Round Robin Photo Challenge ---Look Up/Look Down

Welcome to this week's edition of Round Robin Photo Challenge. The challenge this week is "Look Up/Look Down" suggested by Steven.

I have not been faring very well with the Round Robin challenges for awhile now. I was afraid that I would not capture a suitable photo for this week's challenge either, then suddenly there I was walking on it. Yes, it was right under my feet on the hiking trail at the riverfront park. If it had contained a pebble or a pothole I would have tripped over my entry, but instead, I almost missed it entirely. I am afraid it does not say much for my powers of observation when engrossed in conversation with the Old Salt, for I certainly was not looking down at that moment. If it had not been for the size of this sidewalk art I would have missed it. Instead, spread out on about 180 square feet of blacktop was the entire solar system, as seen through the eyes of two children. I am guessing brother and sister because the artwork was signed with two names containing the same last initial.





Actually, I am lucky to have captured this artwork at all. When I showed the photos to a family member I learned that a wide angle photo of this same artwork had appeared in the last edition of the local newspaper. That meant the artwork was four days old when I discovered it and had been walked and ridden on by countless numbers of people who use the trail each day for exercise. In fact when I compared my shots to the one in the newspaper I realized that dozens of small stars were missing in my pictures. On top of that, we had not set out to walk the trail that day. But plans changed and we ended up near the park, so we decided to take a short walk. Before we returned to our car, it started to rain. It was the first rain in days and, I'm sure, washed away the chalk rendered solar system.

After getting my look down shots of the sidewalk art we had only walked a half dozen steps when this conversation took place: Old Salt, "They are going to make a cross." Me, "What...Who is making a cross." Old Salt, "look up at the sky, those planes are going to make a cross." Sure enough I looked up at the sky just in time to snap four shots of the contrails of the two jets crossing overheard. And sure enough the results were a perfect cross.



So how lucky was that. To get both a Look Up and a Look Down within minutes of each other. Just proves that when out and about you should not ignore what is above your head or right below your feet.