gradient

Another unidentified flower! I really don’t know my wildflowers, do I?

Edit: Careful reader USelaine has identified it as a Gaillardia, or Blanket Flower. Thanks!

(Found in Thompson Park, Lincroft, NJ)

lake

The lake at Thompson Park. It's kinda pretty, innit?

fungus 11

This is for all you fungus-lovers out there. :D

Well, the different sizes and shapes and textures of fungi never cease to fascinate ME. Surely you feel the same way. ;)

scape

I apologize for posting this so late. I had an early class, which went to noon, except I stayed late and before I knew it I wasn't home until 4:30 and the dog needed to go out and the garden needed watering and this all took twice as long as usual because IT'S SO RIDICULOUSLY HOT and shows no signs of letting up but anyway HERE IS A NICE COOL PHOTO of Thompson Park.

Thuh end.

eggy eggy eggsenfree!

Awwwwwww.

The place where I took this photo was a fairly high-traffic area of Brookdale Community College, so I had to think twice about contorting myself into the compromising position necessary to take this photo. However, about 15 feet away from me was a woman standing, staring at the ground, and talking loudly and clearly to herself (MAYYYYBE she had a hands-free headset or something... but she wasn't using her hands! they just hung at her sides). I decided that her situation was more embarrassing than mine, and if SHE was willing to look like such a looney in the middle of campus, then I shouldn't have any problem with it! So I knelt down to take the picture without another thought.

faceoff

I was skating through Thompson Park, and I decided, for a change, to take a right turn instead of a left.

In addition to taking me right across the main entrance of Brookdale Community College (which... well... it's not exactly a low-traffic area), the path took me right by Lincroft Elementary School (whose basketball court is seen above). This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that some third-graders happened to be having a gym class about 15 feet away from the path. And here I am, being my usual creepy (and sweaty from skating) self--with a camera strapped to my back.

The kids just seemed kind of curious. The gym teacher was looking at me funny, and the kids were corralled back indoors within 5 minutes.

Who builds a fricking bike path right across school grounds?!

circles

Despite catchy signs encouraging people not to litter, people still leave trash (like this abandoned water bottle) all over the place. In all fairness, though, this bottle was sitting on a bench in a tennis court, so it's more likely that the owner just set it down and forgot to pick it up.

Editor's note: Those "circles" are condensation collected on the inside of the bottle--just to avoid any potential confusion as to what you're looking at.

nothing but net

Tennis courts in Thompson Park. (I probably shouldn't've been in there--the courts were theoretically "reserved" for "park activities" while I was snapping photos, so every time a car drove by, I scrambled to leave the courts before anyone noticed I was there.)

(Why scramble? I don't know. I think "scrambling" is a usual form of locomotion for me.)

floor

I wish I could photograph forests better.

This little scene was found in Thompson Park in Lincroft (which is part of Middletown).

loosey goosey

I may not have mentioned Canada geese before on this blog, but... there are a LOT of them around here, especially wherever you find open fields. (I presume this is not unique to this area, though.) I personally have often seen them in middle school/high school fields, cemeteries, and on the way to Monmouth U. (Traffic is often paused for a moment on one of the back roads [near a horse farm] as we all wait for the damn geese to cross the road.)

Three things I can tell you about Canada geese:
1. They are CANADA geese, not CANADIAN geese.
2. They have no fear of cars.
3. They poop a lot.

(This photo was taken in Thompson Park.)

torque hub

A different part of a machine you've already seen.

Stay tuned! We're having our first real snow AS I WRITE THIS and since everything today has been cancelled I am about to go play in it!


P.S. In case you missed it, since I only remembered 20 hours after I posted the original, yesterday was post #300!

belt

This thing was parked in one of the lots at Brookdale Community College. It's rather large, and it's not usually parked there (certainly not at eight in the morning), and it got my attention.

(No comments on the overexposure, please. :) )

grate

This photo- which was in fact taken in Monmouth County and does nicely show off the drainage grates present at Brookdale Community College- does not actually fit the guidelines I try to set for this site. And, in fact, I actually do have a surplus of other photos at the moment, so it's not strictly necessary for me to post this now. But I'm allowing it today because I can. ;)

rust

Back of a signpost thingie at Brookdale. Its primary purpose is probably to indicate where the campus paths are so that snowplows can plow 'em.

flowing

This is a statue outside Brookdale's Monmouth Museum.

TECHNICALLY, this should be vertical, not horizontal, but who's picking nits?

gazebo

On the campus of Brookdale Community College, students are ONLY permitted to smoke inside seven strategically-placed gazebos. This is the ceiling of one of them. (35mm)

daisy daisy

I used up all my backup photos. I haven't really been photographing lately. So we're down to the old leftover ones that didn't make the initial cut.

on cell

Unoriginal thoughts on art:
[Part II]

Here's something I said a year ago that I still find relevant.

"Photography as an art, for an amateur like me, isn't about setting up a shoot. Not about creating the perfect lighting or setting up subjects so they are intentionally beautiful and all I've got to do is capture the moment. Nothing formal. To me, it's about documenting life as I see it- taking the humdrum, stupid, ugly-as-fuck everyday things and putting them on a pedestal.

"It's therapeutic, too. When I decide I'm going to go out and take some pictures, I just go about my everyday life and NOTICE things. What an interesting shape! What a remarkable set of colors I see here! A shelf of books, a well-used keyboard, a teakettle... dumb things that nobody would have ever cared about otherwise.

"I'm not the best photographer, and I'm never going to care enough about lighting and f-stops to be a great one. But it's a good exercise in finding beauty in ugly places."

peas that are sweet

At first I thought this was a clover, but apparently sweet peas grow in bunches.
Edit: It's not a sweet pea, it's a crown vetch.

So. I entered my silly little "roots" photo to Macroday's "Bottom" challenge, and, um, I apparently won!

I'd like to thank the Academy...

...Okay, no.

lavender blue

I have no idea what sort of flower this is... but I think it qualifies as a "wildflower" rather than a "weed" because it was spotted in Thompson Park

(and not on somebody's lawn).


P.S. I took this with my old Nikon.