In my day, it was tetherball. Our common playground game, that is. So this picture came about one day and I had to find out what this sculpture on a stick is called. Well, the common playground game today is Funnel Ball. According to WikiPedia, Funnel ball is a common playground game in use today. A giant funnel, roughly 5ft in diameter with a 45 degree pitch, is placed atop a post. The funnel is traditionally made of fiberglass and usually painted white. 'Round these parts, the funnels are painted orange, which provides all kinds of contrast possibilities for my eyes. The challenge here, in my opinion was the restraint exercised in the use of the color orange. The color provides the effect on its own, so my job was to let it appear natural and let the color do the work without external controls or enhancements. In pre-visualizing this image it was kept in mind that warm colors advance toward the eye while the cooler colors recede.

Funnel Ball +2 -1 ©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved GeoTag:  36.081387° N, 95.891586° W

To continue with the funnel ball explanation, the exits of the funnel are four 1ft diameter holes or tubes, projectedparallel to the ground, and 90 degrees from each other. Play consistsof tossing a basketball or small medicine ball into the mouth of thefunnel and waiting for it to exit through one of the holes. Each holeis marked with a point value, 2, 4, 6 and 8 points. The ball usuallyprocesses around inside the funnel for a short time, making the outcomeof the shot nearly random. Shots which exit through a desired hole arerare because they require incredible accuracy, and because the targetis somewhat hidden. There is no formal score to which games are played,and games can be played with high score winner or low score winner.Both team and "every-player-for-her/himself" games are commonplace. Thanks for taking the time to view this photograph.