- sheet lightning illuminating the sky like a backdrop
- lighting bugs twinkling one by one in the gloaming, in tiny galaxies in a child’s bottle
- fireworks fountaining into a humid night sky above a sweaty crowd, above a glimmering skyline
- water from a sprinkler fountaining around children, droplets flying, slip and slides and snow cones
- a rainbow arcing above the city, a thunderhead hemming in the prairie, ponderous as a mountain
- watermelon juice tracking sticky down a boy’s face and arms and chest, popsicles, corn dogs and funnel cakes
- concentric ripples on a dusky pond at evening, cicadas
- summer corn and sweet tea, fried chicken and washers, lawn chairs and grills
- sundresses and cut-offs, flip flops and bare feet
- festivals and mosh pits, coolers and canoes, road trips
- bear cubs and redbirds
I could go on. But hopefully these images of summer help you get an idea of the wide open scope of the next photo contest on the Dassler Effect, wide as prairie. Summer truly is an amazing season. I encourage you to add your own iconic images of summer in the comments and let’s make this collective brainstorm a thunderhead.
“Lightning in a Bottle: Capturing Summer”
In reflecting on my list, I realize that it is extraordinarily Midwestern. That is where I live, so thus it is. But as difficult as it may be I will encourage the judges to think broadly about images which evoke summer and perhaps your comments will help in doing this. Such even handed judging will be a tall order, in some ways, but we’ll give it a go.