Exit78 Photo of the Day #82

Tulips, Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Texas, March 13, 2011 (Pentax K-r)

There are a lot of photo opportunities at arboretums and botanical gardens.  In March 2011, we had gone to Dallas for their annual quilt show.  While we were there, we also took in the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, where I took full advantage of the opportunities to take pictures.

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Post-processing¹ #20 |

Roof of General Store, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, October 8, 2015 (Pentax K-3 II) 37°37’55.3″N 112°09’54.6″W

Bryce Canyon General Store²

The General Store is open in April thru October.  The National Park Service and Forever Resorts have gone to great lengths to maintain this and other Bryce Canyon Lodge buildings so they appear as they did when they first opened for business in 1925.  Designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, these buildings are his only surviving architectural creations on the Colorado Plateau.

Notice the wavy pattern in the roof? This optical illusion is created by cutting each shingle uniquely.  This was another part of Underwood’s plan to help the buildings blend in with the forest of wavy pines.

1. Post-processing – Image editing to enhance the photo closer to what the eye “saw.” Images in this series are selected within a day or so of being edited and are either posted at the time or scheduled for posting at a later date.
2. National Park Service informational sign

Exit78 Photo of the Day #81

Chinking and log detail from old building, Bannack State Park (ghost town and first territorial capitol), Montana, July 30, 2010 (Pentax K10D)

Buildings made of logs are more than just the logs. The logs used in the construction primarily only touch at the ends, at the notching point, with a space between the logs over most of their length. Logs fit perfectly together along their entire length would result in excessive binding and twisting as the seasons change and the logs expand and contract. The space between the logs is called the chink.  This gap, left to itself, would let in air and small pests.  To seal the chink, yet allow the logs to expand, contract and breathe, a variety of materials were traditionally used such as clay, mud, sand, and other common resources, with an inner layer sealed by a mortar-based “daubing” on the outside. This material used to fill and seal the gap came to be known as the “chinking.”

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #80

Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa), Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 14, 2009 (Pentax K10D)

Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) is a North American shrub in the sunflower family (Aster). It grows in the arid regions of western Canada, western United States (from the western Great Plains to the Pacific) and northern Mexico. A  2′ to 8′ perennial shrub, the shrub reproduces from seeds and root sprouts. It blooms from August to October, producing pungent-smelling, golden-yellow flowers. Flower heads are made up of 5 small, yellow, tubular disk flowers, and occur in umbrella-shaped terminal clusters

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Art on Sunday #31

Excavation at Night, 1908, George Wesley Bellows, Oil on Canvas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, August 1, 2015 (Pentax K3-II)

Museum signage:

George Bellows was attracted to gritty urban scenes. He painted several images of the construction site of Pennsylvania Station in New York. In this night scene, the cavernous excavation pit is deeper than the height of the dimly lit tenement buildings surrounding its edge. In the foreground, a small campfire sends sparks into the night air. While this project led to faster, safer travel, the construction displaced thousands of poor and working-class families.

Provenance:

Estate of the Artist, 1925; to Emma Story Bellows [1884-1959] (Artist’s wife), New York, NY, 1925; to Estate of Emma Story Bellows, 1959; (H.V. Allison & Co., New York, NY); Albert L. Sylvester [1903-1973] and Elizabeth E. Sylvester, Boston, MA, 1961; to Estate of Elizabeth E. Sylvester, by 1976. (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, NY), by 1992; to (Sotheby’s, Inc., New York, NY), 2004; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2004

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.77  (info on this work)

Exit78 Photo of the Day #79

Bighorn sheep rams, Garden of the Gods, September 8, 2011 (Pentax K-r)

It’s pretty rare to see even a single bighorn sheep ram, so we were excited to see three of them in one place. Although we had already been to Gardens of the Gods earlier in the day after arriving in Colorado Springs, we had to decided to go back into the park after supper.  We spotted the bighorns around 7:30 PM.  .

We were camped at Garden of the Gods RV Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The RV “resort” is adjacent to Garden of the Gods, which has long been a Colorado Springs city park. Four-hundred eighty acres were conveyed to the city in 1909 by the children of railroad executive Charles Elliot Perkins to be operated permanently as a park, open to the public without charge.

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #78

Boardwalk, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, August 6, 2010 (Pentax K10D)

Yellowstone National Park.com:

Midway Geyser Basin contains a small collection of mammoth-sized springs. Midway is part of the Lower Geyser Basin, but because of its isolated location between the main features of Lower and Upper geyser basins it became known as Midway. Rudyard Kipling, who visited Yellowstone in 1889, immortalized this basin by referring to it as “Hell’s Half Acre.” Even today it is still remembered by that name. Despite its small size Midway possesses two of the largest hot springs in the world. Grand Prismatic Spring, nearly 370 feet in diameter, sits upon a large mound surrounded by small step-like terraces. The other feature, Excelsior Geyser, erupted nearly 300 feet high before the 1900s. It is now a dormant geyser and is considered a hot spring, discharging more than 4050 gallons of boiling water per minute. Other colorful springs include Turquoise and Indigo springs, known for their pale and dark blue colors. Across the Firehole River from Excelsior and Grand Prismatic springs are a series of small isolated, pristine springs and mud pots. The Rabbit Creek drainage possesses some colorful and unusual features and most are unnamed. Caution should be exercised while exploring this vicinity since the ground is unstable and trails are not maintained.

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #77

In 2011, we visited the Painted Desert Inn in Petrified Forest National Park. Closed in 1963 and reopened for limited use in 1976 as the Bicentennial Travel Center after escaping a proposed demolition, the main lodge building was later rehabilitated and restored, opening as a museum and bookstore in 2006.

Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark (park structure now with museum and gallery space as well as park information), Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, October 9, 2011 (Pentax K-r)

The original building from the early 1920s, was known as the Stone Tree House because of extensive use of petrified wood in its construction. Today’s adobe facade dates to the 1930s redesign and renovation of the Painted Desert Inn by builders and artisans of the the Civilian Conservation Corps  over 1937 – 1940. (Wikipedia)

The CCC used ponderosa pine and aspen poles cut from nearby Arizona forests for roofing beams and smaller crossbeams (savinos). Light fixtures were hand-made from punched tin, and wooden tables and chairs were given American Indian designs. The beautiful skylight panels were hand-painted by the CCC workers, designs of prehistoric pottery. Concrete floors were etched and painted with patterns based on Navajo blanket designs. (National Park Service)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #76

If you’ve seen Tom Cruise in The Firm, you’ve seen this 1,700-foot-long (520m) pedestrian bridge between Memphis city center and the entertainment park on Mud Island. The monorail cars where Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is spotted by a Firm henchman – the Nordic Man (Tobin Bell) – run on rails below the bridge. When the henchman gets off and runs across the bridge chasing the car Mitch is in, he’s running across this bridge (see video below).

Pedestrian Bridge, Mud Island, Memphis, Tennessee, April 21, 2010 (Pentax K10D)

There’s one major continuity error here. The monorail car, like mountain trams, are cable driven and both cars are connected to the same cable.  When a car reaches the station on Mud Island, the other car reaches the station on the other side. When the henchman reaches Mud Island, Mitch’s car, realistically, would have reached the Memphis side station; thus, the henchman couldn’t have chased the car that Mitch was riding.

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.