Saturday Entertainment

My neighbor put in a sprinkler system about a year ago or so.  No one in my yard had ever paid much attention to it.  Until Jack.

Tonight I'm sitting on the couch doing nothing important and I hear a muffled banging from outside. I can't imagine what it is so I go out to investigate.

Jack is jumping at the fence. Because the neighbor's sprinkler is running. Henry used to run at sprinklers and bite the sprinkler head. But to stalk a sprinkler through a fence?

Let's see how this unfolds.

I had just come out with the camera after seeing him doing this crazy thing. He's waiting for the next sprinkle by...

Wait for it...

Between these photos was a missed jump, but I caught the aftermath...

He had just jumped at the fence and has literally hit the ground running as the sprinkler moves on...

Down the fence, there it is again!

Almost caught it...

But it moved again, now closer to the door!

Try...

... and try again!

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to have a shutter finger fast enough to catch an airborne Jack Russell terrier?  I counted myself lucky for getting these few and went inside.

Happy adventures,

Just Brande

The Last of the Springtime Glory 2010

I've been remiss lately in getting anything posted.  I was playing with other photos from the New Orleans trip. Then SDC reminded me that I hadn't posted any of the photos he had taken at the end of April.  Here they are... Untouched, unprocessed, un-anything.

Someone once said: Flowers are God's way of laughing.

This year it must have been one helluva BELLY LAUGH!

Sting sang about Fields of Gold. I doubt he ever saw this bit of field in my subdivision. I always thought his "fields of gold" were wheat. But after seeing the transition of the wild flowers from the brilliant blues of the blue bonnets this amazing sanctuary for Black-eyed Susans, I can't help but wonder: was he spending a spring watching the floral fireworks somewhere when he wrote that song? This photo doesn't even do it justice.

Not only were they dizzying looking across the field, but they overwhelmed everything around them. There at the bottom of this photo (above) you can just glimpse the last of the blue bonnets trying to have their last hurrah for the season.  

If you stare at this one long enough, you'll get dizzy.  I look at the contrast of colors and textures in these pictures (above and next two below) and just marvel at nature.  She throws together colors and shapes we'd never try when decorating a room. And somehow it always works out for her. Reds and pinks and yellows and golds and purple.  That's the color scheme thunk up while on a good acid trip. But you look at these photos and you can't even imagine an acid trip. All you can see is "WOW!"

Believe it or not, this last one here is real. Not altered by any program at all. I had a good friend lift it out of my facebook photos because she liked it so much. She said it didn't even look like it had happened without pasting in some fakeness.  But I promise. It did. This was the last photo I took of the flowers this spring.

 Enjoy. Happy adventures.

New Orleans Style

Taking photos of people is challenging  (or at least I think so). However, I think I enjoy that more than I enjoy taking photos of places and things because people tell a story with just being themselves.  I found that the people in New Orleans were great stories.

We were in New Orleans over the weekend of April 18. On Sunday morning, there was an marathon. I have no idea when these poor souls started the race. But by the time we were out and about around 10 am, they were starting to drag - and I do mean drag - themselves in. But the French Quarter loved it. There were people lining the streets and out on the balconies of their homes watching the race come to its end.   This man happened to have the best seat in the house.  And was dressed just as you would expect a man in New Orleans to dress.

Later I was leaning against a post and I see this coming down the street toward me. I snapped a quick shot. Then looked down to change the settings on my camera. I brought it up again just in time for him to see me sighting on him and he shook his head at me. I think this is my favorite photo from the whole trip.

As he walked by I asked, "Where you going with that?"

"I'm going to a gig. Whaddaya think?"

"Well, you never know! There are so many people walking around down here carrying tubas."
(I realize now it is not necessarily a tuba, but hey!)

We spoke, but he kept on walking. Gotta get to that gig...

New Orleans, April 2010

A few weeks ago I took some leave to go check out my next duty assignment.  On the way to Biloxi, we drove into New Orleans for a couple days.  Here's some of the shots I got. Clearly I need to go back. The old architecture, the interesting people. This place is a photographer's paradise.

Here are just a few shots of the buildings. The years of wear, the patina of age and the dignity of these things. Just amazing. We really don't appreciate what a lasting impact good workmanship can have.

And this is only the selected few I've had a chance to clean up and take out distractors like TV towers, cars and naked boobs.
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OK. Just checking to see if you were really reading.

Not the naked boobs. I didn't photograph any of those. But I could have. Chose not to on this trip. Right? Trying to keep my first experience of the Big Easy clean and family oriented.

Sure.

Wild Flowers in Texas Spring 2010

Texas has had a drought since fall of 2007.  This is a sad thing because the Texas state flower is the bluebonnet, which requires adequate rainfall to bloom.  So for the last 2 years there have been absolutely no flowers. Anywhere.

Last fall and this spring, the drought broke and we have had rain nearly every month since October or November. Because of this, the wild flowers have been incredible this year. So incredible that whole families pull off the side of the road to plop their children into them for family photos.

So, yeah. Amazing. 

A Festival Just for Strawberries

This year the annual Poteet TX Strawberry Festival happened April 9-11.  This year I went.

I must say... It was nothing like what I expected.  I mean, NOTHING.

I had expected there to be strawberries everywhere.  There were strawberries, but nothing like the "died and gone to strawberry heaven" that I had envisioned.  It was more like a normal ole small town festival on steroids. There was the carnival. The vendors selling food. These were all local raising money for all the usual organizations - Project Graduation, Volunteer Fire Dept, Band Booster, St. Somebody's Church Youth Group. You know the drill.

I would have felt it was a complete waste of time if I hadn't walked away with a half flat of those beauties up above.  Coming up next.... REAL strawberry shortcake.  

Washington D.C. in the dark

I had to go to D.C. late last month for a conference.  I was there with a couple of friends from work. We ditched a day of the conference to go wander the "sights". We stopped at the Natural History Museum first, then after it was dark and I was all set to get back to the hotel, one of my party insisted we hit a few of the memorials.  I must say I'm glad we did.

It's blurry. We really needed a nice tripod for our nighttime adventure. The possibility of the airplane flying through was completely random. The outcome of that was really cool though.  Thanks to Pete for playing with the camera at that moment!

Again, the lack of tripod is shameful, but a lovely shot of the T.J. Memorial. I think this is one of my favorites. The way the stone illuminates at night is incredible. There is such a warmth.

The WWII memorial is new since I was last in D.C. After the evidence of slight tremor in all hands, their was no way to attempt any photos of this memorial except in well lit areas. I'll definitely have to go back for better shots.

The monument had quotes from the people of that time. HS Truman said it right....