Impressionism By Windshield

In the old, run-down industrial area south of the Arch during last weekend's downpour.  I was in my car, water streaming across the windshield. Auto focus was out of the question and manual focus was approximate. If Monet painted modern ruins... Well, he did lots of train stations. Not too different.        

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Let's Eat

Hedonism simplified. Get your life in order. I suppose it's a matter of taste and priorities, but some people might ask for seconds and never make it any further. My father, who was in commercial sugar business, would have approved.

The location is Clare, Michigan's famous Cops & Doughnuts. It's heaven for those with a sweet tooth and a nightmare for endocrinologists and dentists.   

When It Rains

Go out and shoot it. It's pouring off and on all weekend here but I need material. If the rain gets too hard you can take pictures from the safety of your car. This photo was taken on the Mississippi riverfront under the Arch. The heavens opened a moment later.

If you look closely you can see that this is a color picture. No desaturation used.            

Deja Vu

Desperate for new material so reaching back into the archives (but not too far). This is a familiar image, something seen here many times before. Maybe a bit more dramatic with the cloud pattern and some extra post-production twiddling.

Gotta get out and shoot something new today, rain or shine. The forecast is for the former, and lots of it.               

Happy Trails

There is a wonderful trail system around Clare, just the thing for walking off the effects of the slab of meat seen yesterday. I assume Andy's tee shirt is from some bar and restaurant and is meant to be ironic, if a little obscure.

I really need new local material but it's supposed to start pouring later today and continue for days. There must be something to shoot in that.     

Chef Andy

As you may have guessed from yesterday's post, I am rather hard up for material. Missed some local events last weekend like Earth Day and the March For Science. The forecast is for storms all this weekend so I'm scraping.

My son, Andy, is getting into the small town lifestyle. He has this big electric meat smoker gizmo. There was a visit to the local meat market which resulted in the purchase of an 11 pound  / 5 kg pork shoulder. He brined it for five days, then slow cooked it in the smoker for nine hours, keeping an eye on both the air and meat temperature.

Finally it was done. An artist must carefully check the quality of his work.        

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

So I'm walking down the driveway at Andy's house in Michigan and see this written in chalk. Something like the following conversation takes place:

Me: What's that?

Andy: Oh, c'mon. You know.

Me: Sorry, never laid eyes on it.

Andy: It's Euler's equation, the most beautiful equation in math.

Me: ????   

So I looked it up, which didn't help very much. See here and here.  

One mathematician said it is "like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's equation reaches down into the very depths of existence".

And another stated that the identity "is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

I totally don't get it. Nice to know that in some ways my kid is smarter than the old man.