Today’s Photo Friday theme is Darkness. Given I’m basically a diurnal photographer whose digicam takes disappointing nighttime shots, I have very few photos of darkness. Dipping deep into my photo archives, I settled upon this shot from last year’s Community Night: the night before October’s annual Pumpkin Festival when crews are still setting up the huge jack-o-lantern towers and only the locals are cruising the Friday night streets. If you compare this nighttime shot of the Pumpkin Festival with the daytime photos I’ve posted, you’ll see that the mood after dark is definitely different. The nocturnal scene is more primal and atavistic, as if Keene’s “community” were really a primitive tribe gathered around a pagan campfire.

In a word, I really should get out more. Downtown Keene after dark is a quaint scene, with white lights sparkling from Main Street trees and well-kept shop displays beckoning, beacon-like, from windows. Instead of cruising Keene’s darkened streets, though, I’m usually home in my cocoon, curled cavelike in my clean, well-lighted nest while darkness prowls outside alone.