Yesterday morning was overcast and relatively dark (towns always have lights on, for safety) when I woke up at 2:30 with Brayden. He fell back asleep relatively quickly, but unfortunately, I did not. I was preparing to go to Spring Into Focus, a yearly gathering that we have down in Columbus. This year, I kind of "planned" it (by which I mean I rented the facility and told my fellow Focus owners when, where and what I thought they should bring to eat), and I had a few things that I knew I needed to pick up Saturday morning before we all met to head down. Also, at 3:30AM, I think I was pretty hungry and I just didn't realize at the time that the hunger was probably what prevented me from going back to bed for a few more hours. Regardless of all of that, I rolled over in bed and to Rachel that I was going to get up and head out...at 3:30 in the morning. Rachel heard me, but obviously didn't comprehend, since I got a text from her later asking where I was at.
I did spend a little bit of time loading my car up. Any of you that have heard my car know that the fewer times I drive it through any given neighborhood before 8AM, the happier the neighbors are (zero being the ideal number). I have a box full of engine parts from my previous engine build that I was trying to sell and I have stored the box up in the shed behind our house. I was kind of surprised that the city cops weren't called to investigate me, since I was walking around in the dark beside the house and only flicked the flashlight on when I actually entered the shed.
By probably 4:15, I was packed up and ready to go. My first stop was a carwash, as I had been unable to wash the car for months (seriously...I'm not the car guy who freaks out about dust and dirt...I like to drive the things). The car wash card reader was not working, so I had to go up to the front of the gas station and buy a car wash. Apparently that early in the morning, you can't walk into the station, you have to pay through the wall. While I was standing there, I could hear soft strains of heavy metal coming from the tanker truck that was refilling the station. Things are different before the majority of the world wakes up.
My next stop was Wal-Mart. I needed to pick up a couple dozen hamburgers and buns, since I had said that I was going to bring them. Walmart is always open, but it doesn't mean its always presentable. The crates full of "fresh fruits and veggies" had been moved into the main aisle in front of the registers so that the floor could be waxed and polished. I think I was the first customer in a few hours, because shortly after walking in, someone got on the intercom and started barking out orders. As I walked by some of the stockers, I could hear them yelling down the aisle in protest to the intercom's orders. I figured since I was at Walmart, I was going to have the full Walmart experience, so I found a lousy styrofoam cooler, some 75%/25% beef (listed as 100% pure beef...that's good, I don't want to be feeding my friends squirrel unintentionally. At least the 25% fat generally cooks off), and some nutrious Wonderbread Honey Hamburger buns. That's an American picnic at its finest! Oh, and I was starting to realize how foolish I was at this point, so I picked up a small (read standard) can of Red Bull.
By this point, it was a little after 5 and I was not really sure what to do with myself. I had 3 hours before I was supposed to meet another guy in Wooster. Sound thought might have told me go home and go to bed. But, I'd already had my Red Bull and I was obviously not of sound thought. I sat in the car for close to 10 minutes debating things; I wanted to go take pictures, but I hate drawing attention to myself. I figured that any person standing around in the dark taking pictures is more than likely going to be labelled as "a suspicious person". Oh well, it'll be fine...
I first moved over a few parking lots and took some car pictures. They were kind of fun, but there was too much light from Walmart. I had to get farther away...I took a few more pictures of the car at some of the medical buildings near Walmart, but was starting to get a little bit bored of car photography. I've taken a lot of pictures of my car since I've owned it and it hasn't changed enough to warrant millions of pictures. So I began to wander further afield...
I was going to head downtown and take some pictures along Main Street! I love longer exposures of cityscapes at night. The Sodium Vapor street lights really make the color of old bricks really pop out. On my way between the north end and downtown, I became distracted by an innocous behemoth that, until this point in time, had gone largely unnoticed by me. The watertower by Kean Elementary. That lead to other interesting discoveries and I was officially sidetracked (those who work with me know how easily that happens).
The next two pictures are the same subject, taken 1 minute apart. Obviously with different apperature settings.
Finally by about 6:30, I was able to get downtown. By this point, the Eastern sky was lightening, so exposure times were dropping a little bit. However, there were still a few cool pictures to be had before the sun came up and fleshed out the color spectrum, until it was completely muted.
There is always light around us, we just have to open our eyes wide enough and look long enough. Our perception of the world around us is tinted by the light in which we see it. Is it possible that by being exposed to too broad of a spectrum, we are unable to see beauty in the ordinary?
