Blue Monday #46: "Krishna and Radha"

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"Krishna and Radha"
Cary, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)

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For those of you not familiar, let me introduce the band. that's Krishna on the flute and his beloved Radha singing backup. If you look close, you'll see Hanuman at the bottom with... I have no idea who that is. Looks like a couple of Krishna lookalikes got into the act on the right of the frame too.

I'm not completely guessing on these, but I'm not completely sure either because as I'm writing this it's late February and my language and cultural "coach", Mona of The Two Bits is out of touch tending to gravely ill brother in law in California. By the time you read this, I'm hoping he will have made a full recovery and be back to life as normal, but tonight (which is actually about 5 months ago to you) he's in pretty bad shape up so I'm not about to trouble Monaji for clarification. I'm sure someone will correct me if I need correcting.

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Blue Monday #45: Birds In The Back Yard VI

"Bug Zapper"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Yeah, it's another bird shot. What about it? I liked this one for the same reason as the last one... the lighting was near perfect. I only wish he'd been facing the other direction, but those birds are hard to pose, ya know?

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Blue Monday #44: Vendor on Bicentennial Mall 10.3.08

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"Get 'Em While They're Hot!"
Raleigh, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)

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One sign that Raleigh is working on becoming the urban center it wants to be is the preponderance of lunch carts plying the city core. Once the exclusive province of Sobretto's, now a few independents are staking their claims to various corners of the district. Can chai stalls be far behind?

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Blue Monday #43: "Sugar Benefit Show"

"Pour Some Sugar On Me"
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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It's been almost six months since the local band "Sugar" played a benefit show at Napper Tandy's Irish Pub to raise money for a single working mom who lost her house to a fire right after New Year's. The benefit and related activities riased almost $4600 in the space of a couple of hours. I only mention it because I know you're wondering where (and why) I took a picture of a blue stage light.

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Blue Monday #42: "Birds In The Back Yard V"

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"Master of All He Surveys"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This looks like another one of those Not-Purple Guys. Or maybe it's the same one as I had a few weeks ago. But I liked the light and the angle in this shot as he had his back to the fading sun.

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Blue Monday #41: "Pinewood Derby"

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"Pinewood Engineering"
Raleigh, NC - March 1998 (Click to embiggen)

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Some of you are probably familiar with the phenomenon of Pinewood Derby Racing. It's an annual event for Cub Scouts across the ... world I guess and has been since I was a kid. The kits haven't changed a whole lot since then either. Your basic block of pine (hence the name) and four independent wheels with nails for axles. But the construction techniques have come a long way in the 30 or so years between the time I whittled my racer out with my pocket knife and the time my son and I created this sleek piece of engineering.

No pocket knife involved here. Saws, a router, and a bunch of sandpaper. My last effort as a kid was brush painted with Testors model enamel. This baby was primed with automotive primer, then sprayed with an undercoat of high gloss white (to keep the colors true), then a two coats of metallic gold before the canopy was masked off so the rest could take two coats of metallic cobalt blue. Each coat -- primer included -- was hand rubbed glass smooth with polishing compound and the whole thing was sealed with two coats of clear lacquer. Then we took it to the Post Office to weigh it and added fishing sinkers to the body until it was exactly the maximum allowable weight. Axles were sanded with 400 grit and polished smooth in a drill chuck. In other words, we left nothing to chance. And it paid off, the car advanced to the district finals where it finished second (to some ugly flying cigar looking contraption). But only the winners were allowed to advance to the next level so its career ended there. But the car lives on, which is how I came to take this photo of it 10 years after its final race.

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Blue Monday #40: "Agriculture Building"

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"They Don't Build 'Em Like This anymore."
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This this building was apparently occupied by the state Health Department originally. Or at least at some point. There's a little confusion (mine) as to when the building actually came to be, and what it originally housed. There are at least three dates visible on the outside of the building, any one of which might be the date of construction. One stone says 1845, another 1898 and a third reads "Health Building - 1928". Nowadays it's home to one branch or another of the Department of Agriculture. If the signs are to be believed anyway. They wouldn't lie to us about something like that would they?

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Blue Monday #39: "Birds In The Back Yard IV"

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"Black & Blue"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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I don't ever remember seeing any solid black birds around my house other than crows before, but this is no crow. He doesn't look much like one, and he certainly didn't sound like one. So I don't know what he is. Maybe one of our orinthologically enlightened brethren will stop by and tell us. Whatever he is, he photographs well against a blue sky!

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Blue Monday #38: "Training Aid"

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"Waiting For A Ride"
Jacksonville, NC - December 2008 (Click to embiggen)

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In the sport of Schutzhund the participants (the canine ones at least) must pass an obedience trial under a variety of conditions. The dogs must be trained to respond only to command regardless of distractions.

In a Schutzhund trial, therefore, the dogs are tested under a variety of conditions including a person riding a bicycle past them. The successful candidate will remain in whatever basic position the handler places them until told to move or remain at heel during the walking phase of the test. Since the trial I went to lasted two days, the bicycle used in that part of the trial was left at the field overnight, stashed between these two stacks of pallets where I found it before the competition began on the second morning. It looked lonely, so I snapped a few photos just so you can see what a lonely bicycle looks like.

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Blue Monday #36: "Birds In The Back Yard III"

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"Yellow Martin?"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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I think this guy is called a "Purple Martin", but I have no idea why. He doesn't look anywhere near purple to me. Although I've seen purple bruises turn this color as they faded... Maybe that's it. Nah. Couldn't be.

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Blue Monday #35: First Night "R2K"

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"If He'd Known The World Was Safe, Would He Still Have Worn This Costume?"
Raleigh, NC - December 1999 (Click to embiggen)

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Depending where you live you may or may not be familiar with "First Night". It's a family-friendly New Year's Eve ... carnival for want of a better word that takes place in several US cities. For the last 18 years Raleigh has been one of those cities, and this shot came from NYE 1999. At the time I thought it was important to document the event just in case the world really did end at midnight.

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Blue Monday #34: "Banking On It"

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"Clash of the Titans"
Raleigh, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)

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I decided I'd better get this shot of the Wachovia building for historical purposes while I still had a chance. No telling what name will go up there in the near future. Looks like Wells Fargo for now though.

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Blue Monday #33: "Birds In The Back Yard II"

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"Stealth Birds"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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I managed to sneak up on these two before they knew it and get a few shots of them before they spooked and flew off. Pretty stealthy, huh?

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Blue Monday #32: "Look Up, See Blue"

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"It's Not Luck, It's Observation"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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You never know what you're gonna see if you just pay attention. I caught this feathery cloud formation while I was pumping gas on Capital Boulevard one afternoon. Lucky for me, I'd just been out photo hunting and my camera was in easy reach. Look around. Pay attention. There's a lot you'll see that most people will miss.

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Blue Monday #31: "Tonka at Theyland Stables"

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"Waiting, Impatiently"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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Whenever possible I take Tonka along for photo shoots. He's good company and I know he'll always have my back which allows me to focus on the shooting rather than what's going on behind me. On this day though, I had to leave him to watch the truck because there was a rehabilitated Red Tail Hawk about to be released into the wild after a stay in hospital and we couldn't have the dogs trying to figure out what that was in the box. He wasn't a fan of being left alone, but he dealt with it like the pro he is.

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Blue Monday #30: "Birds In The Back Yard I"

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"Backyard Birds I (Click to embiggen)"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009

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If I had to guess, I'd say this was a robin. But being not so well versed in things birdly, I wouldn't swear to it. I just know there were a bunch of these guys hanging around my back yard one sunny afternoon in late-February making all manner of noise. Usually once I bring the camera out, they scatter to the four winds, but some of them hung around on this day so I could get some mug shots of them.

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Blue Monday #29: "Hillsboro Street's Forgotten Block"

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"Hillsboro Street"
Raleigh, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This block of Hillsboro Street got caught in between the campus of the university and the Capitol District and as a result, doesn't get the attention that the neighboring blocks do. In fact, you might forget there's anything here unless you have a reason to patronize one of the businesses in this block. And it seems that there are fewer of those all the time.

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