Everyone Loves Freebies

Seems everyone is offering free Photoshop textures and backgrounds these days. It's a shameless gimmick, actually, and I'm dismayed and disheartened by all the attention-grubbing hacks out there who resort to such blatant panderism.

But then I thought, "Wait a sec. I'm an attention-grubbing hack, and I love blatant panderism!" So decided to join the others of my ilk and post my own hi-res textures and backgrounds, free for your personal or commercial use.

There are nine images in all, and they're available in jpeg format in sizes up to 1024 x 768 pixels.

Read on...

All of these photos were taken in one location: Big Brutus in West Mineral, Kansas. Big Brutus is the second largest electric shovel in the world. It's out of commission now, but in its day, it could load and unload 90 cubic yards of what coal miners call "overburden" - that 65-foot-deep layer of inconvenient stuff that the rest of us call dirt - in under a minute.

Now, I don't know if you can form a mental image of 90 cubic yard of dirt, but I'll give you hint: it's about the same volume as four Dodge Caravans stacked 2 by 2, soccer moms not included. Take it from me, that's a lot of dirt. I just planted a peach tree in our back yard, a task that required the removal and replacement of about 1/8th cubic yard of "overburden." It took me a half-hour, and my back is killing me.

The folks at the Big Brutus Visitor's center allow you to climb inside this thing. They even let you sit in the operator's seat, a good 30 feet off the ground. They won't let you climb up the 150 ft boom, however. Something about falling and dying, I think. They're funny about that.

But inside, it's a wonderland for machine junkies like me. They've removed the giant, half-dozen or so electric motors from inside the big orange box, but all the cables, wheels, brackets, and electrical connection doohickey thingies are still there, still greased up and rusty, just like I like it. Don't take that the wrong way.

If you're ever swinging through the southeast portion of our state (hey, it could happen) it's worth the visit just to feel the jaw-dropping immensity of it all. Even my mother-in-law had fun.

So pop on over to my Flikr account for a heapin' helpin' of some lovin' from the Badger's oven. If you use any of these images in your work, I'd love a comment or email.

Now back to the drawing board.

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