Serendipitous Finds in Wing Heaven

Many years ago, I met a man who owned an aircraft parts business. I was like a kid in a candy store when I got to walk through the facility. Anything aircraft is just one of those things that sends my nervous system into a WOW mode. Watching balloon's  envelopes being cold inflated does the same thing and when they are cold inflated enough to switch to the hot air being pumped into the envelope from the burners so that they can then stand up-right is where my spine shivering stops and I have to go to work taking pictures.

Old planes, old trains still have that WOW factor for me. While growing up, my dad knew a lot of WOW factor guys and we would go out along a country road or along the fence row of a field where crop duster pilots made there bi-wing planes do amazing things. Talk about guys that had ice running in their blood. When it came to fear and the crop dusters that I grew up watching, those guys were icy  boys.

This past weekend, trying to find the best area where planes going into Love Field put down their landing gears has been a challenge for sometime. Generally, there is about one area on the final where this happens. For Love, it's after they start their turn into their final. I'm getting close, but I'm not totally there yet to get the full sequence of a 737 from door opening to the wing strut gears beginning their fold-down. Of course, most of the 737s don't have doors covering those wheels, but the arms just comedown and lock. The front nose wheel is a double door. Never-the-less, I'm driving to the last place where I got close to getting the image that I need but I went a couple of streets over from where I was before. I pulled over and got my camera out of the bag and was changing lens when I glanced up to see that I wasn't in any one's way when that WOW factor kicked in and chills hit my neck nerve causing me to shiver with excitement. I had accidentally happened onto one of those out-of-the-way places that operate one of  those amazing businesses. After that find, I packed away the camera and headed for the home and barn as a happy camper! My day had been made complete. This is what I found.

Wing Heaven

I bet they know where to get a pair of wings! But the old crop duster that I grew up watching was also yellow.

A Walk Around The Lake

Sometimes, when super energy power prevails  I undertake the three-hour walk around the lake. It's more enjoyable on the bike but not near as interesting nor do you find the things that you find when you walk. Before someone gets all macho and tries to toss out their ego-building attitude that they can walk the walk in a much shorter time, don't. When you get to be my age, there is more to life than just egos, for one;two, I stop with the camera and sometimes wait for the right light on partly cloudy days and on pure sunshine day, I might wait on a bird, or an animal, or a car, bike, or person crossing my path. And above all--I'm stopping to smell the flowers!!

Thursday, was just such a day when  the entire day was spent at the lake. From early sunrise to late afternoon. That evening when I sat down at the computer to upload the days work to begin editing, there were 291 images in the days work load. That's almost like what I was doing 10-years ago, but which had been cut down to around 50-60 dailies in the past few years after the surgery. It was amazing to see that volumn of work show up again.

Since we live in a love/hate world today, that was kind of  like the theme that I was looking for. The main reason I like White Rock so much is the divergent activity that can be found there. Over the past ten years, the many different things that I have observed there is absolutely astounding for one particular place. That does not include the increase in people traffic or on-lake activities. With wildlife in particular, sometimes, you just have to stop and look and watch and listen. When you do, you find that the wildlife will resume whatever that they were doing before  you appeared on the scene and they stopped to watch and wait and listen to see what you were going to do. It's the old reverse role syndrome, wait and see adage, man vs. animal/animal vs.man game or  just the downright fight or flight nervous system at work.

What I found out from the days work was that when I play with the camera's settings that I usually use, some of the shots that I would normally edit out become rather more interesting than others. There are two examples of that here and one that is as old almost as old as the world we live in. Enjoy.

LOVE

ABSTRACT

HATE-or-FEAR but disturbing find non-the-less.

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Seven Tower Cranes Says A Lots

Well, you have heard me talk about the massive amounts of construction going on in the Metroplex.  It is something that most places wish that they had going on in their areas. Add the roadwork going on to the building construction and it just freaks me out. I've seen a lot of construction projects. Some I was actually apart of at the time.  But never, have I seen this amount for this long and the signs show no sign of letting up any time in the future.

Today, was the first time that I have been out on my photo circuit for nearly a month, now ( Some of you might have noticed since I have not produced much post writing or picture posting). The reason for that is an old injury that flared up and had me pretty much sitting at the desk catching up on some detail work that had taken a back seat when I was out shooting so much of the time.

Yesterday, I went out for a couple of hours and treated myself to a sit down meal for a change. While driving that short distance, I ran across a Mc Donald's that was in a heap of rubble with a big back hoe still parked at the site. Today, the demolitions continued with a complete office complex  that had been leveled and already cleared off. Then, this afternoon, the next demolition was a major warehouse complex and a motel that were in various stages of rubble. Before the day was out, I had come across another four landmarks that were just totally gone. It was mind-boggling and I am asking myself, what was wrong with the buildings that were there in the first place?

Then, it was like a time warp and I started to see new construction projects and I'm not talking about little ones. A 300-500 villa complex in Las Colinas tucked away off Carpenter Freeway (SR114)  near the old Texas Stadium has already begun. That's when I hit the SR183 Airport Freeway road work that has completely revamped the south end  entrance to Dallas/Ft.Worth International Airport. Keeping in mind also, that the North End was just completed.

On the amusing side, while checking out my favorite train spot, I came across a lady who had run her SUV off the road into a ditch that had the SUV on a 45 degree angle and from the road level,the top of the SUV wasn't showing all that much. The lady already had help and I continued on to check out the trains. On the return, a guy in a bobcat had pulled the lady out of the ditch. There was thick heavy mud as high as the top of the wheels. I really don't want to know how she drove off the road into the ditch in the first place.

It was a perfect day to be out walking with the camera and just doing a bit of street photography which is just pure fun and usually turns up some good submissions in the editorial department. Here are some shots from the afternoon.

Should have gotten a shot while the car was still in the ditch.

This was a great shot from the hill overlooking the old Texas Stadium location.

From the Texas Stadium hill, there are 7-tower cranes working at Love Field. a couple for the parking garage and the rest are for the new training facility at Southwest Airlines Campus adjacent to their Headquarters  and the new Operations Center that was completed not all that long ago.

A Perfect Fall Day

Sharing a log with the turtles.

Maybe a few berries before a fish dinner.

Hanging out to dry.

This area is called Cormorant Cove for obvious reasons. They are messy birds, however. The Parks Department will power wash the trails several times while they are here on their migration.

Ahead of it's Time

When I captured this image, it didn't have the meaning that it has today.

Much to my surprise, I found an envelope on the back seat of my car that had a 11 x 17 inch image that I had enlarged for framing. It's an abstract and can be used as editorial and it can also be used as a fine art print. It is this image.

I mentioned to a friend and editor that maybe I should go ahead and frame it and sell it as a one-of-a-kind print. She made a few calls and the results have shaken the thoughts that I had about this image. Before anyone gets the ideal to copy it and run with it. DON'T. It's marked and companies that watch the web for images being hijacked from blogs like this even though they are marked as copyrighted, or in my portfolio as intellectual property, the image is identifiable and those that watch for my images know how it is marked.

This image has turned out to be like a bottle of exceptional year wine. It took almost a decade for this image today to catch up with when it was taken and how it is viewed today.

The Cubs Are Going to Win the Series

Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs on their joyous win over the Indians. This writer holds a strong connection to the Indians from a player standpoint. But, that's another story for another day. And, one of those connections was playing short stop the day I was born. Since then, the tribe has had other connections with our family.

 But, Mom grew up with major league players sitting at their table for dinner and it was a special ball player that taught mom how to clean quail. Preacher Roe was a regular hanging out with my grandfather. He was one of the fabled "Boys of Summer" who pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mom was a life-long Dodgers fan. 

Now you know why that post of November 1 until today was just a blank. It was a tribute to Preacher Roe who died on November 9th, 2008 at the age of 93. He was born in Ash Flat, Arkansas and lived just across the Missouri line in a little town I'm still trying to understand. Mom, however, had related the story to me many times over the years. She understood it but I am still trying to piece it all together. Still, he was a loyal friend to the household that was my grandfathers. My grandfather had been a  US Marshall. He  respected Preacher enough to go quail hunting with him  many times.  Over the course of mom growing up as the baby of the family Preacher was a visitor for dinner many times over. So, baseball runs in deep in the heart of this family from the players that have visited with us.