Might Have Scooped The Big Boys Yesterday.

Some of you might be wondering why I start out with a less than interesting detail about the weather in my blog. When you learn a lesson that makes you money, you tend not to forget that important little bit of information. In fact, I have explained that lesson here on this very blog more than just once. In short, weather makes a big difference in what people are doing. When you are making calls to a state that is snowed in and with power outages, you start calling you customer base in Florida or California The key to making sales is, of course, delivering info to your customer base that is useful to them as well.  Simply put, that's why I do it.The showed-in guys are not interested in buying any thing at the moment. They just want their power back on and resume life as normal. 

Anyway---knowing that the day was going to be cloudy and lighting would be an issue, I set out for the lake after picking up my prescription at Walgreen's from a text that I had on my phone this morning. I entered the lake area from a different spot today---almost in reverse order to what I normally do. Almost immediately it was obvious that people count was down. And that left birds and  many more than just a few construction workers that park on one end of the lake that is making a large addition to an assisted living community. Further down the east side of the lake three new homes are going up in the estate section. Still, to cover the lake, you  have to make the round from what ever point of entry you make until you finish the loop and end up back where you entered originally.

Thankfully, being a photographer where the art .actually trains your eyes to pick up things that most people miss---some, not even knowing that anything was going on at all. It actually gives you a leg up in the creative process and you can react if not by instinct, by muscle train to move a camera here or there almost before others who might still have their cameras hanging around their neck. I carry my camera from the pistol grip on the right side of the camera just for that reason. It is a bit more risky, however.You see, there are some methods to all the madness floating around you out there.

Just as I was departing the lake, a helicopter ( I call them egg beaters) began to buzz the lake. Now, there is a heliport not many miles from the lake where the local news organizations either hanger their egg beaters or rent them from a service with pilots. They fly across the lake all the time and from Dreyfuss Club, standing in the right spot, you can see planes landing at Love Field and yes, even at DFW when they are using a north flow landing pattern. The ATC controls flips and when the ATC flips one like Love Filed, they flip DFW at the same time as the runway headings are near the same and are the same for a couple of the runways. And when any of the blimps are in town for the Cowboys games or the Mavs or the Stars, they hanger their blimp at Redbird in south Dallas along I-30 and they need to refuel, you can watch them heading toward the airport. If you are covering blimps, they you know you can take a short break, too! Others who don't know that, are standing and watching, then, they have to leave when the blimps come back because they didn't take their potty breaks or get something to eat. There again, you get the point. The right info in hand is a game changer.

Why am I telling you this? Well being observant is a key factor when you shoot editorial photos or that 'picture of the day' for the live news feeds for stills and because editors follow certain photographers for various reasons over other ones. Some recognize that shots sometime are still submitted because of the topic or nature rather than total technique. Still, you want the best shot that you can get but I never delete an image--good or bad---because I have used images even as much as a year or so later where an image was used by an attorney in a court case and even a year or two later would use an image of lesser quality to back up an original image. So, don't delete your images that you feel are bad. It's called,'' when making soup and you run out of milk, you can always use water.''

Tonight on the news, the report of a missing couple was the reason for the egg beaters over the lake today. But, that was directly related to and answered the question from my post yesterday about the blood hound and the police cars at the lake. By being observant yesterday and posting, I had actually scooped a story sooner than later had I been a reporter. All those little things add up with editors and they start going to one photographer over others because they know that this photographer is out there every day while the other one only shoots on weekends or holidays. You get the point. Editors are just like us---they are creatures of habit and go first where they know they can get what they need in images and move on to their next project.

There wasn't much going on today even with that said. Here are some different shots

Tall Prairie Grasses with the Downtown Dallas Skyline some 8-miles away.

A fisherman with "man's best friend aboard" The cormorants get a bit nervous when boats get to close to their log and tree dry docks where they dry their wings after diving.Boat motors over 10.5 HP are not permitted on the lake. This guy has a little electric motor on the front of the boat that allows him to move legally on the water and its great for fishing around logs and shorelines.

Unsettling Sights Today

It's a pelican.What else can I say. Pelicans rule!!

The sun broke out and that was the signal to get the heck out of the house. By the time that I got to the lake, police were all over the lake. That's not a problem.  Usually it is comforting to see the men in blue, but today was different and it could be felt emotionally

By the time that I made it around to the old T&P trestle that was replaced into the new trail bridge, I saw three officers with open frame shoulder butt firearms.  One lead the pack with the most amazing blood hound that I have ever seen. Seeing the dog working was amazing and while I can't say what was going on officially, as I got around to the curve where the Katy Trail Extension comes under the T&P right -a-way police cars had the entry to the parking lot on the curve blocked off.

Another policeman and his car were parked and he was talking to some visitors. It did seem at that point that the previous scene on the back side of the curve was some kind of training exercise. Whether a real training mission or an actual search makes no difference. Things like that just don't happen at the lake and when you see it in action first hand with guns drawn and in arms, it is upsetting visually. It's a city park. There are other places where it would not be so visible for a training exercise.

Be that as it may, if it were something that would be a public safety issue, then I can see that in a city park...there would be no other place to hold it because it would have  to be an actual investigation.

This house is off the beaten path, but I pass it because there are other things going on around it. It's still one of my most favorite architectures. I love big veranda porches. The second deck open turret. There are a lot of people that have never seen this lovely place. So, editorially, this is a fine example of Southern Architecture in old Charleston, old Savannah , Pawleys Island.

This shows how choppy the lake really was today and the gentleman at times, was loosing more ground than he had just gained. Tiring Labor for sure.

It Was Eighty Degrees Today!!

We missed a record by two-degrees today. The sun was out. It was bright. Warm. Spring-Like and I saw the first red-bud tree up the street from me in full bloom. When that happens, it's time to make a cemetery run. A local cemetery has a very large section of flowering trees  that line a road that are just out of this world. So, before coming in today, I made a cemetery run. The trees have just started getting buds on the branches. With the cold weather coming in the next few days, it will slow down the process some, but they are hardy trees and the cold doesn't usually bother them once they start budding. With that fact under my hat, I'll not be going back for about a week to ten days. The low clouds return overnight and will be 'hanging around' into next week Sorry for the poor pun, but there was a piece on the news tonight about global warming and that Dallas, because we are in such a mixing bowl, is expected to join Phoenix and Louisville (don't get the Louisville connection) as the fastest warming cities in the US.

So here is a bit of images with captions. Enjoy..

This sign has been struck about  six times over as many months. It's down for the count again!!

Blue Sky with a bit of architecture trim.

Fall and Winter Embrace Spring. The landscape companies are already out cutting grass for this season.

Super Bowl LIII Day Gives Off Some Intereting Views

Mockingbird Station's Angelika  Theater  will soon being showing this years Film Fest Films

Signs on the SB Service Road of US75 North Central Expressway. At the light, turn right into SMU campus. Parking for the library is on the right after turning off the service road. This station serves the Blue, Red, Orange Lines. The Green can be made as a transfer at tne first station after the trains come up from the tunnels. The orange line is the line that goes to  DFW Terminal A

A rare site to see a windsurfer on the water at White Rock Lake. The gentlemen on the board is closer in age to me than any of the boaters or kayaks save a hand full. It's great to see the more mature sports men  like this gentleman. Here, he has a great wind and moving rather fast. He's steering toward the boat ramp and take a plunge right at the ramp. Perfect!! Nice man to talk with, also.

The sun came out briefly. At kick-off time, the cloud deck had returned. Listening to the Pre-Game Show, A  couple of pictures from earlier in the day. The temp hit 71 officially at DFW just before 3 P.M. Originally, the men with the magic ball were calling for 80 F. Clouds messed that up for sure.

Talking With Silicon Valley For Over And Hour

Life will always toss you a curve from the blind side. Today, I spent more than an hour with an office in Silicon Valley because  they bought one of my independent agencies that has done very well selling my images. The merger is winding up in the next few days and I had not been able to sync my account with the new one. By the time I got off the phone, it was pretty late for me to even leave the house. But, sunshine popped out and the forecast calls for clouds and drizzle and clouds and more drizzle and maybe 1/2 - inch hail alone the way.

Yes, folks, the Texas mixing bowl is getting ready to churn up one heck of a springtime in storms, I'm afraid. All that energy in cold air has to go somewhere and the with the Gulf churning up the moisture and all the dynamics that goes with that, if we get out of  this spring without being halfway blown away, it will be by the Grace of God that we will live to see another summer. I remember as a kid, hearing my grandmother tell about the tornado that killed one of my great-aunts in Brownwood, Texas. I've never forgotten that story.   

Now that I think about it, I had slept in this morning, too, so the whole day has been offset by  a couple of hours. Never-the-less, I was out the door by 2:20. The cloud cover was just lifting to where the sun angles were perfect. I have been waiting for some good sun to check a new setting on the camera. Today just happened to be the one. Did I mention that the perfect subject to test it on is birds and flora. Ouch! someone stuck a pin in their voodoo doll! I felt that.

The mid-range of the setting turned out the best. I have a few places where I can use it again. So, all is not lost, I suppose. I'm a great believer in the penny lost, penny found philosophy. The math in the winds of fate hold more credence than we give credit. I guess you begin to see those things when you get (older [ancient]) like me. My own thoughts have proclaimed that I will not age gracefully. I never said that I didn't like old age. Some of you know where I'm going with this, but I'll spare you the drum roll and trumpet fanfares.

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Female Grackle

Seed Pod Art

Vines against a lake water backdrop.

 

Double Birds Rearranged

The morning slipped by rather fast and the coffee pot emptied faster than normal as I edited some images. When I was about to transition from editor to getting my daily dose of sunshine, my phone rang. It was a representative in the field for Oncor, the electric delivery arm for TXU Energy, better known as just TXU. I call them, 'the Edison'. Electric Utilities up north are know as 'the Edison' and I grew up knowing my childhood electric power company as the 'Power and Light'.  Basically, I like 'Edison' better.  She said that she would be here in about 10-minutes to run the meter test and needed the meter closet unlocked.

Oncor changed over the meters to the new digital meters over a year ago and frankly, people have been a bit concerned and do not trust the new meters as much as the old ones. Because of that, Oncor provides a free meter check. I had not used mine because I had not had any issues...until this past month.

Here, the male relanded just below his mate. The nest may be along White Rock Creek in the deep woods. This tree is surrounded by traffic on three sides.

This is the male taking flight but he didin't leave the tree. I ended up just below his mate.

The male is on the left side and the hen is on the right side of the tree just a bit higher.

By the time I got done, I had a late start and the cloud cover was beginning to move in again. I was looking for the Buffelhead ducks that I had seen yesterday. After making an uneventful trip around the lake, I was on the way home and was one intersection away from being out of the park when I spot a hawk sitting as pretty as  you please high up in a large tulip tree. Then, I spotted the mate sitting near her in the same tree. Dang! A double header if  I wanted the general shot. I did. It was a good twenty minutes  of shooting. I sure wished I had my longer lens that I have and can't use because it doesn't fit this camera.

We have a couple of days coming up over the weekend with temps into the 70s. The question is how much cloud cover we are going to have.

Up and At'Em Early Today

An early morning errand had me out the door and on the move before 2 bells this morning. After the errand, I had the full morning to shoot. By eight bells, I had already stopped at two grocery stores and was minutes from being home. The cold front was slipping into the Metroplex and it will be a hard freeze tomorrow morning plus it will be about 10-12 degrees cooler for the day high, but by the weekend, its forecast to hit 70F.

I've seen the minus 17 degree cold before and hopefully, never again. The Great Lakes haven't been frozen like this in years!! It takes cold to do that. The tap water is ice cold from the lakes and really taste good. I miss Great Lakes Water. We will not get that much of the Arctic push into North Texas. But, being inside and out of the wind as the temperature drops has a great benefit---called warmth!!

My final run before heading to the store, I made the circle of the lake. Much to my surprise as I'm sitting at on the of parking lots looking across the lake, I see Bufflehead ducks. They are here in migration from the boreal forest and aspen park lands of central Canada. They are small, feisty, disappear into the water much like the cormorants and American Coots. The big difference is the colorful displays of feathers.  It was simply being in the right place at the right time.

The male has colors like a wood duck but not identical.

Will be going back to look for them specifically. I want some better shots. These runs for the blog help keep breaches of copyrights down to a minimum, but they also turn up finds that  help to produce income later on.