One day when passing through the Oak Street Plaza Park in Fort Collins, I spotted the reflections that these umbrellas were making in the black stone and stopped to take a few photos. I didn’t spend enough time on this idea, but otherwise think I captured what I saw.
The black stones are part of a public art installation titled “Confluence” by Lawrence Argent. More public art!
One of the things that has impressed me about Fort Collins, CO is the amount of public art, especially in Old Town. They even publish maps and have a walking tour telling people where to find it. Sometimes the art is sculpture, pavers on the sidewalk, plaques or other displays. Two of the most prevalent forms seem to be painted pianos placed around town that anyone can play, and painted utility box covers. A very clever way to disguise what is usually seen as big, green, ugly boxes.
It’s evidently brand new, as it isn’t shown in Google Street View and I couldn’t find out anything about it in the published information. But this structure is almost certainly art. If not, I have no idea what its purpose would be! I had a little fun with it while walking around on a beautiful, sunshiny day!
If anyone wants to check it out, it is located in an alleyway in an area bordered by Oak Street, Mason Street, Mountain Ave. and College Ave. Right behind Walrus Ice Cream! 🙂
When I made these photos I wasn’t thinking about hurricanes, but they do have a bit of a cyclonic look to them. I have all of my friends along the coast on my mind as I post this, and hope they all remain out of harm’s way.
These are a little cliche-y but I think serve the purpose quite well.
I posted this photo on Instagram a few days ago but forgot to post it here.
Sometimes I rely on my sidekick to find photographs and I just shoot them. This was a scene in a restaurant we visited in Carolina Beach. It was behind me so I probably would not have seen it, but Kathy has a good eye!
Reflections of the sky and clouds in cars that I found while on the Cape May Ferry from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE. I was standing on the deck above the cars.
Sometimes I do put my camera on a tripod, as evidenced by this photo from the archives. From 2012, in fact!
Kathy & I are heading off to the coast shortly for a few days of family, sightseeing and probably a few photos.
Tell just about anyone around here that you’re headed to Asheville, Boone, Blowing Rock or Cherokee, and they know where you’re going and likely have been there themselves. Tell someone you are going to Waynesville, and just about everyone says “where’s Waynesville?” Tell someone you are going to Waynesville for Folkmoot and they just get confused. “Where for what?”
When I was photographing for Our State and WNC magazines I took photographs to accompany articles about small towns in the western part of NC. Waynesville has become our favorite mountain town for a number of years and we keep returning. We’ve become friends with the couple who owns a small motel there, interestingly the same motel where my family used to stay when we visited from Pennsylvania. Waynesville has several restaurants we really like, a coffee roaster that makes my favorite coffee, and is ideally located for access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Every year in July, Waynesville hosts Folkmoot. Webster defines a ‘folkmoot’ as a general assembly of the people (as of a shire) in early England” Folkmoot in Waynesville has traditionally been a two week festival of international friendship and fellowship, highlighted by dance and musical performances. The Folkmoot organization has recently begun to evolve into a year-round cultural center, with programs and events that celebrate diversity, encourage cultural conversation, and preserve and honor worldwide cultural heritages.
We have been to Waynesville during Folkmoot several times in the past but have limited our participation to the Parade of Nations that is held one Saturday. This year we also purchased tickets and attended the opening ceremony, where all of the performers are featured in an indoor (and air-conditioned!) setting. I didn’t photograph there, but we did attend the parade the following day. I think I would like to eventually participate more, but for now we can be glad that we did something we hadn’t done previously.
Here is a small selection of photos from the parade. It is a lot of fun to attend, and I think I captured some photos that represent what it is all about!
Kathy & I are spending some time in Waynesville, NC trying to beat the heat in Charlotte. We’ve driven some curvy mountain roads during our sightseeing. This is a scene I have passed by many evenings without a camera, and decided to take one along last night just to capture a few shots.
Kathy & I were talking to friends recently who asked me about our travels to Italy, when I remembered that I had never published a gallery of Italy photos on my website. It’s only taken a year, but I finally got around to it. It’s a lot of photos – admittedly way more than I would ordinarily put in one gallery. But it was a huge trip with lots of photos! I ended up with about 3,000 processed photos, so a gallery with “only” 180 or so images is really editing it down!