Daily Photos

< July 2009 >

July 1, 2009
It was a glorious morning. American gothic. In the spooky parking garage. Follow that cab! `A little privacy, please!`

July 2, 2009
PRO DEO ET PATRIA. And Jill came tumbling after. The official university photographer roams around campus taking pictures too, but he gets paid for it. The orange sign on the other side of these pipes basically said, `You shouldn`t be here,` but I took the risk anyway. You might recognize Mike Wade`s fingertips from January 17, 2009.

July 3, 2009
I don`t ALWAYS shoot closeups. I just USUALLY shoot closeups. The eyes have it. Since this was taken in downtown Dayton, it was hard not to include any bulldozers or cranes in the shot. A dancer, of course. Who else owns a pink hat?

July 4, 2009
The Oregon District celebrates Independence Day (see also July 4, 2005, 2006 and 2007). Lady Liberty. He will neither confirm nor deny plans for a presidential campaign in 2010. Miss Independent. Patriotism and popcicles.

July 5, 2009
Gospel. Bluegrass. Irish. Hawaiian. Mexican.

July 6, 2009
Looks like the same gospel song as yesterday. Many landscapers underestimate the importance of lamppost irrigation. At the center of things. I`m not sure why he has his gear down. Maybe he`s planning to land in the visitor`s parking lot. It was a hot and sunny afternoon.

July 7, 2009
Ambassadors keep downtown Dayton safe and friendly. Me watching you watching me. Mini Mary. Taken with a lens borrowed from my new photo buddy, while she used one of my lenses. I just hope the painters remember what my correct house number is when they put these back on the wall.

July 8, 2009
Monet`s garden. Give me your honest opinion: do you think it looks better curly or straight? They don`t come from here, so they bloom only in the summer when it gets really hot. Another team-building exercise in the hot sun (see June 19, 2009). Frozen? NEVER!

July 9, 2009
Leap frog. In life, beauty perishes, but not in art. LEONARDO DA VINCI The stuff of life. I seed a sunflower. Perched atop its flower tower.

July 10, 2009
Urban fisherman. Symbol of America`s pasttime. Faces in the crowd. Mary`s garden. Our buildings aren`t just clean on the INSIDE.

July 11, 2009
Leaf explorer. The nature photography workshop I attended this morning was cut short by lightning, so I had to take pictures later. A tough shot due to the high wind. The darker side of nature. Deep inside the rose.

July 12, 2009
This is so much easier than boxing everything up and moving into a new house. Just move the entire house! Dayton history on parade. In case you lost count, this is photo number 9999 taken with a camera that I got in February. Margaret Bourke-White took a picture of a flying airplane from above, but the best I can do is a gull. The downside of taking 10,000 pictures with my new camera in six months is that my original camera - the one that started it all - sits on the shelf unused.

July 13, 2009
My eye is on the sparrow. Someone`s footprint becomes a watering hole. Jocularity. On the sunny side of the leaf. Both are obsolete now.

July 14, 2009
Photographing people in front of graffiti walls has reached the point of cliche, but if you`re going to do it, do it well. She`s the daughter of a wrestling coach, and a wrestler herself, but she doesn`t ACTUALLY ride a skateboard. She is a nineteen-year-old aspiring actress who would like to have her own television show on the Disney Channel. She comes from a small town that she said is `mostly cornfields,` so she had a fun time roaming the big city. I don`t watch TV, so someone will have to let me know if you see these blue eyes on the Disney Channel someday.

July 15, 2009
`Am I getting fat?` Enjoy them now. Butterflies, like honeybees and just about everything else, are dying off. Uniquely the same. I prefer to think we can ALL share the same park. Instead of actually fixing the slanted house (see June 1, 2009), maybe they`ll just make the ground slanted too.

July 16, 2009
Helping to control the neighborhood squirrel population. Ever feel that way? Fortunately, I heard it rattle before I got too close. Jesuits and Dominicans have to park someplace else. The soccer field gets taken care of year `round. Will the players take equal care of themselves this summer?

July 17, 2009
Morning on the playground. Awaiting the daily parade of coffee drinkers. Missing man formation. If they predict rain EVERY day, then when it finally rains they look smart. Why cameras have manual focus.

July 18, 2009
Come on, Maria, show me some of that Spanish dancing. COUNTING CROWS The girls obviously enjoy dancing, and the boys pretend they don`t. A pinata helplessly awaits the inevitable. I watched her fly around the garden, tasting flower after flower with her feet, until she landed on one she liked. The photographer has to fix the bride`s dress while the husband stands by uselessly.

July 19, 2009
I spy a butterfly . . . but with those antennae and compound eyes, I`m sure it spied me first. Seen enough butterfly closeups? TOO BAD! What Dale Chihuly had in mind. He`s defeating the purpose of his natural camouflage. There are signs posted saying not to play with Zip the Wonderdog, so I hope he gets plenty of love at home.

July 20, 2009
In the swing of things. I like what you`ve done with your hare. One of the amazing backward-walking, loud-talking UD campus tour guides. Patiently awaiting their owners` return. Towing can be very expencive.

July 21, 2009
Morning dove. Morning me. Morning tree. Where else would I be going on a Tuesday morning? `Mom, I`m hungry. MOM!`

July 22, 2009
Why all of today`s pictures were taken indoors. A month later, my belated balloon prowls the floor instead of the ceiling (see June 22, 2009). From my box of useless things. How much it would cost to repaint the hood of my car (see April 28, 2009). Greetings from the Dunbar House, the new nickname of my apartment, since all I do while I`m there is read, research and write about Paul Laurence Dunbar.

July 23, 2009
Green, pink and orange is not a color combination I would wear myself, but it works fine here. A mirror to the sun. It`s national Be-Like-Georgia-O`Keefe day. This pollen-powdered tiger swallowtail had the nerve to spoil my shot. Runaway.

July 24, 2009
Just because I don`t show you this cardinal beating his head against my office window every morning doesn`t mean that he isn`t doing it (see April 1, 2009). I sit at my desk on the other side of the glass and feel a symbolic connection to him and his useless activity. SUMMERTIME! Everyone wants to be an Irish dancer. `Strawberry or chocolate? Strawberry or chocolate?`

July 25, 2009
Cause and effect. If this is supposed to be some kind of sundial, I think the sun is fast. Steady . . . steady. Somebody is in the wrong race. At the Dayton Celtic Festival.

July 26, 2009
I`d like to say that this photo is simply the result of patience and experience, but it wouldn`t have happened without some expensive camera equipment as well. `Why am I lugging this tripod into the woods?` I wondered. `No self-respecting bug is going to sit still long enough for me to set it up.` Well, this one did. For me, this is a long-distance shot. There we go, that`s more like it. I like the leftmost dewdrop because it magnifies other blades of grass.

July 27, 2009
May the circle be unbroken. Earlier today, this was a road. One among many. It`s written almost like it`s a GOOD thing. I paid a high price for yesterday`s nice nature photos: I got an entire summer`s worth of insect bites in a single day.

July 28, 2009
Personal anti-missle systems are suddenly very popular in South Korea. Like a caged bird sitting by the window watching its fellows fly free. The geometry of Miriam Hall. Nice combover. Lucky duck.

July 29, 2009
In the old days, students walked where the sidewalks were and kept off the grass. Now they walk through the grass, creating a muddy path, until we build sidewalks for them. A little Thousand Island dressing and I`m all set. Downtown history. Adoration. You can`t fight it.

July 30, 2009
Is this great, or what? I just falls from the sky, free of charge. I am as likely to commit murder as I am to leave my trash behind in a park. Click! went the shutter, and when I looked again the spider was gone. One sixtieth of a second of my life this afternoon. Eight-tenths of a second of my life this afternoon.

July 31, 2009
Another rainy night. Not my best hummingbird shot ever, but the first taken in my own neighborhood. Overabundance. Peaceful pagoda. I haven`t yet perfected the flying butterfly shot, but it will look something like this.

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