oven rack or a cooling rack in Matthew's hands. Laughing under the sink.
Homegrown*
* Title by James W. I asked, “what do you see when you look at this photo? What would you call it?”
Is this a true green building you hear so much about in Pittsburgh?
SRRWWNRFY5BN
What I Found Right in the City
For all your taxidermy needs, right in Carrick along Brownsville Road. Seeing this surprised me.
What do you want to be when you grow up? No student ever replied "taxidermist!"
Time Flying in Stained Glass (2)
It was a different kind of day. Testing. I was a helper-outer on the second floor the first two periods. When I returned to the art room I came down a stairwell I don’t use. The window with the sun coming through. An hourglass with wings? All those inventors and scientists. I wondered what ones the students would know. It was my prep. I went to the art room and got my camera. I remember a statue of Howe in Seaside Park in Bridgeport CT where I went to college. Remembered I lived on Howe St. when we first moved to Pittsburgh. I had to look up McCormick. Cyrus. And George Stephenson. Good thing it wasn’t Jeopardy with the category of inventors. An unexpected find at school today. The hourglass with wings struck me. Scroll down to see the detail shot.
Coming down the stairs
What I Found at School Today.
Behind Giant Eagle on Shakespeare Street
I wrote and illustrated a little book for the students called You Need to Read. It illustrates reasons you’d need to read–sorting baggage tags for the different destinations at the airport, a firefighter finding a street name on the city map, a chef reading a recipe, a patient reading the medicine label, high voltage and thin ice. Love the exclamation point.
I am sure there was a reason someone wrote this on the dumpster but who read it?
Unexpected Window Decor in the Snow
Vase of Flowers or Figurine? Taxidermist Handiwork Mounted on a Branch.
TV Still Life in the Snow
I counted fifteen recycle bags. The discarded television looks really heavy to me.
Waiting for pickup. Any idea what year the Television set was made?
What I Found in the Street
Took my bag into the coffee shop today as I keep reading about all these car break ins and so when I came out I put my coffee down and pulled out my camera to catch this baby shoe by the curb.
Single Baby Shoe by the Curb-Who Lost You?
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