COLUMBUS METRO PARKS--
2017 Geotrail Season Wrap-up

You can tell the Columbus park system is a classy operation by the quality of this pavilion in their Homestead Park.  Geocachers from a wide area gathered there for munchies and this annual program recently, the highlight of which was the awarding of much sought-after Geo Coins in this popular, geo-trail event.

Earlier in the year about 20 geocaches were hidden, mostly at the rate of one per park.  After those hides are published on Geocaching.com the hunt is on.  As cachers found the caches they had to make note of a code word found in the hidden cache's containers and record that word on their entry forms.

This year geocachers had to find 15 correct code words in order to receive one of the much sought-after, 200 coins available.

There are two ladies in white sweaters, left center of the photo.  That's my partner, Sue (Skagway071) talking to caching friends Bill (Lighthouse Nuts in the blue t-shirt) and his wife Diane to his right.

Monikers like Skagway071 and Lighthouse Nuts are names cachers are known by when they sign logs of caches they find.  The Lighthouse Nuts live in the Westerville area.  The other lady in white behind Sue is Linda from Marion who is known as CoolJ.  To Linda's right her partner, Mike aka Gabby200, lives in Columbus.

The six of us along with another couple that lives in the Sunbury area often participate in caching activities like this around OH.  In an amazing coincidence we also assemble ourselves as a team since we discovered ourselves all wintering fairly close together in Florida.

FWIW I just logged my 5,600th cache in just a little over 5 years of caching and Sue is closing-in on #5,000 quite quickly.

Can you sense our passion for the activity? 

*            *            *

I forgot to publish this post; a brain cramp that appears to becoming more prevalent as age consumes me.  Yesterday at a birthday celebration I noticed my cell phone had disappeared from its belt holster.  Good Grief, I announced and launched a search.  It was in my shirt pocket.  😊

Sue has since surpassed 5,000 finds.

HMMMMM...

This is the kind of thing my dozing brain concocts late at night when sleep is elusive.  I had the cellphone lying on the munching bar while I enjoyed late night radio and was fiddling with the front and back viewing control on the phone's camera.

I was rewarded with a hint of what this image could become.

Hand-holding the phone up to about a foot or so from the bottom of the subject, I made this exposure of a small, leaded glass chandelier as seen from directly below.

I first believed the perimeter panels were sloping into the composition toward the center.

Then, after a couple more hours of sleep and with daylight approaching I took another peek at the image and then concluded the perimeter panels are sloping out from the center of the composition.

...until I went and looked at the actual subject and found the perimeter panels are hanging exactly vertical to the horizon.

Actually, this is another example of one's changing perspective making radical changes in the outcome of the image.

We all know railroad tracks, for example, run parallel to each other but if you stand between them and look toward the horizon you will note they appear to converge.

This image is a pint-sized version of that visual phenomenon with a little optical illusion thrown in.

Late in this mental exercise I noticed a malady had crept into my creation.  One of the five light bulbs was burned out.

I'm sure when the PhD's in the crowd get done wrestling with the geometric nuances of the photo the other PhD's (the philosopher variety) will have tomes of analyses/analyzes dancing merrily through their heads on the meaning of there always seeming to be a confrontational malady present in life.

Egad.  Time to go back to bed!