Chalk the Walk

We went to one of the neatest small town festivals I've been to in a while on Saturday. It's in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and it's called Chalk the Walk. People were painting pictures on Main Street using sidewalk chalk. The festival ran through Sunday, so when we were there, the pictures were still in progress. I wanted to go back on Sunday to see the finished product, but we didn't have time.





There was a huge picture from Where the Wild Things Are that anyone could contribute to. It was huge. Here's a very small part of it.

Back to California

I've about run out of pictures from the California trip. Here's a panorama I stitched together of one of the historic bridges along Hwy. 1. The limitations of my blog template don't really do this justice.

Blurry Bikin' photos

I went downtown to watch the Old Capitol Criterium yesterday. I wasn't really shooting it, but I took a few photos. When it comes to things that are moving, I just can't help myself, so I shot a bunch of blurry photos. Here are three...




These are what they are. Not great. Not horrible. Something about that last guy's front fork caught my eye. I just love the spoke gets less and less sharp, and then twisted, the farther you go from the hub. It's a combination of the slow shutter speed, me panning with the bike and the wheel rotating. I like it. I just can't figure out how to crop it. I'd be curious what you think? And feel free to tell me the picture is lame if you think that's the case. This very well might be one of those pictures that looks pretty good at first glance and three days later makes me think, "What was I on when I was liking that shot?" Believe me, that's happened on more than a few occasions.

More coast

Here's another picture from the coast south of Carmel. This is probably my favorite picture of the coast.

Surfin'

On our way to the airport, we stopped briefly in Santa Cruz. Unbeknownst to us, a "big swell" was coming in. The local surfing community was ready and waiting. From what I could tell, most of them wiped out but had fun trying.

Lighthouse

Here's another lighthouse. This one in Santa Cruz. Ya, I needed a longer lens. I'm almost done with California pictures. I promise.

Pacific Coast

Here's a few more pictures of the Pacific Coast along Highway 1 south of Carmel. It's an amazing drive. Looking at these photos now a couple of weeks after we were there, I'm a little bummed about all the haze. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to go back sometime.

If I had to guess, I'd say the bird is a golden eagle. I know birders get really testy when birds are incorrectly identified, so if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.