Baggage CarouselAfter a daylong flight back west, I was exhausted and waiting for my luggage. I looked down and it was like seeing the empty carousel for the first time. The cold white light against the burnished metal blades works perfectly.

Lines.  They give us direction; lead our eye to a point in space; and purposely interrupt the generally shape-shifting nature of the world around us.  Yet, when you really think about it and remove the mental GPS that directs us from one place to another...looking without really seeing...only then do we see the geometric beauty of lines.  Black+White photography brings this out quite nicely, once you remove the nuances of color.

GrillSouthern California is home to countless classic autos; exhibited during "car days", parked by the beach by a small group of classic club members, or just minding its own business. Grills speak to me with horizontal lines and vertical "incisors".

Lines in nature are also plentiful, but random in their dance with land and sky, light and shadows, trees and streams.  I took the picture below from a 6-seater DeHaviland Beaver, flying from Talkeetna, Alaska to "the great one":  Mount Denali.  Having done that trip a couple of times, I focused less on the grandeur around me and more on details that spoke to my eye and lens.  Why I've included this shot is the play of lines ... vertical lines of the trees, horizontal lines from their shadows, and the crooked line of the stream pushing its way through the scene.  This could very well have been a charcoal sketch; but it's real, it's there and it's full of lines.

Winter Stream, DenaliA forest stream pushes its way through the landscape southeast of Denali National Park in Alaska.

During a convention I attended out of town, I walked into an older, commonly unused area of the hotel and spotted this man catching up on his emails or texts.  If not for him, the linear steps would've taken my eye from floor level on up practically to infinity.  But his presence on the fifth step abruptly stops the eye, adds context and tells a story (perhaps known only to him and his device).

Mid-Flight

More often than not, we walk right by some of the most interesting play of lines rushing to work or heading underground for the next metro.  And the fact is that this dance of lines and shadows and shapes and emptiness changes at every given moment as the sun moves across the sky or as headlights cast light against objects and shadows come to life.  This final shot was taken while waiting for my flight out of Orlando and I had well over an hour.  Their airport has satellite terminals and each one is built so there is a central arcade, a core, from which four terminals radiate out like sun beams.  Within this core are benches and chairs.  Though I enjoy people watching at airports and the plot lines one could write from what you witness, I looked up and caught the view below.  Simple, yes.  Stark, of course.  But, once again, I found the contrasting light and dark, lines and arcs cool.  So whether it's a car, hotel steps, trees in the snow or looking up at an airport...take a moment wherever you are to notice the dance of lines waiting for you to notice.

Terminal SkylightSkylight above the arcade created by the intersection of several airline terminals in Orlando International Airport.