Friday, December 31, 2010

349/365 - Calumet Lake Trail

The lovely Sarah and I are training for a snowshoe race at the end of January. Sometimes that means -- sigh -- having to take off a lazy sunny afternoon and go snowshoe around a beautiful lake.

The path here is actually an old trail along a large earthen dam, which creates Calumet Lake. The trail was absolutely beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

348/365 - Night Ski


348/365 - Night Ski
Originally uploaded by dcclark
The Tech Trails at night -- they're lit for night skiing!

347/365 - Slotted


347/365 - Slotted
Originally uploaded by dcclark
It's a mystery! It's lit with a flashlight! It's a day where I'm going crazy and couldn't find a good photo! :P

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

345/365 - Cal


345/365 - Cal
Originally uploaded by dcclark
My housemate Cal, who graduated from Michigan Tech (finally! :P) yesterday.

344/365 - Measure of the Snow

A one-off shot of the pile of snow near my office. We've had 53 inches so far this season -- close to average! (Yearly average: about 250 inches, or 21 feet.)

343/365 - Snowy Sidewalk


343/365 - Snowy Sidewalk
Originally uploaded by dcclark
The lovely Sarah walking through a snowy campus.

342/365 - Steam


342/365 - Steam
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A steam vent at night. Yep, that's it. I loved quiet drifting quality, which changed a bit in the long exposure.

341/365 - Secret Santa


341/365 - Secret Santa
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A gift, ready to be shipped off to a fellow board game geek!

Each year, I take part in Board Game Geek's secret santa exchange. You're randomly assigned another board game geek from around the world, who has a wishlist on the site. It's a lot of fun to taunt them with hints about what they might be getting, maybe even making them solve clues or puzzles!

This year's gifts are... well, I'd better keep quiet, just in case!

340/365 - Reflection Tree


340/365 - Reflection Tree
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A Christmas tree, living in reflections. (This one is in the Rozsa Center's Christmas tree auction.)

339/365 - Racquetball


339/365 - Racquetball
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Racquetball -- a relative of Squash -- is one of my favorite sports. I've been teaching the lovely Sarah how to play recently. It's a great whole-body exercise, and a ton of fun too -- tons of angles, clever maneuvers, and all-around fast-paced fun!

338/365 - Through the rocks


338/365 - Through the rocks
Originally uploaded by dcclark
I took the first real snowshoe hike of the season yesterday -- up and around one of my favorite places of all times, The Cliffs. This is a view through a deep cut in the rock, at the top of the cliffs -- looking down at the teeny tiny trees so far below.

337/365 - DiffyQ


337/365 - DiffyQ
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Next semester, I'm teaching a Differential Equations class -- a big change from the Quantitative Literacy class I'm currently teaching (aka math for people who don't need math, but they go to a technological university -- so they're getting it anyway!). Here are the COMPLETE textbooks for my next class!

Monday, December 27, 2010

336/365 - Elves Beware


336/365 - Elves Beware
Originally uploaded by dcclark
The Elf-ator goes NOM NOM NOM!

335/365 - Manger


335/365 - Manger
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Our neighbor's manger scene -- I had to wait until December to post it, but it's been up for a while already!

334/365 - Darth Abstract


334/365 - Darth Abstract
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A fearsome face... made in China. What is it?

333/365 - Studying


333/365 - Studying
Originally uploaded by dcclark
During the last few weeks of the semester, Michigan Tech's big library "sunroom" studyroom starts to fill up. I've been planning this shot for a while, waiting for a sunny afternoon (and a Christmas tree!).

332/365 - Motorcycle Parking Only

I, uh, hope they at least moved the motorcycles first.

331/365 - Criss-Cross


331/365 - Criss-Cross
Originally uploaded by dcclark
I went on down to Marquette,
on the Lake Superior shoreline,
to pick up the lovely Sarah --
we barely met in time.
'Cause Heikki Lunta and his brothers,
were blowin' on in to town.
And soon the lake-effect snowfall
Wall coverin' up the ground!

Snoooowwww on the decking
A blizzard in the sky.
Snoooowwww on the decking...

Sunday, December 26, 2010

330/365 - Buddah


330/365 - Buddah
Originally uploaded by dcclark
The laughing Buddah does not shop on Black Friday! The laughing Buddah... laughs!

329/365 - Thanksgiving Goose

This turkey survived by disguising itself as a pilgrim... (actually, it's a duck!).

328/365 - Grandparents


328/365 - Grandparents
Originally uploaded by dcclark
An attempt at a portrait of my grandparents. I have a ways to go...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

327/365 - Red Vase


327/365 - Red Vase
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A mysterious red thing (as my dad calls it) sitting on a light box.

326/365 - Road Paint


326/365 - Road Paint
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Paint and rumble strips.

325/365 - High Key


325/365 - High Key
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Haha... a joke!

324/365 - Geocaching


324/365 - Geocaching
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Recently, the lovely Sarah and I have been getting into geocaching -- a fun combination of exploration and hide-and-seek. It's always fun to find what's hiding just out of sight!

Friday, December 24, 2010

323/365 - MTU Hockey


323/365 - MTU Hockey
Originally uploaded by dcclark
The Lovely Sarah and I went to the Michigan Tech vs. Minnesota hockey game last night. For me, it was a fun chance to play around with sports photography. Of course, I have absolutely no appropriate gear -- no fast telephoto lenses, no access to the arena's flash system... but nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. Sadly, our team lost.

322/365 - Snow Stripes


322/365 - Snow Stripes
Originally uploaded by dcclark
A parking lot abstract. The snow's sticking here -- but the plows haven't caught up yet.

321/365 - Fixing the light


321/365 - Fixing the light
Originally uploaded by dcclark
My friend John, fixing a very old light switch in our house.

In order to fix this, we first tried to turn off power to the switch. We have about 20 circuit breakers in our shiny new circuit box, most of which are labeled "general lighting". Not a single one of them turned off power to this switch. In the end, we had to cut power to the entire house. I love 100-year old houses...

And yes, that's a headlamp!

320/365 - Moose Heads


320/365 - Moose Heads
Originally uploaded by dcclark
Michigan Tech has a new apartment complex, called "Hillside Place" (or "Hillside Palace", as we like to say). It's a very, ah, modern place. Lots of clean lines, open spaces, metal, glass, and polished surfaces.

This is why it's that much more surprising to find three glowing plastic mooseheads mounted on the wall right over the main doorway. One of them has several leis added to it by students.

(Taken with my camera phone -- serves me right for forgetting my "big" camera!)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

319/365 - Snowy Berries


319/365 - Snowy Berries
Originally uploaded by dcclark
I woke up today to find two inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground (and on the driveway!). A pleasant morning surprise, and one which stuck around, weighing heavily on the trees.

318/365 - Hiding


318/365 - Hiding
Originally uploaded by dcclark
We all have bad days...

317/365 - First Snow


317/365 - First Snow
Originally uploaded by dcclark
It's snowing! It's snowing! It's snowing!!!

... it's melting.

(About 2 months from now, it'll look like this instead.)

Saturday, December 4, 2010

316/365 - Pasty!

A cornish pasty on a plate.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


I can't allow a full 365 days to go by without showing off my favorite food -- the food I'd take with me to a deserted island (or more likely an abandoned mine) -- the pasty!

First, say it with me: PASS-tee. Definitely not paste-y. Pasties are basically a form of meat and vegetable turnovers. They typically are made with skirt steak or beef, potatoes, onions, and rutabaga -- plus a variety of seasonings. "Traditional" pasties often were divided internally by a bit of dough, and a fruit "dessert" was placed in one end.

The pasty originated in Cornwall, although those from next-door Devon are vociferous about their claim on its origins. Pasties were a common meal for Cornish miners, because they were a full meal in themselves. When the copper and tin mines of Cornwall began to fail, the Cornish miner began to emigrate, heading to any other mining regions that they could find -- and especially to America's first great mining region, the Copper Country.

Amusingly enough, pasties became so commonplace that even other ethnic groups (which generally kept themselves very separated from each other) too them to be their own. Finns in particular adopted them in the Copper Country, and when their relatives and friends came across the ocean, they figured that it must have been a Finnish creation!

Pasties are usually eaten with gravy or ketchup. I prefer ketchup myself. The exact dressing, as well as the exact way to make the crust, and the exact contents of the pasty, are subjects of downright holy wars. Always know who you're talking to, and be prepared to defend yourself!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Sunday, November 14, 2010

310, 311, 312/365 - Trees!

A black and white tree, bare, with branches cracking the sky.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


A bare tree in the old Hecla Cemetery in Laurium. The cemetery has long been abandoned, and this tree stands stark against the sky with old graves beneath it. Sarah and I made it there while geocaching, looking for a cache located under an old tree. Turns out we had the wrong coordinates, but we found this excellent tree instead!

A huge old tree between two modern buildings.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


A huge old tree on the Michigan Tech campus. It's referred to by many as the "Big Oak", except that... it's not an oak! I'm not actually sure what it is. Whatever it is, it's the only tree for miles which still has leaves.


Shadows of a tree on a warm brick building.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


The shadows of a bare tree in late fall sunlight.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

308, 309/365 - Theatre Mix!

A modern wall of windows on a theater building, with a blue sky.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


The Rozsa Center, the MTU performing arts stage, as I passed it early in the morning.

Colorful people set up for a group photo.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


The Troupe, my old improv group, as they prepared for an intense weekend workshop.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

306, 307/365 - Colorful

A rainbow of skittles in the sun.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


Skittles in the sun.

Colorful pyramids on black.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


Another rainbow, this time of one of my most photogenic games, Treehouse.

305/365 - Apply a light sharpening

A pencil sharpener, with a pencil in it.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

The Photoshop tutorial told me to do it.

Sha-zing!

303, 304/365 - Holes to the Sky

A reflection of sky in a small puddle, in the woods.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


A puddle of water, in an old trench at the Toltec Mine. The Toltec was a bit of a flash in the pan -- it went all-out for a few years, and then just dried up. Its remains are primarily shafts, pits, and trenches left scarring the landscape.

A reflection of sky in several puddles, on an old railroad.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


More windows into the sky, this time on an old railroad bed.

Monday, November 1, 2010

302/365 - House Reflections

A house reflected in water at night.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


Looking across the portage, a bright house -- or is it a business? -- at night.

300, 301/365 - Shapes and Textures

A curved line and a straight line, with a leaf on one.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

From day 300 (wow! only 65 more to go) -- a hammer, sickle, and leaf?

I took this shot on (surprise!) a basketball court, just outside where Sarah lives. It was a wet day, but the textures and shapes showed up well.

Textures and paint.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.


Here, from my own house -- textures and cracks on a window frame.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

299/365 - 17

Shadows of a ruler.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

More fun with lighting, as I make my ruler turn into something curiously spooky.

Monday, October 25, 2010

298/365 - Pumpkin Pi

Three pumpkins, one carved into a letter pi.
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

The result of last week's pumpkin carving extravaganza, front and center -- Pumpkin Pi, aka the Pimpkin! Sarah and I carved this as part of a grad student social. Left and right, pumpkins carved by my housemate and his girlfriend.