Saturday, September 16, 2023

Wek 87 Photo Challenge: Rust

We've finally seen some cooler temperatures this week. It's been almost chilly during my morning walks.  Grad Girl hasn't seen the lows we have, but at least the bake oven temps have backed off a bit in Texas as well.  The lower temps made it a lot more pleasant to look farther afield for this week's challenge photo. 




Rust is really common. I didn't think there was any rust around the house, that was a wrong assumption.  Even though I found some fun photos around the house, in the end I went with a photo taken during one of my walks.  


Kate: The Texture of Rust


This macro shot is of the peeling paint on one of the walking trail bridges in town.  I like the color contrast and the texture.  The week I've been playing around with a macro lens that I found in my camera bag, but hadn't ever used. My Guy gave it to me for Christmas last year I think.  It's fully manual, so you really have to pay attention to all the settings, but it has great optics so you get really good pictures when you get those settings right.  

My Guy also went with a subject he found on one of his walks. 


My Guy: Oil Patch Rust


This is a common site around the state of Oklahoma, old and rusted oil field pumps. These old pumps live at one of the scrap yards here in town.  You don't see the active ones as much anymore as many of the fields have been pumped out.  

Grad Girl said she had this one covered when I sent her this week's card.  But she ended up going in a different direction then she expected. 


Grad Girl: Oxidized Product


Grad Girl photographed some cool rust colors from her experiments.  These are NMR tubes.  NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry) is a technique that provides information on the chemical structure of the molecules.  She uses data from this technique to determine if she synthesized what she intended.  

That's it for last week's challenge. This week's challenge could go in so many directions.  




I could tell My Guy is already formulating possibilities for this week's photo.  No telling what we'll all come up with for this prompt.  

5 comments:

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

The macro lens takes a neat photo! It's fun that you figured out a way to use it for this week's challenge. Rusty old tools and machinery are always interesting to see, too. I only have a very basic understanding of chemistry - when grad girl said she compared the colors of the substances in her tube to see what she had synthesized, does that mean she is making a new substance?

Cherie Moore said...

I so enjoy the photo posts and love seeing grad girl’s from the lab :)

Barbara said...

Love seeing these. Great photos.

Melisa- pinkernpunkinquilting said...

Great photos, Kate. Love the blue and rust colors in the first photo. Whenever we travel in OK or the western states, I try to take a photo of the old and working oil pumps. We do not have them in our area. Have a great weekend.

Linda said...

You did spectacular with your macro lens! That peeling paint photo would make a pretty fabric. The rusty pump is great. I'm always surprised to find an active pump - it used to be so common. We are enjoying some of your cool mornings here too - it's 64 this morning, and I can't wait for these temps during the day too.