Color

It was a wonderful sunny day out today so I thought I would work on this week’s photo assignment which is simply “composition.”  The only thing I had on my mind was color.  I drove around our town a little yesterday trying to scout out some possible locations to shoot color but  all I could see were brown lawns, brown trees and beige houses.

Not very inspiring!

Then I remembered back a couple of years ago when I did a ride along with a Kansas City Police Sergeant during her overnight shift.   Officer R’s patrol area included downtown Kansas City along with Southwest Boulevard and the West Bottoms.  All of those areas are colorful in themselves in more ways than one.   As we were cruising along looking for unusual activity, (actually I think we were looking for Lucy the Skank, but that is a story in itself) Officer R had shown me some graffiti that was painted on some of the buildings in the area.  Of course, the building owners hated it, but the artistry was incredible.   With this thought in mind, I grabbed by faithful photo assistant and headed out of the safety of the ‘burbs for a more colorful part of town.  I briefly considered taking my friend the retired police captain with me (he has a gun) or at least Dakota,my daughter’s horse-dog, but I decided to be brave.  And for that bravery I was rewarded with color, lots of color.

I am certainly not condoning vandalism, but the detail around these elaborate works of art is stunning.  It was well worth a trip outside my comfort zone to get these photos.