In Your Own Backyard
Tin Woodsman: What have you learned Dorothy?
Dorothy: Well, I – I think that it – it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em – and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go looking any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right? -From “The Wizard of Oz“
Dorothy’s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own. We are always looking for something to spice up our lives, give us an adventure or two; the grass is always greener on the other side, so off we go in search of something bigger or better, more satisfying and rewarding.
As photographers, we are no different. Camera bag and paraphernalia in hand, we load up our vehicles, fill them with gas, and off we go, sometimes long distances, to capture that one photo that might be more satisfying and rewarding [personally or financially] than what we have already seen. I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future. But, like Dorothy, I have come to realize that many of my great photos [well, great to me, anyway] have been shot in my own back yard, so to speak, most within five to ten miles of my driveway. Oh, certainly they have not been the majesty of the Rockies, or the icy cold of Alaska’s glaciers or the humid banana groves of Costa Rico.
I no longer have the funds or the opportunities to travel to those kinds places so I am really glad that I was able to get some nice photos on those travels. However, now that I am limited, I am finding that I am rediscovering that thing that I had “lost” – the sights and scenes that are in my own “back yard”. Like many that are only able to afford “stay-cations”, I am discovering the personality of the towns around where I live as well as the town that I live in not to mention some hidden “gems”‘.
Last week I “discovered” one of those gems in Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for “injured, sick, or orphaned birds of all types” in Hutchins, Texas when I transported a bird to them from the Tri-City Animal Shelter [where I volunteer whenever I can] here in Cedar Hill. I did not have my camera with me at the time but I did ask about being able to come back and take photos of some of the birds and was told that it would be fine. I am looking forward to going out there sometime in the near future [when it is NOT so hot] and taking some photos, especially of the peacocks that are just roaming around.
Sometimes staying in your own back yard and discovering the hidden gems can be as rewarding as traveling across and around the country or even out of the country. Yes, definitely, getting the chance to travel to “exotic” places is rewarding, and gives a lifetime of memories, but even though you think you know all about where you live, oft times there is more to be discovered, more to be found.
All we have to do is look.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Celebrate the moment!
Live today as though you have never experienced it before, because you haven’t. Be amazed and awed by all around that you see; look at everything as though you were a toddler seeing something for the first time. What is there before us at any given moment of time is brand new and fleeting; you will never see it again, as life evolves and is a gift from God. Never take anything for granted, for what you have now may be gone in an instant. Listen to the sounds around you, the sights before you, the ground below you, and the heavens above. Celebrate the moment. What you see and hear you will never see and hear again.
Posted in Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Three days – 640 photos – and Remington
I recently had the good fortune to spend three days in Estes Park, Colorado. Granted, three days is not a very long time, but I was incredibly grateful for that time. The last time I was there was in 2005 when we were driving to Seattle from Dallas for a cruise; we got to spend maybe two and a half hours there, and that really was not enough time. Because of other obligations and complications, I almost did not go, but I am very glad I was able to, and convinced to go.
The weather over the three days I was there was gorgeous, which allowed me time to get out and about and take some photos. I had never seen elk before and seeing them roaming around town at will was a treat. I saw a lot of chipmunks and prairie dogs, too, but I had seen those before. One of the most interesting things I had seen while there was a female Stellar Jay, which is so incredibly blue.
I stayed with some friends at The Elkhorn Lodge and was basically given complete access for photo taking there, as well as at The Elkhorn Stables (O’Dells). The lodge was built in 1871 and had its first guests in 1874. The old lodge is still in use today.
Yes, I actually did take 640 photos, which is a low number of photos for me, even for a mini vacation. But, my friends, Beverly and Betty, have a store at the lodge which they needed to clean up and organize, so I helped them as much as they would allow, which was not as much as I would have liked; given my back problems it was probably good that I was shooed out to take photos because I would have done a lot of things I shouldn’t and would not have been able to take photos for a long time, much less walk.
Most of the photos I took were just for me, for remembering a very good time in a beautiful town in the Colorado Rockies. I did get a lot of great photos, but there were two out of them all that have become my favorites. One is the “obligatory” Colorado mountain/stream photo and the other is one most wouldn’t consider. It is 
a black and white I took of a black and white 10-month old Springer Spaniel named Remington. I know this sounds strange because Estes Park and the surrounding area have a lot of fantastic photo opportunities, including that of wild life, buildings and people.
It’s no secret I love dogs and I have taken hundreds upon hundreds of mine in the last six years. Remington was a chance to take photos of someone else’s dog and he gave me a chance, even if for a very short time.
This mini-vacation was not just about photo taking, however. It was a chance to get close to nature again. My first night there, as the sun was setting, I sat down in the rocking chair on the front porch of the Lodge and listened to the wind blow through the tall trees. For some this might be a lonely sound, but for me it was like being touched by God, and peace and contentment washed over me. As the temperature dropped and the stars came twinkling out I was really reluctant to move from my spot but knew at some point I would have to go inside. And then, just as the sun faded into twilight, the howl of the coyotes sang across the hills. With nightfall all became quiet. It was a special moment in time given to me as a gift from God and good friends. A gift I will always treasure.
Although way too short, this was a trip I won’t soon forget. Memories may fade, but I have good photos to remind me of this fantastic trip. I hope I get a chance to return to Estes Park sometime, but it will not hold the enchantment this trip did. I found, here, something I had buried long ago and needed to rediscover within myself, and that I will always cherish and remember.
Posted in Reflections, Vacation by Jason with no comments yet.
Springtime in Texas brings Bluebonnets
Springtime has come to North Texas, albeit shyly. The first few days of Spring brought sunny skies, warm breezes, and temperatures in the mid-70’s to low 80’s. And then Spring played hide and seek for a number of days, leaving us with dreary overcast, and drizzly cold days and miserable nights. Flowers and trees were confused, grabbing little jackets as we all went through closets and drawers dragging out newly stored warm clothing. Of course, it is early Spring and Old Man Winter just doesn’t give up easily. And then Mother Nature is always on the sidelines throwing a twist into our expectations.
But, Texas’s annual sign of Spring arrival, the Bluebonnet, has been showing off its cobalt blue color and attracting bees for weeks now. First, a small clump here, and one over there, and then two converging and then suddenly great fields of this incredibly beautiful flower burst into view, taking hold of Spring announcing its arrival, even days early. Excitement in North Texas is in the air as adults become giddy, putting children and dogs of all sizes into their vehicles of choice and driving up and down country roads looking for T H E choice spot for trampling down the blooms to get that cute and once-in-a-lifetime photo of their loved one. Okay, I’m guilty, too. I admit it. There is just something about this Springtime rite that is irresistible. It is awesome to look out over a field and see large swatches of cobalt blue mixed with green and yellow grass, waving languidly in the Spring breeze. Eventually the Indian Paintbrush will slowly creep in exploding red and orange among the elegant blue, forcing the Bluebonnet to give up and fade to white waving its goodbye until the following Spring.
Last Saturday, before the temperatures took a dive sending us back to late Winter, I grabbed my camera and headed down to the State Park and was blessed with unblemished patches of these spectacular flowers. I could not wait. The first large patch I came to beckoned to me and I pulled over and parked. For the next 30 minutes I stood, bent over, sat, and laid among the Bluebonnets happily taking photos, lost in my favorite color. Cars slowed, heads turned, fingers pointed and I knew that my pristine spot was being targeted for future use as soon as I left. I eventually moved on, taking photos of other things and left two and a half hours later to go home, but I returned later with my wife and our youngest dog Lexie, a Maltese with a hurried brush out. This is not a dog that understands “sit/stay” very well, so it becomes an exercise in how quickly can you focus and hit the shutter button before the little dog moves. Thank goodness for multiple exposures! We both came away with a few good photos. Lexie, however, did not get her opportunity to run unabashed through the grass and flowers taller than her, but she did have a good time.
This weekend we will take our annual drive to our favorite hill in Ellis County so that hopefully we will get photos of the Bluebonnets before they begin to thin out and become trampled by the caravans of people jostling for the best position, the thickest concentrations of flowers, the best lighting and the fewest feet and legs invading our perfect photos. We are always eternally grateful to the people that open their fields to us at this time of year, understanding our passion to digitally capture this Texas treasure that visits us once each Spring.
Texas's rite of Spring
Posted in Seasons, Weather by Jason with no comments yet.
Historical Photography
I’m not a young’un by any means, but I remember sitting in some of my ancestors’ parlors as I was growing up looking at black and white photographs of people I didn’t know who were long dead, listening to the chatter about this person or that and who they married and their kids, where they lived and went to church, and on and on. When I was a kid, I just found the photos interesting, but the historical value of the genealogy went in one ear and out the other, much to my regret many years later. Many of those photos are long lost to me; distant relatives may have them or they may have been lost to an estate sale, a garage sale, fire or other natural disaster. I still have some that were passed down to me, but again, the people on the pages of the albums I have stare back at me emptily and I have no clue who they are, where they were photographed, or when.
But, what is mostly missing in all of these photos are events. Not just in those people’s lives, but things that went on around them. Missing are the babies, the christenings, the family gatherings, the church socials. Missing are the weddings, the deaths, the elderly, school classes and graduations. Gone are photos of their houses and farms, their gardens and crops and animals. The men behind the plows being dragged through the dirt by mules. The rainstorms and floods, the snow storms and blizzards, or fields blossoming on a Spring or Summer day. The rides on trains, or early 20th Century cars. No towns with grocery stores or fruit and vegetable stands, gas stations. Missing, too, are the signs of poverty or wealth.
I am sure that there are people with ancestral photo albums that have these things documented, and I know that photojournalists have archives filled with these kinds of photos, as well as having published thousands of books. But, there are far more of us that have dusty albums with black and white photos of nameless men and women and children that are missing these kinds of photos.
Today, however, in the digital information age we are able to inexpensively capture the “times of our lives” and document the events around us. We have the ability to share the photos we take with millions around the world, or family across the country. We are able to publish inexpensive books and caption the photos so that everyone will know who is in the photo and what is going on. And scrapbookers create beautifully themed albums that can be handed down from one generation to the next.
We should remember, though, to not ignore the events that are all around us outside of our immediate lives. We need to move outside the doors of our personal lives and see those we work with, go to church with, visit with and grow old around; our towns and cities that change every day, along with the weather and the landscape. We should not forget to pick up our cameras and take photos of more than just our loved ones or the sunset or flowers; we all want to capture that “magical” moment that is worth a thousand words or a thousand dollars, but that is not all that our lives are about. Even I am guilty of forgetting that. Our cameras, digital, film and video, are valuable tools for recording our lives, our histories, and our demise for the generations to come. We just need to look beyond our digital lenses and and record those events that shape our lives and the lives of those around us.
We are, in essence, the digital historians and documentarians for our descendants. We should never overlook an opportunity to record an historical event – good, bad, or ugly. Someone, many years beyond our lives, will gladly thank us for that photo of Aunt Mary in her Hallowe’en costume when she was eight, or Grandfather Bob playing football in high school, but labeled and identified; or for the photos of the cars buried up to their roofs in the great snowstorm of 2011. Take it, print it, label it, record it forever. Not for posterity, not for personal satisfaction, but for history.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Trying harder
My wife is probably one of the most talented and imaginative people I know. She loves miniatures – designing, building, and decorating dollhouses of all sizes; designing, decorating, cutting and beading eggs [think Faberge-style decorated eggs – real eggs]; designing and making jewelry like necklaces, bracelets and earrings. As a result our house is filled with wonderful dollhouses and beautifully decorated eggs of all sizes and shapes and themes and nearly every day she wears a piece of jewelry that she has designed and made, whether it be whimsical or elegant. I love walking through the house and looking at all of the great things that she has made.
She also loves photography – a love that we share. And she takes incredible photos of flowers. I have always been in awe of her flower photos, and impressed with how many of them “came out”. This in the day of film photography. My flower photos left much to be desired. I have always been more in to shooting landscapes.
Until digital photography I somewhat ignored taking photographs of flowers, mostly because I knew that I could not afford the film and processing to be able to take them as well as she did, and so I envied her ability. And then I got my first digital camera.
Over the last few years I have taken a lot more flower photos than I ever did with my film camera, and I have learned a lot. One of the challenges I have set for myself is to take closeup photos of flowers that look as though there is a black background, and many times I accomplish that. But, I do not have a macro lens for my Nikon so the photos I take are taken with a 55-200mm zoom lens, standing at a distance and zoomed in. Consequently my shots are not sharp, but then, who says they absolutely have to be? I might not always take a good or great shot, and I might often get frustrated, but a missed shot is not a failure. It is, however, a learning experience.
I am still learning. I am still trying. I am getting better at taking flower photos, but I still think my wife takes far better ones. I am trying harder. Some day I hope to be as good as her. It gives me something to aim for, a goal to strive for. As photographers, we can never think we are the best; we can always be better, because there is always someone out there that IS better. Practice, hard work, dedication and goals. Frustrations and failures are learning opportunities, not a time to put away the camera or throw it in the trash. At least digital photography is not expensive outside of the equipment.
My wife gave me but one [of many] goal to strive for: taking better flower photos. And, occasionally, I manage to get one!
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
The View from a Shoe
We have a small dog. Well, relatively small, anyway. She’s a Yorkie, but I would not call her a “teacup” Yorkie, or even a toy Yorkie. She’s just small. Bailey stands not quite 6″ tall at the shoulder. When she hasn’t had a haircut in a while, she would remind you of an Ewok. We once took her to a Texas Bluebonnet festival, carrying her in a pouch, and one of the vendors even said, “Look! It’s an ewok!”
Bailey is cute, sweet and adorable; the kind of dog you would love to follow around with a camera and take a ton of photos of. The only problem is, Bailey sees a camera and looks the other direction or turns away from the camera completely. Matters not if you move, too, to try to see her face, she will turn yet again. You don’t even have to have the camera up to your face, as long as she sees it in your hand, regardless of what the camera looks like [she just knows a camera by instinct] she is going to make sure you don’t get a photo of her, especially if she has to look up. Hey, it’s a LONG way to look up from her height.
One day, however, I decided I wanted to take some photos of her face, so out into the back yard we went, just us two. At first I sat down in the grass, but I didn’t like the angle, so I got down on my stomach and, amazingly, got a lot of good photos of Bailey’s face in both color and black and white without her looking away or moving.
Not long afterward my wife and I took a trip to the original Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in Stephenville, Texas. Talk about a neat place to visit! Leading in to their museum on the second floor is this gorgeous wood flooring, which is unfortunately not very level, but had a nice gloss finish on it. I stood looking at that and then put my camera on the floor and set the timer. As far as I was concerned, it was a terrific photo, and from a viewpoint that most don’t think about. Thus, my “shoe view” photo was born.
Photos from foot level. I don’t take photos from this angle very often, but it is a view that is often over looked. I don’t mean photos that are taken from bending over and pressing the shutter button, but photos literally from ground level where you put the camera on the ground. Depending on the digital camera make, however, you may or may not be able to look through the view finder or the view screen to see what you’re taking a photo of, which is somewhat the beauty of shoe views. You never know exactly what you might catch in the shot.
So, remember, if you have little dogs, crawling babies, or just want to experiment, don’t forget the view from your shoe.
Shoe View Pumpkins
In Honor Lies Victory
Posted in Perspectives by Jason with no comments yet.
A Different Perspective
Too often we take a particular view for granted just because it is what seems to be natural. I try to see the beauty in objects from a different perspective. Since I have limited resources and opportunities at the moment, I have to utilize what is around me, mostly within the back yard, but also around the side and front yards from time to time, too.
So often we forget there is always another side to things we see, good and bad, beautiful or ugly. Just as we forget to look up, we also tend to forget look behind, from above, or beside an object to see it from a different angle, and many times we end up seeing a beauty from this perspective we did not know exists. It opens a whole new world of photography, of discovery and excitement.
I love flowers, my favorite being tulips, but our yard has only 10 small tulips that bloom in the Spring. My wife, though, loves roses and so our yard has beautiful rose bushes on three sides of the house; they produce gorgeous blooms that we get to enjoy for a large portion of the year, and that I have the good fortune to photograph – from all angles.
The next time you see an object you really want to photograph, don’t forget to see it from above, from below, from behind, and from beside, and enjoy it in all of its beauty – or ugliness.
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
Looking up
I love to take photos; that’s obvious in the number I take in a year – good or bad. Yesterday I went to our local State Park, a favorite place, to take some photos around a pond and lake. As I was walking around the board walk next to the pond, it occurred to me that I was always looking ahead of me or down around my feet or down at the pond. I never looked up to see what was above me besides sky and trees; I wasn’t looking to see what might be IN the trees or the sky. What a realization that was!
We are so used to looking straight ahead or looking down at our feet or just beyond to see what we might see to take a photo of that we miss a very important part of our environment – that which is above us. How many times, sans camera, have we looked up to see sun rays peeking over the clouds, birds in flight, flocks of birds in trees or other animals, and wish we had our camera? And then, when we pack our gear and head out, we totally forget to look up, instead focusing on the scene before us. Not that that is wrong, mind you, but we forget all that neat stuff we saw when we didn’t have a camera to capture that neat moment in time.
A few weeks ago, at this same state park, my wife and I were walking around an area known as the “butterfly” garden, even though it’s not been kept up well. At my eye level I spotted a lot of butterflies that were just sitting on the tree trunk, flying or landing. We had never seen this phenomenon before so we were both fascinated by it. And then we looked up. Above us were banana spiders, one large and several much smaller, scattered throughout the trees. It was one of those rare times I thought to look up and had I not, I would have missed the spiders. Not that I could get a decent photo of any of them because of the angle, but they were there and something that might have been overlooked. Later that evening, while sitting on the beach by the lake, we happened to look up again and saw a Great Heron flying above us followed by two resident geese.
The environment above us should not be ignored, but often times we’re too “centered” on what is before us and below us to remember what is above us. We might not be able to capture the moment because we’re not quick enough, but at the same time we had the moment to see things that live outside our personal space.
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
The 4th and Freedom
Independence Day, or more commonly known as The 4th of July, is a day of great celebration for our country. It is the day that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence which declared our independence from Great Britain. Many don’t know that the document was actually dated July 2nd, 1776, not July 4th, 1776, but was approved by Congress on July 4th, thus making this date the date that is recognized as our date of Independence.
This Day of Independence has become a big federal holiday, marked with parades, back yard barbecues, picnics, baseball games, water sports, and, of course, fireworks. When I was a kid living in Iowa we had a big neighborhood party complete with parade. All the kids would decorate their bicycles with streamers and cards pinned to the wheel spokes, and some would decorate wagons that the toddlers could ride in, a couple being pulled by bicycles. It was a big “to do” when we were younger, but as we got to be teens [we were all pretty much the same age], the parade went by the wayside and we focused more on the picnic and party that was held in several conjoining back yards. My parents, on a trip out West, had stopped one year at a fireworks stand and bought some fireworks, so we’d shoot those off at night – bottle rockets, Roman candles, sparklers, and such – giving a good 30 minute “show” to the adults who would “oooh” and “ahhh” appropriately. In the 1960’s it was still a time of innocence and as children we didn’t really understand the meaning of the holiday except that it provided a day of fun and lots of food.
In this day and time after September 11, 2001 our independence means more than it ever did. Long gone is the historical battle for freedom from our “Mother” country and the religious impositions that drove citizens to leave in search of of a place to worship freely and without dictation and fear. Now we strive to maintain, without restriction, the freedoms granted us by that Declaration and our Constitution: our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; the freedom to assemble; the freedom of religious expression; freedom of speech; and freedom to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.
We often take photographs of our nations’ flag, that which we sentimentally call “Old Glory”, but when we do so, do we really think of the lives that have been lost defending that flag and our country, or do we just see a symbol, that flag that flies over buildings and in front of schools, something so commonplace we never think of its importance to our history, to our lives? Freedom came at a price, a huge price for those that believe in this country, that have given their lives for our Independence.
So, on the day that we celebrate with family and friends, with picnics, fun and fireworks, and with camera in hand, let us remember the reason behind this day and humbly pay tribute to something we take for granted: our Freedom.
Posted in Holidays by Jason with no comments yet.