All iPhone, all the time

It's only 2.0 megapixels with a fixed focus and no flash, but the little beaut' does its best. Here are a dozen highlights from the summer, as seen through my iPhone's camera.

The flour mill ruins that (stunningly) house Minneapolis' Mill City Museum. King Alli spotted a place to stand to frame the letter A (in GOLD METAL FLOUR) in one of the wabi-sabi windows.

The Zenith Condo -- my parents' new address (!) come Spring 2009.

The yellow (though the designing architect insists it's amber and cites his ski goggles as inspiration) glass details on the Guthrie Theatre's surprisingly beautiful parking garage.

A decaf cafe au lait at Kopplin's Coffee House in my old neighborhood in St Paul MN. I swear the air in that place alone caffeinated me for the rest of the day.

A summer thunderstorm, seen from the Target parking lot. (Note the bull's eye/dot thingy.)

Sunflowers on my friend Hannah's dining room table.

My feet and notebook during the silent afternoon on the retreat for my FTE fellowship in North Georgia.

My nephew Tully and me in front of Blue Earth's Cedar Inn Drive-In. Best. Root-beer. Ever.

The unexpectedly grand hallway that greets you as you enter my new digs in Boston, MA.

Simple daisies on Boston College's rarely-simple campus.

The Triborough Bridge as seen from the shore near Eric's place.

A variation on the long-arm self-portrait -- with the trusty Mac that got me through my years working in Arizona and St Paul (with less speed, memory, and storage than the iPhone itself!).

Ruthie Milbrandt's Garden

Fotos que me gustan (número cinco)

Trying to make up for lost time, here are 7 more photos I'm fond of -- including one taken with my camera by that up and coming photographer Adrian Pullen. As you know, there are stories behind each picture -- let me know if you want to hear them.






And this last one is the one Adrian took -- through a brick at the Coffee Plant. Bien hecho, ¿no?

Fotos que me gustan (número cuatro)

These are the seven catching my eye at the moment. Como siempre, digame si tu quieres la historia completa.

Fotos que me gustan (número tres)

You know when you're up so late you think you might as well tackle all those little projects (that e-mail, those quizzes, that pesky world hunger issue) instead of going to sleep?

Well, those will all have to wait because posting a few new photos here is the one that got attended to. I'll work on not dangling modifiers (oh, and solving world hunger and e-mailing you all those quizzes you promised to correct for me) next time . . .

In the mean time, enjoy these random photos that have recently captivated me. As always, digame si tu quieres la historia completa.

Nuestro Compañero en la Playa

We're back online on the lower campus, but it will still take some time before I can get the photographic highlights from Chile (and all of Adrian's visit) up. In the mean time, who can resist this dog? He accompanied us during the entirety of our long beach walk. Adrian was seriously considering bringing him home: he was curious without being annoying, affectionate without being clingy, persistent without being petulant and energetic without being demanding. He'd make the perfect running partner and he didn't even have fleas. The sand did though. Wait 'til you see those pictures. Wow.

Semana Santa

I'm not sure what to make theologically of the strong emphasis placed on Jesus' passion and suffering and the almost after-thought status that the Easter resurrection itself gets here in rural Bolivia. But I know that carrying the cross between stations (it was only a few dozen yards probably -- but it was heavier than I thought so my walking speed was one of efficacy rather than meditation) and seeing the gathered community alight with velas during the Vigil are memories I won't soon forget.

View from the top of the world (sort of)

Before we flew to Chile, Adrian and I got a ride up to La Paz from my comrade Moises (who, in addition to being a professor of Psychology and English here is a sci-fi author and the doctor who stitched up Adrian's thumb).

Here we are on our way to checking out an ancient Inca Road. The elevation is somewhere around 14 or 15,000 ft but its effect on Adrian merited the title he gave it: "the top of the world."

[There are more photo essays coming: Adrian's thumb gash, the vineyards of Chile, a long hike on an impossibly long beach, and lots from Semana Santa here in Carmen Pampa. They'll be coming slowly since our web connection is gone on the lower campus. Thanks for your patience.]

Yes I was hiking in the freezing cold without socks but no Moises and I didn't hike the ridges with our eyes closed. (All our cameras' batteries were drained so, combined with the cold, the timing was a little goofy. I had to resort to the very-personal battery-warming trick I learned in Antarctica.)