So this exercise of thinking about infinity, and by association thinking about repetition, has been creatively interesting, but filled with failure. I’ve tried to capture things which strike me as they repeat. Mostly, these have been pretty mundane examples of repeating structures. The folding pipes row on row of the radiator, or the doors between cars on the train; imaging these repetitious things which trick our minds into believing that there is a forever. Perhaps that is a glum view, and I should amend myself and say that we are fooled into believing we can glimpse eternity. Whatever your perspective on that weighty thought, it remains that I have been largely unsuccessful in my attempts.
Radiator interior
I am every inch an amateur, with no skills or credentials. I’m just a guy who likes to stop and take pictures sometimes, and I have fun playing with them in Instagram. I know that I am taking liberties, using the internet and these democratising tools to participate in things, so I don’t know what some people think about that. I think that means I should expect to fail. At just about everything I try to do with a camera, I should expect there to be failures, especially if there’s an artistic thought in my head about it. Failure is a good thing though, because then you know what does not work, what is not right, even though you may not know why it’s not right. And besides, I’m still having fun, so, it’s okay.
. . . maybe when the roof is finished, this will work. . .
Sometimes, failing when you’re trying to do one thing lets you find something else. I’ve been in kind of a weird headspace all day, because I’m trying to get ready to start working night shifts and I had to be up all day. Now I’m writing to stay up all night (yeah, good luck with that!) I took the train into Oakville this morning, and I took a few pictures on the way there. I had really hoped to find something better on the train. I have some romantic notions around trains and science, the influence train travel had on Einstein, representing these strange truths of our apparently infinite cosmos. In particular, I had hoped I could line up a shot of the passage between train cars as I rode. As you can see, it didn’t really work out. Too much movement between the cars, and the stepped design just interfered with the shot. All I really accomplished was an impression of what I was going for, and to look like a weirdo to the lady next to the door. *Self High-Five*
Rivets on the train
Nope, not quite
On the way back to Toronto from my mom’s house, I took notice of the line of cars coming at us along the 401. This part of the highway is the busiest in North America, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world. Despite all this, those of you who have used it regularly know that this highway is probably not sufficiently meeting its usage demands. We weren’t at the widest and busiest sections yet, but the constant stream of headlights made for the best repeating pattern I had seen all day. I guess I could say I was looking for some sort of deeper social commentary about the car society, dependence on fossil fuels, failure of infrastructure, but honestly I just wanted to be able to look at that image for a few minutes without it changing, just to see what I thought of it. With my cellphone camera, there was way too much glare to get a good shot of the separate lights, their flares blending into one worm of light along the way. The reflective yellow line looks really cool to me, and I think I got a good sense of motion in the shot. You can tell I had my phone out the window, and I was stretching across my brother’s turkey leftovers as I took the shot, so while I might have wanted to it again, I was already paranoid about dropping my phone on the road. It wasn’t what I was hoping for, but I think it’s kind of neat anyway.
Earlier this week, we shared with you a never-before-seen 
shawnmohr7 