Loss of the Willow

The storm damage on/about October 03,2014

Over the years, there have been several trees at White Rock Lake that I have been drawn to photograph. Last fall, I did a post about several of those old trees that had hundreds of years of character and mystique. Some of you may remember the ones named, The Three Sisters, or The Weeping Willow.

Going back to 2014, around October 03, or earlier by a couple of days or three, a storm hit White Rock and toppled several trees and took down large branches on others. Sadly, it was that storm that destroyed the beautiful shape of the willow  as it hung over the bank near the Fisher Road parking area off W. Lawther Drive.  Tree doctors attended the tree with their chain saws and when everything was cleaned up, the old tree stood forever wounded.  When the spring of 2015 came, the tree was making a weak comeback. This spring, it was holding it's own, but if you really paid attention to this living creation, one could tell that it had suffered dearly the past two seasons and not likely to make it to another spring.

Today, I made a point to visit the tree and photograph it one last time. It was a sad parting to something that had been so beautiful on the shores and I know of none other around the 9-mile lake that held the status of this tree. It's an old friend that will be coming down to the hum of chain saws and wood chippers. A warrior of the lake has fallen and this tree, especially, will be missed forever.

Today, September 12,2016. The tree appears to be dead, not going dormant for the winter.

The surgery after the storm in 2014

Still Amazed Today

This is not an Air France but it is under the Emirates Paint Scheme an A-380 (same type)

This is also an A-380 operated by Qantas and still not an Air France but again, under the paint scheme of Qantas the air frame is still an A-380 my friend! Big! And. it was certainly not around in mid 1950s when I spent those lazy summer days looking up at air plane's contrails, which I still do today! Thank you very much!

My grandmother's were born at a time when the telegraph  (the electromagnetic one of 1832) invented by Samuel Morse; the telephone of Alexander Graham Bell's doings (1839) were all but 50 years old. At the time of my maternal grandmother's death, she had witnessed men walking on the moon. She saw the first cars made by Henry Ford in 1908 as a young girl and I remember when my paternal grandmother and grandfather got their first Westinghouse refrigerator and both my grandparents had telephones in their houses. Although, my maternal grandparents lived next to their grocery store seperated by a wall and a doorway and had a wall handcrank phone I wished that I had today.  I also remember my mom and dad getting our first television in 1952 and we didn't get a color set until 1962. I can remember using the old Translux teletype and getting a newer one with a CPU monitor. It took a half day to have my first cell phone installed in my car's trunk and the hand held portables were the size of the first walkie talkies. Big! I recall my optomologist encouring me to get contact lens when they first came out. I wore them for a staggering 44 years afterwards! I can still see a hawk or an airplane miles away from the cornea molding.

But, most of all, as a young boy, I remember the long hot summers spent sprawled out on the grassy hilltop up the hill one lot from our recently built brick house watching the contrails of jet aircraft (then, not much older than I was at the time) wondering where they were going. I still look up today at jet contrails and wonder where those jets are going, although I do know a bit more about cross-country vectoring today than I did then.

This morning, while checking the images that I had running on the live news feeds from the weekend, I ran across an image from a photographer in Essex ,England, UK. It was an image of a big Airbus A-380's contrail flying over Essex in Southeast England in one of those infamous vectors that airplanes fly. As was reported, the man knew that the A-380 was from Charles deGaulle/Roissy Airport in Paris going to LA here in the states. The contrails were beautiful against a deep blue sky and it reminded me of those summer days as a kid stretched out on that hilltop looking at contrails and wondering were they were going.

Then, it hit me, that today, with the technology at hand, I could look up that flight and see were it was before it even landed. Which I did. That is absolutely amazing for us mortal humans. Yeah, I know. I am reminded all the time that the government has stuff that would rock your socks off, blah blah blah,blah-blah.

Here is the scoop if anyone wants to go look at the live news feed image then get on flightawares or flight radar and  follow what's left of the flight before it lands. I just think it is stunning to see that image and sit down at the computer and find where in the world it is withing a 7-minute delay and where it is going. After all, it is an A-380 and that within and of itself is astonishing.

The images (there are 2) GNF9JX-RM and GNF9kl-RM by Timothy Smith on Alamy.com, click on the live news feed in the search box (images) and scroll down to the live news feed.Sorry, they will roll off the cycle in 48-hours. You can purchase the image while there if you so desire. Mr. Smith would be happy, I'm sure. I would be if my image was purchased from a blog post like this. ☺♪☺♪♫

The flight is that of Air France #66 that left Charles de Gaulle/Roissy at 10:30a.m. CEST en route to Los Angeles International/LAX with arrival due at 12:06pmPDT 30th August 2016. It is a daily flight. That is why they call it scheduled airlines ♪☺☺♪.

The flight was at 40,000 feet at 490kts air speed or just call it .85mock. Anything over 600 MPH is pegged as mock speed anyway. Or so, I am told by those who know such things and remind me that MPH is a thing of the past. AARGH!!!!

So, not only is it amazing that one can figure out these things....it is most amazing that now, I have proven that a dream of a child's wondering of where that contrail is going can know be known thanks to a guy totally unknown to me on a different continent than myself, taking a picture of an airplanes contrail and having the know how to post it on a live news feed that I use myself. And where now I can this 30th August 2016 finally answer that question and dream of my childhood many years ago.

I must say, however, that not knowing where that plane I watched as a child was going 60 years ago was awesome then, as it still is today, but knowing today is still a childhood dream as it was then.That will never change and I am glad of that fact.

 

The Who, The Why, Oh! That's Easy

A couple of weeks ago, down at the bridge, a retired engineer was looking at the bridge work. After a few minutes, he ask, "what's the name of this bridge? "  That question set me back a bit. I'm thinking to myself, he said that he was a retired engineer and he didn't know the name of the bridge? Then, I said," this is the Margaret McDermott bridge, but I called it the Maggie 2." He then ask, " why do you call it that?" My reply this time came with an added explanation.

When the first bridge was built, I had photographed the construction from the first piling being drilled until the tables were set with china, stemware, silverware, flowers and menus for the contestants that had entered a contest of some sort, but for me, it was the end of the construction photographs. Then, when the discovery was made that the second bridge was, indeed, going to be built and it would be named for Margaret McDermott, for my ease in indexing my images, I knew that I would need some way to shorten up the names for identification. Maggie is a moniker or nickname for Margaret, Since both bridges are named Margaret the first one build is number 1 and the second one is number 2. But, looking at the architecture, one has one arch and two has two arches so,  Maggie 1 and Maggie 2 fits well because it names the first bridge build as number one and it has one arch. The second bridge built has two arches. Since both names are Margaret--Maggie is common to both bridges. Therefore, Maggie one and Maggie two is an easy way to accurately identify the two bridges.

After confirmation that the second bridge design was final it became fairly clear quickly that the answer would be simple. Keeping in mind that this was my way to shorten up the indexing. It is based on fact. Probably, this turned out to be  the easiest method that I have ever used  to index images. I was a bit surprised to find that it actually works well to separate the two bridges quickly, easily and have that id based in actual fact. So, I started called the two bridges Maggie 1 and Maggie 2. You can easily follow along with the captions on the image that follows.

Here are the two bridges. The one on the left is Maggie1, the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge.

The one on the right is Maggie 2, the Margaret McDermott bridge.

So, looking at this bridge, quickly, it  is the Maggie 2. It was built second in time and it has two arches. It's also named Margaret or Maggie.  Easy as beans!

Life Is Not Perfect

 Some will agree and some will disagree on the title of today's post. But, this past week, I have given a lot of thought and consideration to that very topic. In fact, I have researched about fifty websites that use the hot new trend of vectors to promote their products. In fact, their products are not only produced in vector software, they are vector soft ware.  For many years, I have fought the battle of not using the Abobe product called photoshop. There are those who swear by it to the end. There are those that preach that it is the new norm, while others contend that graphic arts would not be possible without it. When the diehards of newer generations start hammering it hard that 'you should at least try it', those are the first ones that get scratched off the list of followers. Cold? No, not really.

You see, I'm one of those old guys what actually have been by a linotype operator's side in a hot press room when the heat came from the melting lead as a line-o-type was actually making a line slug of type. Before it was set in place, blocked with wood and key locked in a galley, it was tampered down so it was even when the type face struck the paper.  You want a vector---now, that's a vector. I'm not opposed to change. Never have been. The world changes every minute of every hour of every day. Some of us know that. For those that don't--all I can say is get cracken!! Playing catchup is a momma dog.

I've known some old AP (Associate Press) reporters over the years when they were still popping M2 flash cubes in their hot shoe. I even learned to never carry a battery and an M2 in your pocket either. Now that will tell you where the phrase hot shoe came from. To this day I still have a scar on my leg were  a loose M2 in my pocket made connection with the battery and the flash went off in my jeans pocket. Never-the-less that is also where I learned to never touch your image post production or otherwise. Those were the days when an image meant something. It captured history. Imperfections and all. Well, there it is--that word--imperfection. There is nothing to be ashamed about with imperfections. Some historic images are more known for the imperfections than the subject matter itself. While the subject matter is key, it was only years later that someone actually got to looking more close at an image for imperfections and discovered one. Gee whiz, even engravers at the United State Postal Service and the United States Mint have made blunders. Try buying one of those blunders today. If you can, I hope you have a big bank account, 'cause it is gonna set you back a buck or two when you have to add additional zeros at the end of that number they give you.

Most of my images have imperfections. Some are accidental, some are planned, some are accidental while planning. It makes no difference. Imperfections are just that--imperfects. However, over the years, those imperfections have become a source of successful images that sell world wide. I look for them when I am shooting and my followers who purchase my work do the same. I even have one gentleman in the UK (United Kingdom--England) that e-mails me from time-to-time asking what unusual finds have I found recently? Of course, the best place to find them is in distressed wood or metal, or murial paint runs or drips. But, there are certainly many more.

The niche that I have settled into is the niche of imperfections and that translates into textures over vectors all day long. I am using up all the textures that I can find at an alarming rate. That tells me that photogs have not done a very good job at providing textures in fear that they would not make a sale or that someone would not recognize their work if they only shot textures. My advise to them is this: Keep thinking that way, because I have all the work that I can do keeping up with finding new textures to meet the demand.

Glendine's Fashion & Design  

 check out the shop. It's updated and ready for the Christmas season  already.

The awards tree. It is a rather interesting tree. Most seem to be ribbons won at marathons and half marathons, but as you see, there is a garder from someones wedding and a few more things that are interesting reads. Many items have hung there for years--and held up rather astonishingly.

Fall Will Come Early--I Can Feel It In My Bones!

An old man years ago gave me a bit of advise about how to tell when fall was approaching regardless of the calendar or the Meteorological markers of December1st, to March 1st. as a marker for winter rather than the 20-22 as in a lunar cycle. Leaves flip. That's right. They somehow manage to turn in such a way that they display the bottom  of the leaf more toward the sun. Of course, there was some reservation about the statement, but over the years since, I have observed this display happen year after year after year. Well, it's happening right now, here where such things usually are the starting of the growing season in brilliant green rather than the harvest of colorization. As most probably already know, spring buds start in the south and move about 20 miles per day  until they reach the area of the shortest growing season of the year. Then, the fall colors start in the north and move south  about 20-miles per day reaching the southern most area of deciduous  shed near the winter solstice.

The second method that also works well is the shift in the northern jet stream which allows for the northern cold fronts to move south as the sun makes its way to the Tropic of Cancer for the shortest day of the year. My grandfather always followed the Farmer's Almanac and the old sayings that were accurate when I learned some of them as a kid and are still accurate today (e.g. "When clouds are high and thin, a weather system is moving in").

But, as for today, it was absolutely delightful! The first time all summer it has been like it once was before acres and miles and acres and miles of cement and asphalt began collecting heat and then radiating it like an oven to triple digits and then some. It was so great to be out of the house, but what was even better was that the AC  wasn't needed in the car and the windows were down with a mostly cool breeze blowing. The sunroof would have been open had I made it out earlier in the morning. However, before going out this morning, I checked the National Weather Service site and put the map loop into motion. The low pressure was setting where it has been all weekend and not moving a nano nano of any thing. That is why we got no rain and Louisiana is once again flooded.  The cold front didn't move, the low didn't move and the pump just kept pumping Gulf  water into land masses north of the coastal shoreline. And, according to the NWS, the next ten days will be below normal. For here, that is about 92 degrees F. In fact, I'm thinking that the triple digits might be done for season, now. But, should that not be the case, then by the law of averages, one or two more should foot the bill---hopefully!!

A beautiful hawk protecting his airspace. Be sure to click on the image so it opens up to the size where you can see the beautiful wing feathers.

I'm just overly anxious for fall to arrive--the meteorological rather than the  astronomical one which, then would be September 1 rather than the 20th or 21st or 22nd what ever it might be by the lunar cycle.    

That's real live color change in a softwood tree. This spot where the chalk cliffs are located generally are the precursor to fall in many ways, including berry productions.

Those Californ-I-A's Are At It Again. Hurrah!!!

We all know, even though some are reluctant to say so, that life goes in cycles and that those cycles are what we call history. And, we also know that if we don't learn from history, we are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. Furthermore, some of the regular readers will recall that this blog takes a little bit of pride to say now and then that, "I told you so."  The blog has praised the good people of California for years in their political prowess of not letting their legislators rule them, but continue to point out to the legislators in Sacramento that they work for the people of California. They will not be ruled by the scare tactics offered up in excuses  by their legislators in  blatant deal cutting that is so arrogant that it is served up open face. That's when the good people of California take the bull by the horns and go to work to put the legislators back in their place.

Well, it has happen again with seven gun control bills signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. And, the people are not taking it lying down. Gun rights advocates started a petition drive to overturn the laws Brown signed into law.

Now, before you jump down my throat about gun control--right or wrong-- this is not an article about gun control. But--it is about the very thing that I have said over and over and over again-- we don't need term limits. We don't need to compile pictures of members of congress with the total number of years under their belts in congress. We don't even need to point fingers beyond pointing to ourselves for not voting or not getting out the vote or not doing our civic duty in the key element of this country's bedrock of democracy. And, to tie it in for some-- Californians have gone to work to change the course of legislation that control how they live and work and maintain their landmark Californian life-style. Yes, they are different than us Easterners. That, by the way, is anyone living east of the Continental Divide minus a few hundred miles and plus nothing. That would then place the boundary about Lake Tahoe!

I have long admired that ability of California DNA to stand up to their elected servants and remind them that they work for the people that put them in Sacramento. Oh, there are a few examples of  recall elections and propositions on the ballot back here in the east, but the people here think that they are more civilized than the rest of the population and to do that just isn't the proper thing to do in this modern time. That is why we have people in congress, state, county and city, that do not do their job that they were elected to do. The real reason that those exercises fail here is that people are more followers than leaders.

People let the fear factor rule their lives even when the fear is meant to control them at the polls and steal their votes. And that is exactly what the fear control does. It is a vote stealer.

Californians takes the Bull by the Horns again and again--Hurrah!!

So, my hats off to the people of California once again for standing up to their legislators for bad legislation--and regardless of  how you look at it-- if it doesn't suit the wishes of the people of California, then the legislation is bad. I continue to admire their chutzpah.

Get Up From The Computer!

Yes, the 'experts' all say that when you are setting at the computer, you need to get up and move around. Generally, I'm up and down for the coffee pot when I'm working at the computer anyway. Come lunch time, I'm up making lunch and putting the dishes away from the dishwasher, too. So, I'm normally not to concerned about not getting up enough.

With the hot weather--it hit 100 again today-- being out when it is that hot does cause me some problems with my meds. One of the warnings on most of the meds all have warnings about being out in the sun, dehydration and a shopping list of other little annoyance  things. I don't need that so cutting back when it is hot is top priority. But, as the work gets caught up--I'm highly efficient in that department-- is when usually I am heading out to shoot the next item on the shoot agenda. Alright, the fact of the matter is: I got extremely bored today.

When that happens, it's usually kitchen creative time. That is when the pantry door is opened and I stand in front of the pantry focused on the shelves to see what I can whip up. There is a good history of good things coming out of  my kitchen when that happens. Dinnertime really becomes a banquet of sorts. All healthy of course. Sugary things are limited to an occasional  bakery buy now and then.Keeping  those things in the pantry is pretty much a no no for me.

As with any self-imposed rule, exceptions can be inserted from time-to-time. And, they are. Such an example was the opening and later shuttering of the Fresh Market in the remade shopping center at Gaston and Garland Road. It was a South Carolina market that was popular in the Carolinas and could have been here, but Dallas people don't need to go to South Carolina like the snow birds do. The laid back approach to 'Whole Food' class of shopping was the same except  for that overly laid back approach at Fresh Market. In short, while it was open here, of course I shopped there for certain things I could not get here in Dallas that had that South Carolina feel.  Keeping in mind that Whole Foods and HEB Central Market have that Gulf  of Mexico feel rather than the Carolina one and there is a difference for sure.

At that final week of Fresh, I picked up a box of frosting mix that I had found more close to what I enjoyed as a kid. It went top and back in the pantry until I would discover it serendipitously sometime in the future. A couple of weeks ago while in the grocery store shopping and looking for something that had been moved from the last time I shopped, I ran across a box of dutch chocolate Pillsbury cake mix. One, it was a name out of the past that jumped out at me. Two, it was dutch chocolate. Three, I could not stop it from jumping into my cart!

Today, at the pantry door, it all ganged up on me. As a result, I have a 13x9 sheet pan cake with a tin of 6 cupcakes baked to perfection and iced! Tonight, its french bread pizza with a salad. Somehow, there is a cupcake missing our of the tin already.  Dang Hot weather!

That South Carolina Feel Is Unmistakeable. I would have liked to have seen Fresh Market make it here in Dallas.