A couple of photos from my series "Behind the Scenes" at the University of Minnesota, in one of the student dormitories - Yudof Hall, named for a former UM president.
(Click to enlarge) UPS delivery in the mail room
(Click to enlarge) Some R&R in the game room
(Click to enlarge) Individual pieces of type are hardly used any more in big printing plants, except for embossing titles on bindings.
(Click to enlarge) But they make a fine sculpture in the courtyard of the University of Minnesota's Printing Services building.
A big university like the University of Minnesota uses a lot of brochures, and needs a big press to print them.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Workers at the University of Minnesota Printing Services facility.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
University of Minnesota Printing Services handles all kinds of jobs. This is at the big end of the scale.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
As part of my "Behind the Scenes" project at the University of Minnesota, I photographed the Printing Services operation. It includes printing, binding, and addressing and mailing.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
This completes my posting of photos from Portland's Japanese Garden - one of the loveliest places I've seen.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Green lushness - a combination of Japanese aesthetic and Portland climate.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Manmade, but fitting so beautifully into the (man-designed and -tended) natural world.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Studies in green and orange, from Portland's beautiful Japanese Garden.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
The simple elegance of a bamboo fence, tied with twine.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
The wildly distorted trees in Portland's Japanese Garden are striking. Do they grow naturally like that, or are they trained like bonsai?
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Portland's Japanese Garden is one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. Here are some photos from early December. More to come.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Two photos from Portland, Oregon illustrating the great differences in light and mood one may encounter in a relative short time.
(Click to enlarge) The Fremont Bridge, which carries I-405 traffic across the river, in a dense fog. Photographed from the Broadway Bridge just to the south. This is a color photo.
(Click to enlarge) A building on the east side of the river, in the Rose District. The golden light of late afternoon made it glow - the color comes from sunlight, not from internal illumination.
Cross the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge, going west, and you end up in Portland's Old Town Chinatown. It's a funky area, with some brightly decorated buildings.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Structural abstracts from Portland's Steel Bridge - a great source of images.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Structural views of Portland's Steel Bridge, rather than the close-ups I've been posting - but they're still interesting abstracts.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Two versions of the same scene, each with its own aesthetic merits.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
More abstracts - variations on a theme - from Portland's Steel Bridge.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Looking down into the Willamette River from the Steel Bridge: more abstractions.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
More abstracts from the very real Steel Bridge in Portland.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
The Steel Bridge over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon is a masterpiece of steelwork engineering and construction. Close-up, the plates and rivets form intricate patterns, accentuated by rust, peeling paint, and shadows. For the next few days, I'll be posting a series of photos of the bridge, making what I think is an interesting series of images.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Leaves fallen on decorative drain covers in Portland's Old Town Chinatown.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
January 2-3: Days 9-10 in Nicaragua
After breakfast on Monday we took the ferry from Ometepe back to San Jorge, where we were picked up and transferred to Morgan's Rock, a high end resort on the Pacific coast. A nice last two days of our vacation.
(Click photos to enlarge them. They look better bigger.)
Walking near the lounge/restaurant building at Finca San Juan, I noticed this fish skeleton. I think it was cleaned by a bird rather than a diner.
Waiting for the ferry to the mainland.
By the pool at Morgan's Rock.
A mouse-sized bat that evidently didn't awaken from roosting on the screen of our bungalow. It was there for two days.
A spiky Spanish cedar ...
... and a thorny acacia tree seen during our guided nature walk.
A long line of plate-like mushrooms
and some attractively patterned tree bark seen on the self-guided Las Palmitas nature walk.
Morgan's Rock is in a tropical dry forest, so large cacti grow on a cliff above the ocean.
The rocks along the beach had interesting patterns in their worn-smooth surfaces.
The sunset bathed this tree in rosy light.
The sunset - and our Nicaraguan vacation - ended in a blaze of glory.
January 1, 2012: Day 8 in Nicaragua
The beach at Finca San Juan de las Islas on Ometepe Island faces east, so I figured the sunrise should be good. I got up at 5 AM (not the sort of dedicated photographer behavior I generally indulge in) and walked a few yards to the beach. Here are a few of the more successful attempts.
After breakfast we took a very rough ride (the roads on Ometepe are generally lousy), and then a pretty strenuous hike, to San Ramon Waterfall. Some photos along the way,
The Land Cruiser takes quite a beating, inside and out.
Eating lunch in a garden restaurant near a beach (playa), we saw this huaracha (bluejay) perched on the sign near our table. These birds have the mischievous habits of US jays, but are bigger, with longer tails and larger top-knots.
At the end of the day, I took a little walk through the plantain groves
December 31, 2011: Day 7 in Nicaragua
The Internet in our isolated island hotel was too slow to be useful, so I wasn't able to post for a couple of days. Now we're in a better situation, so I'll play catch-up today (January 2, 2012),
We began the last day of the old year by hiking at the top of Mombacho Volcano, near Granada. It's a cloud forest, and it was very foggy, so we were unable to see the craters. However, it gave a nice atmosphere to the jungle vegetation. Here are some examples. (Click photos to enlarge them.)
We then took a van to the ferry in San Jorge near Rivas, and steamed across to the island of Ometepe, where we would spend two days at the Finca San Juan de las Islas - a very laid-back place set in a large plantain plantation.
We arrived near sunset, and the beachfront, facing east onto Lake Nicaragua, was lovely.
