Burton is a small town in Washington County Texas. It's claim to fame is that it is the oldest working cotton gin in the country.

I guess in the cold weather even the birds can get a little testy  IMG_7801 Hey! Who stole my equilibrium?! IMG_7786 

Thanks for lookin'  : )

... though maybe not when it's so damn cold! Here are a few beach themed shots I wanted to share.

First up is a beach shot complete with wooden bits, and a close-up of those wooden bits, and lastly an interesting garden arrangement, complete with pebbles and wooden bit. We do like our wooden bits!

I do a bit of wood carving as you might have guessed. It helps to take photos in the progression of various works using Highlights and Shadows to see what needs to happen next in the process. I've taken several shots of this particular project which is still underway and thought this would be a good one for the challenge. I set it up using only a small flourescent desk lamp and setting the exposure for 2.5 seconds and worked with a telephoto on a tripod. I then took some sheets of paper folded in half and set up a couple of spots of reflected light in the lower left and lower right of the picture. Let me know what you think.

 winter_dragon 

Thanks for looking!!!

Don

I watched some pretty good games this weekend on TV, yes I know SG.....you don't watch TV. Well then you miss some exciting plays, and I'm not talking Cats or Hairspray!

Here is a small slideshow of the feeling the sport gives me..  Alumni Football

Now for those who want to see some color.... I intercepted one for you 

It's ours now. 

Now for some fun....simlple but not just filter work.

 Alumni framed 1

 Alumni framed 2

 Alumni framed blk

My baby's nearly all grown up. 15 years old now! Where does time go? She is a willing life model for me in my hobby of photography. Today was a stinking 40 degree celsius day so we stayed indoors a fair bit. I chose a dark corner of the house and a small bedside lamp for lighting angles and this is what we came up with. Not the best I know, but not too bad considering what we had. I am normally a minimalist when it comes to post processing, however I liked the soft feel to these ones. 

 Tayla_1

 Tayla_2

Just a few pictures from my week-end. It was real foggy here, so I went to Lake Amistad, and this is what I found when I got there.

 foggy morning 

Then I stopped at the park, and fed the geese!

 reflections 

I havent posted on here forever. Life has been really busy.  I finally dusted off the camera and got a few pics lately.  We moved out into the country and these pics are at the new house.  Hope your like them.

 Christmas08_104 the kids in the snow at Christmas time

 Christmas08_079a  Deer right in my back yard

 Christmas08_065   Pitiful 

 Christmas08_009 Sunny Fall Day on the Prairie

I could talk about my duds
And my thrift store scores
But that probably wouldn't interest you
But why should it
I mean, I've seen a lot of shit in 2o years
But your  feet in my shoes is not something I recall
And I've been known to drink 20 beers
Before a show cuz
otherwise I probably wouldn't have the balls
I could make references to books I never read
For the sake of sounding conscious
But, that's just obnoxious
I could take off these bandages and
Expose these papercuts
And put them in the air
with both my middle fingers up
or talk about myself in third person
like I'm better than you
cuz there's nothing else better to do
I could attack your character from
Eighty different angles
Cleverly explaining exactly how wack you are

But why do that when it's a well known fact
you buying this cd is potentially feeding me

could tell you whatever you want to hear
But if I just said hello would you listen to me?
I could sell a blind man new ears
If I just said hello would you listen to me?
I'm trying hard trying to make it perfectly clear
But I'm dying because their aint nobody listening to me
Been relying on myself on myself for more than 22 years
And I aint crying I just need someone to listen to me
Can I get some reply get maybe some kind of sign
to let me know that you're listening to me?
Just from time to time I get lost in my mind
Its hard to find someone to listen to me
My ears were open when you needed some consoling
I'm hoping till the sound you hear echoes
Every time I say hello

 Hello? Is there anybody out there ?

Gym Class Heroes.

 sunset_1_P 

Salt Marsh in Maine.  I am not sure if this qualifies or not.  Definetly lots of shadows.

From out of the shadows...crept Miamoto, my daughter's first cat. Mia was a purely black tomcat we adopted as a 6 week old kitten, and this photo captured the handsome, sleek cat he became.

Mia loved to slink and creep around the house, but more than that, Mia loved my daughter. She was 2 years old when we adopted him, and at first I caught her lugging him around with his head through her little arm. I quickly taught her to carry him with his paws and upper body over her snug arm, and a bond was instantly formed between them.

My daughter could carry that cat for what seemed like hours, and he would simply hang there over her arm, content and secure. She never dropped him, never hurt him, once she realized how delicate he was as a tiny kitten.

Soon, though, Mia grew into a huge black tomcat. Even then, he'd panic if I picked him up, but she could lug him around the house all she pleased, and he was fine with it. Mia would still just go limp and succomb to her doting attentions.

It still amazes me how gentle she was with her big tomcat, and how much he adored my daughter. Eventually, we moved, and he ended up lost to us forever...but my daughter and I still remember Miamoto fondly, and we talk about him and keep his memory alive.

This photo is one of a precious few I have to remember him, and his unwavering love of my daughter, by. I think it captures his love of creeping out of the shadows, too. We still miss him so much...

Just a few pictures for the challenge.

 Blue Hydrangea  Hiding in the bushes 

This is the view to the west out of my front window as the sun came up this morning (taken THROUGH the window and zoomed in, so not as sharp as it was beautiful IRL).

Sunbreaks in our winter gray sky are unusual, and I thought this might be as close as I'll get to the 'highlights and shadows' challenge:

                         Sunrise over the Olympics

Robin G. came out for a Christmas visit, each Christmas she came out to visit family and friends we tried to go up on the Gondola at Heavenly Valley. It got to where we would not even say the word gondola, not wanting something to come up and we could go.  Well after 3 years we made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and oh what a beautiful day it was, it was a perfect way to start the New Year. 

 Robin___Kim climbing  Wonderful  uptop 

  Fresh  alive  backing_up 

 photography

My patio isn't much, a row of old evergreens that were once a privacy hedge and little grass because of the trees. When I moved into this garden floor apartment I liked the idea of a huge window, slash door as I worked on the computer. But as I said, it wasn't much to look at.

The first winter came and then a snowstorm. I opened the blinds one day and it took my breath away. That began a kind of tradition of taking pictures of it each winter for as long as I stay here at least. This photo is part of 2008 taken with a Fuji DL-15 and softened using an effect from Picasa 3.

Just out driving around and saw this beautiful church and wondered what the services were like...

 Canadian Church