Dear Bentley
For some, they’re just a dog or a cat, something that takes work and are messy. Some think a dog is only good for fighting and bringing in money, never considering their health or feelings. Some find it “fun” to abuse these four footed friend, doing unspeakable things that more often than not result in suffering and death. For others, they’re children that can’t speak other than barking or meowing. Sometimes they become our best friend and confidant. Beyond the food dish, they are always happy to see us, and no matter the mood we’re in they will love us unconditionally. Even when they are sick and hurting, when they see us, their “smiler” flickers, wagging weakly, but letting you know that you are the most important person in their life.
I have had many dogs over my lifetime, two that have been extremely special. Sir Jeremy and Reba’s Bentley Astin. Jer and Bentley. Jeremy made it to his 16th birthday and three months beyond. Bentley will be six in September. Oh, I have had other special dogs; well, they all have been special in one way or another.
Bentley, though, has been a handful growing up. Happy and enthusiastic the word “no” was hard to input into his vocabulary. It took five and a half years for him to understand that no does indeed mean NO. And he’s no longer a “rocket launcher” aiming for the knees when out of control. He has grown into a sweet, loving, lovable and fun ball of fuzz with a tongue faster than the speed of light. And he’s an apple lover. Mostly yellow delicious, but if it’s an apple, he wants some if you’re eating one.
I don’t know what I’d do without him. He knows how to make me laugh when I need to laugh, and when I’m grumpy with pain he stays just close enough to let me know he’s there if I need him. A Yorkie locked in a Schnauzer’s body. Twenty pounds of pure love.
My serious Bentley
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Texas Rite of Spring
It’s Spring in Texas, and so far, it has been a real Spring. Oh, we have had a few days with unreal temperatures, and we have had a day filled with tornadoes – 12 to 15 of them – and a downpour of rain. Rain. It is something we have had quite a bit of this year, and it is much needed. I don’t think anyone is complaining, either. The tornadoes we can do without, however.
“April showers bring May flowers.” For Texas, though, it’s more like “February and March showers bring out Texas bluebonnet flowers.” And this year because of all of the rain, the bluebonnets are everywhere in great numbers. A beautiful sight to see, given the drought and heat of the last few years, which made bluebonnets sparse. And while they bloom, their fragrance is wonderful.
I always look forward to this time of year. Sure, other flowers abound, but there is something about the bluebonnets that brings out a somewhat controlled “silliness” in people. A small field or rather large clump of bluebonnets suddenly has a parking lot of cars surrounding it with children and adults, some with dogs, laughing giddily while squatting or sitting among the blooms while an equally giddy person with a face glued to the back of a camera snaps repeatedly away in hopes of capturing that “special” moment for all time. Just as suddenly as they appeared the laughing dies as car doors slam and they zoom off in search of a new pristine clump to roll in while another group of equally silly and giddy adults, children and dogs take their place among the now trodden and flattened state flower. In Texas, this is a statewide rite of Spring and quite anticipated. As it should be, since this is the only time the bluebonnet blooms.
I, too, look forward to this time of year, attending the closest festival and driving the “Bluebonnet Trail” in Ennis County. But, this year was different; gas prices have sky rocketed, and driving the Trail alone was not something I cared to do. I thought for sure that I would not get any photos this year, but did manage to work some in without joining in the frenzy. Far less than the two or three hundred photos that had become normal, I took only a handful. I am glad that I was able to do so, however. Somehow it would not be Spring unless I got the opportunity to see, smell, and photograph a few bluebonnets.
A solitary Texas bluebonnet
Texas bluebonnets
Posted in Seasons by Jason with 1 comment.
Quote
To take photographs is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
–Henri Cartier-Bresson
Posted in Perspectives by Jason with no comments yet.
It’s all in the angle
I am mainly “known” by my landscape and nature photos because I rarely take “people” photos. Butterflies, bugs, animals, trees, flowers….those photos are common for me, but another “love” of mine is buildings with unusual angles, especially “high-rise” buildings. I am not a big city kind of guy, so I try to stay out of big cities, but now that I am living in Dallas, tall buildings are all around me.
I recently was in a building that was very interesting. Twelve stories high, the top of the building was graced with an oblong skylight stretching from one side of the building to another, and the entire building was open from the atrium to the skylight, leaving the offices to reside on the four sides of the building. In the atrium, nestled against the elevator shaft, is a two-tiered water fountain and small pool. The interior had some incredible angles. I just had to take some photos, so the next time I was in the building, I brought my camera along.
As a photographer, I know that security is tight now around a lot of professional buildings, but I was given assurance there wouldn’t be a problem taking photos. Ehhh…that didn’t turn out to be the case, as security informed me after I had taken around 80 photos. Even though I asked, the security guard allowed me to keep the photos I had taken and not erase them in front of him, which I was willing to do. Unfortunately, I did not get all of the angles I had wanted to take, but I got enough to satisfy me.
So, just a cautionary warning. always make sure the places you wanted to photograph are “safe” or you at least have permission from security to take non-descript photos of buildings.
Reflective angles
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Cold Front
It was a dark and windy night, the wind whistling through the trees, stripping them of the few leaves left clinging after the summer drought; a haunting and eerie night with temperatures falling from an Indian Summer 78 to a dead of night 35. The moon, in its waxing glory, dances quietly behind swiftly fleeing clouds. Autumn has descended with great fanfare, late though it has been, but welcome nonetheless.
[Written November 2nd]
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The Pumpkin Patch
I love Autumn because the colors are so vibrant from ground to sky. Autumn, the time of harvest and of thanksgiving. Cooler crisp weather settles in, campfires smell better, and time to rake leaves and jump in the middle. It’s also time for pumpkins, squash, haystacks and bales and corn stalks, witches, ghosts and magic. I love Hallowe’en; it’s probably my favorite “holiday” of the year, just because it’s so fun – adults and kids alike can put on costumes and be anyone we’d like, our fantasy persona exposed for one day of the year. But, seeing a pumpkin patch filled with pumpkins and squash, I don’t know, it’s just seeing the vividness of orange sitting in a brown field, or sent to a “pumpkin patch” where they are scattered hither and yon on a green field of grass. To me there is something really exciting about that. Large, medium and small pumpkins, the smell of a real wood fire mixed with the cinnamon-y taste and smell of hot apple cider, added to a cool, clear, crisp day filled with the sounds of children’s laughter. Okay, call me a romanticist. It doesn’t bother me. It’s what I grew up with, what I remember, and what I try to re-discover each year.
A shoe view of some of the pumpkins. (Left)
I don’t know who this dad and daughter are, but they were just too darned cute! (Right)
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I love you THIS much!
I love stingrays! Especially their underside. To me they look like happy angels.
The State Fair of Texas at Fair Park has a revamped children’s aquarium that has a “hands on” exhibit with horseshoe crab, rock lobsters and other non-venomous water creatures that can be touched. Then, in an outside, but covered area are the sharks and stingrays, the latter which can be hand fed and touched. After the tragedy that involved Steve Irwin several years ago, I have been a bit leery about touching a stingray, but these were harmless because they did not have their stingers. Little characters, they would jockey for the right to get touched and to take shrimp out of your hand. Pushing and shoving, along with squabbling, the largest wasn’t always the winner in the “battle”, but the “conflict reminded me a lot of a rugby scrum in chaos.
And then there was the “ham”. The one stingray that had to show off at the window. One of the larger stingrays in the tank, “he” wanted to be noticed [I don’t know if it was a he or she, but for ease of speech I am using the male pronoun] and made no bones about it, bobbing up and down and back and forth, swimming in a circle around the tank, and then coming back to bob up and down at the window again. It was like he was begging to have his photo taken. So, I did. And I got him in a position that said to me, “I am happy to see you, and I love you THIS much.”. It was a great experience, and left me feeling upbeat.
I love you THIS much!
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Magnablend Chemical Plant Fire
On Monday, October 3rd, 2011, a chemical plant in Waxahachie, Texas, caught fire setting off numerous explosions. The dark plume from this fire could be seen 30 miles away in Dallas. From a second story bedroom we could see the plume, which at the time – right after the explosion -looked like a tornado, except that the only cloud in the sky at the time was that from the plume. We live not quite 20 miles away.
Magnablend Chemical, First Look
Grabbing up my camera we took off to take photos and see the fire. For quite a while it continued to look like a tornado, but the closer we got to Waxahachie where the plant was located, the more the plume began to widen. Toxic fumes could be smelled from about 10 miles away.
Of course, there were lots of observers and television and radio stations broadcasting live, but this was an opportunity I hadn’t had before. The last chemical fire I had seen was from a barge that had exploded in the middle of the Mississippi River when I was a kid. Exciting back then, but what I remember most about that is that my father had his heart attack about that time.
Eighty five people worked in this plant and numerous emergency personnel responded to the fire. Amazingly, the only casualty of the fire, besides the plant itself, was a $1.5 million firetruck when it was consumed by chemicals and caught fire.
I don’t have lenses long enough to take super closeup photos, so this was pretty much as close as I was able to get with what I have. Given how strong the chemical smell, I am happy with the photos I got. Certainly not journalistic worthy, but I am satisfied with the photos I got. It was a great experience and I’m glad I was granted an opportunity to take some photos.
An opportunity, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, shouldn’t be missed if possible. You never know what you can learn or where it can lead you.
Posted in In the News by Jason with no comments yet.