Two and a half inches of rain in little more than an hours time produced this gusher that greeted me just outside my building this evening. It was spouting upwards of about 8-10 inches in a constant flow from the earlier heavy downpour.

Of course, I had a camera with me, like always. A quick composition and snap of the shutter on my Panasonic LX3 and I got it. what’s interesting is the fact that there are building facilities just underneath of this gusher. The parking garage in which this was taken, is right over rooms that house equipment and where folks work. How they stay dry, is an engineering marvel to me.

I did a bit of purple tang processing on the out of the camera print, just because I felt moved to do so. Sometimes the documentary mood is upon me and I try to accurately depict the colors and lighting that both I and the camera saw. Other times. I get a bit crazy like this. Artistic license, I believe that is called.

The evening rains are slowly pushing off to the east. The lightning and thunder have passed. Time for some rest and reflection,and thankfulness for staying dry

I’ve always loved this modern slab of a building. I believe that the exterior is some sort of stainless steel alloy. I recall when it was built, seeing the sections being bolted on with a plastic covering such as you get over a new TV screen or cell phone. After they were completed, the blue plastic was stripped away, revealing this monolithic gray with black windows.

It’s great for reflecting the sunset, seen here.

I’ve punched up the color vibrancy, but you get what I mean about the walls reflecting the colors of the sky. Not a perfect reflection, but that gray takes on a muted echo of the sunset colors. I increased the blacks so that the gray stripes would stand out.

It was a magnificent sunset that night. One that had me with my pocket wonder, the Panasonic LX3, in hand and at the ready, the whole way home. I head west, directly into the setting sun at this time of year. There are times that I keep on heading west, in search of the perfect vantage point for the spectacle of the sun.

There’s always something memorable just around the corner. Having a camera at the ready, makes memories easy to catch and keep.

Point a lens at the sun, and you get some lens flare. Artifacts of how the light interacts between all the elements and surfaces in the camera’s lens.

Some flare is beautiful, some is downright ugly. I’ll put this in the either/or category. It depends on why the flare is there.

I intended for the flare to be there. That’s why I put this in the keeper pile. If I was taking a portrait, I’d put it in the pitch pile. That bit just above and to the right of the car? That’s the downright ugly part. The hexagons and circles usually can be controlled and can be used to create an artistic look. The orange with the flame, not so good.

In this case, I was wanting to get as much flare as possible out of that bit of sun peeking over the building. A salute to the end of one business day, a send-off to the beginning of another business evening. The cross-processing, selecting once color for the highlights and another color for the shadows, that’s an artists madness coming out. The regular color was OK, but this is very nice – to my point of view.

A flare for the dramatic.

Up close on a bit of grass going to seed.

I never noticed the purple bits before I looked at this macro photograph I took the other day. Just a simple patch of grass, with the bushy pads of yellow, swaying in the wind. A challenge to get a good picture of, but life’s full of daily challenges. Seeing the purple bits in and among the yellow stems, has me wondering what those purple bits are.

Life up close is different than my everyday look at it.

Taking time to stop and soak in the world around me. That always brings rewards. Like these tiny purple bits.

The late afternoon light called my name again.

I saw the shadows and light, playing on the table, floor and sofa of the sun room. That had me up and grabbing my Pentax K20D once more. I have been exploring the range of the dream-like Vivitar 28mm f2 Close Focus. This light was made for it.

At one point, as I was composing and photographing things in the room, I checked the distance I had set for focus by pointing the lens at myself, then bringing it closer until the catch-in-focus triggered the shutter. Seeing results, had me looking for the light, falling on my hand, and then capturing it. A bit of conversion to black & white and here you are.

Something about this composition tugs at me. I purposefully opened my hand and relaxed it in the light. Part in the light and much in shadow. The aperture is wide open, leaving a thin slice of focus in the light, with the shadows out of focus.

I do things like this and I have no idea why I do it this way.

I’m learning to trust the instinct which pulled me to explore the light and shadow, and had me put my hand into the frame. Whatever the cause, the photo moves me. That’s what matters.

Exploring the light.