Weekly Photo Challenge: Wheels

I was just photographing at a festival (Cinco de Mayo since you ask) and I have lots of ideas for future challenges that involve people, but since we just did a people challenge, let’s go for something else that caught my attention during the parade.

This week the challenge is to….

Photograph Wheels

It was wheels on these crazy bikes in the parade that caught my attention. The guys riding them seemed fearless as they zoomed in circles around the streets. Sometimes standing on the seat – and sometimes falling off. They were ok – they seemed to have a lot of practice falling off!

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And there were these wheels, too on bikes decorated for the occasion.

Hotdog and dragon bikes waiting patiently for the Cinco de Mayo parade to begin in St. Louis.

When I think “wheels”, I think “transportation” of all kinds. What would we ever do if someone in the depths of time hadn’t invented the wheel? We’d probably have to walk everywhere.

Our local transport museum is great for photographing wheels. I love the old steam trains with their huge wheels as tall as I am. At a train museum, when the wheels aren’t moving, I can photograph the wheel in all its detail.

Wheel in Black II. Some of the best places to find texture is at transport museums. The Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri has 70 locomotives and hundreds of train cars, buses, boats, and cars. Enough to keep me photographing texture for decades to come! 4.23.2016. Sony A7II 28mm 1/45@f4.5 ISO800

But how about wheels within wheels and all sorts of gears that are basically wheels.

This elaborate mechanism is at the City Museum in St. Louis. As far as I can tell, its purpose is to simply go round and round for my entertainment.

And what about a ferris wheel? It’s about time for the summer carnival season to start up. If there’s a fair in town, go out and play with both stopping the motion and motion blur.

This ferris wheel sits atop a 10 story building that is the City Museum, St. Louis, Missouri – and YES you can ride it!

Night at the Carnival – playing with motion blur on the ferris wheel.

When you start looking for wheels, you may be surprised where you find them.

The question is whether any old circle will do or if there has to be something special about the circle to make it fit the criteria of a “wheel”. This dome definitely looks like a wheel to me – spokes & all!

Domed ceiling in an old post office near my home.

I have new cards from Moo – Love the square cards! They get so much attention when I hand them out.
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The choice is yours this week. Find actual wheels on actual vehicles and have fun or photograph subjects that have a “wheel-ness” about them.

BTW – Thanks for all the unexpected beauty images from last week. They really perked me up after a long week struggling with a crashed computer!

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