Puck

KJ and I are on the return leg of a week exploring the wilds of Washington and British Columbia. On the first day out, driving west along the back roads of eastern Washington, we stumbled upon this field. The truck here really is bogged down in dried mud. I’ve no idea what the story is, but the image was irresistible.

Don't Get Bogged Down with Meth

Burbia (living life on the edge… of the patio) has a cool image gallery going. I really like the yard sign with the Valentine’s hear that says, “I know you slept with Frank. Keep the flowers. I’ll keep the house.” But this yard whale is irrepressible.

The Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photographic Arts and Sciences has published the Web version of a photo exhibition that showed at RIT in October. The images are amazing.

This image, by Chris J. Barry of the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia, uses a photo-slit lamp camera equipped with adjustable external electronic flash lighting:

This ophthalmic photograph reveals a rare, congenital, and incomplete iris formation that was present at birth. This condition is likely to lead to the development of glaucoma later in life as a direct consequence of the malformations of the iris and related structures. In this region of the eye there are a number of muscles and connective tissues that all work synchronously. The stroma found in the iris connects sphincter muscles which contracts the pupil, and a set of dilator muscles that allow the iris to open. The back surface of the iris is covered by a pigmented epithelial layer, and the front of the iris has no epithelium. The high pigment content blocks light from passing through the iris. The iris influences the effects on intraocular pressure and indirectly on vision. The ability to see the physiology of this condition is greatly aided by using the photo-slit lamp camera. The very small and highly directional light produced by this instrument allows visualization of structural details often invisible using other more common illumination techniques.

Check out Images from Science 2.

Out walking with my friend Nisi Shawl recently in Seattle, she took me by the home of Tim Fowler somewhere on East Howell Street. I was immediately gob-smacked by what I saw: a building that was more work of art than conventional dwelling.

“I saw Tim’s work well before I met him,” Nisi told me later. “I moved to this neighborhood the same year I moved to Seattle, 1996 or so. The Central District is one of the city’s ‘historically black’ areas. People had warned me against moving here, and yes there were crack hovels and mattresses on the lawn but also BBQ restaurants and beauty parlors and other signs–for me–of home.”

Tim was home, we saw, and Nisi called out, “Hi, Tim! Is it all right if my friend takes some pictures?” Read the rest of this entry »

I knew Kirk was a talented guy, so when Dr. Sullivan wrote to say, Check out this guy’s flickr stream, I was pretty sure I was in for a treat. But I didn’t think my mind would be blown by the man’s irrepressible use of color.

Of this old Plymouth, Kirk says:

I visited a junkyard near home yesterday and took these shots. It seems this yard was abandoned in the late 50’s since all the cars seem to be that old. Read the rest of this entry »