a few of many,

Taking photos of a moon is not as easy as you might think.  Many attempts, over many moons and only a few that could be considered a good moon shot.   Now that I have read Rebecca’s tutorial I will keep trying and maybe someday will succeed.

  

Surrounded by…

You all know that what pops into my mind when I read the FSO topic is what I usually end up going with.  Well this topic brought ‘surrounded by the sea, waves and the sky’  now I am not a sailor, don’t really even like getting wet in a swimming pool so why this phrase?  This isn’t even apropos to Houston; here I would have to say, ‘Grassland, swamp and sky.’  Doesn’t sound as romantic does it?  But this thought took me back to one of my favorite natural places in the Houston area, The Brazos Bend State Park.  Remember ‘walking with alligators’ post a year or more ago.   Of course you remember…..

If nothing else comes from this thought process I at least got to go through my archives and enjoy the photos once again.  Now the Surrounded by photos.

  
   Surrounded by the sky above, grass and swamp water


 
  

Road Trip Choices…

This week I have chosen to post to the FSO late.  Yesterday I was not in any of my hometowns.  Patty and I were driving back from Michigan.  Returning to Houston, meandering; weeble-wobbling to the southwest, choosing our route as we drove; letting GPS and highway signs take us ever further south and then west. In Kentucky,we saw a sign for a railroad museum.  I said ‘what fun’ and Patty swerved off the freeway.  At the bottom of the ramp there was a sign Bardstown to the left and the Kentucky Railway Museum to the right.  I said, lets go right to the museum and then come back this direction and see BARDTOWN before getting back onto the freeway - because I know someone from FSO that lives in this area. 

The Railway Museum has a large sign on the freeway, has a smaller brown sign when you leave the freeway, then the directions just disappear,  ?? we drove around for about an hour and never found the museum.  Found more signs that a railroad had been there, but never found a museum.  It wasn’t listed on my GPS under POI – nothing.  So back to the left we went and saw Bardstown.

What fun to visit someone’s else's hometown…. we should do an ‘other’s hometown’ visited week.

Bardstown is a sweet small town.  Lots of choices in places to eat and little shops to visit – BUT it was Wednesday the 3rd, and seemed to be closed down for the week.  We thought, ‘oh, the easy life of the South’.   

When driving across Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, then into Texas, you have many, THAT IS A LOT of choices of things to see.  After Bardstown, the main points for us were the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky, the rest stops in Kentucky and Alabama (Great Bathrooms?) And seeing the 4th of July fireworks over the Mississippi  River in Natchez, Mississippi.     And the best – getting home after rush hour on Friday.

…. the many moods of light and dark contrasts.

Not having my archives with me while visiting in Michigan is really a God send.  I am forced to think about what is right here in Adrian that fits into the FSO topic.  I can’t be lazy (NOT say’n that those who use their archives are lazy – just that I have been….)  I spent a few hours yesterday looking at photography websites, reading up on what makes good contrast photos, and how to accomplish it.  There was information on both use of color and of using Black and White, and using small subjects in a large area to gain contrast in size.  All of it was interesting but what really interest me was using black and white or deep shadow – so off I went this morning with my camera set on Black and White under the ‘scene’ settings and the auto set on color so I could go back and forth between the two, and after nearly two hours of walking around lake Adrian and through trestle park I had plenty of shots taken with purpose that I can be proud of.  Here are a few examples, comments and suggestions are welcome. 




  
 

through the fence…..

This topic congers up romantic visions doesn’t it?  For the FSO we have had this topic twice before; January 2010 and May of 2012.  I am going to quote myself from the first post on fences, this is not an ego trip, I promise, but I said something apropos to today’s thought and will use the same words again to jump start this week, “… thinking back, thinking about all the places, the towns large and small, that I have visited, I began to see that FENCES are one of the details about towns that give it its distinctive flavor. Fences reflect base cultures. The designs reflect the personalities of its inhabitants. They show how the town’s people relate to others, its neighbors and its visitors. Even no fences tells us something about the towns and its people. …”  

This week I am once again writing from Adrian Michigan.  Visiting with my sister and her family, and spending extended time with my mother.  Walking this small town and carrying my camera about, I began looking for examples of the 4 topics that will pass while I am here.  My knowledge of this town is pretty extensive.  I lived here as a teen and a young mother, have been back routinely to visit and have seen the town now, this month, through new eyes – the FSO eyes. Unlike Houston with its high cedar, often rickety looking fences and Nova Friburgo’s high concrete block, vine covered walls, Adrian does not have fencing.  Oh, there are some breaks between properties, but they are open wire giving a clear view through the neighbors yard and often on to the next street.  Here there seems to be wide expanses of green and everyone’s trees and flowers to enjoy. The fences are not connected at the corners or have gates that say ‘stay out’; they are just pieces of fence to hold a rose bush, sweet peas or what seems to be a town favorite – a trumpet vine.  

Not having been to ALL cities (towns or villages) of the world and not having made a scientific, psychological study of towns I can’t say for sure why we have these differences but I will go out on a limb and say that in large cities with their teeming masses, there seems to be a deep need to close out all the unknown people, mark your space, keep it private, and in small towns like Adrian there is not a need, nor a possibility to keep your neighbors out, at arms length.  They know all your business regardless of fencing.  You know their names and the names of their children.  You know when they bought their last new sofa!  At least in this small northern city fences are not part of the landscape and it is fun to give some thought as to why.