Lafayette | Alex Farris Photo Blog

Phew. No drama about a winter storm delaying a post. Just some photos of a Living Way of the Cross, an Easter egg hunt, and a Purdue basketball loss. Enjoy.

Happy spring-related festivities!

Lorenzo Gutierrez carries a wooden cross as Julio Avila spits water at him during the Living Way of the Cross on Friday, March 29, 2013, outside St. Boniface Catholic Church in Lafayette. The church's annual Living Way of the Cross portrays the fourteen stations of the story of Jesus' death.

I'll have an entry for my fourth week at the Journal & Courier up tomorrow, but before I put that up, I have another story to tell you.

Last night, I got the urge to drive an hour out of Lafayette and do some stargazing. Even before I started my photo gig, I mapped out a place and a time to go out into the country and ponder the immensity of the universe. I found, on Google Maps, a place south of Brook, Ind., that I had thought would be relatively dark. There, I would get freaked out about how many stars were above me, get used to them, and take some cool photos.

There was one problem: Despite how out-of-the-way my spot was, I couldn't get away from the light pollution. Indiana is not the Boundary Waters: There are some aspects of civilization, whether cities or one-traffic-light towns or large farms, everywhere you go. It resulted in a yellow haze near the horizon as I looked in almost every direction.

I ended up having a second problem, though...

Updated 2014.07.16

f/2.8, 175s, ISO 200. Taken south of Brook, Ind. at 11:14pm EDT.

After a weekend in Chicago celebrating a college housemate's birthday and watching a thrilling IU basketball game, I planned to come back to Lafayette with time to go to Starbucks and upload a blog entry. Then Winter Storm Virgil barreled through Indiana, ensuring that I would stay in park on I-65 for about ten minutes and average about 20 m.p.h. on an interstate with a speed limit of 70 m.p.h. So, the blog entry didn't go up last night.

But now, here it is. I'll be sure include inclement weather in my plans for next week's entry.

Hunter Frank, 8, examines an egg by the light of the sun during an Easter egg hunt on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at the Beck Lane Boys and Girls Club in Lafayette. During the hunt, children were told to gather a maximum of 10 eggs and that two eggs in the hunt contained a quarter redeemable for larger prizes. Frank made sure not to get too many eggs so that he could pick up an egg with a quarter.