Yellow by Chipka
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Description
The last days of summer are upon Chicago. The nights are longer; there is a perceptible chill in the air. Sandals are going back into winter storage.
In a particular truck yard on the city’s South Side, it’s life as usual—though I suspect that “life as usual” is open to far more interpretation than anyone might ever suspect. At any rate, things have not changed. Mechanics work on junk cars, metal-scavengers separate aluminum from iron and dispose of plastic in the various marked and battered bins that focus their attention. Trucks on the verge of sudden, energetic dissociation drip various acrid fluids into the gravel beneath their engines. Yellow jackets and woodlice stock up for the winter. Male Yellow jackets have begun to appear, as have next year’s reproductive queens. I suppose on that level, it is life as usual.
I’ve had few opportunities this week to actually photograph anything. I’ve made trips to garbage dumps, to brand new dental offices in far away places like Peoria, and today I tutored a few technologically-disinclined dental equipment movers (and drivers) on the finer points of GPS technology. As I recall, I had to state: “No…you have to turn the device on in order for it to work,” and, “No…it’s not radioactive.” Yep…I was actually questioned as to whether or not GPS units are dangerous. Something about uplinks to 10 or more orbital satellites tends to cause a number of South Side Chicago movers to question whether or not a truck’s dashboard has just been impregnated with exotic “rays,” as a computer-recorded voice announces that you should drive half a mile and then turn left.
Since I’ve spent so much time doing that I’ve spent very little quality time with my camera. This changed—a bit—today, as the day’s (mis)adventure wound to a close. We’d driven from Chicago to Peoria with a load of 5 dental chairs (the heaviest ones imaginable) and a number of associated peripherals, including a sterilizer (a germ-killer cast from a solid ingot of high-density iron.) The drive from Chicago to Peoria took 3 hours…unloading and moving equipment into the office took another two hours…and…well…since today was one of those days we also enjoyed the benefit of two flat tires—one of which was a smoke-inducing blowout. It was a fun day, and it ended with a beetle on a flower. Ah…life as usual!
Sometimes, however, that’s all it takes in order to shift the mood of a day and make one forget about high-speed blowouts, heavy dental chairs, and four people crammed into the cab of a truck built for three; high-speed blowouts experienced in a moving vehicle with only two working seat-belts is quite an experience, especially when you’re fiddling with a GPS device to take your mind off of the fact that your improvised seat is one of the two without seatbelts. Ah…life as usual!
Hopefully you enjoy this image as much as I enjoyed taking the original picture. As with many of the shots I’ve taken this week, it employs in-camera postwork achieved by using a flash during daylight. The effect (as with similar results in other pictures) is nicely striking. The only other postwork done to this image was resizing and a minor crop.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (23)
MrsRatbag
Wow, that's a beauty! The yellow on yellow is marvelous, especially in the subdued lighting. The petals almost look like banana peel...glad you survived the blowout!
myrrhluz
Beautiful image! Lovely color, detail, and light. Your use of the flash brings out the bright yellow of the flower wonderfully against the dark background. Excellent composition, capture of yellow on yellow, and lines.
MagikUnicorn
Sweet macro shot...lovely insect :)
auntietk
I love that yellow critter on its matching yellow petals which do NOT, I repeat DO NOT look like anything resembling a banana, despite what Denise says. :P The petals look like the race track of an alien species from a world that supports vast numbers of various types of woodlice. Okay, it's random, but I know how you feel about bananas, so I'm steering your thoughts in another direction so you can continue to love your fantastic photograph! :D
kbrog
Wonderful capture! Cool little beetle, it goes well with the petals. :)
beachzz
i think it looks like a yellow leaf with spots and not very mellow yellow either!!
MrsLubner
While others are experiencing the turning of the seasons, here in the valley we are still holding on to a mild summer. I love this yellow on yellow...it has a delicacy that draws me into it. Yet, on the dark background, it does have that seasonal change reflected.
MaraP
Looks gorgeous, excellent macro!
jocko500
cool
helanker
I am glad you found this little yellow critter on the yellow petals, as I know it has lightened up your dark and heavy day. And now it lightens the day up for many RR menbers included myself. It is such a wonderful capture. You really did beautifully.
kgb224
Lol GPS is dangerous my friend. They let you drive in circles some times. Outstanding capture my friend.
durleybeachbum
What a gorgeous little spotted yellow person!! And I'm happy to learn that GPS is safer than I thought... A recent school trip had to be repeated because the driver ended up lost and nowhere near his intended destination: his coach company have banned them now, and the drivers have had to learn to read a map! At least we now know his mind hadn't been taken over.
flavia49
dazzling picture!!
Sea_Dog
Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of our artistic pursuits? I really like how you manage to roll the mundane into an amusing story and the image is superb.
RodS
Jeeze - sounds like a really challenging day, my friend. It almost makes me want to write a tome about my present job, but I'm afraid it would go well beyond the space allowed for descriptions. Never mind the language tag I'd surely have to give it.... :-P I love this photo! The matching colors of the flower and beetle are perfect, and the sheen on the beetle is great! The fill flash was perfect. Excellent capture!
sandra46
excellent, outstanding image!
Sepiasiren
now this is an enviable capture--just gorgeous!
Alex_Antonov
Very nice!
minos_6
At some point I'm determined to steal your in-camera post work idea (I'll credit you of course!). I'm continually amazed at how often you get insects to pose for you. I have to be honest and say that I never notice them. Of course, you obviously have a passion for the little creatures, so no doubt you look for them, which always helps. This has great form and colour, and is another impressive addition to your gallery. I must say I smiled at your account of the assumed dangers of GPS!
KatesFriend
I like how your story touches on the life cycle of all technology. There's the fabulously new (so new it's radioactive?) GPS device. There's the old, heavy but still useful technology of the dentist's equipment - they don't make them like that any more. There is your some what servicable but clearly suicidal truck with the missing seat belts and patchy tires. And then there is the lost, abandoned and forgotten technologies of the leaking engines in the scrap yard. I was thinking about such things today as I came across a surplussed mini-hub in Value Village (a kind of Salvation Army type store) being sold for $1 (in Canadian dollars to add insult to injury). When these handy networking devices first appeared over 15 years ago, they valued over $600 (US) a piece. Now this mighty internet work horse lay solemnly on a discount store shelf beside a 70's vintage Atari video game module (itself selling for $4). Someday, the GPS unit may well share the same shelf and tell similar stories to the mini-hub and the Atari. And speaking of technologies, I'm still suspicious of that insect. He (she?) may well be some alien probe dispatched to gather intimate information about our civilization in a scrap yard. It'd good enough for anthropologists after all.
danapommet
Sweet shot of this busy beatle and it looks like s/he has already lunched on those yellow petals. Rig up a seatbelt for yourself. Dana
lick.a.witch
GPS! It should be banned on all but main roads. When you get a ten ton truck barging through a narrow laned woodland walks, knocking branches from overhanging oaks, causing dogs, deer, squirrels and birds to run for their lives, not to mention causing ancient bridges to collapse under the weight....one does tend to wish GPS nothing but harm. So says the majority of Cornishmen - and women. ^=^ Love the image though! Pretty little fellow he is, who matches the petals wonderfully!
praep
Thats really a cool bug. On a great great background. Well done.