Life through Pictures

Pictures are worth a thousand words they say. Life is often portrayed best through pictures.

Time for some brighter posts.

~ Ron Walker ~ 13 Comments

This morning, Michelle and I decided to do some outdoor therapy and visited a local park. I hope the photos are as soothing to you, as they were for us. (click for larger images)

Pratt Part, located in the Fountain City of Prattville, Alabama. A large pond in the center with many ducks and Geese.

Pratt Park

It had rained during the night, and again on this morning.

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[Show as slideshow]

Take a deep breath, enjoy your day as much as you can. Tomorrow, isn’t promised.

Ron

“Fountain City” Where I live. Prattville, Al.

~ Ron Walker ~ 18 Comments

Michelle and I decided to eat in town. Downtown Prattville, Al. is small. It consists of one major street with maybe 20 businesses. Everything has built out to the east. There is a fountain here along the creek walk, It was erected not long after a major part of the Plant was burned down around by some juveniles. Only one building of the burned portion still stands on the town side of the spillway.

“The Fountain City”

Prattville, is the home of Daniel Pratt, an industrialist and manufacturer of Cotton Gins. His factory located in Prattville, built the gins. The city is full of Artisan Wells, and is called “The Fountain City” as a result. You can see the very large buildings across the spillway, they have been there since around 1850. The water flowing from the spillway gates once powered the factory. A large turbine is left positioned in the location of the burned down building.

“Padlocks of Love”.

While taking the photos, I noticed colorful padlocks attached to the fencing that runs along the small park area. These as I would later learn, are “Padlocks of Love”. They started appearing years ago, after the 2013 film “Now you see me”. Apparently, the movie story at one point, explained a similar arrangement in Paris. There are 4 places in the state of Alabama that have such spontaneous areas of the padlocks, Prattville is one. Some had memorials written for past love ones, or friends. Some were laser engraved with initials, names, and dates of love or passing. Even pets are remembered there. Old, new, colorful padlocks of all shapes and sizes adorn the fence.

As far as the location, paranormal shows have visited the old manufacturing plant and the spillway, where there are reported sightings of “shadow people”. Spirits of those that lost their lives at the factory.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, I apologize for the resolution, but the light was fading as we visited there.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my town, this is where I was a police officer for 7 years. I had just started, when the historic building on the town side of the spillway was burned down by the juveniles.

Comments, always welcome.

Something that I enjoy. Time lapse photo/video

~ Ron Walker ~ 11 Comments

I have always enjoyed photography. Certainly by no means a professional, but I still enjoy experimenting. My camera,  an older Canon EOS digital SLR, is aged now. Far out-distanced by modern cameras with special features. It still takes good photos.

I find watching clouds, and other things of the world in compressed time. You can see more detail, secrets and wonders when you are able to watch something change over minutes, instead of hours or days. It never did storm during the 4 hours that the camera monitored the sky, but it appeared imminent.

This was done using my cheap Raspberry Pi 3 computer
The Pi Camera 5 mega pixel
1 Frame/shot/ every 3 seconds.
I produced the movie at 30 frames per second.
I didn’t add any audio/music to this one, but may in the future.

It’s nice to just sit and unwind while watching the clouds. I use a video software player that can vary the speed if I desire. My apologies for the power lines in the video, it was the best shot I had that day. I hope you enjoy the video as I do.

 

Comments welcome,

Spiny-backed Orb Weaver Spider, I had never seen one.

~ Ron Walker ~ 22 Comments

While turning on the water, something caught my eye, probably the bright yellow color. I thought it was a lady bug crawling along the edge of a cement building block. On closer inspection, it was a very tiny spider. It was about the width of a pencil eraser. Some of you may have them as a common sight where you live. We see the evidence of them in large webs, but we seldom see the actual spider.

This was a first for me. I have been working on some programs for a few days, then decided I needed to get outside for a bit. I was going to rinse the dust off the car, and try to make it look a little more presentable.

This one is sitting on the edge of the cement block, I hope it gives some reference. The horns or spikes are amazing looking when viewed in a picture enlarged.

Spiny-backed Orb Weaver

It seems like spiders just have a thing for me this month.

Comments always welcome,

DocumentBlock

This was a first for me. I have been working on some programs for a few days, then decided I needed to get outside for a bit. I was going to rinse the dust off the car, and try to make it look a little more presentable. 

While turning on the water, something caught my eye, probably the bright yellow color. I thought it was a lady bug crawling along the edge of a cement building block. On closer inspection, it was a very tiny spider. It was about the width of a pencil eraser. Some of you may have them as a common sight where you live. We see the evidence of them in large webs, but we seldom see the actual spider.

This one is sitting on the edge of the cement block, I hope it gives some reference. The horns or spikes are amazing looking when viewed in a picture enlarged.

Spiny-backed Orb Weaver

It seems like spiders just have a thing for me this month.

Comments always welcome,