My Town Friday Shoot-out / overhead

I am still in Houston.  That is Houston!, Texas! and to write about overhead, over my head, above my head or looking up, I have to mention the Texas sky.  Today driving home, mid-afternoon, it was cloudy and trying to rain.  But as I sat at a stop light looking around, above my head, and I thought, in Texas from the ground it seems you are in a flat bottomed pie pan covered with a huge dome.  On a clear day you can stand in the center of the pan, make a 360* turn and see only deep blue SKY.

In Rio, the sky is limited by the width of the street and the tall trees that line them.  Even in Friburgo, as beautiful as the view can be, the sky is limited. In Arizona, the sky is the same deep blue but with its tall mountains it is a tall sided bowl covered with with what appears to be a flat blue lid.

Here in Houston, especially out here in west Houston, the high dome of the sky sits low on a fuzzy haired, fringe of tree tops.  So high is the dome that even large birds are dwarfed.  Man and his impact in this world seems dwarfed.  No matter the time of day, or the weather the view from your point on earth is dominated by the sky. 

 

  As I took Marissa to volley ball practice this week, every evening had a glorious sunset just to emphasized my thoughts that the sky dominates our days here in Texas. 

My Town FSO – Country Roads

 

 

 

Once again this week I am in Houston, Texas and this week I am wishing I was in Nova Friburgo. There the country roads a small, winding, often dirt roads with small narrow bridges – here a country road looks very much like a city road. Often straight, wider than the narrow I am now used to, with two lanes marked with dividing and edging lines. Even the FM (farm to market) roads can be two side lanes with an extra turn lane, plus a nice flat emergency lane. When I was out exploring this last week, they didn’t feel ‘country’ to me. Houston has gotten to be so large a city that its country side is being absorbed into urban. I was a good 30 miles outside the city limits and still seeing large subdivisions with the corner KROGER (supermarket), and Bed Bath & Beyond super stores, four corners with a gas station on each, and strip centers with ‘dunk-n-donuts’ and hair salons – where are the mom & pop country stores?

So I finally turned off onto what is called a county road to see what I could see – this one was CO 52. In the USA there are interstate highways – State roads – Farm to Market roads and then finally county roads…. which in south Texas are straight, narrow, in good repair, with a drainage ditch along each side, followed with barbed wire fences, cattle grazing, small houses in need of repair, and from time to time with wild flowers growing with abandon.

 

 

 

 

Trying to see the world a little differently….

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the morning with Marissa and an old friend, Silvia Souza artist. We had breakfast then drove out into Rural Texas to see what we could photograph.

Silvia paints. She sees the world differently than we do. She likes to take photos of objects, getting their color and texture and then incorporating them into her paintings when needed. I spent my time with her trying to take photos, to see the world she sees it. Here are some of the results…. You have to remember that I took my photos and she took hers so really these are seeing the world through MY eyes after all. But it was fun spending time with her and maybe learning just a little more about photography

Okay, so I still saw the flowers, but they are a part of the rural Texas setting aren't they?

when you are on a very busy street, even in the country, getting the sun in the right place for you photo is hard…. I didn’t go into the long grass as I should as a SERIOUS photographer – in TEXAS there are chiggers in the long grass and they like me… I don’t mess with them unless I have sprayed my legs, shoes and underwear with OFF to keep them off. (microscopic tick that barrows into your skin and drives you crazy for at least a week – plus I swell up with an allergic reaction to them little critters.)

 

she took pictures of trash left and things like that – I left it alone except for the pile of brick and mortar and the tires – wonder why the holes – for birds? I think I know what trash looks like…. but she wanted the folds of the paper, moisture trapped in the folds – shots like that. go to the link above and see some of her work. extraordinary.