A Word A Week Photography Challenge : Hole

Once again, Sue Llewellyn has come up with a subject for her Word A Week Photography Challenge on A Word In Your Ear at http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/a-word-a-week-photography-challenge/ that gives me the opportunity to use pictures that I might not otherwise have shared. Thanks Sue!

I think I could safely bet that you will never, in a million years, guess the title of this sculpture. We came across it while taking a walk through the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Created by British sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth, this interesting piece of artwork is entitled “Summer Dance.”

“Hey, this might look like just a hole in the ground to you but it’s home to me!” A prairie dog on guard in The Badlands, South Dakota.

Yes, folks, I’ll take a picture of pretty much anything, even a hole in the ground. This one just happened to be one dug in our yard when the plumber came to clear the tree roots out of our sewer pipes.

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Travel Theme: Edge

Standing on the edge; it’s a feeling that can sometimes be scary and at other times awe-inspiring. It can be the beginning of something or the end. Do we take the next step or should we pull back.

Ailsa’s Travel Theme challenge this week on Where’s My Backpack? at http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/08/29/travel-theme-edge/ puts us right on the edge.

Standing on the edge, looking out over the Badlands in South Dakota.

At the water’s edge in the Chicago Botanic Garden, a sailboat enthusiast prepares to launch his craft.

Divers from a fire department water rescue team sit on the edge of the marina at Three Oaks Recreation Area in Crystal Lake, Illinois; part of an annual training exercise.

Flowers along the edge of a path at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Water thunders over the edge of Niagara Falls as viewed from the Canadian side.

Travel Theme: Dry

Ailsa’s Travel Theme challenge this week on Where’s My Backpack? at http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/01/31/travel-theme-dry/ is Dry.

I’ve never actually been to a desert but I guess The Badlands of South Dakota come pretty close. It’s certainly dry there for much of the year and extremely hot too in the summer.

Despite the barren nature of the landscape, there is something fascinating about the various rock formations and colored striations to be found there.

December and January are figured to be the driest months in The Badlands, while much of its annual 16 inches of rainfall occurs in June.

When we visited Lafayette, Indiana, at the end of a fairly dry spell in June of 2012, we found the Wabash River had receded quite a bit from its banks leaving an interesting mix of shells and other bits and pieces on the exposed river bed.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

The Weekly Photo Challenge from the folks on The Daily Post at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/weekly-photo-challenge-horizon/ is Horizon.

I don’t seem to have had many opportunities to get an unimpeded view of the horizon since I don’t travel about that much, but I did capture this shot during our trip to the Badlands in South Dakota.

Still in the Badlands, strictly speaking this is most likely not what would be considered a horizon or even a visible horizon but I rather liked the shape of the hills against the blue sky so here it is anyway.

Any large body of water probably offers a reasonably good opportunity for horizon pictures and, despite being so scared that I could hardly open my eyes, I took this one from the top of the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier in Chicago, looking out towards Lake Michigan.

Another instance where I surprised myself by daring to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a shot, this time traveling to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis for a view of the city.

Travel Theme: Distance

Ailsa’s Travel Theme challenge this week on Where’s My Backpack at http://wheresmybackpack.com/2013/08/30/travel-theme-distance/ is Distance

I don’t very often get out into the wide open spaces so I had to search long and hard for pictures that I thought illustrated Distance adequately. Of course I’ve got plenty of shots taken from the top of Sears Tower, The Gateway Arch in St Louis and other tall buildings but the distance always looks more hazy and less appealing than those taken somewhere like South Dakota which is where both of these pictures were taken.

Beautiful Badlands