Such Expressive (and Unexpected) Taxidermy
Beware of Fox!
It’s been up on this porch roof for at least a couple of days.
I was driving to the zoo from school on Monday.
The story I heard from the guy out in front of the house next door?
The guy who lives there does demolition and probably got it from some home he was tearing down. It is the season of demolition around the city as you know.
A photographer has no choice but to pull to the curb and shoot the scene. Remember the days of women’s stoles with fox heads dangling and tiny paws with claws? Beady eyes? Ugh. Wonder if they take him in if it rains?
The last book we read in 2nd grade Intervention Group was the Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.
Note to Self: Leave Home Ten Minutes Earlier
Two school buses and a garbage truck stopped on the narrow street as I made my way to school. A standstill, brake lights on. Do you worry? No, you photograph the scene. Write a note to self.
Yikes- You’ve Got to Pull Over, Get Out of Your Car and Shoot It!
In the distance you can see the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt.
The sparkly Christmas Tree caught my eye . St Patricks’s preparation?
And as I returned to my car, I saw the sidewalk/stairs in the shade.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Possibility
The challenge spoke of doors and paths, travel. This is what Arlington Avenue looked like on the way to school Thursday morning. The October light made the brick building seem to glow. That is the color it was when I saw it. No retouch on that brick. Just morning sun. I like to think that the start of the day offers POSSIBILITY.
What I saw on the way to school Thursday morning. Shot through my windshield.
What I Found Across from School
If you have followed me in the winter you might have seen the pink toilet in the snow. I saw that one on the way to school. This one not quite as dramatic and a different season but the view is directly from the school parking lot and the art room. You know how people’s garbage fascinates me!
A Broken Bluer Brick Brings Bricks to Mind
Looking at all the brick homes in Pittsburgh, brickmaking must have been HUGE!!!
Brick by Brick
When I was in younger
you could make a bookcase
with some boards and bricks.
Once at the Hallmark store I won
a football helmet and a foam rubber brick
to throw at the tv if you didn’t like the ref’s call.
I live in a brick house.
I don’t like it when people paint brick.
Just thinking about bricks.
Just thinking about bricks. We all love the yellow brick road and the smart pig brother built his house of bricks When I went out to my car Friday after school there was a broken brick in the road by the curb on Arlington Ave. Not sure where it came from but had a fresh piece out of it. Couldn’t read all the words on this particular brick but brickmaking and brick molds and their imprints are interesting to me. There are people who collect bricks. I couldn’t have set this brick up better than the lines surrounding it. Just waiting there ’til I got out of school and photographed it. There are photographs of bricks from different regions online so people can identify their origin. Lot of brick homes and still some brick streets in Pittsburgh but couldn’t find a list of old Brick Works in the area. Will keep looking. There is a house down the street that has eleven colors of brick in it! I found a listing for a brick manufacturer in Harmar Don’t know anyone who is into serious brick collecting. Anyone into bricks? Quotes about bricks? He was a brick short of a load. Augustus Caesar said “I found Rome brick and left it marble.”
Walkways and walls are good fund raisers as people are willing to donate for a brick with their name or a loved one on it as a memorial.
Windy With a Chance of Sunlight
A beautiful day. And though inside from 7:30-4:00 I was able to catch the unfurled flag from the second floor window AND the flag shadow on the asphalt during lunch. Right through the glass.
The Cathedral of Learning in the distance, the light fluctuating as clouds rolled across the sky. Had to tilt the camera to get both the flag and the shadow- the angle a technique I don’t use often.
Windy
In the daytime look out the windows.
Branches bend, papers blow across the yard.
Ripples or waves on water.
A pile of leaves caught up in a whirl.
You can tell it’s windy.
At night, listen.
A train along the river whistles.
Calm, a burst, a roar.
Earlier in my car on the bridge.
Wait for the light.
Feel it. Vibrate.
Bounce bounce bounce
right up through the tires.
Eye level to the top of a flag pole- a cool perspective.
School Chairs & Chain Link Shadows in the Snow
Someone left the chairs out in the snow. Today the sun came out. I photographed these a couple of weeks ago and they just looked uninteresting to me. So not the whole chair, just a part. It was the shadows that attracted me today.
This morning I saw my first sundog*.
I was unable to photograph it properly.
It was a stunning sunrise from the Birmingham Bridge.
I didn’t even know what a sundog was until Joanne
sent me a photo of one.
It was clear and cold, blue sky and a magnificent sun.
It is amazing how you can feel when it is light.
The view of the sundog from the school parking lot seemed less dramatic.
I was trying to show our librarian. Definition below.
*from good old wikipedia
A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, from Greek parēlion, (παρήλιον), παρά(beside) + ήλιος(sun), “beside the sun”; also called a mock sun or a phantom sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[1]
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.
A classic assignment for beginning photographers- Capture the shadow!
Nike the Service Dog, Named For Greek Goddess of Strength, Speed & Victory
- Ms. P’s class had a visitor today. The Art Room is just across the hall. Lucky me!
Email Kirk Sciarretti to arrange a visit- kasciarretti@live.com
Steelers Inflatable in a Silver Pick-Up
Arlington Avenue. Driving down the curvy slope, slick tracks under your tires make a distinctive sound. Note the trolley tracks and wires. They still run! I had to turn around and get this inflatable. From the rear. Drove up the hill again and came down, took a shot of him from the front. It was the unexpected sight of a huge Black and Gold inflatable, leaning over the cab of the silver pick-up. This view was the better one. Playoff fever mounts as Sunday night’s game with the Jets is on everyone’s minds. Well, most everyone. It helps us make it through the winter. And if you want to purchase one of these blow up football friends, get down to Mike Feinberg Company”The Party King” in the Strip on Penn Ave. Fans have a variety of ways to express team spirit and I know everyone will sport Black and Gold at school on Friday. Throughout the city! I find team allegiance an interesting study. Where you are born, where you live, family traditions, civic pride. There are photographers who photograph the Steelers Fans for years.
My headlights reflect on the truck, the headlights from the oncoming car on the wet street...
Who Remembers Kickball?
You have to have a good ball to play. One with some bounce. Similar rules to baseball they say. But you could get the ball thrown at you as you rounded the bases and be called out. Everyone wanted to pitch. I left school Friday afternoon and saw this kickball on the playground in the snow.
The rusting chain link surrounding the playground. The red rubber ball birghtened the scene.
First Snow
As I left school, I saw the snow on the tree. When I walked across the street I saw the Scarecrow people and the ever-blooming flowers in the hanging pot! Happy December
I didn't get the Blessed Mother in the shot, but she was there!
Found Doll
Today I drove across the city from one school to another and returned at the end of the day, drove around the block, just to see how the light had changed on the scene with the doll. The white soft body and bright limbs caught my eye. I will drive by tomorrow morning and see if anyone picked up the doll.
Can you tell I was driving down the hill? Arlington is full of hills.
Silvery Skyline
Can someone explain the building the jail (the four red brick structures) on the Monongahela River Front?
Arlington Avenue view of the city on the way home from school.
Cathedral of Learning and School
It’s dark in the morning on the way to school and you know how I like to shoot at red lights. Saw the Cathedral peeking through the driveway as I looked to the left out the driver’s window. Then when I got to school in Arlington the sun was coming up and I could see the Cathedral in the distance. The school buses lined up, waiting to let the children get off to go inside for breakfast.
Hard Rain Falling
A rain so hard I had to pull over on 18th Street hill, watch the water flow down and hit the backs of parked car tires. Splash up. As I sat there, I noticed the downspout or gutter spewing water like a firehose. Shoot just as the wiper goes by to the right. June afternoon thunderstorm.
Deluge, torrents, downpour. Water running down 18th Street curb.
Almost Late for School
You get behind a garbage truck on a narrow street. A school bus bears down on your tail, headlights reflected in your rearview mirror. The minutes tick tick tick. You watch the men pitch the bags into the back. Both sides of the street. You should have left home earlier, not stopped for coffee, gone a different route. You make it in time. But you might as well relax and take out your camera and shoot because there is no getting by.
Just relax and photograph the scene where you are trapped.
Scratch-Off Across the Street from School
The curb used to be yellow, the losing ticket catches your eye. You lean over the curb,focus, see equal thirds in the composition. Shoot. Texture, line, shape, color, space, form. Art elements are everywhere in the world.
It looks like someone placed it there for me to find, the curb paint scratched off, too.
One Good Thing in Winter
Citrus! Dr. B. sends Steve a box of Indian River Grapefruit for Christmas, all pink inside. R prefers Tangelos. The kids love Clementines. Lemons might be my favorite. Last week our principal had snacks for the teachers. We had to stay at school – make up time. Bummed to stay an extra 3 hours at the end of the day but greeted by this box. The blinds for the library windows are on-order so the sun came out and fell right on the fruit. I peeled the skin and bent it so the oil was on my fingers. I ordered the book Oranges by John McPhee after reading his quote (3-8-10) , his comparing California and Florida oranges. Abstracts for May 7 & 14 1966 Articles in the New Yorker.
A box of oranges to stave off winter blues.
Baby Doll Flies Like a Flag on the Moon
Where a house used to be, unshoveled steps to an empty lot. An iron pipe for a rail. What’s left of it. On the way to school I look up and see this bizarre sight. Pulled over, flashers on, catch of the day, one block from school Thursday morning. Had to look up the definition of stock-still
Just like the flag planted on the moon, immobile.
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 Saw on the Way to School This Morning
The angle of the frozen water layered with the multicolored stones was a good find.
Garbage on the Sidewalk -Corner of Arlington Ave and Cologne Street
Deflated Inflatable on Way Home from School
One Last Santa Spring Street Porch Rooftop Thursday 1/28/10
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