Methodist Outreach

It is the third year now, that the good people at Arapaho United Methodist Church, at the corner of Arapaho and Coit, have allowed me to photograph their pumpkin patch. It's always a great honor to do so. Why? Well, half the sales go their mission program while the other half goes to the Navajo Indian Nation in Arizona,  an outreach mission program of the church. My hat is off to the mission committee and is one of the main reasons that I have plugged their pumpkin patch in this blog. Besides, One of mom's sisters married a Methodist minister and stayed with his congregation in Arkansas for nearly his entire career and mom devoted a lot of time to the Cherokee Nation  in Oklahoma, which was dear to her heart. Funny how things come full  circle. So, go buy your pumpkins at the church's pumpkin patch this year. I'll tell you a little secret  why their patch is set apart from all the others....I can't tell you the secret but I can tell you it's red and has four wheels and a handle. ;<{} If you want a little history on the Navajo Nation , here is a link:     http://www.navajo-nsn.gov/history.htm

Here's some pictures of this years good looking pumpkins, too.

Amen!!

---and the crop looks very, very good.

There are several displays like this one, which is always very creative.

15Oct edit for clarity.

First In-Flight Migration V Sighted

Whooping Cranes and Sand Hill Cranes both migrate over Texas on one of their migration routes south. Flocks are not always massive flocks of hundreds of birds, but a flock or 30 is well within range. Ironically, the migration V was flying directly over the 18/36 runways at DFW. It was beautiful to see natures air force  vectoring over and around one of the busiest airports in the world. Such a sight. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up along with the goosebumps on my arms.

Wishing a larger lens was in my bag but this does confirm the citing. Click on one of the images to enlarge.

They moved with the grace of an airliner as if they were on an approach frequency. Click on the image to enlarge.

A TIME TO GO and A TIME TO PASS

A new island created from the May floods. The pelicans like it.

Look closely to see a couple of faces. Taken 10-6-2015

Yes, there is another face here, too and it was taken 20 miles away about 10 days ago +/- a couple of days

A time to go and a time to pass and the time to pass was the past two days. Going  downtown during this period from all reports was totally  insane. Seeing a couple of movies filmed would have been fun. Seeing the vintage 1963 cars  used in the Franco film would have normally been even  more of a magnet, to wit:

There has been massive traffic jams and not all of it was the Horseshoe Project where I-30 and I-35E mix up the east-west and the north-south traffic. There was also  two movies filming at the same time. One staring James Franco in Dealey Plaza, the other for a television series, so I'm told. The other reason is the 128th run of the State Fair of Texas in  Historic Fair Park. You could not get me to be on either end of Main or Elm or Commerce Streets for nearly any amount of money. Notice that I did leave that option open. That's called covering your bases, I believe. The Rangers are in the playoffs, too, so riding the trains, either Dart or the TRE to Ft.Worth to catch the shuttle to Globe Life Park was out of the question. So, as much as I try to give equal time to the venues that I shoot in normally, this week was just better to let downtown pass at the moment.

There are changes that occur in each of the little venues  and  when you go to check them out you find changes that are constantly evolving. So it's worth the effort to make the circuit on a regular basis. Strange as it is, three years ago statistics found that most of my images that sold were within two miles of home. The last two years that pattern has changed. My biggest sellers are textures.  It ignites that pattern change in my shooting as well. Now,  every shoot does not end until some new textures have been included in the days shoot.

Over my morning coffee, after checking e-mails, the next thing  that I do is to check the list  from several photo stock agencies  as to what they are looking for to fill their customer's  top  searches.
My Project List, an on-going list, it's never completed, comes from those top searches from media moguls that are newspaper, magazine, journals, web  designers, blog writers and many other forms of graphic arts. Just this past week several  of my images turned up in print. It is always a joy to see someone using your work to illustrate their own work.

Total Support of Dallas' Park System Has Now Been Downgraged.

Dallas wrangled the voters a couple of times to get their way-- their way being $31.8 M in cash and an agreement  to get $2M more annually in perpetuity-- in a deal with Rowlett and City Council over tax revenues from the sale of Elgin B. Robertson Park. Two trips to the ballot box got harder to figure out what was really going down with each trip, even after doing the research. At some point it really is easier to believe in the old adage: Don't fight city hall, but my total support of Dallas will be downgraded after this slight of hand. When I saw the first Rowlett rezoning signs I knew the city had done their magic trick.There's another phrase  that could be used, but I was raised with more tact than that.

Accepting the fact that there will be no more photos of a migrating snowy owl; no more watching the guy exercise his 12 foot Python in the open field; no more fantastic shots of sailboarders laying out their chute lines in those grassy fields, is a big disappointment for sure. The increase usage of White Rock Lake has increased lately, but White Rock does not have the open expanse of water that Lake Ray Hubbard has and was accessible as a city park for boaters and fishermen or just a fantastic view of the lake by visitors that pulled off I-30 for a break.

Last week,while making  a trip out to see what was happening a line of cars  and mine were meet with fences. Earlier trips just yielded the re-zoning changes which announced the official sale of discovery. But the latest trip was meet with fences steering you only to the existing marina and boat dock after you figured out what the signs were telling motorist. The rest of the park was totally fenced off now that the sale has gone through.The developer has staked his claim quickly.  At least my vote to keep the park makes me  proud of that fact. It wasn't a jewel so-to-speak. It was a diamond in the rough and Rowlett gets to keep the diamond!

Here are two links to published articles about the pre-sale and the post sale of  Elgin B. Robertson Park.

1.http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/dallas-voters-would-be-wise-to-authorize-parkland-sale.html/

2.http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2015/02/26/dallas-sells-lake-rayhubbard-park-for-31-8m-paves.html

Both articles are a bit murky and one needs to have followed city council broadcast on Wednesdays to see how murky things got.  

Boaters were saying that Dallas simply never took care of the park.

There were people who were stunned the city sold the park. They pointed out situations like this since the sale.

People said they didn't understand the wording on the ballots when they voted to keep the park.One man said he felt that because of the wording on the ballot that he wasn't voting the way that he wanted to vote. I felt the same way, myself.  Fishermen were not happy, either.

Mockingbird Dogs It Up In Style

Going past the entrance off Mockingbird Lane, just before the turn into the Big Thicket at White Rock, the old dog park is no more. The  new dog park is more than  just more. It's fantastic. There really isn't any comparison between  what was the old and what now is new. Even the dogs are happier! Really!

I parked in one of the few spaces along E Lawther Drive before the first marina and walked back over the foot bridge to the trail entrance just before where W Lawther and E Lawther meet on the trail side. Two things were really popping out at first sight. Since Amy opened the White Rock Paddle Company about five years ago--the days when she wore her pink ball cap--the canoe, kayak and paddle board rentals have skyrocketed. As I approached the foot bridge ramp, dodging one bike after another (it's decision point there, were you must decided to go left or right because otherwise, you are going to hit a solid stone wall).

I counted 23 people standing in line to rent equipment. As I looked toward the open waters of the lake, there were  more  on the lake than what was in line. Now, it's only fair to say some of those were private kayaks and paddle boards. Most of the canoe-looking craft were actually bass boats with fishermen in them. Never-the-less, it is also fair to say that people are enjoying White Rock Lake like I have never seen before.

At the apex of the walk over the bride, looking toward the dog park, the new open water area that is collared off from where White Rock Creek flows into the lake, under the Mockingbird Lane bridge, was filled with neon green tennis balls and dogs chasing them all over. It was so obvious that the dogs were enjoying the time of their lives. I was a bit more than just stunned at how obvious it really was. Dallas Parks and Recreation must be commended at a project that is without reservation, a hit!

The newly revamped and ungraded Dog Park on Mockingbird  at White Rock Lake

The dogs were having the time of their lives! It was that obvious.

09-28-15: edited to add enjoying and to delete have

Monarch's Arrive in North Texas

To me, it was getting a bit late in the season for Monarch butterflies to arrive. They leave the Great Lakes and Canada in early June. By August , usually they are enjoying the wildflowers here, stocking up on strength to make it on to Mexico  for the winter. Until today, I had not seen any! Then, like a thunderstorm arriving, they were showing up here and there more frequently and have made it here for the 2015 migration.

While watching for monarchs I ran across two senior citizens that I stop to  chat with  for a while. One is an elderly Chinese man.  We communicate with hand signals. I speak no Chinese and he speak very limited English. The second usually is sitting on a bench overlooking the lake with his wife. But, today, I got pictures of my Chinese friend fishing--as he always does. I let him know that I am going to take a picture or two and he generally agrees.

I spent about two hours shooting goldenrod and butterflies and getting my annual shot of a falling leaf onto the docks,. It's usually is one of the first trees I have found each year that drops its leaves before Halloween. Over the years, I have several file shots of that dock. Each with that trees leaves on the dock. Strangely enough, the always land in about the same place.

Here's a couple shots from this afternoon. I changed the settings on my camera today and was testing out the settings. If you haven't  figured it out by now, I don't put the ones that technically are within range to post and list with my agent on line. Funny how that works. If I could watermark the good ones, I would, but of course, they can't be sold if they are watermarked. It's a catch 22 anyway you go. Quality control in the twenty-seven cent stock marked is tuff!

A friend at the lake.

The arrival of the monarchs

Hay fever but it's still pretty.

23 September 2015: edited for clarity and to add a comment.

FTC and EU Rules Posting

Some of you have wondered about the 'tips' jar that you have been seeing on the sidebar the past four weeks. Others have wondered about the 'promotion' of Zazzle products during the past eight months give or take a month. Here's what's up.

The 'tips' jar was the easiest to do and answer so I'll  explain that first:

It started out as a technical question. If I did this, would that be accomplished type question to a coding problem that I was having. In short, the answer was "yes"! I accomplished a technical coding problem without having to call customer service at the host company, technical support at the IP and I didn't even have to call the tech heads in the San Francisco Bay area. Voila! the text was converted to an image and it appeared on the site. There was a second part that was more legal than technical and that require talking to a legal beagle and getting the help from the good people at Elon Musk's old company, Pay Pal. 

Part two came about when someone sent me a email message from my web site's inquiry form asking if they could at least, buy me a cup of coffee from the much increased business they had enjoyed from a posting that I had made about their company. Frankly, at the time, I did not know if I could do that or not and furthermore, the European Union (EU) had just announced that they were requiring information posted on sites like the US does if you receive money from readers. The legal beagle informed me that since all my income derived from this site, if any, comes in the way of royalties income and that is the end of that. But, to answer an earlier question, I could allow readers, who wanted, to buy me a cup of coffee, so-to-speak with a donation in the tip jar. Ever tried to toss money into a tip jar virtually when you are not virtually inside the computer? I can tell you, it bounces of the screen and aptly to Murphy's law, it's gonna land on the floor under the desk. So, that is were the PayPal came into play. Any donations to the tips jar would have to come from those that already have or were willing to set up, a Pay Pal account. And, they would have to send me an email first telling me that they were buying me a coffee through the tips jar and then, I could send them an invoice for say $1.50. When I was notified from Pay Pal that someone had sent me $1.50, then the cup of coffee would be "officially" purchased . To me, that made more sense than anything so I went with that idea and the fine people at Pay Pal were very nice to explain how it worked--just as I explained to you why the 'tip' jar was there in the first place. Done!

The final question that needs to be answered is: why all the promotion of Zazzle products? .

Here is that in a nut shell.

First, if you rely on stock images to generate you income just to defray the cost of running the website, its host, email, security, certificates etc.,etc. that portion alone would bankrupt a business in a heartbeat.  The average royalty on a stock image sold today is $0.27. Do the math and you will quickly see that you must have buyers in media who are buying your images totally and into the thousands per month. I have media buyers who buy my photos regularly, but not into the thousands per month. While there are those who claim that they make six-figures a year doing this, the truth be know that they are also selling their images as products, as exclusive rights an any number of other marketing ways allow and being paid by sponsorship to advertise on their websites. I do not allow paid advertising on my website at all.

Since I can control the type of image that I offer through agencies, or product services like Zazzle or Imagekind, I know their high quality of products and to suit the Federal Trade Commission and the EU, those 'sales' only produce royalties which I report willingly to the IRS each year  when I am sent a 1099 royalty income form. If  there is any incidental tax to be paid from said royalties, I am more than willing to pay up. My theory on that has always been, In other words-- you got to be making it if there is a tax bill--you get the jest.

Therefore, without reservation, I offer selected images to be made into product on a print-on-demand format for you to purchase. Usually, the royalty is a bit higher than the $0.27 from stock images. I earn $0.29  on each hair tie that I sell. That is more than the $0.27 per stock image. When a dealer orders 100 hair ties, I have made a whopping $29.00 as opposed to the $27.00  earned on 100 images. There fore, by a whopping $2.00 the hair ties earn more money than the images but it's still all royalties, not earned income.  So, this becomes a way to increase the revenue from a single image. Let's say instead of making $0.27 an image on stock to now a higher royalty category generated from a product purchase, the royalty revenue is like getting more miles per gallon from your car after a tune-up. It's really a simple strategy that not only works but one that I am satisfied with and that would allow me to support my website--which I enjoy working on in retirement as explained above.. All-in-all. I have always liked to keep things very simple and this allows me to do that.

Now. I will throw this in to let you know that since I mentioned email to buy me a cup of coffee, I do not sell email addresses. I do not build mailing list or any other form of privacy invasion scheme. Another reason why I use Zazzle and Imagekind and list with stock agencies and sites that have their own privacy rules is because their sites cover their operations. Those sites are more money-oriented than my little site that treads water from year-to-year. All I have ever wanted is to be able to pay expenses of car repairs and upkeep, put gas in the tank and enjoy a meal on the road now and then when I am out shooting. This is more weighted as a hobby than as a business, although the IRS classifies it as a self-employed business.

In my wonderings to keep my readers happy, I came across this out-of-the-way place yesterday that was interesting because the space is paid by the artist to do their creative work, be it for good or for bad. As part of the paint, a note to other artist said to whit: Non-paid wall, respect the work. I found that interesting as tagging has gotten such a bad name, yet, in a poor neighborhood where people want art and color and creativeness as much as someone in Highland Park, this place cried out that "we may be poor but we are still smart and have desires to be successful and creative".

Never knowing what you stumble upon, there were three young men  admiring the wall. I ask if it was okay for me to be there.They said,yes. I ask if they would mind if I tood pictures. They said it was okay.

The irony of the three young men was that they each had a camera more updated than mine.

The artist have paid for some of the wall space. The owners of the buildings should receive a community award.

edited 09-28-15: Since posting this article,  It has become a favorite of the month. I am also happy to report that both Zazzle and Imagekind have advised that both product and images have been sold. It always means more to me to have someone choose a product made with one of my images or choosing the image outright. The royalty earned from that image is just the workhorse to achieve that satisfaction that someone out there liked one of my images. Goal accomplished!