Guess What #8

Nature is full of abstracts. That’s the clue for this “Guess What” :

The previous Guess What is a macro (close-up) of a wasp’s nest. That daubed texture could pass for pavement, weaving or an aerial view of a landscape.

Guess What #7

Last week’s Guess What #6 was familiar to anyone who’s sat in front of a campfire – it is the pattern of charring that remains on thick wood after long smoldering. This particular shot was from a housefire – see full entry on it here.

To get a fix on this week’s “Guess What” – look very closely. (Click on it to bring up the enlarged version)

My only hint is that this is natural and not man-made.

Guess What #6

This Guess What was shot last winter. An exercise in finding beauty where most people would only see ugliness.

The previous Guess What should have been called “Guess Where” I suppose…

For those of you who know Civil War history, it should have been easy to guess the location because of the prominent sign “Deadline” in the foreground. The photo is at the site of the stockade of Andersonville, a Confederate prison at Camp Sumter, Southwest Georgia, now a national historic site. Various states (such as Rhode Island, pictured in Guess What #5) have erected monuments to their soldiers who suffered and died in the horrific conditions here. Almost 13,000 Union soldiers died at Andersonville in the 14 months of its existence.

The word “deadline” referred to the boundary of the prison camp. Any prisoner who crossed that line was shot dead.

There’s an excellent and very moving POW museum at Andersonville, which points out that Andersonville was not the only place where prisoners starved and died during the Civil War. Such as Johnson Island in Sandusky Bay, just a few miles from where I grew up.

The cemetery at Andersonville is a very sobering place as well.

Like the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC, its impact comes from the visual shock of seeing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of names of the dead.

Guess What #5

Yes, I’m behind. The last “Guess What” entry was supposed to be answered almost a month ago…

It was a telephoto shot of a gourd that’s used for bird houses. They’re strung all along a wire, like so:

The shot was at a dairy farm in Montezuma, Georgia.

AND NOW FOR – Guess What #5!

Hint: This Guess What #5 is from a place near Montezuma. All self-respecting Georgians, if you haven’t been to this spot, make the effort. And any visitors to Georgia should go out of their way to see it.

Answer next week, with any luck.

Guess What #4

Last week’s “Guess What” was shot with the optical-digital zoom combined, on the Canon S3 Powershot. This 48X is equivalent to about a 1600mm lens, albeit a dicey proposition on quality when hand-held.

The clitoral-looking photo is a wasp’s nest, tucked into the wooden slats of a covered bridge here in North Georgia.

This week’s photo comes from my Pentax K10D. The hint is that it was shot in Montezuma, Georgia, though I’m not sure that will help much in identifying it…

Since this week’s answer was 5 days late, I will wait until August 31 to publish the answer to Guess What #4.

Guess What #3

Last week’s photo was, as Ann surmised, a mushroom’s gills – shot from below, with the sun coming through it.

My Canon Powershot S3 is well-suited to such a task. It has a tilt-swivel LCD monitor with live view, and the body is small enough to tuck underneath a mushroom. Using the supermacro setting, I can shoot with the lens right up against the subject – as little as 1 mm away! I don’t know of any DSLR that could have accomplished it.

This week’s photo was also taken with the S3, but it shows off a different feature of the camera. Answer posted August 15.

Guess What #2

I think maybe last week’s “Guess What” was too easy. It was indeed the Empire State Building – shot from the top of a 15-story building a few blocks away, with a digital zoom equivalent of about 1000mm. Congrats to George, Chris and Bob for spotting it.

Not giving any hints for this week’s photo. That would spoil it. If you already know from seeing it on my web site, please restrain yourself and let others guess

I will say, though, that this shot was taken with a Canon Powershot S3, NOT with a DSLR – and could not have been shot with any DSLR I know of.

[Simultaneous post on my photos-only blog]

Guess what #1

Trust me – seeing this in color would not help you to identify it.

If you have seen this structure, the color version might actually confuse you.

It is located in the northern half of the United States.

Comment with your guess. In a week (August 1) I’ll publish the answer.

["Guess What #1" is simultaneously published at my photos-only blog.]