Saturday, September 11, 2010

Round Robin Challenge: Fenced In, Fenced Out

Hi, everybody! This week's Round Robin Challenge: Fenced In was suggested by Linda of Mommy's Treasures. Thanks for the great topic, Linda!


Our yard and the alley beyond are full of fences, but they tend to be more about privacy than aesthetics. Many of them function primarily to keep their dogs just out of reach of our dogs. It's a very doggy neighborhood. Our own fence, which is missing most of its slats, does not hide the fact that our lawn mower is not working right now. John is trying to repair it.


Some fences are more permanent than others. A large section of the one across the alley from us fell down in a monsoon storm in June 2009. A few weeks before that, this fence up the alley from us burned in a natural gas fire.


Aside from the fences in the alley, I think of fences mostly as impediments to taking pictures of the things behind them. A major example is when I go out to take pictures of the Boneyard (Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Center). In this photo from March 2010, an aluminum slat fence gives the impression of enclosing a number of airplanes. It actually just encloses what appears to be a pipeline and fuel tank.


However, there are indeed fences around all the stored and derelict airplanes and helicopters. There's also a steep berm of dirt near most of the fences. This makes it impossible to get a really good view of this large and intriguing airplane, marked "Naval Research Laboratory." I wonder what research was done inside it, back in the day.

From Sunset on Sentinel Peak

Still, fences can provide a sense of security. No fence on the road up Sentinel Peak means a great view but scary driving, as you can probably tell from in this January 2010 photo.


On the other hand, this metal railing type fence along the Pantano River bed probably doesn't accomplish much. You'd have to jump a curb to get anywhere near it with a car, whereas pedestrians can crawl over, under or through it easily. And if there were a major flood, it would not hold back the water - or the people.

I could show you many more fence photos, both from today and from past attempts to photograph the things behind them. But you get the idea, so I'll stop here.

Now let's go see the other Robins' photogenic fences!

Linking List
as of 11:08 AM PDT/MST
Monday, September 11th

Linda - Posted!
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Holly - Posted!
Easy Living The Hard Way
http://easylivingthehardway.blogspot.com

Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/

Sandy - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Rudo (E:thos) - Posted!
Passion in the Moments
http://ethos-photographic.blogspot.com

ellen b - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

mairie **Welcome, new participant!**
Word in the Hand
http://wordinthehand.blogspot.com/

Annette **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted! (Sep 13)
Getting Inside My Head
http://www.annetteholland.com

Manang Kim - Posted!
My Life's Journey in Focus
http://kissess4u.blogspot.com 

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com
 
Nathalie **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted! (Sep 13th)

Memoirs
http://nathalie-memoirs.blogspot.com/2010/09/caged-or-free.html
As you may know, Carly is taking a much-deserved break from hosting or co-hosting this and other memes. I'm going to be holding down the fort on the Round Robin Photo Challenges and the Weekend Assignment, so please continue to stop by and participate. While the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot is on hiatus, I'm hosting another little meme instead. I call it

Karen's Quest and Question
The idea is to post exactly one photo on the assigned topic, and to give a one-sentence answer to a related question. The first topic is Bunnies. Please check it out!

Karen

8 comments:

Linda said...

Such a nice variety of fences! The first picture shows just about every variety possible!

Jama said...

I love the first shot, Karen. Everything's being fenced in.

I've just reposted mine, apparently the one being put on schedule didn't come out so had to do it again. Hope you like it.

Unknown said...

Nice post Karen, quite a collection you have there! Sorry I didn't get around to playing this week, hope to be there next time!

Rich

Gattina said...

Wow, that's a lot of fences, I don't know why I only thought about garden fences, lol !

Carly said...

Hi karen

I really enjoyed the pics of the planes. So fascinating! Every once in a while I make the trek down to Alameda, to the old navel base, to see the planes they still have around. This entry inspires me to go back next month and do some photography. Thanks for the spark! Besides being a place with a rich history, it has gorgeous views of San Francisco. :) Perhaps there is a challenge idea in there somewhere! ;)

ellen b. said...

What a menagerie of fences. It's nice that your dog is safe behind his fence. Have a great week!

Mairie said...

I love the idea of how useless some of these fences are - is it a fence if it doesn't do it's job ? :)

Annette said...

Those are some wonderful stories to go along with your fence photos.