Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2015): Two

I though this would be an easy one. I had a grand plan. I did not execute said grand plan. This is what I have to offer. TWO:

Two shadows and a dog.

Catching up on my Proj365, I actually have two photos from which to choose.

These two old building caught my eye while out fishing. Supposedly, they were build for Boy Scouts to use.

I'm a tipi, I'm a wigwam... two tents.

And the title of this one says it all, I needed one more 2.

Hopefully, I will feel more inspired next month. My grand plan was to be 5 shots of different 2's similar to the last. that seems easy enough, no? Jump over to a lil hoohaa to see some folks who were inspired! Join in next month. We'll see you then.

Photo Blogging Challenge (February 2015): Winter

Winter in Texas can be kind of tough to find. We started out February in shorts and ended it bundled up again.

It was pretty amazing weather, we were able to get out and hit the trails some.

Over Valentines day weekend, Amy ran the Austin half-marathon and the boys and I ran a 5K while we were waiting. Town Lake was hopping with folks enjoying the warm weather.

They paddled into the evening.

I finally got to see a little winter. I went for a visit to our Tulsa office. They had been hit by a bit of a snow storm a few days earlier.

Then, just when we though we were all done with winter, we got one of those weird weather days in Waco. Big, huge, flakes. It was so pretty coming down. The two photos below were taken only a few hours apart. In Texas, we get to enjoy three seasons in one day.

That's the best we can do for winter around here. If you want to see what winter looks like elsewhere, go check out the rest at a lil hoohaa blog. And we'll see you next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2015): Games

This month's photo challenge came to an end in a hurry. Where did January go? Do I start all these this way? This month's theme was games. I got this. We can do games. Let's not mess around and get started.

My year started out pretty good. My Baylor Bears were ranked number 5 in one of the college football polls, just barely missing out for a place in the inaugural NCAA Championship Playoff series, and had another stellar year. They led the Michigan State Spartans for 59 minutes in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas Cowboys stadium. Unfortunately, football games last 60 minutes and they were defeated by one point.

You can play all sorts of games with dice. Many board games require them but they are also quite handy stand-alone.

I've had this game for quite awhile and it was old when I bought it. This board was made in a little town just a short drive from here is what drew me to it. It's played a little like Sorry, if I recall, with marbles as the playing pieces.

My youngest was big into the video game Skylanders. You purchase these physical pieces and place them on a device that brings them into the game. Of course, there are limited edition figures and, of course, he "just had to have" many of them. And, of course, he couldn't care less about them now.

Our Boy Scout troop decided to take a break from our normal meetings and go bowling. Bowling has changed considerably since I last participated. Black lights and loud music are the norm. You can sort of text between the lanes on kiosk that also allows you to take photos for the scoreboard, order food, and see all sorts of statistics for your game. You can also select from many different kinds of games that are scored by how many pins you knock down. It was fun.

I felt like you would be missing out if I didn't include this B-B-B-Bonus Shot-t-t-t of one of my scouts on bowling night. He was so full of swag from the top of his headband to the bottom of his high top socks. BOWLING!


So January is done; what will February bring? More photos will definitely be there, new participants, why not? What are you waiting for? You have a camera, don't you? You have some time to kill at least five times during the month. Join us! In the meantime, there are many other fine photographers and there photos to check out over at a'lilhoohaa.   ← Just click right over there to take a look at some fine photographers and their fabulous photos. You know you want to. What are you waiting for? CLICK IT! Go head. I'll be right here.

Photo Blogging Challenge (Dec. 2014): ‘Tis the Season

'Tis the season, indeed! Another year coming to a close. Football season winding down. More family gatherings. December is a fun and busy month. My annual trip to NYC got cancelled and that had me a little bummed until I saw the rain and the protests going on that week. Still, it always kicked off Christmas for me. Other than that, it was a pretty usual December in my world.

This was the end of the first season in the new stadium for my Baylor Bears, they became the Big XII Champs for the second year in a row. While we were left out of the final four due to our out of conference schedule, it's fun to see our scruffy little private school team making headlines.

'Tis also the season of parties. My Tulsa office always throws a big shindig. I like that the lady on this one looks like she is dancing like Peanuts characters do in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

December also brought orchestra concerts and piano recitals along with opportunities to force the boys to pose for me.

And the decorating and the eating and the gift giving... We host the Christmas Day festivities at my house, family, in-laws, out-laws, steps, cousins, nephews and nieces are all welcome. My mom comes in a day or two early and works her magic on the tables. They always look so nice.

Speaking of family, it's always a good opportunity to get a shot of these good looking cousins. We are taking this swing set down this year as it is falling apart; so one last opportunity to ham it up.

We were attempting to relive this photo from 2006 when they were much smaller. Will, the pouty fellow in the vest had recently popped his big brother, John, the guy with the shiner, with one of the swings. Cousins, Lili and Evan, look on.

2014 was a great year that has gone by way too fast. I'm loving the monthly photo challenges and can't wait to see what PJ has cooked up for January. Check out his blog if you want to participate or if you want to see what the rest of the folks have share. It's, as always, a 'lil hoohaa. Until next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2014): Where the streets have no name

I just remembered I haven't done this yet so I fired up the computer and see the link up closes in 1 hour and 41 minutes. I'm glad I got up. Where oh where does the time go. This month's theme is Where the streets have no name.  Let's see how I did:


I book-ended my month with a trip to my favorite place. My family bought some land about an hour away from here shortly after I was born. I love spending time here. And when I'm with my boys and my dad, it's even better.

My oldest is 14. He loves this Jeep. He has been ready to drive for 13 and half years. He is finally getting behind the wheel and loves it!

This was just a nice quiet spot I was hanging out in watching the sunset.

And another spot that definitely has no name.

John has been giving names to places on the property. And, I'll admit, that over the years I have too. The biggest problem is if no one else knows where you are talking about, the name doesn't help much. We have my Dad's (Poppa's) Stand, Suicide Hill, and Turkey Holler from my generation. John has Bone Lake and the Pig Stand. I've mapped spots using my GPSr in the past. Maybe I should share those with the others one day. Or maybe it's more fun to guess.

Go check out the other entries at a lil hoohaa blog and think about joing in on the fun in December!

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2014): Photographer’s choice

Another month, another photo challenge, another hard decision. Photographer's choice was the theme. I was trying to make it harder than I needed to so here is my collection:

October finds us in the middle of football. I took the opportunity of an away game and fabulous to hunt out some new caches placed around the new stadium and grab a picture or two.



October is also fair time in Texas. We have the Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo here in town. My boys are getting big enough that they want to roam alone so I have almost no photos from this year's fair. But we also have the State Fair of Texas going on in Big D. Fletcher's Corny Dogs are a must eat and no trip would be complete without your photo with Big Tex. He started out as a Santa Claus in a little town called Kerens. You can read his history here. He also burned up on the last day of the fair last year so this is a brand new Tex.

We have Football, Fairs, how about Fall. I have to leave town to see any real fall colors. I took a short trip to Southern Pines, North Carolina for some fall golf.

We had a partial solar eclipse visible this month. It was just about sundown so I was able to get out and take some shots. This was using an IR filter stacked with an ND8 just to knock it all down and have some latitude with ISO and aperture. The large sunspot on the left of the cluster is supposedly twice the size of Earth.

Finally, October is Hallowe'en. If you've followed PJs blog long enough, you may have read my case for Hallowe'en post from a few years ago. I like to go all out for Hallowe'en and I always have. I've got my boys helping now. And as always, we'll be live streaming (or live screaming) all night long!

So there are this months five. There are so many more over at PJs blog. Join us, won't you. One of us, one of us, gooble, gobble...

Photo Blogging Challenge (Sept. 2014): Black and White

Where did the time go? It's already October! Spetember's theme was Black and White. I hope you enjoy my selection.

Jem is our black and white kitty. He fetches a ball and also likes to toss it to himself. That is when he is not ripping the paint off the wall or sleeping on my workout clothes.

 

This guy is the new baby of a coworker. I thought the black and white stripes would go perfect.

 

We spent an afternoon fishing at the marina. This is my dad's sailboat. I liked the font.

 

The family took a day trip down to Austin to see a special exhibit about dogs and cats in art. This was in the Blanton Museum.

 

I needed one more photo and was running out of time. I intended on converting this to black and white but I liked this as it was. I also liked it without correcting the WB. You can see that on my flickr page. I couldn't decide which I liked better. This one won. I need to play with the nifty 50 more and shallow dof.

 

 

There you have my five.  My world has been really busy. I hope to have a little more time to devote to next month. Check out the other participants over at a lil hoohaa blog.

 

Photo Blogging Challenge (August 2014): Colorful

The theme for PJs Photo Blogging Challenge this month was Colorful. I like a theme open to interpretation! August was a busy month but I whittled it down to five favorites. Let's get started, shall we?

We ended July and started August at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, specificallly the Charles L. Sommers Base of Northern Tier High Adventure Program. We spent about six days paddling the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada and had a fantastic time. There were many great sunsets and sunrises.

How could I not include Rainbow Rock in a post with a colorful theme? This was found on our last day on the water. The type of rock is not native to the area and had to have been carried some distance.

Back home, my friend Nancy at Lula Jane's keeps raising the bar with delicious, home grown meals.

We celebrated our friend's birthday with a colorful cookie cake. Happy Birthday, Alex!

I rounded August off with a colorful sunset along my evening walking route. It's always a great way to end the day.

Check out other participants at PJs blog A 'lil Hoohaa and think about joining up next month!

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2014): Baseball

I'm posting this a bit early this month. I'm about to head to Northern Minnesota to Northern Tier for a week on the Boundary Waters. My text is subject to change and I apologize for the hastiness. But I am literally walking out the door in 3 hours.

This month's theme was Baseball. I had an idea in mind and got to a decent start but I'm afraid I got a little busy. Let's take a look at what I put together.

I called this one Stealing Home. I thought it needed a nice pretentious name.

 More from a forgotten field.

I played t-ball here when I was a kid. My kids did too. They lost interest after coach pitch.

I had the opportunity to work with Nolan Ryan some years ago at his ranch. After a long day of shooting commercials for Dairy Queen, he went into his barn and pulled out a bucket of baseballs and sat with us and signed one for each of the crew. 

 
This is a small shrine to baseball in my office. The ball was signed by the 2005 Baylor team that is in the photo behind it. That was their last trip to the College World Series. Hopefully they will be back soon.
 

Photo Blogging Challenge (June 2014): Vehicles

The June theme for PJ's Photo Blogging Challenge was vehicles. I knew it was going to be a challenge because I was spending a good portion of June on a backpacking trip at Philmont Scout Ranch in the mountains of New Mexico. Then sitting down to try to pull out five ended up being the challenge, so I have a couple extra this month. Sue me! Here we go!

On one of our practice hikes, I came across this nice looking Impala. I did a bit of shopping to remove the back of my truck and some wires. I really liked this car.

We did actually run across some vehicles at Philmont. These were at Baldy Town. John had seen them on their web page and was looking for them during the trip. I'm glad we found them for him. The boy loves cars!

Just hanging out at the airport after a trip to Dallas for a retirement party for a couple of coworkers.

This truck belongs to a local coffee shop, Dichotomy. They bring it and their delicious coffee to our farmer's market every Saturday. It goes great with the crepes! The coffee, not the truck.

This weekend, we went up the highway a little to West, Texas. You may remember it from the news last year when they had the horrible fertilizer explosion. It's a little more than 20 miles from home; we heard the explosion. Anyway, West is a small community of Czechs with loads of good food. After dinner we were checking out the old M-K-T depot when the train whistle blew. So now I have planes, trains, and automobiles covered.

Bonus Boat Shot: Boats are vehicles, no? My oldest and I went for a little paddle this evening. I shot this as we were packing up. I liked it too much not to include it.

And final fun time bonus, Saturday morning on the way to the farmer's arket, I spotted a for real DeLorean running in the wild. Get in the car, Marty, no time to explain!

So there you have it, another month and another group of photos. Won't you check out the others of at the a'lilhoohaa blog? You won't be sorry. Why don't you think about participating next month. The theme will be up tomorrow (if you are reading this June 30.) Until next month...