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Spiral Stairs

Is this a chambered nautilus shell? No, it's a carved stone spiral staircase in the "government building" in the amazing German town named Rothenburg o.d.T.

Prayer

I guess this shot is more about architecture than people, though I hope I can be forgiven for this: The First United Methodist Church in Watertown, SD, is a beautiful structure. I know that Gothic cathedrals, like the Notre Dame de Paris, were intended to lift the celebrants' eyes to heaven, while at the same time giving them a sense of smallness and humility. Maybe that's what the architects of this church intended.I like the symmetry of this shot, though if I were staging it, I would have the bridesmaids move about two feet to my right so I could get all three in the frame. Oh, well. . .Finally, you might be wondering about the black and white treatment, given the amazing color present in this shot. I think color sometimes distracts. Also, getting good color at ISO 1600 in a big room with generally dim, mixed light sources can be problematic. But, if you want to see color, click here.Canon 5DII 1/50s f/2.8 ISO1600 85mm

Ancient Doors

I'll admit that I know I was in Japan when I took this photo but I don't know where. It was a royal palace somewhere. If only I knew about GPS geotagging in 2004. . . .

Roof Lines

This is one of several amazing structures on the Temple Grounds in Kyoto, Japan.

American Gothic

I'm on an HDR in the country kick. I have also gotten caught up in Nik Efex and OnOne filters. So you'll have to forgive me for slightly surreal images lately.This image is of a farm house a few miles north of Watertown. It is a fascinating remnant and I'd love to know more about this farm. I'm particularly interested in the evergreen trees that once graced the house. All but one have surrounded to the forces of time. The others, echoing the house, are skeletons.

Keep Out!

OK, so the actual translation is "Private," which is more polite than "Keep Out!" And if the message weren't already friendly enough, how about surrounding it with a berry and twig filled metal thing?This was on the door of the rectory adjacent to the Bruges Cathedral in Bruges, Belgium.

In Bruges

Bruges (aka Brugge) is a beautiful small town in Belgium and Deb and I visited it a few years ago. In my quest to find a photo to post today, this one called me. I had abandoned it because it was overexposed in the brightest spots and way too dark in the darkest spot. But with the amazing power of Aperture (photo processing software) and the inherent wide dynamic range in a raw file, I was able to resurrect it - more or less.I harp on focal points and making sure that our photos draw the viewers' eyes in my teaching and I'm really not sure that this photo does a good job of engaging the viewer. But here is it anyway. . .

More Old House Geometry

Almost everything in this photo is geometric and patterned. Even the chipping paint seems patterned.Thanks, by the way for the submissions to the haiku contest. Today is the 5th day after the contest started and thus it will end. I am submitting the many excellent poems to a panel of experts and I will announce the winner in tomorrow's post.

Geometry

Even the collapsing window frame of an abandoned farm house shows a precise geometric pattern in the strong, morning light.By the way . . . I sometimes wonder if people read my posts. More probably, you aren't into words and you come to my blog to see what I've posted. From my blog stats it is more probable that you've done a Google search and all you want is a photo for your Powerpoint.But for those who read, and who love wordplay, here's a challenge: Look at my picture and turn your reactions to it into a haiku. Then post it as a comment. The prize to the best haiku posted will be a 5x7 mounted print of you favorite "A Photo A Day" blog post sent to your address anywhere in the world. Seriously. Contest ends 1 week from now. By the way a traditional Japanese Haiku has three lines with 17 syllables:First line: 5 syllablesSecond line: 7 syllablesThird line: 5 syllables

Juxtaposition

How about something from the 20th century, the 18th century and the 1st century in the same photo? If you travel to places like Segovia, Spain, that's not hard to come by.The Roman aqueduct that dominates that photo is the oldest structure seen here, though it is in amazingly good shape - especially since only gravity holds this structure up. That's right, there's no cement!So the question is: If the aqueduct is made of carefully carved and aligned stacked stone, how do the build the arches? In other words, since the last stone in the arch to go in is the one at the stop (the keystone) how do they keep the other stones in place before placing it?

Return To La Sagrada Familia

The other day I was changing the desktop on my Mac and I came across this photo, which was featured in a post from almost exactly two years ago. I won't go into the details on this famous Barcelona landmark since the earlier post does that already.The one thing that is striking about the architecture of cathedral is its diversity, which I think was a Gaudi trademark. The square, block-like design of these figures is remarkably different from the kind of detail you see in the earlier post.I would love to go back to Barcelona to see what progress has been made since I was there is 2004. In fact, I'd love to go back to Barcelona for any reason, as it was one of my favorite places in Europe.