It's funny how one thing leads to another that was better than the first intention. Such was the case yesterday.There is a new place to get your feet wet in downtown Dallas in the new Carpenter Park. It is the 5th green space in downtown, but this one, changes the view of the skyline in many different ways. Not only does it favor the triangle that runs off the Main, Elm, Commerce corridor, it includes a lot of the new buildings that are filling in a lot of empty spaces. (To bad, Amazon. This space could have held your search for a new home.)
Not only does space provide a great walking area around the park, but contains a great dog area; a basketball court; plenty of new tables and chairs with wood benches in other areas. Two water splash areas and a very powerful fountain that shoots into the air. There are public restrooms that are clean, vendors being lined up for food trucks. The old John Carpenter statue that had been in storage is now in prominent view.
This park is across from the East Transit Center which has been shaken out of its sleep and is active and convenient. The office tower lunch crowds now have a place where they can sit on a hillside lawn or use the table and chairs and benches and then go for a scenic green space walk on their lunch breaks. There are also rocks in which you can yoga and balance beams hued out of solid trees trunks that you can climb or just sit and swing your legs.
Etnies is the largest free skate park in California. It stands now at 62000 square feet. Garland's new park while still under construction is a 40000 square foot park. For comparison, one acre is 43500 square feet.
and other light tidbits. While the weather has also been in the news with near record breaking heat, it was time to get out and walk. It seems to fit me best when I do at least three good walks in the 4-6 mile range. Plus, relearning all the changes that DART has made in bus routes has brought on so new discovery missions that has generated a lot of editing of images and listing with agents.
There are some good side effects---like yesterday when I ended up at Jimmy's Burgers next to the DPS Mega Center in Garland after my stop across the street at Garland Camera. I could spent the better part of a day there, just checking out all the new technology in cameras. Jimmy's makes a big burger almost like the old Holland House up in the Great Lakes. That burger was as large as a dinner plate! No joke! Jimmy's isn't that big (about half of that) but the taste of Hickory BBQ is sooooo good.
I went past the new skateboard park that Garland is building. It's doubled the size since I was last there and they are still building the thing! Prepare for traffic jams when it opens! Even the kids, their dads and even some grandpa's are chomping at the bit to get in there and try it out. Etnies Skate Park in Lake Forest, California is this parks equal. or this one in Garland is based on Etnies park. Cannot wait to check it out in action.
Before that, I had started out on the Red line going back up to City Line to check out the construction of the new Silver Line. Last week I was checking out Addison's Silver Line station and it appears that Addison is running a bit ahead of City Line although City Line
has more bridge work to carry the train across US75 Central Expressway after it leaves the station on its way to DFW. The other note was all the apartment construction along the rail lines, be it the new Silver Line or Dart light rail in Richardson, Plano, Garland and Dallas. The projects are just amazing and mind blowing so-to-speak.
Normally, I shoot 90 percent of my images from a hand-held position. Sure, I use a tripod. That's the other 10 percent. Having said that---this afternoon after shooting all afternoon at Addison Circle, I took the next bus that rounded the circle and ended up at Downtown Plano station. This was alright. Hop the red line or orange line to Spring Valley and catch one more bus home. As they say in the 'ole dugout at the ball park, " reposition". I like the Midtown Manhattan version, though, "You'll have that from time to time. Yes you will".
Never-the-less, I did what I normally don't do, I shot images on a bouncing and bumpy bus. So to the four young men that were super sports, trying to compress four live humans into a space with an isle and bouncing and rocking back and fourth, my hat goes off to you guys for being the part that really made the shot... starry eyes and closed ones too. It was a fun encounter and I thank you all. The flowers are for you to give you mothers on Mother's Day with your compliments.
I rode the new #3 bus from Mockingbird Station downtown yesterday. I don't always like using the train underground from Mockingbird to City Place and finally end up on Pacific Avenue as the train comes topside again.
It gave me a chance to see Ross Avenue developments that has totally transformed it from a decade ago. At the West End Station, I go off and hit the street heading toward Fountain Place. Then, it was just a meandering tour of all the changes from the west end of Ross avenue eastward through the Arts District when I meet a couple from India that were touring Dallas. As it turned out, the wife was a doodle artist and showed me a couple of here drawings that were absolutely amazing. I did give them my last business card that I had in my camera bag and I do hope that she sends me an email and how I can use a couple of her drawings. I can already see a couple of projects that would fit right in. I don't have any vectors and would like a show a couple.
From there it was to Cathedral Guadalupe where I timed it perfectly as the bells peeled for 15 minutes. As they wound down, the space between the bells as they tolled elongated and because somber and fading. It's been a long time since I have heard Cathedral bells peal like that. Got some interesting shots of all the new construction and how things have become more dense.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of things that are unusual. Some were a bit scary. Others were rather comical. Even enough rarity to bust out laughing. In those events, there has been times when I stumbled upon a guy playing his trumpet under a bridge to get the reverbs off the concrete. Just a couple of weeks ago I photographed a professional violinist on the cultural state at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. I ran across a Mexican Mariachi band playing under the west ramp of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge; a high school marching band when a Parliament Member from Italy was being honored on the Ron Kirk Pedestrian Bridge and Felix Lozada Gateway (Continental Avenue Bridge c.1929) but never, until today have I seen this! It was not only unusual. It was inspiring to see a young man practicing his violin while rollerblading around a school and adjacent park. Because the young man was a minor and had no adult parent with him, I could only photograph him with his back to the camera under editorial photos published guidelines. I did tell him how to find his image later tonight for his parents or his friends. With that said, I give you a talented student that was pretty good at both rollerblading and playing the violin, albeit all at the same time.
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...
