Memorial Day Walkabout - photos

I'm working on my next painting in the "aerial skies" series, which has gone down the "abstracted realism" road, and that I am now compelled to follow to the end, so in the meantime, here are some photos taken on Memorial Day.

It was a beautiful sunny day here, and not too hot or muggy, and I decided it would be a good day for a walk downtown with the camera (still using the Olympus 3.1MP PnS) to maybe get some good water and/or boat photos for painting references.  We live about a mile away from downtown Mystic, so it's a nice walk.  I didn't know when I set out that there was a Memorial Day parade schedule for the early afternoon, so that made it even busier than usual on a holiday weekend.

Walking down Water St. (where Wayne's office is located), with its various docks along the west side of the river helped fill some of my "odd reflections" fix.  I find these patterns just mesmerizing.  It's like a spider meets a Spirograph.

Hull Reflections

Continuing on towards the downtown area on Water St., some of the local fire trucks were lining up for

the parade.  Lots of red, polished chrome and bold, in-your-face vehicles driven by their human counterparts.  I love this: 

S.B.F.D. Logo

After negotiating the narrow sidewalks of the main downtown area filled with shuffling out-of-towners (aka "tourists"), I finally got across the famous Mystic drawbridge (correctly known as a "bascule bridge") and headed north up the river on the eastern side.  The Mystic Seaport is located up the road here, along with some other private and semi-public docks, where there were some neat things that caught my eye for various reasons.  

 Still Life with rope and shadows

Randomness is about all these images have in common.   And surely overlooked by everyone but me.  I chuckle sometimes when I think of what people might think when they see me kneeling down and taking a picture of what is clearly nothing.  

Abstracted Reflections

But, of course, there is *everything* there.  Colors and strong values.  Linear, non-linear.  Hard edges, disappearing edges and repeating shapes.  Patterns.  It's all there.

Dry-docked

Sometimes there's a story or question as well:  why is this little boat tied up on this private dock, for example?  Surely it's not going to be blown into the river by a strong wind, nor is it going to suddenly develop a consciousness and move itself.  Theft deterrent?  Hardly.  I'm guessing it's just out of habit of its owner to do so.  

Pretty Pair

Sometimes, there's no explanation needed.

After walking back towards downtown and in the general direction of home, it was clear that the parade was gearing up to start.  People had situated themselves along the streets and the police were starting to clear out traffic from Main St.  I figured that I'd sit and watch for a bit; parades in Mystic aren't huge, drawn-out affairs.

I ended up taking some photos, most of which are nice personal reminders of the event, but nothing much more than that.  Groups of veterans representing all branches of the armed services, VFW, and what appeared to be currently enlisted troops were present.  It made me happy to see them and to be reminded that they served and continue to serve our country and make sacrifices to protect our freedoms and liberty.

Vintage Pontiac

The shiny red fire trucks passed by, then a few old bygone-era cars.  I'm not sure what those had to do with Memorial Day, but I did get a few photos, including the one above.  Proud owners were behind the wheels of these, and I actually wish there had been more.  

We are now 6 weeks away from our move to Durango, and I've now a few more reminders of my time here by virtue of these photos.  As much as I'm really not a New England or east coast type of person, I have to say that there is probably no better place to live in the state of CT than Mystic.  It's an attractive little town that manages to hold on to a bit of the positive New England stereotype.