Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2013): Transportation

A friend of mine who writes several blogs has put out a photo challenge for bloggers, so I thought I might give this one a whirl.  As usual, I forgot about it until the very last moment, but since it's still April, I'm good to go on this one.  The challenge was to take five photos throughout the month centered around a certain theme.  The theme for this month was Transportation.  Here are my five photos.

1.  Space travel
OK.  This one may be cheating since this isn't the actual space shuttle, but it fits the theme and I'm going to use it.  This is the Ellison Onizuka Challenger Memorial in Little Tokyo near downtown Los Angeles.

As President Ronald Reagan spoke in one of his eulogies following the Challenge disaster back in 1986, "The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.  We will never forgert them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."  

I didn't have enough years of teaching experience at the time to apply for the Teacher in Space program.  If offered a chance today, I'd go in a millisecond.

2.  Walking
These people were just cool.  I took several shots of them and in reality, what I should have done was call out to them to get a better shot, or possibly a strangers photo of one or several of them.  Each of them had their own style, from the two tone yellow and red pants, to the two toned hair style of the guy leading the group.  It's hard to see, but each side of his head, left and right, was a different color.

I've come to appreciate walking much more as I've gotten older.  I've never been a runner, but I enjoy hiking and I get out and walk the neighborhood as much as I can to get some exercise.  It's becoming more of a habit for me the older I get, which I view as a good thing (the habit of walking, not the getting older part).

3.  Traffic
Not much transporting going on here, at least on the westbound side of the freeway.  Traffic was pretty much stopped with only cars getting by on the right shoulder of the freeway when I took this shot.

I had been on my way home when I spotted the smoke from what I assumed was a brush fire.  I calculated where the fire was based upon my position and decided to get off one off ramp beyond my usual off ramp.  That was a big mistake because as soon as I got around a curve in the freeway, traffic stopped dead and I realized the fire wasn't up in the hills, but right in the middle of the freeway.  

I was able to get off at the next exit, but it took upwards of 30 minutes to get there and I didn't think I would have gotten a really good shot, but I parked my car, walked over the bridge overlooking the freeway and just about the time I got there, this flare up happened.  It must have been really burning earlier while I saw in traffic.  Had I gotten off at my normal exit, I think I would have gotten more flames, but I'm pretty satisfied with this shot.  

Los Angeles freeways are our life blood.  They get us where we want to go, but when some kind of "cholesterol" clogs those arteries, things tend to break down, as witnessed here.

4.  Scooter
I spotted this scooter parked in front of a garage door in our neighborhood this week.  It represents a cheaper form of motorized transportation, something that can get you around those kinds of jams depicted in the photo above.  I wouldn't take something like this on the freeway though.  It's way too small.

I rode a Honda Supersport back in the summer of 1983.  I took it many places, gave many friends lifts to different things.  It's amazing how many girls just want to ride a motorcycle.  I always carried a second helmet just "in case."  I took that motorcycle to and from my summer job at Disneyland on city streets most days during that summer.  I made the mistake of taking the freeway late one night home instead of city streets.  Riding next to a tall truck, I suddenly realized how vulnerable I was next to it and realized that if the truck came over, even though I was wearing all of the proper safety equipment, I would be hamburger.  I took a break from riding.  A couple of weeks later, my dad got into an accident, destroyed his knee in the process and neither one of us ever rode a motorcycle again.

5.  Bicycle
When I lived closer to work, I used to ride my bicycle.  It was only a mile and a half ride.  I still have that bicycle, but I haven't ridden it in years and I know it needs an overhaul.  I think one of the things I do during my summer break will be to get the bike safety checked, buy a new helmet and get back into riding.

It's funny, that although I enjoy riding my bike, I prefer walking and hiking for the simple reason that it's hard to take photos when you're riding.  Walking, if you see something, you can stop, compose your shot and fire away.  Riding would be a little more cumbersome to take photos, because the camera would be strapped away, so I'd have to stop, get the gear out, compose the shot and hope the shot I wanted was still there.  So in a way, I think I'm trying to talk myself out of riding a bike.

Now that you've read all of this, here's a link to others who have participated in the challenge for this month.