Post #1

I believe I have decided on a new hobby.  I thought about painting. I thought about cross stitch.  I considered gardening.  But nothing really appealed to me.  Then one day as I was reading a book or something, I thought: Photography!  I don't really know much about it - which makes it fun because it is something to learn!  Also, we have a really nice digital camera that I can use.  So one afternoon I went on a Photo-spree in town.

We have some really old brick buildings in town and the alleyways between these buildings are popular spots for Senior pictures so I thought I would explore at least one of these alleyways.

The first thing I noticed in the alleys (besides the color of the brick) was the graffiti.  It wasn't the cool graffiti one sees on train cars or on the sides of buildings in big cities.  It more like a marking of territory or a simple decision to vandalize.  There isn't a pattern or a defined purpose.



This photo is a perfect example.  There isn't a pattern, design, or reason.  It's just there.  Layer on layer of paint.  The missing mortar adds character to the brick as well

This is a close up of the first photo.  Can you spot the letter?  I think it is interesting to note how a close up gives detail and emphasis to a small area of a larger picture, (no pun intended) but leaves the surrounding area shrouded in mystery.



So this one is just a cool picture.  Notice that the focus is the bricks, not the wire.  Everything else is slightly out of focus.

The last alley photo I will share with you is probably my favorite of all my alley photos.  I didn't even realize what I was taking a picture of at first.  It wasn't until I was looking at them later on my computer that i realized what I had done.  All I did to the original photo was rotate it.  So you are actually looking at the photo upside down.

I also stopped by  my church and snapped some photos of the older portion of the building.  Here are some of my favorite pics of the brick at my church

I have decided I am intrigued by the upward angle.  When I walked by the tower, I couldn't help but take this photo (left).

This photo was only slightly above my eye level.  I pointed the camera up and to the right to achieve this look.  The more I look at this photo the more intrigued I am by the pattern of the brick.  It looks random, but even as I am writing this the bricks seem to be pointing to the lower window (you can see a bit of the window in the lower right corner).

The sharp boundary between the light brick and the bright blue sky caught my attention on this one.

The photo below looks to me like the brick hardened to quickly when it was being made.  At first I thought it looked like fabric but I later decided it looked more like stalled liquid.

Well, that's it for my first exploit in outdoor photography!  Stay tuned for more as I continue my pursuit of photography!!!!