Jupiter, Bicycles and Greenhouses

Last night, my wife's university gave the surrounding community a chance to view Jupiter with some high-tech telescopes.  Though the three second individual viewing time may not have been worth the wait, it provided me with a decent enough photograph.  Here is a man checking out his telescope..making sure it is in working order and fine-focusing it.

While waiting for my turn at one of the telescopes, I noticed a bright light shining on a bicycle nearby...

Today I was wandering around the outside of a locked-up greenhouse.  An old greenhouse.  Here are some shots from it...

Not Much Time Left

With just two days until we leave for Northern Ireland, my wife and I have very little time.  We went for an extremely quick bike ride today, though, and I grabbed my camera...thinking it might be my only chance for a picture of any interest...

Biking at Warp Speed

What looks like traveling at a great speed is really just a pretty slow speed on a bicycle.  Apparently motion lines/blur can be deceiving.

 Holding the Walls Up

These ladders appear to be holding up the walls of an old building.  They are not.

Quantity Over Quality

Getting home from work late as well as intending to continue the attempts of emptying/cleaning an apartment got in the way of putting much time into today's photography.  So I gave myself 15 minutes and went for a walk.  Nothing that I came up with is anything special, but I figure if I post three pictures, the quantity over quality rule makes everything a-okay!

Positive Graffiti

Apparently some punk was feeling that the world wasn't out to get him on the day that he signed the wall with x's and o's.  Or perhaps he just doesn't know the rules of tic tac toe.

 

Balancing Act

I only like this photo because of the clutter in the bottom left of it.  It helps to balance the photo, having a natural thing (birds) on the opposite side of the clutter.

Bicycle Built For Two

My wife's bike and my bike had to spend some time together, chained up.  Here they are, making the chained life appear to be a pleasant, perhaps even loving one.

Deconstructing A Bicycle: The Tire

Here is the next piece in the the Deconstructing A Bicycle series.  This is the rubber wheel pulled off the rim. 

Shin Tyre

The plug cap is useless.  This old tire has more than it's fair share of holes and tears.

Deconstructing A Bicycle: Rear Brakes

Reminiscent of some high school dark room project, I give you the rear braking system of a bike.  Nothing fancy, just the necessary pieces.  

 I Brake For Brakes

It's like one of those projects that you toss pencils and paper clips and whatever else you can find in your pocket on the light table in the dark room and make a negative print...just with bike brake parts.

Deconstructing A Bicycle: Rims and Spokes

I spent a good portion of today ripping a tire off of my dying bike's wheel.  It was much more difficult than it should have been.  The exposed rim and loosely hanging spokes had a lot of character as a whole, stopping me from doing some close up/macro shots (which was my initial intention). 

Like an Eye

...staring you down from the edge of a table. 

 Relaxing In The Corner

As a child, I would have had just as much fun with this piece of a bicycle as I would have had with the full thing.

And Finally...Today's Photo

I have a broken bicycle in my shed.  It is beyond repair.  Instead of tossing it, I decided to harvest certain parts for a new photo project.  The project is called "Deconstructing a Bicycle." It is basically what it sounds like...I will be taking photos of pieces of the bicycle as I take it apart.

Bicycle Chain

The first part I removed was the chain.  I don't know if I will use the isolation style for all the photos, but it worked well for this one...so we shall see.

Local Produce All The Way

I got my car inspected today.  While paying, I added a bunch of home grown asparagus to my bill.  Thus is the awesome nature of the area I live in...Lancaster County.  They had asparagus on the counter, in a bucket, for 1.50...how could I refuse?  I couldn't.
The fact that a car shop had some of their own vegetables for sale with their vehicle services made me think that my favorite farm stand might be open.  It was.  I picked up some cabbage and strawberry rhubarb jam and my wife got an apple.  It is a wonderful little stand and I rejoice in the fact that it is open.  I will be giving them more business than I give anyone else for the next five months.

Wanted: Newspapers

This picture is more of a documentary shot.  It isn't supposed to be anything special,  just an image that marks the first day that I got to go to my favorite produce stand in 2011.

Skids and Spokes

I have a hard time not photographing bikes, regardless of their location.  But a bike surrounded by skids of produce, now that is pretty awesome.  Id like to imagine there is a forklift attachment for a bicycle and that is the method that is used to move produce around the stand.

Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

...young girls have picked them every one. 
A nice bike ride led my wife and I to a field with many a wildflower.  My wife picked a few and knelt down to tie them together.  She then proceeded to tie the tiny bouquet to the handlebars of her bike.

The Tiniest Bouquet

I had a hard time trying to decide if this should be in black and white or color.  The obvious choice for flowers is color, but I really like the simplicity of the photo and I feel like the black and white adds to that simplicity.

I Brake for Flowers

I couldn't let both photos be in black and white, and wouldn't have.  This photo is definitely better in color.  I am intrigued by the bokeh underneath the hand brake.  It looks like motion blur, but it definitely is not. 

Motionless

Any day that brings even the slightest warmth to the outdoors has me jumping on my bike and pedaling away.  Today was one of the those days, emphasis on the "slightest" part.  My wife and I rode around the block a few times and then, since her bike is so much nicer looking than mine, I took some pictures.  This time the photos were taken while her bike was leaning against our shed and I was standing on solid ground.  This differs significantly from my bike pictures from a few days ago...Though those were a testament to my obviously amazing balance.

 Something Is Missing

This picture would be awesome if there was a box filled with vegetables on the metal bars.  Or a suitcase clamped on.  Or a couple small boxes, stacked, and tied on with old twine.  I rather like the bokeh created from light shining off the metal chain in the bottom left corner, though.

Take a Seat

Hop on and enjoy the ride, these shocks will keep you from bouncing all over the place, even on Pennsylvania roads. 

Velo Transit

The last time my wife and I were out biking, for a split second we were going at the same speed and everything surrounding her and her bike was blurred.  She was the static part of the scene and though this happens all the time when you are looking at a moving object, I knew the next time we could get on bikes I would have my camera ready.  Well, today was a warmer day than the last few, so we went for a ride, and I tried awfully hard not to fall over while biking with no hands and looking through a viewfinder on a camera.

No Lies

Though I can't prove that I wasn't just standing there taking pictures, you can look at her spokes and see that she at least was definitely moving at a decent pace.  Getting a sharp image of someone speeding by while standing would be impressive as well, but you will just have to trust me, I was flailing around on a moving bike while shooting all of these. 

A Crack in the Road

The blur, focal point, colors, and cracked concrete make this image look like the earth is opening up, ready to swallow the bike and rider.  But no, more so, it's just what happens when you attempt to focus on a moving bike and miss entirely. 

Speed Demon

For whatever reason, the bike in this photo actually looks like it's going faster than the bike in the other photos.  The strange part being that you can actually better make out the spokes in this one than some of the others.   

  Through the Alleyway

Here is a normal photo of a portion of my wife making her way through the alleyway behind our house.  She adores that bike basket.