Ryan's "Fourth of July"

This was my view of the 4th of July. Scroll down and read Cory's story - mine would be similar.

/rl

Cory's Fourth of July

Back when I was in high school, my parents got a "cabin" that I like to refer to as the "trailer by the sea". It is located at Lake Platteview, an exclusive gated community out on the Platte River. The playplace of the rich, we have a big party with a bunch of people out there every Fourth of July. This year the partygoers at a neighboring cabin spent their inheritance on fireworks, which they began setting up around sunset.

After night fell and everybody nearby had their lawn chairs set up, the show began. I got a few shots of nice fireworks, but I think the picture above best displays the craziness that was going on during the show. Amazingly, there were no reported injuries.

Then, after the show was done, we found the GIANTEST SPIDER EVER on the wall of the cabin. That's when we decided it was time to go home.

Next week...

Next week: Best of 2009 Q2.

Fourth of July due today!

Q's darkness

Yet another view from my bedroom window.

New Topic - "Fourth of July"

Cory wants "Fourth of July." Craig is heading across the pond to hang with the people the "Fourth of July" celebrates kicking out, and Quentin is incommunicado. Everyone have a great Fourth!

Cory points out that the end of the quarter is upon us - maybe next week will be "Best of Q3." We'll get around to "Organized Chaos" once the chaos is organized.

/rl

Ryan's "Darkness"

After many shutter actuations in search of a photo that illustrated "Darkness", I have given up. Instead I give you a moth that is soon to meet darkness. At least, I assume Loki's belly is dark on the inside.

/rl

Craig's Darkness

When I suggested the topic Darkness, I'd hoped it would sit around in the bucket until October. That's when Surly Brewing in Minnesota releases their imperial stout named, you guessed it, Darkness.

However, I'm going to the beer well once again anyway, because this is something I think of when I hear "darkness".

The area in which I shot this was obscenely bright what with all the lights and the light box (thanks, Ti!), and yet the darkness of the elixir remains intact.

It is Guinness. It is Dark.

I'm out for the next three weeks. I may post something just for kicks from my phone if I feel like I get a shot that's worthy, but next week's deadline will find me in Bruges, the following week's deadline puts me in London, and the week after that we'll have just returned home.

Cory's Darkness

Every year, Downers Grove celebrates its town heritage with a festival that is, appropriately enough, named Heritage Fest. For this fest they block of five or so blocks worth of Main street, bring in carnival rides and games, and sell anything you can think of to deep fry and put on a stick. My favorite part of the weekend is walking down after dark with a fast lens and taking pictures of the various food and game booths with their high-powered lights on. The game booths have vividly bright stuffed animals to win with darkness behind them, while the food booths have exciting lit workers like seen above.

Next week: "Fourth of July"

"Darkness" due tomorrow night.

I had considered "Fourth of July" for this week - if you guys would rather do that, let me know!



*******Topic is changed - now "Fourth of July"**********

/rl

Recession

Where once a proud and populous army stood, there now stands a weakened front, and few reserves holding up the rear.

Maddy stole my idea, but I still ran with it.

Also, frogs!

Ryan's "Recession"

Fighting back the urge to be lazy and photograph my own receding hairline I made a trip to the former site of Metro Mitsubishi, a failed dealership near Westroads Mall. The general manager was a friend of mine, but I have not seen him in months. At a stoplight on the way to the mall, I noticed he was sitting in the car next to me! He followed me to the dealership to catch up for a few minutes. I found less to photograph than I had hoped, but I came away with this photo and a self portrait.

/rl

Cory's Recession

Downtown Downers Grove saw a pretty big building boom over the last few years, with several new large condo/storefront buildings going in near the train station. I don't know how the condos are selling, but there are still plenty of storefronts to rent. Anybody want to open a business?

Lis thought that Maddy's hairline warranted a mention for this topic too.

Q's recession

This scene is from my window. The letter "o" in the sign has been turned or burned out for a couple of months now. and for a while, the "l" was, too.

Next week - "Darkness"

Recession due within 24 hours or so.

/rl

Ryan's "Surplus"

Once upon a time Uncle Sam allowed citizens to purchase ammunition that the nation's armed forces no longer wanted. While not nearly the deal it seemed (said citizens had already paid for the ammunition once), it still beat commercial prices for reasonable quality bulk ammunition.

This is not a photo of any such ammunition. In an effort to make things less efficient, laws were passed requiring surplus ammo to be de-milled. This generally involves separating bullet, powder, and primer. After being broken into components, each separate component can be sold for reuse. Military components being supplied by the lowest bidder, no one can tell what sort of powder is used, so it is tossed. The primers probably don't survive the de-milling process (they are rather sensitive to shock and other forms of abuse.) Sevaral companies purchase the remaining components (bullet and case) to reassemble them with commercial powder and primers.

The head stamp on the case facing the camera shows that it was manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in 1969. The bullet is likely of similar vintage.

I've now spent far longer typing background info than I did taking the photo...

/rl

Craig's Surplus

I'm annoyed. Ask me why I'm annoyed. Go ahead. Say "Craig, why are you annoyed?"

...

I'll tell you why I'm annoyed. I was a good boy this week. I planned my shot well in advance. Then, on Thursday, when I was to take my shot, I left my SLR home accidentally. Okay, I thought, not a big deal. My P&S is a pretty nice little kajigger, so let's do that.

So I arrive at my destination, and line up for my shot. And the dude next to me at the bar is freaking out. And he calls the bartender over to warn him that I'm taking pictures of their taps. The bartender doesn't mind, even offers to line them up for me, but by then I'm too weirded out. On top of that, I had my camera in the wrong mode. Sigh.

Anyway, my submission.

I like beer. A *lot*. Every Thursday evening, I spend about 90 minutes at my favorite watering hole, Poor Phil's in Oak Park while Tisha attends piano lessons across the street.

I like Poor Phil's for a number of reasons. The atmosphere is great -- if I ever were to open a bar, I'd want it to look like that. Big wood bar that has stools on three sides, and serves the waitstaff on the fourth. Clientele is generally good, the staff is awesome. They know me there.

Oh, and the beer. Poor Phil's has a surplus of beer. Bottles upon bottles, plus over 30 taps. And every tap has something good (except for one, which you can see in this picture). I thought it would be nice to capture some of the taps to demonstrate this surplus.

From left to right, Smithwicks (Ireland), Metropolitan Brewing's Dynamo Copper Lager (Chicago!), Three Floyds' Gumball Head (Munster, IN), Southern Tier Unearthly (NY), Two Brothers' Hop Juice (Warrenville, Chicago suburb), Original Sin Cider (NY), Goose Island Matilda (Chicago!), Blue Moon (CO), Rogue Dead Guy Ale (OR), Bear Republic IPA (CA), Surly Furious (MN), Hoegaarden (Belgium), Samuel Adams Boston Lager (MA), Miller Lite (Hell), and Bass Ale (UK).

And that's just one section of taps.

Cory's Surplus

The little magnolia tree in our front yard has a surplus of leaves this year. It couldn't find anyplace else to grow them, so it grew two from the base of its trunk.

Next Up: Recession

Let's see some "surplus" soon!

/rl

Craig's Brick

For 12 years, I've worked in the same building. Building 221 at Argonne. It is an old brick building built before I was born. It's the bricks you see on the left.

This campus has a lot of building like this. Red brick buildings, interior cinder block walls painted a glossy off-white.

It does not scream modern.

The forefront of this pic is our new building, to which we'll be moving in 2 months. Nary a brick to be seen, it's made form poured concrete and glass. Alas, the less interesting southern face of the building is what we are seeing here, and not the very cool western, eastern, or northern elevations.

Cory will also bee in this building. I'm really looking forward to it.

Bonus parking violation, too! (That's not me.)

Cory's Brick

After Dad and Kelcey left on Saturday morning, the rest of us took a tour of Graue Mill. Here's a small snippet of wall and window that happens to have some bricks in it.

Ryan's "Brick"

A stretch of the Lincoln Highway between Elkhorn (now Omaha) and Omaha (still Omaha), Ne.

/rl

"Brick" due tomorrow!

Next weeks topic is surplus.

No, I don't mean we have a spare topic. I mean the topic is "Surplus."

/rl

Ryan's "Forest for the trees"

The fallen trees slightly obscure the forest. It's not a great photo, but I took it this week :)


In case anyone is interested, I posted photos of last weekend's adventures.


/rl

Cory's Forest for the Trees

One of the first things that Madeline did after coming home was losing the hair on the top of her head. Unlike most Lueninghoeners, however, she started growing it back. Here's the forest of hair that's starting to grow on the top of her head. Yes, that's my chin on the right - I cheated and am posting this picture that Lis actually took.

Craig's Forest for the Trees

This is a cheat, because I couldn't think of anything this week, and I'm packing up today for a conference I'm attending next week, so I don't even have time to just throw something together. I didn't want to post *nothing*, since I know Q's out this week and next.

This was taken in 2005, driving across Labrador. It's about as close as I've been to being in the middle of nowhere. The Trans Labrador Highway is (or was, at that time) a gravel road between Happy Valley/Goose Bay and Wabush/Labrador City. It's a day long drive with *nothing* but trees, except in the middle when you hit the town of Churchill Falls. All told, on that road trip, we went 2.5 days without seeing asphalt highway.

When I think of forest, I think of this.

Next week - "Brick"!

"Forest for the trees" due tomorrow.

/rl

Craig's Ugly (and late)

I am truly fortunate, in that I have in my possession both the ugliest shirt in the world, and the ugliest chair in the world. I was torn on which I would use. I considered both, but I think the shirt wins. So, behold! The ugliest shirt in the world, made of what looks like every tie my dad wore in the 1970s.

See the ugliest shirt in the world on the ugliest chair in the world here

Ryan's (belated) "Ugly"

Oddly, one of the major hazards of rock climbing in Minnesota is not gravity, but the Wood Tick (Dermacentor variabilis ) also known as the "American Dog Tick", or "Those Nasty Little Bastards That Make Me Consider Bathing In Coleman Fuel While Playing With Sparklers." Overall we found more than 50 of these things.

So far as we know, none of them got a mouthful of human. A few got a mouthful of Sam, but he (despite his protestation otherwise) is not a human. He is canine, and was wearing Frontline. Frontline makes ticks get dead. I want to wear Frontline.

/rl

Q's ugly

I'm afraid I'll have to sit the next couple weeks out. I'll be in Ireland and Scotland for a friend's wedding and a little R&R. But I'll be certain to post plenty of pictures when I get back . . .

Cory's Ugly

After working in the garden all day, Lis's toes are perdy ugly.

Next Week...

Next week: Forest for the Trees

Ugly due NOW!

Apologies in advance...

I have not yet taken an "Ugly" photo (actually, I have taken a ton of ugly photos) this week. I am going to go climbing for the rest of the week, so I won't be able to post a photo until Monday.

I beg your collective forgiveness.

/rl

Q's alive

the current condition of my sink.

Ryan's "It's Alive!"

A friend called me _way_ too early Friday morning to ask if I would photograph a pregnancy test. My immediate response was that it seemed pretty awkward...



Congrats to Charles and Kristina!

/rl

Cory's Alive

Each fall, the Beetle goes into deep hibernation. In the spring I adjust its valves, change its oil, and take it out for a victory lap. As of today, it has reached this year's "It's Alive!" state again.

It's ALIVE!

I had a great idea for It's Alive!, but I didn't get to take it before I left to spend the weekend in Santa Fe. So, I improvised. I wanted to take a picture of a monster, so I found the cutest monster I could. I was working with a different camera, but dang, it's nice! Extra bonus, view the full size and zoom up on Tasha's eye to see the reflection of me!

Next up - "Ugly"

"It's Alive!" is due Sunday night.

I can see the bottom of the topic barrel again. Time for a refill.

/rl

Q's cut

I know, I know. I'm late. I was out of town all weekend and this was the first chance I got to sit down at a computer for more than two minutes.

In my free time, I cut out interesting images and shapes and collage them together. For this photo, I'd considered trying something along the lines of what this guy does with pulp fiction covers. But I sort of liked the looks of this one, even though it doesn't compare to the cut out paperbacks.

Ryan's "Cut"

In today's tough economy, one can save a lot of money by cutting one's own hair. With practice, nearly professional results may be obtained:



/rl

Cory's Cut

Cut!

Next week: "It's Alive!"

Post your "Cut", chop chop!

/rl

Q's spring

I had considered a photo similar to Craig's since this one doesn't say spring precisely. But it is outside, and it is nice weather, and it is spring.

Craig's Spring

Get it?

Get it?

I'm sorry.

Ryan's "Spring"

I seem to recall that the robin is considered the "Bird of Spring."
I seem to recall that Emily Dickenson wrote a poem about about robins and spring.
I seem to recall that most dental procedures are more uplifting than Emily Dickenson's poetry...

/rl

Cory's Spring

I was going to post a pretty picture of some leaves bursting open or something spring-like like that, but I think this image is more fun: around our house spring is when the ducks come back and wander through the yard.

Here's what happened a few moments later.

Next Week

Next week: Cut. Cut cut cut cut cut cut. Cut.

Cut.

"Spring" due tomorrow!

Cory's Best Of Q1

Like Ryan, most of my recent stuff was for here. But here's a nice little cardinal I captured one cold afternoon in January.

Ryan's "Best Of Q1"

Slim pickings here - most of my photos from January, February, and March were taken for the blog. Here are some friends playing that game with the funny looking ball (not rugby, the other one).


/rl

Craig's First Quarter

Taken at an abandoned building on the trail up to the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.

Q's 1q

From January, this was a late night out with my friends Andy (right) and Dan.

Next week: Spring!

Post your "Best of Jan/Feb/Mar" soon!

/rl

Q's forbidden

I wasn't able to come up with something truly forbidden this week, so I just made a picture I like of something looked down on: stripes and plaids.

Ryan's "Forbidden"

Photographically, not my best. I had just taken the photo I planned to use when I passed this building. I found it amusing...

My "planned" photo is here.

/rl

Forbidden

There's so much I love about this sign. First is the apparently necessary translation of what a "no left turn" sign means. Next is the egregious use of quotation marks on said sign. Finally is that, while no left turn is allowed, it's apparently okay to go *straight*, except 59th street is offset as it crosses Harlem. This involves, you guessed it, making a left turn.

Cory's Forbidden

I was kind of busy last week, so I didn't manage to take a really great picture. But I did recall this great bridge that's next to Hinsdale Hospital: it is only one lane wide, so there's a stoplight on each side to keep traffic flowing only in one direction. It is also built as an arch, so there's no way to know when you start over it if the people on the other side are paying attention to their stoplight. Very exciting. You can kind of see what's happening on the Google.

Anyway, traffic is forbidden from driving over this bridge in two directions at once!

Next week...

Best of 2009Q1! I suppose that means, January, February, and March only.

'Forbidden' due today. I forbid you from not posting something.

Q's (unhatched) peep

which came first? the cadbury creme egg or the peep?

Ryan's "Peep"

Finally figured out where the M&M's have been going....

Also, I promoted "Forbidden" this week. We had already agreed that it should be "Best Of" for the first quarter of 2009. Do we want to change it?



/rl

Craig's Disco Peeps

If we knew why peeps went to discotheques, we'd have a much deeper understanding of the world.

Cory's Peep Show

I took a special trip to the Chicago area's only Peep farm for this week's topic, and came back with this picture of some peeps ready for market.

I also had an alternative shot that looks a lot more rustic, but the Peeps didn't look so peepish in it...

"Peeps" due tomorrow!

Next weeks topic is forbidden.

Err... no. The topic isn't forbidden. The topic is "forbidden."

I think.

/rl

Q's new

recently a friend mailed me a letter . . . a new one (at least to me) snipped out of sheet metal.

Ryan's "New"

April showers bring May flowers. Will blizzards in April bring us lizards in May?

Anyway, sometimes "New" things come too early.


/rl

Cory's New

I was hoping I would have "new kid" pictures for this week, but it's still a little early. So I settled on these little guys. Bonus points for identifying them!

Craig's New

I'm cool with quarterly best-of. Here's my 'new'... Spring is here. Ostensibly.

Due tomorrow night: "New"

Next week's topic is "Peeps".

Cory and I discussed doing "Best of" quarterly instead of yearly. It sounds good to me. Q and Craig?

/rl