Thursday Challenge: Machines -

"When Steam Was King"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

This old steam engine, beautifully restored, is part of the Steam Engine Exhibit at the Erie Canal Park in Camillus, New York. When it comes to heritage tourism, there's quite a bit to see at this location along with as many miles of walking/biking trails you might care to access.

Walking then, as now -

"Coyote Walking the Fences"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Today's post is based on a real event experienced well over a decade ago on a series of walks at Beaver Lake Nature Center in Central New York. While making the 3-mile Lake Loop one late, spring morning I spotted a coyote standing in the middle of the trail, staring at me while holding his ground. Not flinching from my end of the quarter-mile gap that separated us I ran straight for him. Soon enough he turned and hightailed it into the deep woods without so much as a by your leave. As I continue to go back through old files, virtual - hard copy - my memory, I realize just how long the act of walking has informed my artistic life as an unrecognized presence for much of the time. Well, more on this later I bet, I'm still collating data.

Still goofing around -

"Fashionably Green"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

I'm still taking advantage of this long weekend to settle into the secret visual laboratory and play a little bit more. I've used a lot of that playtime pushing the limits of some of the filters that I don't use very often - although lately, the reverse has been true. Anyway, this is a photograph with no additional elements added beyond the various filtered and manipulated layers. In the end, this reminded me of a nature center where I used to walk about 3 days per week, including snowshoes during the winter months breaking trail through 2 or 3 feet of snow some mornings.