My Life as a Bike 2: 18 July 2011 Ride: Looking Down

Errands early in the morning kept me from getting on the bike until 9:30. Still relatively cool when I left with the highest reading being about 90 at the end of the ride at 11:30. Working on my goal idea from the other day, I parked at Wilson Park near downtown Fayetteville and took the bike trail to my friend John Erwin's office on the northeast side of town. Fortunately, the timing was perfect and we were able to visit for a bit. It made for an ideal ride.

The heat was definitely getting to people, at least that was my impression on the trail. People seemed much more subdued and their waves seemed to take great effort. Smiling is almost out of the question. With so many people's heads to the ground, I thought I would focus on objects below as I rode.

I like the patterns and color contrasts of the manhole cover. And, what is a bit intriguing in a CSI kind of way, is that the yellow trail lane paint does not match up precisely, thus indicating some sort of movement.

In this close up, I like how the traces of yellow from the lane paint seem indicate motion of the star. What was really intriguing when I was viewing this picture was the optical illusion I experienced. When I first viewed it, I was wondering what had happened to the star. It seemed that my eyes were focusing on the wedges between the points of the star and my brain made the star disappear. I looked and looked but couldn’t find the star until I finally left the picture and came back to view it. Now, I can only see the star and can’t reverse the image like before.

Nothing extraordinary about this green leaf but its greenness really stood out against the white pavement during this hot spell we are having as everything else on the ground is brown.

I originally stopped to take a shadow of a fern but those photos didn’t have any special appeal. However, I caught sight of this other plant’s shadow and loved how it came out: a combination of part Martian, part Pippi Longstockings. I believe that this may turn out to be on my top ten list of favorite photographs.

Back at home, when I went out to get the mail, I decided to take the camera for perhaps another interesting ground shot. Near the mailbox were some pine cones.

Often, when I see leaves fluttering to the ground, I imagine the leaf suddenly turning into a bird or butterfly. I was really struck by how the tip of the pine cone “leaf” looked so much like a moth.

Moving the pine cone into the sun changed the composition dramatically.