Science museum hedgehogs, Boston, MA

Another intriguing view from below in the between-wings ceiling images: two hedgehogs gigantically exploring their transparent surface.

Dog eating bananas, Museum of Science, Boston

Another wonderful interstitial exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science right now is giant screens on the ceiling of the walkway between its wings, playing close-up videos of interesting things, taken from beneath a glass surface. Here we see a highly enthusiastic dog slurping up bananas. My daughter and I sat through two complete cycles of their whole collection, laughing and marveling at the images.

Turing Patterns, Boston Muesum of Science

Another Turing pattern in motion, this time breaking up into growing circular swirls, in much the same pattern (and mechanism) as slime molds use to cluster themselves in times of stress.

Turing Patterns, Boston Muesum of Science

At the Boston Museum of Science, a giant wall screen was demonstrating reaction-diffusion equations, the remarkably beautiful symmetry-breaking patterns that Alan Turing once proposed as a possible basis for embryonic shape development. 

Carved Swirl, Hynes Convention Center, Boston

A most unusual graffiti: this spiral was carved painstakingly into the polished stone floors of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

Chicagoland Golden Church

For a long time, I had guessed that this golden-domed religious building near Chicago O'Hare Airport was a Hindu temple, but closer inspection shows that each dome is actually topped with a cross, indicating that this is some sort of church within the greater Christian family. Just what it is or where, however, is a mystery that I have not yet been able to solve.

Dryer exhaust melt boundary, Iowa City

Complex boundary of melting and recrystallization in the snow by the dryer vent on the concrete surface outside of our back door.

Dam in Hickory Hills Park, Iowa City

In the snow, the sculpted lines of terrain stand out more clearly, make it particularly obvious that this hill is a manmade construct, a dam in the middle of Hickory Hills Park, not far from our house. I still have no idea, however, why this dam is actually there, as the little creek that passes through it seems singularly unlikely to cause a flood on the scale that this dam appears built to prevent.

Cardinal in snow, Iowa City

A visitor at our bird feeder, nibbling around at the back while his mate was doing her own snacking at the feeder in the front of our house instead.

A musical family, Iowa City

The "Celtic Family Christmas" performance led by Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy that we went to in December turned out to have delightfully more family to it than expected: just before the intermission, the couple invited their children on stage with them to perform, and for the rest of the show kids wandered on and off the stage, sometimes joining or leading songs, sometimes just snuggling up on the couches with whichever parent wasn't actively performing at the moment. Towards the end, after they were sent off to bed, two of the little girls adorably sneaked out again and hid behind one of the stage props to watch. A deeply musical family, who I hope were having as good a time as it looked like being on tour together.

Harvester attachment, near Iowa City

An industrial-scale harvester attachment, dozens of feet long, going down the highway near Iowa City.

The Wild Untameable Days, Iowa City

From a little way off, it looks kind of like a utility access, but close up this subdued metal circle proves to be a sculpture sitting obscurely beneath a tree near the English & Philosophy Building at the University of Iowa.

Stage Lighting, Hancher, Iowa City

Stage lights have changed a lot since when I used to act back in high school: the big hot single filtered cans have been replaced by smaller fixtures filled with intense LEDs. Here, the haloed side-scatter of this light makes me thing of jellyfish.

UFO Light, Hancher, Iowa City

And finally, the lighting fixture in all its full flying-saucer glory

UFO Light, Hancher, Iowa City

Another view of the lighting fixture, revealing its circular steppe pyramid structure.

UFO Light, Hancher, Iowa City

A complex lighting fixture in Strauss Hall at the Hancher Theater, seen directly from below.

Parking garage reflections, UIHC, Iowa City, Iowa City

Another shot of the medical center parking garage, surprisingly gleaming metal in such a tucked away and functional piece of building.

Parking garage reflections, UIHC, Iowa City, Iowa City

In the middle of the giant parking garage attached to the big medical center in Iowa City, a light channel shines bright and open by a narrow passage connecting the various parking "wings."

Aaaaaack! Wilson's Orchard, Iowa City

This little crafty creature seemed quite startled to be discovered by us at the edge of our local apple orchard.

Corn harvest, Johnson County, Iowa

Rich golden feed corn pours liquidly from a harvester into its accompanying collection truck.

Model T headlight, Johnson County, Iowa

Detail on the old Model T. My daughter was with me and was invited to ride, but found this old strange car a bit too far from her comfort zone.

Model T Ford, Johnson County, Iowa

This Model T Ford, dating back to 1925, has been lovingly cared for and still runs, seen here parked against the dry corn of a cold late autumn day.

Luminous Fish, Chicago O'Hare

Shifting perspective slightly, the glass fish transforms from fire within to a dark eminence against a molten background.

Luminous Fish, Chicago O'Hare

This glass fish on a windowsill in O'Hare is colored and transformed as the mellow light of sunset refracts through its shape and surface textures.

Skyline Mural, Chicago O'Hare

A lovely black and white mural of Chicago, as silhouettes on a window in Chicago O'Hare Airport.

Field Museum Shop, Chicago O'Hare

Frieze above an airport outpost shop of Chicago's natural history museum: the figures are actually set in front of the lighter background.

Debris from many fallen pumpkins, Iowa Children's Museum

Close-up of the debris at the end of Jack Splat. The ground crew sweep the fallen gourds into piles to ensure the next set of victims have a clear space to properly break.

Debris from many fallen pumpkins, Iowa Children's Museum

Every year, the first Friday after Halloween, the Iowa Children's museum holds a wonderful event called Jack Splat. Children bring in their pumpkins and give their name, the pumpkin's name, and pick one of several offered methods of execution. The children crowd the plexiglass shields and cheer and screech as the pulp flies.

Book Return near Halloween, Iowa City Public Library

Around halloween, the library's book return slots sprouted hungry monsters.  Omnomnomnomnom!

Cornfield Alien, Iowa

Aliens in the cornfield, spotted while chaperoning my daughter's class on a kindergarten-grade haunted hayride.

Scraped development, Charlotte, NC

Another of my secret favorite sorts of images to find: the bones of a development traced out in its early stages of development. I mourn the loss of woods and open space while at the same time the SimCity / Civilization player in me looks on with interest at the sketches of structure emerging from another designer's mind.

Housing Development, Charlotte, NC

I have been working on a collection of images that I call "Sigils of Suburbia." When I look down on many of the more modern housing developments, I am struck by the carefully asymmetrical curves of their roads and cul-de-sacs. Envisioning them without their houses, reduced to only their fundamental tarmac brushstrokes, I see calligraphy, pictograms, runes. To me, this one speaks of organic growth: a complex flower bud with tendrils uncurling above and leaves extending of its stem below.

Hanging plane, Charlotte Airport

North Carolina is really proud of the Wright Brothers and the state's place in the history of aviation. Accordingly, the Charlotte airport is rife with aviation exhibits hanging from ceilings all about.

Charlotte Airport

Once US Airways had become sufficiently digested by American Airlines, we got a third connection out of Iowa City and I have started to have flights routed through the Charlotte, North Carolina airport. It's not really as small as this shot makes it look: this is just their spidery small-planes terminal, where flights to places like Iowa park.

Mississippi Sunset

Sunset gleaming off the Mississippi river, crossing back into Iowa one evening. The city in the upper right is Muscatine, Iowa.

Fresh Pond at dawn, Cambridge, MA

Dawn, walking around the Fresh Pond trail in Cambridge, one early morning last April.

Life Soda Wall, Cedar Rapids, IA

At a restaurant in Cedar Rapids, there is a wall tucked in the back that acts as sort of a shrine to the Life Beverage Company, a long-extinct local soda brand.

T-Rex harassed by monkeys, Iowa City

Spotted at the city Halloween party: a tyrannosaurus rex feeling quite baffled about what to do about the fascinated monkeys that had found it. Other little kids came to pet it as well, but the symbolic juxtaposition of these particular costumes and the obvious unpreparedness of the dinosaur for these interaction was simply delightful for me.

Maui Chess Herky, Iowa City

As if Chess Herky wasn't outre enough, at Halloween it was dressed up as Maui from Moana. It does take a bit of the horrifying edge off for me, but I can't say the costume feels appropriate.

Chess Herky, Iowa City

All over Iowa City one finds statues of Herky, the local sports teams' mascot. The statues were all built from a common mold, then turned over to local artists for creative decoration, and finally scattered throughout local institutions. Many are interesting, tasteful, or funny, but a few, like this Chess Herky at the Mercer Park community center, I simply find downright terrifying to behold. Maybe some people look at this and see a gentle joke about chess, but I see a demonic clown-monster with irregular shark teeth.

Power plant sunset, Iowa City

Sunset over the University power plan by the river in the middle of Iowa City.

Contrail dusk, Iowa City

Dusk, with many contrails.

Birdhouse apartments, Iowa City

In the city, even birds live in apartments and condos rather than single family homes, right?

Boat shadow

The shadow of a small boat sculpture in our living room falls sharply across the decorated back of a clipboard our kindergartener uses for her art.

Hurstville Lime Kilns, Iowa

Up behind the lime kilns is an old warehouse, hollowed out and slowly coming to pieces in the woods.

Hurstville Lime Kilns, Iowa

The Hurstville lime kilns are built right into the side of a hill: you can walk up and across behind all four, looking out at the views across the fields.

Hurstville Lime Kilns, Iowa

An early industrial site in Iowa, the lime kilns near Maquoketa, Iowa opened in the 1870s and ran for fifty years before new technology finished killing their industry---in this case, the spread of cement as a construction material preferred over lime.

Fogged in grain elevators, Iowa

Grain elevators rising out of the fog, one early morning last February in central Iowa.

Lost Bear, Hoover Nature Trail, West Branch, IA

Whenever I see a toy like this, I feel both hopeful and sad. There is something melancholy about the waiting, deliberate in placement by the one who found it, yet alone and abandoned without the warmth of its young owner.

Foggy telephone lines, West Branch, IA

Telephone lines disappearing into the fog across the fields.