Honey Salvadori-- Hits a Home Run

"I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it." -- Author unknown

"Citizen journalism is about being in the right place at the right time." --Honey Salvadori

"Professional photography is about having the insight and analysis to know how to report a story and get beyond the superficial."  --Honey Salvadori

 Yesterday, over 2100 viewers submitted their photos to a local Fox News station. More yet came into the archives of the ABC and NBC and CBS affiliates.

But the real story did not come from the network affiliates rather, they came from the TxDot cameras that the affiliates aired or were pulled up on personal computers, notebooks and iphones in the hands of individuals. First came a day of sleet, freezing fog, mixed with freezing rain. That was a typical Texas nightmare on the roads. The next day came the light, fluffy, powder dry snow fall. That was just a pure nighmarish experience amplified.

Even the television stations put their "Reed Timmer" type "Intimedator" trucks on the road. Driving from miles south to miles north of the metroplex only to find that the 40-car pileup was only 17-car and later confirmed to be 15 cars total. Well, I guess if you count the two semi-tractor trailer rigs in the mess, the 17 number would hold water. But the TxDot cameras were the thing to watch. Seeing adult men and women on 2-3-4 and even 5 high tier flyways stuck-- get out of their cars-- and walk around on the roadways of major interstate highways was insane. To make things even more insane was to see cars turn around on the ramps and drive in the opposite direction thinking that they were going to get down and out of their current situation. Even police cars. Others, just choose to put their cars in reverse and back down the ramps with on-coming traffic coming at them.

Nothing proved to me more about how to spend federal highway dollars more usefully than this past Friday afternoon at the movies watching all that unfold. What needs to settle over any area that has traffic problems albeit congestion, winter weather, tornados, floods, hurricane, sandstorms or landslides is a massive educational program. It is obvious that there is little common in common sense. Too many school children have been graduated with 12-years of political correctness, wording of the pledge of allegiance, bringing cupcakes to school, dress codes, not allowed to bring medication and turn it over to the school nurse, or which teacher should be allowed to carry a handgun rather than teaching the basic reading, {W}riting and {A}rithmetic in school.

No one can get beyond the superficial anymore. One can have all the insight that there is to have but unless there is a fundamental element of not just having a degree but have a whole lot more  (and I mean more) thought of insight as to what to do with it once it is awarded, society becomes  more diluted. We really are not as smart as we think we are. It's a falsehood of education, big time. Take the teacher that must use her own money to buy supplies for her class verses the coach at the school that doesn't have to worry about outfitting his team with the latest fashions from feet to head and top to bottom. What is wrong with our educational system? How did we get so far off the basics?

I didn't have to use a single expressway ramp!!

I haven't been as cold talking pictures as I was with this one!

It's a known fact that photography sharpens and trains the eye. A photographer begins to look at the world much differently later on than early on, but it all starts at the very beginning of picking up a camera and looking through the view finder. As Honey said in her interview with Alamy, "citizen journalism is being in the right place at the right time", but seeing what you actually see, is a learned experience that most of us Americans are missing, while the rest of the world is not.

02March2015: corrected a previously edited sentence that did not remove the old error but incorporated it in the new correction.  "It's a known fact that photography training the eye." It should have read: "It's a known fact that photograph sharpens and trains the eye."

Maggie One and Maggie Two

When the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge was announced several years ago, one thinks what's in the name? In this case it was a Hunt as in Hunt Oil or the patriarch of the Hunt family and beautiful Mt. Vernon ( an exact duplicate of the original) home at White Rock Lake.  But admittedly, even with searching for some help, when the second bridge was announced and the name was Margaret McDermott, it was a bit more work to burn an image on my mind. Philanthropist. Now it rings a bell.

True, the movers and the shakers of Dallas are all involved with the bridge project as it is part of the Trinity River Corridor Project, a non-profit to development along the Trinity River. And some of those movers and shakers can be found on the board of the Trinity River Corridor Project.

While the Margaret McDermott bridge has been downsized ( it's now, just the Margaret McDermott  bike and pedestrian portion ) and was almost axed when the economy went farther down river, it was saved after TxDOT said that the bridge over I-30 would be built, even if they had to do the engineering. That jolted a few and it wasn't long until a deal was reached to scale back but never-the-less still have Santiago Calatrava design the walkways and bikeways across the second bridge.

 Actually, the feeling is that Margaret McDermott got the better part of the deal in that the bridge is over the Trinity on a major interstate highway. It will have a pedestrian

The unofficial start to work on Maggie Two

The completed Maggie One

Note the angle of the boring on Maggie Two

and bike crossing that Maggie One doesn't have and it will be more in the center of activity when the project is complete. Sometimes, second in number isn't really that bad of a deal.

So, yesterday, while looking at the work that had been done since August when the equipment first appeared on scene, pilings are never a pretty part of the job, but they are the "bedrock" of the project (pardon the pun) the call of the Nikon hit me. When Maggie One was being built, over 100 weekends were spent photographing the construction process. That weighed heavy when the thought of another long-term project registered on the brain. The purpose of the trip yesterday was to stand on the west levee where Maggie One could be seen in its completed state and then look at downtown from where this project was digging into the ground (another non-intended pun) and get a feel if it would be worth the effort.

 There is a whole lot of satisfaction in one of these projects but not a whole lot of money, if any when you factor in gas, time and added dust and dirt to be cleaned from a camera professionally. It does cost money to do one of these things. As my maternal grandmother once told me: "Nothing in life is ever, ever free." She was very right on target and that phrase still rings out in me even today. To document changes in an urban setting can be rewarding. It also can be a drain on emotions, resources of time and money not to mention aches and pains, cuts and scratches. heat stroke and many more.

But, as I stood on the levee looking at the workers going about the daily task of such a project and looking back at Maggie One, then the future Maggie Two, it was realized that I had to give it a shot, or two, since another pun worked its way in the text. While this is kind  of written tongue and cheek, it is urban history that can make a difference, even if that difference is ever so small. Much like the history that answered a question just two years ago about where Air Force One had been parked at Love Field when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President. It was a photo that gave the answer. An urban photo. Lots was learned in doing the Maggie One Project. Certainly, more can be learned from the Maggie Two. Provided health and money issues remain status quo.

So, Maggie One :  Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (complete and open)
       Maggie Two: Margaret McDermott Bridge ( unofficially under way, August,2013 )


Link: http://dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/trinity_river.html

Link: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy

12/29/13: correction of omitted text.