Friday, December 25, 2015

Eagles at White Rock in February 2013

February 2013 Pair of Bald Eagles Fishing
February 2013 was my first sighting of the pair of bald eagles at White Rock Lake. With love for nature, I did not hold back my sightings and have talked about the eagles steadily since 2013.Contrary to what is being spread around about me misrepresenting or giving out bad information,the only reason I dug into the archive to find there images was the fact that I have seen plenty of smoke screens in my 70 years and it seems that those who hope to discredit my sighting have had  a nerve struck and they (men and women alike) feel their little grip on, and having to share their wildlife with, an ever increasing population of Metroplex nature lovers slipping out of their grasp.

Nesting Pair of Bald Eagles over White Rock Lake on February,2013

February,2013 at the Dam
Now, having said that, I can go back to enjoying the nature and wildlife of White Rock Lake.

26Dec2015: edit for punctuation clarity.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Museum of Tomorrow

While Dallas does have some noted buildings built by world famous architects, our latest architect with his second structure still under construction at present Santiago Calatrava has a masterpiece in Rio de Janiero. The Dallas City Hall and The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center were designed by I.M. Pei. Santiago Calatrava designed the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and did redesign his original design work on the Margaret McDermott Bridge currently  under construction. But this week, was the opening of Calatrava's  Magnum Opus in my opinion. It is the new Museu do Amanha (Museum of Tomorrow) in Rio de Janeiro on December 19th. The site is in the old port section of Rio and is part of a major redevelopment program in the area. I have seen the area personally on my first trip to Brazil many years ago. It is an amazing work of design and while I am proud to talk about the Arts District in Dallas and what it has to offer, I did a bit of work figuring out just how big this new Museu is. By loose calculations, the entire arts district could be placed in one third of this structure. The transformation from the old site to this new structure raises the bar for other cities in this old world if they want to compete for tomorrow because tomorrow has arrived on yet another continent of the Americas.

For those of you that want to see an image of the structure, you can search for the Museu do Amanha in Rio. Or, you can go to Alamy and enter in the search box FA1AG5 to bring up the image. I just tried it and it worked. Alamy.com  and enter FA1AG5 (That is FAone AGfive) to be clear.

For those of you who do not want to see Calatrava's non-bridge work, I have some pelicans,geese and ducks for you.
The angle is a duck having just had a drink tilting his head upward.

The pelicans can be so funny to watch.

Two migratory geese fighting. It lasted a pretty long time.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Last Minute Shopping!


Our wish to you this holiday season would be this card that we made especially for you!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Some of You Have Ask

Some of you have ask about how you can view our live news feed images. First and foremost: Thank You!!  But, it's not really that difficult. So, here is an easy way to learn how to do this remembering two things.
1. There are two options. the first option will allow you to view and search the live news feed.
2. The second option allows you to view our stock images where our news feed images and stock are archived. The news feed images rotate off after 48-hours. Where do they go? They go into the submitters archive stock image portfolio, which can be searched afterwards as well.

Going to the live news feed only.

Click on anywhere within the black box with a lower case 'a' or the word 'alamy'. That opens into a new window. When it does. click on the black 'a' or inside the black box again. It opens to the alamy home page. You will see a search bar with a magnifier at the right hand side. You will also see in the search bar the words by that magnifier that says 'see images'. click that and when it opens scroll down to the bottom where it says 'see live images'. You are there!! when it opens again, start at the top of page one and scroll down. The images begin to rotate off immediately as other images are added and force the current images down to page 2 or 3 or 4 or sometimes 5 then off the rotation.


If you want to see our stock images or news feeds that are archived 

To the right of the black 'a' box is also a search bar. Above that search bar are the words: 'dallaspaparazzo.com. If you click that link on, you will by-pass the live news feed and go directly to our archived images where are nearing 1300 images at present.


Images by dallaspaparazzo. com
Enter a keyword, name or reference number:  

Search all the images by dallaspaparazzo. com on Alamy

Friday, December 18, 2015

White Rock Talents

Many, many times, the winds echo my words that there is always something different happening at White Rock. Today, was no exception. When is the last time you saw a tightrope walker practice? With the weather being almost perfect for a very late fall day, here is one of those surprises.

At the same time, I have been photographing since August, the leaves of the White Rock Sycamore  trees and even finding some of the largest leaves that I have ever seen. Yesterday, another record leaf was found that topped the "then recorder holder" at 9 1/2 inches by 11 and one quarter. Yesterdays was over 14-inches by 13-inches. When it finally relaxes and the folded over tips can be measured, it will be larger, no doubt.

Here is today's finds.
Practice makes perfect

The sycamore leaves are hanging on and producing excellent displays for very late fall.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Shortest Day Approaches

It is a true statement:" Time waits for no man." Where it goes is an enigma for sure. Winter begins in less than a week. Christmas Day comes in ten days. New Years arrives in just over two weeks. It makes no matter whether I'm ready or not, so the past few days found me at the lake and sitting at a picnic table with my health snack. I got my cardio walk in and just enjoyed the nearly perfect weather. That part changes tomorrow as the first of several cold fronts arrives and kicks the temps back down to a more normal winter level right on time.

Two weeks ago, I watched the cormorants begin flocking and flying their 'V' formations over the lake. They have been happy campers but know with their keen circadian rhythm that the coldest weather this season is about to arrive. Currently, when the cormorants or pelicans or sea gulls or egrets can't been seen, I can usually find them in their second or even third place were they hang out because of the change in fish whereabouts. In a way, they are just like us. They are creatures of habit. But the call of the wild beckons to fly south. They will be back in the spring after they disappear and can not be found in any of their favorite trees or log branches in the water.

A feather floats with the leaves on the water's surface.

A man walks his dog near Winfrey Point

White Rock Rowing Club sorts gear on one of the club's docks.
Click on any picture to enlarge. It's okay. You won't break anything.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Christmas at the National Cemetery

Thursday, my car headed in the direction of the National Cemetery, between I-20 and I-30. Actually, I visit the cemetery every December. It is a somber and sobering experience. Somehow, the annual laying of the wreaths on each grave is planned for this Saturday, December 12th. I missed it by two days. Some families go ahead and put the wreaths down themselves. There were a few graves that had the wreaths already. I was struck at how brown the grass was all over. It's just gone dormant and has not actually died. The green wreaths stand out against the gray stones and the brown grass.

After leaving the cemetery, it was on to Founder's Plaza at DFW International Airport. Shooting the Fresnel Lens on the official FAA beacon  that every airport is required to have operating  between civil dusk and civil dawn. Of course, it can only be shot during those times when it is operational.  There were some technical issues with the camera again. It's always low light shutter speeds that give the most problem, even though the settings are made according to the manual. Something else to work on during the upcoming winter waiting for the first snow storm or ice storm!

The National Cemetery for Dallas Ft. Worth

It's an annual trip for me. I only lost one friend in Viet Nam. My Dad is buried in a National Cemetery in Little Rock.

The Fresnel Lens on the official FAA Beacon at DFW International. This is it!

It All Started in the wee hours of May 28th when 80 MPH winds was tossing everything against the side of my house.

 Those winds were substained for well over 40 minutes. The results were trees everywhere down or large branches broken off. One of my bus ro...