Cowboys, Cement Trucks and Undecided

Well, today was actually a fun day, but it was rather slow pickings for something not in previous news cycles. Some days are like that. Still, I had a interesting discussion about photography basics and I even saw a current syllabus given out at a local college. The photographer that was taken the course was understanding of the requirements of the course and  had already shot some of the items. One of his images was very good. What I did find amazing was that the syllabus mentioned the "golden hour" but totally failed to explain what the golden hour was and how it played an important part of photography. The golden hour is technically what is called, "civil twilight", a period after the sun has set but before the Vail of darkness moves in over the light being reflected into space that gives enough light in a spectrum that makes everything "pop" in a picture. Civil twilight occurs twice daily. After the sun sets, and before the sun actually appears over the horizon in the morning, and is that light that lights up where we can see but the suns rays have not reached us just yet. Personally, I like the morning civil twilight more than the end of the day civil twilight. It's just a preference, but it is important to know when it appears and how long it will last. That is published by the Naval Observatory and is a program like sun rise times or moon rise times etc.,etc.

I was photographing a line of rusted panels along an industrial street which is not paved. There is a cement plant at the far end and also BNSF tracks where cars are sorted and moved  into the businesses with sidings. My car was already dirty so it really didn't matter that the dust being kicked up by the cement trucks coming in for re-loads was settling over my car. It's going to get washed off tomorrow with heavy rain and storms tomorrow that is part of the system that brought 10-inches of rain to LA and Southern Cal. We are going to get heavy downpours and winds could reach 70 MPH in some of the storms,

In a cloud of dust and a hardy Hi-Ho Cement Truck.

A family member ask if I would take a group picture on their iPhone at a quinceanera. He ask and I always will take a picture. When he thanked me for the picture of the rather large group, I ask if I could take a picture of  the men's hats. This was a nice hat.

This is the road off Harry Hines into the new Parkland Hospital. The building is so massive and a cantilever building also.I really have been studying the building for that perfect shot. I'm zeroing in on a solution but I'm not there yet. This is the small part of the cantilever structure. The main  part of the building is on top of all this and coming this way to the left of the three rows of rooms that can be seen here. From down town  you really get a feel of just how big $1.3 Billion dollars can build in a hospital of 800 rooms--no doubles-- plus all the other services that go with a major trauma center. The county announced that the old Parkland of the JFK era is up for sale. It includes 12 buildings across the street from this new structure. UT Southwestern Medical  is using some of them and of course, they just built the new William Clements Hospital, a 400 bed teaching hospital less than a mile up the road in the west campus of the Medical District

And The Winner This 4th of July Week

In the hay day of Detroit's auto prowess, it wasn't common knowledge, but loyalty customers to a brand could go to a depot lot to select their new cars after their dealer made the appointment.  An example of that process went something like this: You are at your dealer. You want to buy or lease the latest of Detroit's hot new car. The dealer says that it will take 12 weeks to order that car and that doesn't include shipping. But if you were a loyal customer to that dealer, he would send you to a depot lot after making your appointment. You go to the depot lot. They ask what color or what model you were looking for and then load you up in a golf cart and drive you "out back". Out back was a lot about the size of the Nebraska Furniture Marts store and distribution center that opened in The Colony, Texas. That's Texas style. That is about 22-football fields in size. So you say you want a blue car with 4 doors. The cart takes you down to row 47B and as far as the eye could see (so-to-speak) all you could see were blue cars with four doors. In short. on a depot lot, you are going to find what you want. Guar-an-teed.

It's the white one....oh, wait....

Or, the red ones.....

Oh, it's blue........ What's it's a KW,no it's a  Peterbilt. OH, so many colors, so many makes.....thank goodness I didn't find the Diamond Rio dealer!.They are all winners!!

It's been a while since I enjoyed the thrills and excitement of such an adventure. Egos ran higher then than they do today. But during the last month going down to the bridge complex to check on the water levels of the Trinity River, that  old excitement began to return.  Trip after trip I would pass this stretch of roadway. That is where I would slow down, stay out of traffic and just gaze at what I was seeing. It was awesome.

Yesterday, I make that trip again to see the waters finally receding after a month since Mother Nature turned off the taps. That stretch of roadway is Irving Boulevard beyond the renamed part known as Riverside Drive. It's beyond the Market District. It's beyond the Medical District. It's about midway between downtown Dallas and downtown Irving, but oh, it's that "Miracle Mile" of big trucks.

That miracle mile of logistics inhales and exhales commerce on such a big scale, it virtually goes unnoticed as cars whiz by on this stretch of road.  Only old marketing executives could appreciate finding such a gold mine and that creative approach to business stirs again from  terrain memory.