Cape Canaveral Thirty Years Ago Yesterday

Mast Poles Sing

Wind generated song

Thirty years has passed like it was yesterday. In fact, at that time, with cargo on the ground at Port Canaveral, my telephone conversation with the port director was interrupted when he said, "I'll call you back, I think the shuttle just blew up!" He was looking out his window at Cape Canaveral as the shuttle lifted off. 

That got me to remembering 9-11 and being at the mail box when the maintenance guy said that the first tower had just collapsed. Rushing back to the apartment, turning on the television just in time to see the updates on the television and then, the collapse of the second tower happened.

On November 22,1963, found me in my high school senior history class when from the principals office, the school PA system started broadcasting the live radio coverage from Dallas of the assassination of President Kennedy with no precursor announcements--just the sound of the broadcast coming into every classroom over all three floors of classes.  My history teacher, lived around the corner of where my first house was purchased twelve years later.

The irony is that if I was not in Dallas, the days event came from Dallas. The Port Canaveral  Port Authority is within eye-sight of what is now called, The Kennedy Space Center, and if that wasn't enough, the link of world trade was also in the mix, so in someway, the three main events in history were tied to either Dallas or world trade, or both, collectively for me. But even more weird was  the fact that when the another shuttle broke up on reentry, it happened right over me here in Dallas with parts landing to the east and slightly south.

Trying to figure out how all this fits together in some logical way still has a piece missing to make it all fit together. Maybe, even a couple of pieces are missing. But, I have worked out odd dreams before. Able to make sense of them, sometimes maybe as much as a year later is an awesome experience within itself. The point is, your brain is wired to answer some of these questions that life ask, but you have to be patient and let you brain work on its own. Then, when you least expect it, you have what I call, "a Eureka Point" and it comes to you as clear as day.

The main point being this: Never give up on learning. Always try to learn something new every day. Look for things that generate new learning, but listen well. Today, I heard song being generated by the wind. I had forgotten that wind could do that. Although, when the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge was under construction, it was pointed out that on super windy days, the cable stays would vibrate from the wind causing sound to be generated. I have listened before but at the size of those bridge cables, it does take a very strong wind to produce any sound at the bridge. Yet, today, the wind was generating song with the vibrating of the stays and between the mast at the marinas at White Rock. I leaned on the hood of the car and listened to the hissing and singing of song coming from every sailboat in dry dock. Over an hour passed when the trance was finally broken and I realized it was time to go start dinner.

On the Great Lakes, it was not so uncommon, but here in Dallas, things had to come together to get that sound and today was the day that nature produced song. I recorded it on my phone. Now, I must find a way to put that recording into a audio file and see if I can upload it here. This might be my new thing to learn for the day. In the meanwhile, here are a couple of shots of the mast at the marinas.

♫ In Search of Eight Clydesdale's and a Big Red Wagon ♫

It was a fun afternoon with sunshine and above seasonal norms at 64 F. The afternoon started with driving to City Place and finding a parking spot. With that done, my wait on the M-Line Trolley didn't take but about thirty minutes. When the tolley arrived, it was one of the subs that is being used while some of the old cars are being refurbished. It was not a problem at all. Regardless of what you ride, the ride is free. The coin box is used but for tips. Not every ride is  but most of the trips end with a George Washington.

It was off for a fun ride down to Klyde Warren Park. When the park first opened my interest was very much pro-park  and the success was overwhelming to say the least. However, over time, it because a park that just was not for me. There were to many restrictions and most of all, being a freelance photographer, unless you were "local media--meaning the TV stations and the Dallas Morning News," you could not sell your pictures commercially. Well, sales of  that kind of pictures commercially don't happen any way. They are listed as "editorial use" and those are not considered commercial because of the limited use. Still, it is a bug that sticks in my craw and always will. It reminds me of high school days when the clicks at school ruled your every social move. The Dallas Morning News has their newspapers in the racks at the "reading room" in the park. That could explain some of the restricted postings. The other one is that if you purchase a permit, you can take pictures and even sell them commercially. (I've seen hundreds sold from there that way.) Still, it reminds me of a very bully click and this photographer wants no part of that bully what ever it is attitude. Freedom of the press does not apply at Klyde Warren unless you pay ( kind of like the bully collecting lunch money from the weak kids). So, walking the fringes (only) is the routine.  Shooting from the street side and not on their property works best. Interestingly enough, fringe shots usually turn out better than if  in the park itself.

After walking the 5-acre deck park from east to west on the south and then west to east on the north half the trolley would be back and time to ride back to McKinney and Allen to Big Al's to await the Clydesdale's arrival. Not knowing from which direction the hitch team would be coming, the late afternoon shadows were quickly moving in and even if the team is the world famous Clydesdale's from Budweiser's Farm in St. Louis, it was learned a long time ago, with purely respect, using a inboard or hot shoe flash is a no-no. And none was used.

Ironically, the hats are St. Louis Teams! And--the hover board has not burned up! Thanks guys for the picture. It was my pleasure! Enjoy.

The lead pulls have a very genuine personality their very own.

Sun set on a perfect weather day in late January from White Rock Lake

When the motorcycle cops turned onto McKinney, it was only 20-30 yards before they pulled to a halt for pictures with well-wishers and first-timers seeing such a beautiful team. Then, like a swarm of bees defending a hive, people with iPhone were holding their arms above the crowds and no one could get a picture. Actually, for a moment the thinking was that this is gonna get out of hand. One of the senior officers on the wagon had a somewhat worried look on his face, too.Still, a few good shots were had and that made the fun afternoon well worth the effort and time. Thanks In Bev Anheuser- Busch for bringing the beautiful animals to Dallas.

Red Shoulder

A beautiful bird of prey. The Red Shoulder is quickly becoming a bird that I like more than the larger hawks. These just have a regal flare about them. It's rather difficult to explain but they are just different  than the others some how.  The nest site was found. It is made from some very big sticks, too. Woven into the fork of one of the old trees at White Rock it could almost be a mini-eagle nest. Frankly, the nesting site was nearly missed. At first, it seemed the big Red Tail was using it but as it turned out from over an hour of observing, the red-shoulder took flight and sat down on the nest. Now, during the course of the breeding season, close attention will need to be paid. The excitement is already building.

Be sure to click on one of the images to enlarge the entire series for a better look-see.

It's Election Time Once Again

Yes, it is election time once again. There are all sorts of  issues, array of candidates and  even tax and bond issues that will come to event time this November. Already I'm getting phone calls and surveys and polls about how my voting will be done. Democrat? Republican? Green Party? Libertarian? . The interesting thing is not how my vote will be cast, but what kind of call will this call be? Is it a real person? A robot call? It becomes a game of amusement so answering them always happens.

My attitude at one time was that voting was my business and not something for anyone else to be concerned with. Then, it came to me that it really made no difference if my answers were confusing or cluttered with weeds on purpose. It was no different than our government developing stealth finishes for our air force. Why couldn't my answers about voting or religion preferences be like a weed patch or a jungle? If someone wanted to find that out, make them work for it rather than just giving them the refined answer. Since that eureka point arrived, it's just been fun to answer the phone. When it comes to religion, being main-stream is important to me and being a good ole Presbyterian is where you will find me, cut grass, weeded flower beds and edged sidewalks. There might even be a white picket fence in there somewhere being main stream Presbyterian.  Politics?  Well, it is back to having fun again! If you use a drone to look into my weed garden of politics, you are going to find a well-entrenched Republican who votes Democratic when I'm mad! Or is it a Die-hard Democrat who votes Republican when I'm mad?Oh, well, I've got until November to remember.

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Sweeping Up The Dust

Well, this morning, we were able to call the remodeling of the website complete and while we are still sweeping up a bit of dust and picking up a few scraps and leftovers here and there, our main website has been published and is up and running.

We found a bunch of things that really needed revamping where codes had become corrupt by hook, crook or default. We cleaned up the last one of those this morning. Been so busy, the second cup of coffee is still in the coffeepot!

We don't do encryption because when you link to the sites that handle ordering information, they are secure sites already. You can always tell by the little padlock and the http {S}  If we sold directly from our site, "yes, by all means we would be encrypted" . We don't ask for your credit card info or your social security or anything like that. That is the main reason for encryption in the first place. The shadowy stuff, we want no part of anyway, so we keep the site open. It is prowled by a company that searches for our images that have been hijacked from our site. If they find one of our images that have not been licensed by us or by our agents, then they will be knocking to collect the license fee. If you use an image that we licensed through our agent or any of the stock houses we use, you already have that license and we know what image we have licensed. So..... subscribing to the the old theory, "keep it simple, stupid" we do!

We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading our blog and our little dry humor here and there. Yes, we will ruffle a feather or two now and then. Look at our latest image on the blog about the Love Birds--Hawk Style and even the hawks feathers were ruffled. Imagine being those hawks and having 100 photographers pointing a camera at you all day. By days end, you would have some ruffled feathers,too, and not just from the wind.

This month has been our best month for readership ever. We are pleased about that. We hope we have made a few smiles, provided you with a look at nature in the Dallas Metroplex as well as keeping up with some new buildings or sights or transportation changes. Since we started our site and reflecting back on old images, many of the things we photographed are not even there anymore. The biggest example is, of course, Texas Stadium, the previous home of the Cowboys. More subtle things have changed such as the relocation of the Union Pacific Big Boy to Frisco from Fair Park and Reunion Arena that was used to house those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Time moves on and photography captures the past. It makes history visually which stirs emotions both good and bad. It enhances the mind and it quenches the human need and want for more.

So, until next year or the need to revamp the site again. You can revisit the navigation and learn how it can take you to our other sites if you want to expand you viewing pleasures. At the beginning of this year, we have over 3,000 images accessible from our main website. Our image totals per week are running right at 1,000 images. Obviously, not all of them make it to the web .Currently, that's about 0.07 percent after edits for one reason or another. Sometimes, we accidentally shot the ground if our bag hits the sh

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utter button. Yes, that counts in the annual total of 51,078. But we have fun!! That's the main thing when you peers like David Bowie begin to appear in the daily obit columns. Of if you see us out and about and you think we are mad or grumpy or irritating.....perception on your part might be totally wrong.  We certainly hope you can find both joy and enjoyment on our site. We do this for you, or readers!

Love Birds--Hawk Style

 Headed out about 11 after packing a lunch.  Meds were ready at the pharmacy. Needed to cap off the tank at the gas station and do a little fill-in grocery shopping. Heading for White Rock. Drove to Dreyfuss Club, parked and took my lunch to the picnic tables overlooking the lake.

Just as the last celery stick, red grapes and peanut butter was eaten, something caught my eye in the trees between the tables and The Bath House Cultural Center. Packing up my lunch utility materials and putting them in the trunk of the car, I got the camera out and headed toward the tree, thinking it was probably nothing more than a squirrel. About that time, a guy walking his dog called out to me and said,"that's a pretty big bird." I said to him that I was just checking it out because I didn't know if it was a bird or squirrel. He confirmed again that it was a bird. Just then, I spotted a second hawk in the big sycamore in the middle of a small thicket and said to the guy as the bird was flying toward the second bird. Then, he saw both birds,too.

Continuing to walk toward the thicket, I was shooting as I walked. I would stop and shoot, watch, walk a few steps. Stop.Shoot. It was an amazing site to see both of them setting side-by-side out on a branch at the top of the tree with one of the best views for hawk eye anywhere at White Rock. Plenty of over site of the territory. A meadow of prairie grasses for rodents. Water, fishing, insects.  Plenty of small birds. It is a perfect territory to nest and it looks like the two have been discussing where this years nest will be if they are nesting for the first time.  They might have a nest from last year. That is only a guess, however. I've seen a lot of single red shoulder hawks lately and the big red tail, but this is a first to see the two together as a pair. That was the shot of the day. With that, it was time to head out to the pharmacy and grocery.   As a sidebar of information, I paid $01.629 for gas at Kroger's. It really was a good day.

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Click on any image to enlarge all three.

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Three, Four Birds

Buteo Lineatus

Great Blue Heron

Lake Stock

Yesterday, was a low cloud, foggy-type day. When you consider that we see the sun way more than most places, it seems like we have had a lot of gloom-type days recently. Still, life goes on and you take it in stride and wait for the sun to shine again.

It was the second day to see the coyote out hunting. I found the place where the red shouldered hawk (oops sorry, I would not want to misrepresent the species... but hey, it was a red-shouldered hawk) claims his territory. In the past several days, he has been in one of three places.

What was so interesting was that the hawk and the coyote were near the same tree and in the one tree that I had done a post about (Haunting old trees of White Rock) a Great Blue Heron stood on the top of the tree. The coyote was hard to spot at first. Only movement gave him away. He was after a mouse or a vole or some type of rodent. And, he would pounce on it, then pounce again as it made its get-away. Interesting to watch, as the hawk and the heron were doing the same thing...watching the coyote.

On the other side of the lake, the  water birds were following the fish and drifting. The contrast against the grey low clouds as the dew points and air temps were close together, also gave a backdrop  that made the contrast of bird feathers and colors stand out. So, it wasn't a bad day for viewing wildlife forms. The day before, I was talking with one of the guys from the water filtration building as the coyote was in the meadow of the old fish hatchery. He had been watching him from the parking lot in front of the filtration building, too. A couple, on a nature walk caused the coyote to duck into the thickets and disappear that day. When I ask them if they had seen the coyote that they had just passed they said that they had not but that they had heard him moving. So the verify was upped to three humans plus me.

The old and very efficient Red Tail Hawk was seen on 78 at the Arboretum parking lot where the drive to Winfrey Point begins. As I was turning, he came in to land on the old tree on the corner. His wingspan is massive and his tail fan was at least as wide as both hands with fingers spread apart and thumbs touching. I parked and walked back but he was chased out of the tree by a tree full of starlings or black birds. The limb where he was did reveal a great hanging bird's nest, however. It was one of the largest that I have seen at White Rock. (You get the picture, pardon the pun.) My focus was on the Red-Tail. So, it was a gloomy day but great for watching the reds at White Rock (red-shouldered [medium size] and Red-Tail [Large size]). Have not seen any Kestrel's (small) hawks, though. Another day. Another discovery. I'll include the bird nest on another post. It is an interesting display.



09Jan2016: edit birds to bird's

The Year of the Hat?

No, I don't have the Chinese years mixed up. I know it is the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac,  but my year in the Chinese Zodiac is the Year of the Dog and that does not come up until 2018. So this year, it came to me that one of my Chinese friends had allowed me to take a picture of his hat when I was doing textures earlier last summer. Today, a fisherman, who happened to also be Chinese, was wearing a like-fashion hat. Having a bit of fun, I said that I would take a picture of  'that' hat. He agreed and I got the shot.

Later, thinking about the other hat and then this hat, since my Chinese Zodiac year isn't until 2018, I'd make this year, by proxy, the year of the hat(s). Already it's off to a good start with two hats and I've got the rest of this year and all of 2017  to find 10 more. Then, when the Year of the Dog arrives, I'll have a calendar of hats for each month of the year!

Hat No.1
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Hat No. 2
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Questions of the New Year

The new year is barely underway and already two questions are knocking on my skull. Two days, two questions. The new year is already setting the course of the rest of the year. My dread was that this year was going to be a somewhat confused year.  A political mess to be sorted out by November just didn't seem possible and yet...somehow, it will be sorted out come November.

Tonight watching Charlie Rose, Neil De Grasse Tyson was giving an educate interviewed. Charlie Rose ask him what would be his most important question to ask about the universe and his answer was something that has been answered much the same way already by a photographer. Tyson said his question would be the question that has not yet been ask because we are not smart enough to ask it yet. The photographer had been ask what is his best picture and his reply was the one that had not yet been taken.

The first question that came to me in reverse order here would be one that is a more powerful one on all fronts. The story behind the question has been tested for more than a few days now and only yesterday did the actual question form and begin pounding on my skull.

The story that formed the base of this question is:  A grad student at UCLA has been going to the San Diego Zoo every day for more than a year as part of his research for his doctorate. He had, in the beginning, ask such a simple question: how does a monkey peel a banana? The results has proven almost everyone has been doing it wrong. These past few days as I ate my daily banana, I peeled the banana the way the monkey peeled his. As a result of the grad students research, my first question of the year came about.

There is no question that after having tried it myself for several days the monkey has a winner. But, that still does not answer my question that all this fuss generated. In fact, now, a second part to the original question has come into play. So before I can ask the perplexing question, there is now a second part to be answered to the original question. That answer will just have to wait. The only way that I can get the answer that I need will require going to the Dallas Zoo and maybe even the Ft. Worth Zoo. You see, part of the answer is a visual answer. The only way that I can get that visual answer is go to the zoo. My best picture is one that hasn't been taken yet and I have a project and a plan! It is a once-in-a-lifetime shot. It will take some planning. Seeing an orangutan (on YouTube  Orangutan) fall to the floor and roll in laughter when he watched a magician do a magic trick that fooled him was priceless. This might be the only project on my agenda this year. But if I get the shot that I am hoping to get, it will have been a very good year. 

Happy 2016 From Dallas

New Year is about reflecting on the past and hopes for the future. The older I get it seems to me that the reflecting list grows longer than the hopes for the future list. It is not a negative statement by any means.  It's all based in fact. What also seems to stack the deck on the reflective side is the archive of this blog. While reflecting, some of the past articles even made me laugh. My, how times change perspectives. Then, finally, if not being struck again by one of my amazing eureka points, it hit me that the hopes for the future is by design a short list. It's always going to be a short list. Peace, Hope and Joy. Three words over many, but powerful words at that. I did gleam a couple of things from the review of past January's list. Rather timely, but still in a different way that they were and are now viewed.

One,the latest tornadoes and the path of destruction and death that befell the peninsula at Lake Ray Hubbard generated my archives and brought up an article about the area that was struck hard. Bad Karma, some say. Yes, the city of Dallas sale on the sly--made to look like the voters had approved the sale when it was a legal manipulation of words that tricked a lost of voters--of Robinson Park to the city of Rowlett. That area, Dalrock and I-30 was where the most damage and the most deaths occured .The question of the landmark water tower in line of  the 13-mile on-the-ground- tornadoes for a sale of land does make a story that movies have been made from.

Another post came up about an old college professor, now deceased, that was an early mentor for me. He had written so many translation on the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, loved American Jazz, was a connaisseur of fine brandy and quoted Shelley repeatedly. The most famous of his likes could be a tribute to those that lost their lives on I-30.  

Death is the veil which 

Those who live call Life.

They sleep, and it is lifted.

Two, there were a lot of broken hearts in Arlington on New Year's Eve. There were a lot of joyous fans as well. Like a stop light, there were green hearts and red hearts. The green hearts go back to Ingham County to re-group.

A red-tailed bird ( I would not want to misrepresent, especially to those of 600mm lens, the experts in all fields. )

The last full year for Obama in the White House. He will have to fly on this old bird because the Military has announced that the new Boeing 747-800's will have to wait because of budget  restraints. Don has his own plane and helicopter, anyway. Is that The Omen? Nah, that must be the 40-year old film by that name that I'm thinking about.

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