Photo Page 110204

Election Day, 2004 Photo Page -- originally an email with photos

	I have been recently in the mood to do a photo page based on one photo walk, and the opportunity came along, and here is the result: I got out and about on Election Day, as my civic duty bade me do, and indeed I wished to express some opinions as to which questionable persons, er, I mean fine statesmen I wished to represent me, and the country, to the world. I took the Olympus along in case the good light held, and lo, it did, though I was mildly soaked at the toddle's end as the rain, which was predicted, did come. For some reason the sky, halfway between blue and gray, worked well to capture some of the color of the season. There was a soft glow to the buildings and trees and hedges as I walked some streets I rarely prowl, camera in hand.




	The usually somber house seems almost cheerful on this afternoon.







	Another shot of the same house with its architecture from a time that seems long ago.







	This tree, a ginkgo, was most impressively large, bold and yellow. Several of the images in this email have this tree somewhere in the scene. The brightness of the sky fought against my attempt to show the sheer yellowness of the distinctively shaped leaves.







	And here are the leaves themselves. I have read the ginkgo tree is the only remaining member of a family of trees formerly widespread millions of years ago. I'm glad we have at least one species remaining of this beautiful tree.







	A great bough of the ginkgo leans out to add a benign charm to this house.







	This is the same scene from a different angle.







	Here, for contrast to the opulence of the former scenes, is a simpler view that I liked, but because of cars, phone lines, etc. I could not settle on an angle to it that I felt really perfect. Still, the lines are satisfying to me.







	This is an historic home of my town. I am amazed I had not photographed it before. The house sits by itself on a prow of land and seems to brood over the passing years.







	Down in the lower right front of the steeply sloping front yard of this estate is this tiny graveyard and protective madonna. The stones are those of children who died at an early age, as so many did in former generations. How many times did the eyes of the porch-sitters stray to this plot, and wonder what might have been?







	On down the hill and across a highway and creek is a large industrial operation that gives off a whitish steam or smoke. The wind-driven smoke swirls and the simple shapes of the industrial structures invites the photographer to take a picture, even while he wishes he could magically transport the operation bodily somewhere else.







	This is the oldest house in the area. Prior to the American Revolution, settlements in central Pennsylvania were right on the frontier, and as Indians and white settlers contended, there was much blood and turmoil. So there is some poignancy in this bare fact: the rear part of this house dates from 1785, two years after the end of the Revolution. The Georgian front section was built in 1835. Ironmasters lived here during the heyday of the iron furnaces.







	This scene was a visual feast -- the eye is here treated to a swath of green vegetation in the left foreground and on the right is a maple tree trunk with a few pale leaves hanging down. A touch of cool blue is added from a stately home in the middle left while a Japanese maple plays in the Key of Red in the center mid-distance. A blue spruce of more upright demeanor peeks over its top, and a large vivid yellow ginkgo surrounds the nearer trees like a glory.








	I liked the last scene so well, I walked to its other side and, with the handy appearance of a pedestrian, got this shot.







	Here is the same scene with a simpler vertical composition.





	With the coming of rain, I hied homeward and thus ended the photo walk.