Thursday, July 06, 2006

sign, sign, everywhere a sign

i decided to take some pictures of a plant in my backyard called an oriental poppy. poppy, my ass. it's a weed, and it's crowded out my lavender and sage. anyway, i decided to take a photo of the pathetic plume at the top of this towering clown. then i check the image on the computer and notice that the plant is throwing me the finger.



























the day was sunny so i decided to go for a walk along the mississippi. dark clouds appeared out of nowhere.



























i looked down at my feet and saw this:





















it was attempting to throw me the finger.

and it makes me wonder how many times the world is telling me to go to hell and i just don't see it.
you have to stop and smell the weeds and the latex gloves.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, I loved this post!

And that's an amazing picture of the power line tower. Great perspective!

I saw the glove a bit differently. It's frightfully close to a medical exam posture I've been acquainted with.

anne frasier said...

lol! jason, you are so right about the glove! hahaha!

that is so funny!

that tower is very close to the airport, and i was trying to get a plane in the shot. didn't happen. maybe another time.

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

You are just full of interesting posts this morning aren't you?

Well, funny you should mention the finger. Yesterday I pulled onto a main street and at the same time this white VW bug pulled out of a gas station. It was a friendly little happy car with a tiny penguin sticker on the back window, but it still cut me off, which happens to me all the time, but then this guy continued to crawl at a snail's pace on a main street. Very rude. So I just gave a little tap on the horn because maybe the guy just didn't see me, you know? Well, that's when I got the one-finger salute, and the irony just made me bark out a life. It definitely killed my perception of happy people in happy little VW bugs with penguin stickers. =D

anne frasier said...

oh, kelly! that is hilarious!!
i can just see the whole thing.
and there's nothing more annoying than having somebody pull out right in front of you, then crawl up the street.
i don't see that as much here. here we have the after you. no, after you. oh please. you go ahead, i insist. then both give up and shoot ahead at the same time.

sometimes it's easier if people just follow the rules.

you must have seen my other post. teehee.

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

lol! Maybe Cali would be a new experience for you. We don't have a wide spectrum of people here. You're either friendly or pissed at the world. =D

Yes, I saw your Riding post! I think I should have said such interesting photos!! And sorry, this was posted yesterday. Yesterday I got a sudden burst of inspiration. I died some of my hair fushia. Maybe the guy in the penguin bug had some weird effect on me.

Sorry, very chatty this morning! hehe

Sandra Ruttan said...

Love the angle on that tower shot. That's a way to catch someone's eye - always go for the unusual angle.

anne frasier said...

kelly, i'll bet the penguin bug guy did have something to do with it....

fushia! yay! i love changing my haircolor. it's just fun.
i always have to explain to the stylist that i don't want the color to look real, then they get what i'm going for.

sandra: thanks! yeah, i love to get unusual angles. i have a bad knee, so the process can be quite akward and ugly but art is pain.

angie said...

Ah those lovely day when the whole world shoots you the bird. Good times, good times.

Great photos, though the glove is kinda freaky - medical exam? killer lunchlady? crime scene investigator? Oh, the creepy possibilities...

anne frasier said...

angie: hah -- i seem to be having a lot of bird days lately.


yeah, the glove was disturbing. i stared at it with disgust, then walked away, then went back and took a picture. but i really don't like looking at it. and this was right in the middle of a somewhat secluded section of a jogging/walking path.

Flood said...

It's nice that you got a good shot when you were after a plane.

I chased a helicopter for 10 miuntes today and came away with blurry sky. :P

I'm with Angie on the glove; perhaps the remnants of a crime scene? Maybe it's something Frank will find in Jason's new serial story.

anne frasier said...

flood: sorry you didn't get the shot! i'm pretty new to digital cameras, and i'm finding that mine is only good for still life. if something is moving -- forget it. by the time the shutter responds, the object is no longer in the lens. i guess that means i have a really cheap camera. so many times i've wished i'd brought my 35mm instead.

a glove for frank.... so many possibilities....

Tami Klockau said...

This post cracked me up Anne. I was laughing out loud (at work no less) and everyone was looking at me like I was crazy!

Nice pictures by the way. How tall is the oriental poppy? Don't you hate how it's so easy to grow the ugly weeds and so hard to keep the pretty ones alive?

Stephen Blackmoore said...

I'll second, third or is it fourth? the praise on the tower shot. Nicely done.

What are you shooting with? I shoot with Canon (10D digital and an Elan 7E for film), and I have to say film is usually more fun because there's so much more you can do with it. But I'm lazy and like hte immediate feedback of digital.

Friend of mine went to Rhode Island and wandered around an abandoned children's asylum with her Nikon last year. There's this film that shoots in the near infrared so you get these really creepy black and whites. The effect isn't as pronounced as regular IR, and it made the shots amazing.

I'm still trying to buy some off of her.

Bill Cameron said...

I saw something growing in the yard the other day and thought, "I oughta pull that out." Little sprout among the dahlias, maybe six inches tall. This morning I went out and the damned thing was over my head, and it had called in reinforcements. I'm pretty sure it was flipping me off too.

Don't give 'em even a moment...

Great pics, Anne!

anne frasier said...

tami, i'm glad you got a good laugh out of my post. :)
the poppy is over my head -- so probably over six feet tall now. it's like a damn sapling.

stephen, the camera is a cheap kodak. what's weird is that my daughter has an even cheaper version of the same camera and it takes better pictures. i've heard that canons are the best. and yeah, if i used my 35mm, i probably wouldn't get the film developed. your friends photos sound really cool!! like something i'd love.

Anonymous said...

Stephen, my avatar was shot years ago in true B&W infrared film. So cool...
literally. You had to keep it refrigerated until it was ready for use!

anne frasier said...

bill: LOL! i know exactly what you're talking about! it's like some science fiction movie! and of course plants can sense our emotions. ;)

anne frasier said...

jason, i was thinking you'd used infrared for that and some of your other amazing photos.

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Yeah, IR is tricky stuff. With a lot of the new SLRs you can't even use it, at least not for long. The film advance detectors is usually an IR beam and sensor that will fog the film if it's left in for too long.

Bailey Stewart said...

Mom shot the finger at me this morning - not the first time, but then she ruins it and giggles like a school girl. AD is so weird sometimes. I'm still laughing at the Oriental Poppy - that's amazing. And of course the tower picture is great.

Jeff said...

Great post, Anne! That damn poopy poppy . . . get a chainsaw and teach it a lesson about flipping you off.
I also love the tower photo. :)
I hope you didn't touch that glove!

anne frasier said...

stephen: i was thinking well, my SLR is kind of new. then i started doing the math and realized it's 28 years old. :D

bailey: aw, that's bittersweet, isn't it?
finger and all.

jeff: I tried on the glove for a size check, but don't worry -- i only touched the inside. ;)

anne frasier said...

brianna: sorry about the library. heh! that's pretty funny.

welcome to my blog. :)

Elizabeth Krecker said...

Hilarious post Anne! I love your photos!

Anonymous said...

ah, the famous elizabeth! ;) welcome to my blog!
i'm glad you got a kick out of the post.

Jeff said...

I once had a bird flipped at me

And it wasn't the kind from a tree

It made me so mad that I swallowed my gum

But I'll get my revenge wait and see!

anne frasier said...

LOL

or how about a haiku?

disguised as a friend
a little bird taunted me
human nature calls