White Bison, OrigamintheGarden2, Reiman Gardens, 2021.
Cee’s latest Midweek Madness Challenge is to show words with the letter i and I’ve opted to share pictures of sculptures in the exhibit OrigamiintheGarden2currently at Reiman Gardens on the Iowa State University campus.
Origami is the Japanese word for folding paper. OrigamiintheGarden is an outdoor sculpture exhibition created by American artists Jennifer and Kevin Box that captures the delicate nature of this paper art form in museum quality metals. The exhibition features Box’s own compositions as well as collaborations with world renowned origami artists Te Jui Fu, Beth Johnson, Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang.
Bright sunlight on white sculptures led me to a little more photo editing than basic cropping. Nothing fancy – just changed the light balance using the free photo editing software that came with my laptop.
Pacific Ocean along the Oregon Coast at the Mouth of the Columbia River. May 12, 2010.
Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge: June Pick a Topic from Photo sent me wandering down memory lane and through my digital files of photos. The challenge picture (see it here is of the Pacific Ocean, coastal rocks and two people. All of my picks for the challenge have water and rock; four of the five also have people.
Mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon. May 12, 2010.
The northwest Oregon Coast was my best beloved’s favorite place to vacation. Even on chilly, overcast days, we could spend hours watching the waves, noticing the water shift from blue to aqua to green, feeling the spray, and hearing birds call over the noise of the crashing water.
John Watching the Columbia River. May 12, 2010.
That’s my best beloved in the pictures just above and below. It still makes me smile to see him being the photographer when in Yellowstone National Park nearly three years ago.
John Photographing the Gibbon River, Yellowstone National Park. October 10, 2018.
Gibbon River (prior picture) creates picturesque water falls. The National Park Service has constructed an accessible walkway with plenty of places to pause and enjoy the view (next photo).
Overlook at Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park. October 10, 2018.
This is not a trestle bridge. In the early 1970s it replaced a 1912 high trestle bridge for the Union Pacific Railroad (which had replaced an even earlier bridge). Abandoned as a railroad bridge in 2003, it is now part of the 25 mile High Trestle Trail in central Iowa.
The entrances on either end of the half mile long bridge are marked by towers that “speak to the cutting and slicing from natural sources that formed” the Des Moines River valley. (From signage along the bridge.) The dark rocks in the structures are a nod to the coal seams in the land and the coal mining history of the area.
Supported by 22 concrete and steel piers, the bridge stands 130 feet (13 stories) above the Des Moines River. Being able to see the wider base of the piers is an indication the river is really low – not a good sign in mid-June.
Its height is one thing. But it was the addition of twisted steel framework that made the bridge notable.
43 steel cribbings are sculptural forms that embody the coal mining history. The changing geometry of the cribbing radiates around you. The viewer moves along the path as though moving through history, through the tunnel of a mine.
– From a sign along the bridge
The previous two pictures are looking toward the western end of the bridge. The next two are shot toward the eastern end.
For more information about the bridge, click on the following links: – Iowa Virtual Museum: High Trestle Trail Bridge – shows pictures of the early effort to convert the bridge from abandoned railway to a bicycle and pedestrian trail; – Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation: High Trestle Trail – provides a history of the bridge and the rails to trails effort and shows a picture of the bridge lit by blue LED lights at night.
“Oh! Hello!” The goldfinch at my home office window was a surprise five years ago. This picture of Iowa’s State Bird was taken through the windowpane glass.
Compared to the goldfinch, the yellow perch on the birdfeeder looks almost orange! It tended to attract house finches.
April visits to Reimann Botanical Gardens yielded more than a few photos of yellow daffodils and yellow tulips. Other yellow flowers were in bloom in early June.
My Aunt Clara has addressed the challenge of growing flowers in the Arizona desert by decorating her fence with a variety of “sunflowers” – found round objects painted yellow.
Posted in response to Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge June Color – Yellow. Click hereto see Cee’s pictures and to find links for other responses to this challenge. It’s likely to make you smile.
One of my early thoughts for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge June Close-Up or Macro photo challenge was a picture I took of the bark on a palm tree. But it wasn’t as interesting as I remembered. So I set out this morning to photograph the bark on trees along my usual walking path. (No palm trees here in central Iowa!)
Leaves growing directly from the trunks of trees caught my attention on the way home.
The spider on the underside of the leaf in the next photo was serendipitous. (Don’t worry, Cee, it’s the only one with a bug in this week’s collection.)
Finally, one set of leaves in the sunlight shown from two different angles.
Another LQQK 