Critters on Parade

Letting off steam.

Trying to unwind for a minute or 12.  Took a look-see through the Interweb, reached the end and landed back here.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is credited with saying “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”  Just so you know, while I like some of my photos, I do not think I have reached 10,000 yet. So, if you do not find some joy in them, it is ok.

But I hope you do.

I wanted to share photos I have taken of some of my 4-legged extended family members...

“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” ~Edward Weston

My most photogenic animal ever... I swear he basks in the limelight....

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”~Karl Lagerfeld

My Cleo dawg loved riding in the car...

“A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.”~Brigitte Bardot

Levi kitty's cuteness factor is what keeps him alive around the house. He can rip apart a large cardboard box in an hour....

“Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference” ~Robert Frank

Chester dawg is just so cute, I want to pinch the cuteness off his face...  It took 25 attempts at clicking the shutter to get him looking at the camera...

“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer”

~Walter De Mulder

"Wicked", otherwise known as CatCat, is just a beautiful girl.

In Focus; Or Not

Sometimes photos are my outlet.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ~ Ansel Adams

In July I was lucky enough to attend the Hay Holler Pick-In in Blacksburg VA. I really enjoyed it. Great music with wonderful people.

Hay Holler Pick-In July 2013

“To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.” ~ Ansel Adams

I caught this photo using the "Blackboard" filter on my phone. It was a lonely drive that day, and nothing is as it seems.

“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.” ~ Ansel Adams

Yes, this is a photo of the hat the server at Dick's drew up for me. "Truth in Advertising" perhaps?

Dick's Last Resort

 

Photo-Mania; Just Plain Mania

So I have been struggling with inspiration of late.  That and a really, really bad memory.  Half-timers I think...

In a fit of nostalgia, and the need to find inspiration, I started looking at my pictures and it sparked and finally started clicking.  A little...

I am by no means a photographer.  But at some point, with the advent of "decent" cameras inside our little cell phones, I started getting crazy with taking photos. Okay, maybe the cameras aren't that "decent" if you are a real photographer, but the film sure is cheap! Seriously, just last week I cleared 4 GB of photos from my phone. Yea..... 4 GB...  I might have had a dozen or so that really made me 'happy'. My explanation for that is fully explained in this singular quote from George Bernard Shaw;  “A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.”

I just wanted to share some photos that make me happy that I managed to take and edit. I will probably do this periodically, just for giggles.

Headed out - Winter 2012

“There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.” ~AbrahamLincoln


I was listening to Marilyn Manson while getting ready to go to a country/bluegrass show. Yep...  Me like me some Marilyn Manson.  Yes, there was a time, not so long ago, that I liked to get my "freak-on".  Wait, I guess I still do....  I just don't get to exercise my demons.  Yea, I said "exercise", not "exorcise". Check out his covers of "Tainted Love", "You're So Vain ft Johnny Depp", "Sweet Dreams", and "Personal Jesus".  I guess this is a topic/mania to expand on in another blog post...

“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.” ~ Diane Arbus


Mena Mountain Resort 2012

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”  ~ Ted Grant

Me gardening 2 weeks ago

And that is all I have to say about this.

Today.

Strang'n Beans

So this weekend has been busy - the norm of late...

Today I decided I needed to see my mom, so I went to "The Burg" this morning and hung out awhile and helped snap beans for mom's canning-mania. Mom has this old 1950's pressure-canner and about 4 billion mason jars - and I think she uses all of them every fall. Mom picked the beans yesterday from the garden. I wrote about "Stick'n the Beans" back on July 1st.

I was only there a few hours, but by the time I left I had managed to assist in producing 5 quart jars full of beans for mom to can, eat my fill of momma food and prune my fingers within an inch of their lives....

Mom planted red beans, turkey-craws, and rattlesnake beans. As you can see above, there was some more color in my week!

Yes, I wasted time taking pictures and that made mom laugh a bit. She was laughing at my mania...

Just as a side note, I got to see low lying clouds on the drive to the Burg and while we were snapping those beans a large doe showed up to graze in the yard. I managed to snap a photo of her without completely spooking her...

I cooked up some fresh beans tonight...

My Week in Pictures; Color of Another Sort

This last week has been a busy, yet interesting week.

Sunday was a music celebration at Stoney Stonecipher's home. Probably about 18 musicians, 2 Jordanaires and probably 30 family and friends as guests. The music was really good. Quite a few were very accomplished professionals.  Many, if not most, of the pickers have weathered the unexpected loss of two beloved fellow musicians last month. I think the untimely passing of the two men might be driving folks to reach out to one another. 

Behind us was a small ranch with horses that seemed to delight in the children as much as the children delighted in the horses!

After the celebration I went with a friend to eat at the great new "Taste of Thai" restaurant location in Knoxville off North Peters road. 

On the menu, then on the table was pink lemonade and Tom Kha soup

Pink Lemonade

Tom Kha Chicken Soup

While waiting on the server, I caught this photo:

Ha, you can just catch the grease from car brakes there...

On the surface it seems to be a simple photo of just hands with a phone. But when I snapped it, I realized what was captured in color was pure talent. These hands have made music with the top original Bluegrass music artists ever. This pair of hands translate into action the thoughts of an accomplished professional aviator and musician, plus a self taught wood worker and mechanic. If you missed reading about "Old Blue", you can read about her Here, then you will know a little about the truck which is now restored to running perfection... 

The work week was CrAzY. Wednesday morning several of us rode together to a meeting a couple of hours away. The morning brought us this spectacular view of the sky. This is good since I'm no morning person. I do not like anyone before noon as a rule...

Lunch included one attendees ability to build a dessert that caused be to drool:

Ice cream sundae

A couple of us took a drive while waiting and I thought this view was cool:

Tunnel

Prevailing theme of my busy week is color.  It was full of color.
Colorful food.
Colorful lights.
Colorful skies.
Colorful drivers.
And unfortunately, from me, colorful language.....