Wellsboro, Pennsylvania

Thou Shalt Not

Towanda, Pennsylvania

Summer Haze

Towanda, Pennsylvania

Storefront, 6/27/07

Woodbury, Connecticut

Church Fair

Woodbury, Connecticut

Roxbury, Connecticut

Summer Sky

Litchfield, Connecticut

Chickens at White Flower Farms

Pentax 31mm Limited

Techy-doo interjection.

For anyone following my series of posts on Pentax equipment over at The Online Photographer, there is a new one up today. To get a little context, all of the pictures posted here beginning with the post for June 9 were made with the 31mm Limited on a K10D camera.

Kent, Connecticut

Gallery Opening, 6/23/07

Newport, Rhode Island

Two From Newport

Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island

Secret Gardens Tour

Newport, Rhode Island

Millbrook, New York

Lily Pond, Carey Arboretum

Waterbury, Connecticut

Greens

Winsted Laurel Festival

The winner was announced amid cheers and applause.


Crown, sash, and robe were all handed over by the retiring 2006 Laurel Queen. The new Queen was congratulated and surrounded by family, friends, and the press.

Winsted Laurel Festival, part VI

Each contestant in the beauty pageant was introduced and took a turn on the stage.



Then they sat and waited for the big announcement.

Winsted Laurel Festival, Part V

Like any other small New England city, Winsted sports a town green, complete with bandstand. Everyone congregated there as the parade came to an end. There was a throne for past and future Laurel Queens. A trio sang the national anthem while last year's queen, town dignitaries, and the crowd stood at attention.


This year's pageant contestants waited behind the bandstand for the moment of their introductions to the crowd.

Winsted Laurel Festival, Part IV

More cars festooned with laurel and contestants.


And there were clowns.


Vintage cars, contestants, and more marching bands.


Spectators referred to the "floats" the contestants were riding. In this case the term seems to fit.

Winsted Laurel Festival, Part III

The beauty pageant contestants continued to ride by in a variety of vehicles. Each car, trailer or other conveyance carried a poster showing the contestant's name and that of her sponser, all decorated with the eponymous flower of the festival.


More bands paraded, sandwiched in between the contestants.



But there was much more to come...

Winsted's Laurel Festival, continued...

Town dignitaries paraded along with the bands, but the main event would be 21 contestants in a beauty pageant, led off by last year's Laurel Queen.




Contestants rode by one at a time, with more marchers interspersed.

Winsted, Connecticut

Laurel Festival

Last Sunday I was out looking for something to photograph when I stumbled onto the closing events of the three-day Laurel Festival in Winsted, Connectiuct, a town nicknamed "The Laurel City." Though I'd never heard of it before, the festival is a 100 year-old tradition. The first thing I ran into was a parade. There was much more to come.

Winsted, Connecticut

Torrington, Connecticut

Pansies and Flag

Torrington, Connecticut

Hairdressers Shop Windows

Torrington, Connecticut

Torrington, Connecticut

Cafe Wall

Bantam, Connecticut

Window at Bantam Pizza

Towanda, Pennsylvania

Alley Cat

Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania

Red and White

Oneonta, New York

More Mixed Messages

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

Mixed Messages

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

Cheap Motels

It came up recently that I dislike better-grade motels because it's awkward to deal with lots of big, heavy, equipment cases if you have to drag them through a central entry, down a hall, and into a nice "secure" room with no direct entry from the outside. Most older, cheaper places are set up so you can pull right up to the door of your room. They also tend to have a microwave and a small refridgerator to appeal to customers who wouldn't be caught dead calling room service anyhow. Of course I also like spending less money. On top of that, cheap motels just seem to provide endless picture opportunities.

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

If there is a restaurant or dining room adjacent, it's usually good for a picture or two as well.

Mansfield, Pennsylvania

TOP News

Many visitors here are also faithful readers of Mike Johnston's The Online Photographer blog. If you've tried to go there in the past few days, you'll have found that TOP has been locked up by a huge glitch at Blogger. The fix is going to be an accelerated migration to a completely new platform. To get the latest inf0rmation directly from Mike, head for this link:

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/

And spread the word that TOP can be reached at that link and will soon be up and running, better than ever.

Astoria, Queens, New York

Ditmars Boulevard