Humor Can Be Found Anywhere

Founder's Plaza at DFW

Airbus A-319 flown by Virgin American on final to 13R at Love Field in a strong cross wind.

One of the last MD-11s UPS still flies. That's a lot of package deliveries there, bubba!

Wind today at DFW was steady at 29 MPH Gusting to 40 MPH. A wind advisory went into effect at 10 A.M. CST. At about 6 A.M. this morning, with a setting full moon, the flow of Gulf moisture was streaming by the moon. It was awesome.

We set another  record today, too. 80-degrees at the 2:54 P.M. update at the National Weather Service at DFW, our official reporting station. Even the feathered birds were having a difficult time navigating. Yet, one overly friendly grackle got me to laugh.

The angle of the sun this time of year in mid morning to a bit after noon the glare on the planes is not the best. Plus, I hate changing settings this time of year, too. Even with memory Fn settings. By the time I got to Love Field, the winds had not let up much (Gust to 35 MPH) but the light was much more favorable.

Drag Races Between Two SD-70 Locomotives

Actually, if I had this image when I posted the 12/22/2016 post, "Perseption Is Everything, But..." this would have been a perfect image. It is impossible to show the reason why here in this image, but behind the Union Pacific engine are two more BNSG engines. The way I understand it is that the railroad that owns the tracks pulls a rerouted engine and cars for a train that is using those tracks for some reason. In short, they need an escort while on Union Pacific tracks. But, a case at first sight sure could be made that these two trains were racing.

We set another record today. While checking out the lake, and talking with  another lake goer, we pretty much decided that any scene at the lake today could be anywhere. Anywhere in the world. As Ali said, "we call it White Rock Lake". And I do believe that he captured the moment completely with that statement. He later said, we could use that as a tag line. We sure could, Ali. We now have it for the record and should we want to use it again....we are the only ones that can claim it from here on out.

"Look at that. It could be any place in the world. We call it White Rock Lake". copyright Ali and dallaspaparazzo, Tuesday, 10th January 2017.All rights reserved for us both!

"Look at that. It could be anyplace in the world. We call it White Rock Lake."

Train Drag Racing?

A beautiful little wren.

Sure Glad I Didn't Live Back Then

Ran across a group of guys today that were in battle. The next thing I know, I'm in the middle of it---sort of. It was a bit unnerving to actually see guys with swords and hatches and shields along side me.
These guys were a re-enactment of Vikings from an archaeological standpoint. In other words, they re-enact from actual findings and research as to how the Vikings used their weapons and what those weapons actually did in real battles. Interesting group. They were at Flag Pole Hill behind the Big Shelter House in the open area on the downhill slope.

The sounds were awesome

The facial expressions kind of worried me a bit.

Helmet with Chain mail.

Some Cuteness In The New Year

My car sometimes just takes control and heads me randomly in one direction. It did that on Monday. When I decided that it was really time to stop, my car was at the parking lot to the Ron Kirk Bridge, formerly known as the old Continental Bridge before the Margaret Hunt Hill was built. On good weather days, the crowds are usually pretty good if you are going to shoot weather shots for the Live Feeds or have some editorial shots as a group. Such was how the day went. I had 11 images running on the live feed the past 48 hours and I really enjoy spotlighting Dallas when I can.

Family of Cowboy Fans save #84. A hold out as a Pittsburgh Fan

Two bull dogs taking their owners for a walk.

The Skyline Trail along the Trinity and crosses under the Ron Kirk Bridge Park . It runs both sides of the river from Sylvan Avenue to I-30 and the Margaret McDermott Bridge that will have a pedestrian bike access suspended under the bridge as the southern cross over. The old Sylvan Avenue bridge is the northern crossover point. It is a little over 4 miles long for both sides of the river.

What A Way To End The Year!!

During the course of the year, I have tried to present some of the fun and unusual things that jump off in North Dallas. Heavens only knows that there is enough bad news channels already. So to present that oddity to make you chuckle or laugh out loud or to say that passionate---AHHHHH! has been a goal of mine.

This year, it seems that yard decorations have gone with a more dangling mode that is made of unusual things. I have passed up many more that were so "complicated" to sort it out would have been not worth the time because while you were making up your mind what it was, the element of  comedy delay that always works, would have passed. But, there were some that just had that little tickler that would make sour lemon drops smile.

Today, while making my last round of the lake for 2016. It was rather mundane of sorts. Even I was a bit surprised how people were kind of not themselves for some reason. So as I headed out for home, I wanted to head out on the highest overview of the lake and downtown. As I turned onto the street that would provide those views, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye that made the turn around and come back for a second look. I cracked up!! If I was having a contest for the most original humor decorations, this would have won thumbs down. See what you think. Everybody have a good and safe New Years and come on back in 2017. I post especially for Y'all.

Suspended  from tree branches, a lantern, table lamps with shades is not your average decoration.

It can't be said that it isn't original!!!

Accomplished A Lot Today

Just A Pretty Duck

Black Ring Bill Gulls Resting

A couple of days to New Years and the past week has seen two record breaking days. One at 81 degrees and one at 83 degrees.

With the tic-toc ticking, somehow, a lot of year-end task were accomplished today; even got in a 45-minute power nap. In the process, many images got listed with a handful of agencies. Every year, I try to go back through my images because for one reason or another, I miss one here and there. My thinking at the time could have been that I didn't want to list that particular image.  Some times it's as simple as whether I can list it as stock or as an editorial only image. Those can be the easy choices---sometimes---and at other times it can be a major debate of mind reasoning. There has even been times that I have prayed over an image here and there. Plus, there are projects to plan for shoots and editorial stuff happening that one needs to stay on top if the event changes. Frankly, with the degree of hate in the world today, I think about those projects with extra special care. Mom called that, "loss prevention with maximum realization".

On our website under the last tab, some of our images portfolios can be viewed via links. But, of course, there are a couple that do not give us that advantage to include every image so that you can check them out. For that reason,  I have exempted those two sites so that images are not listed there unless they are on all the links.In other words, if you can not check it out, then I don't list images on those sites, but will list them on sites that allow us to link our portfolios.

There should be one final post before the New Years. Hopefully, I'll still have time to get it written .  

Sometimes, Best Waits For The Last Minute

Here it is the end of another year! Where does that time go? Well, from a scientific point of view, it only moves forward so at least we know what direction to look for it each year. There is always a rush to finish projects or start looking for tax information,too. It's also a time to reflect and to make those New Years resolutions. A year in review seems to be the moniker that hangs for this kind of stuff. Although, for me, my annual review is always in July. That's when I sit down and comb through all the services that I use and figure out if I am getting my value out of them. If not, then they are cut or terminated. I've already got a heads up on one for July 2017. AT&T forced me to go to U-Verse and now since they purchased Direct TV, they have figured out that it cost them $17 more per customer to stay on U-Verse and are planning to switch customers  (I call it forced) to Direct TV. So, 2016 hasn't settled in the dust and a dust bowl is on the horizon for 2017 already.

Image Creators have that "forever stamp" in their indexes. Using a picture taken 5-years ago is just as timely as using that same image taken yesterday. There are exceptions, of course, but generally, stock images don't need to be updated as much as some think that they do. When bottom-line economics first appeared as a game-changer, I wasn't all that impressed. Now, today, all I hear is that no one listens to them anymore when they shop and certainly don't listen to them if they have an issue with something from a retailer to a bank to the phone company or even at times--- health care providers.

The big new thing that is really going to be the icing on the cake is all the talk about AI (artificial intelligence). Just  yesterday the police want  Amazon to turn over information from their Echo device in a murder investigation in Arkansas. It appears that even when not in use, the AI is still listening and recording that information. In my own home, why would I ever want something like that?

When I voted this past election, I ask my precinct foreman if my voting machine left a paper trail. He didn't know. But after I voted he came up to me and said, " no it doesn't." I had been observing each time that I voted for a few years that the election volunteer after checking the information inserted a smart drive into the machine before turning it over to me. I had already assumed that he was down loading the last persons vote and that after I left the machine, my vote remained in the machine until the next person voted, repeating what he had done before I used the machine. So when the Donald said that there was a great potential for voter fraud, I was not surprised. Now, this morning, the voter machines that I have been using have been declared not fit for election use because of the fraud issue. Why am I not surprised about that, either?

Yesterday, I started going back through my images from the first of 2016 and reviewing those that I have submitted, those that have been sold, and those that have been used by magazines, newspapers and as still shots on television. That is one class. The second class are those that have a WOW factor. They fulfill my mission statement : "A project to enhance the mind, stir the emotions and  quench a thirsty soul." All the others I begin to delete. According to my camera numbering system, 2016 will be a bit off. As with the images from yesterday, 2016 saw the shutter click shut just shy of 50,000 clicks. That's about one tenth of one percent that end up earmarked as keepers. A good shot can still be good but for submission purposes, someone's arm or elbo in the shot pretty much marks that image for the delete button. It's the old adage: you create the beast, the beast wants fed. In this case, my beast is eating about 50,000 shots a year. As long as I am still having fun doing it, then the beast doesn't get hunger pains. When I have to put the camera down, for me, it's going to be a sad day.

So, in this last week of the year 2016, the unusual appeared. In searching back, my most amazing image came from a pigeon earlier in the year. Both were of animals. I'm thankful for that. Their brains may be smaller than ours, but they have more intelligence than we give them credit and their hearts beat just like our, too.

Layla--a pure white German Shepard from Germany.

Muscle is still Muscle

Dragon Boat on White Rock Lake. One team trains here.The annual race is at Las Colinas in May each year.