Exam Dawn

Waking pre-dawn to be sure an NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant and a Statistical Mechanics exam are both finished when they need to be turns out to have some upsides—namely, this gigantic panorama of an incredible Hartford dawn. (This one is definitely worth clicking through to Flickr and further clicking to zoom to 100% scale.)

Exam Dawn

Wall Beyond Pulaski Circle

Downtown Hartford jumps into view like a cliff of buildings, connected to the riverside interstate (at least for now) by a tunnel beneath Hartford Public Library (still lit with orange sodium vapor lamps, see right.) Traveling through that tunnel and out into the city proper always feels a little like Batman emerging from the Batcave, if I’m honest.

Wall Beyond Pulaski Circle

Flat Tire for Miata Roadster

The trajectories of the motion-blurred cars in the background make clear that, by contrast, something is not going right with this Miata roadster-class race car. The rapid unplanned disassembly of its right rear tire resulted in a sudden drift into the grass, through I’m happy to report that it was still able to return safely to the pits.

Flat Tire for Miata Roadster

Stegosaurus and City Hall

A bird’s eye view can shrink the impact of many human-made objects, but Calder’s “Stegosaurus” (1973) jumps from the foreground not only not only for its color, but also for the way in which it breaks the symmetry of the square in front of Hartford’s City Hall.

Stegosaurus and City Hall

Rowing Race on the Connecticut River

This image is definitely worth a click through to Flickr for the full-sized version. All those little boats on the Connecticut River are rowers racing or preparing to race, and the hints of colors and patterns in the solid blue of water match well with the early hints of color and patterns of changing foliage in the expanse of green leaves.

Rowing Race on the Connecticut River