1/50sec 50mm f/5 ISO 100

Wednesdays are pretty nice days for me. I don’t work nearly as many hours so I can get home at an early hour, and have the rest of the day to myself. The other nice part is with that time, I have a chance to get outside, take a stroll and abuse my camera. Today’s picture is something I found in no time flat. About 200 feet from my house there was this nice, red fire hydrant off in the woods. I thought it was an odd place for such a thing so I snapped a couple pictures. It only took me another thousand feet to realize, the woods were safe, because fire hydrants were all over the place.

I grew up on a mountain, in the woods. I am not used to seeing metal structures sticking out of the ground surrounded by foliage. It must be a southern thing. Needless to say, my nature stroll ended up being more about the encroachment of man in nature, than nature itself. Sure, I took a few pictures of ducks in the small lake here, but how interesting can a living creature be, really?

Today, I also decided to play a lot more with Adobe Lightroom 4. I was directed by another photography enthusiast to head over to Adobe’s webpage and pick up Lightroom 4 beta. It’s a free editing program? It still has a few kinks in it? Hell, I just started taking pictures; I have plenty of kinks, yet. You could call me Dan Miller, the Beta Photographer.

Playing around with the photo I ended with this cool alteration. It sort of makes me ponder what will become of this hydrant. Will its bright red color really fade into this mustard orange paste?  Will the tree standing idly behind continue to cast a shadow over it, or will it lie beneath this cold shell, rotting? Will the bolts rust over and infect someone with a mean case of tetanus? Who knows? Until then I can just imagine and enjoy the fact that it’s there, and it gives me something to photograph.

Until tomorrow.