Rural Oklahoma

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending a photography workshop in a small Oklahoma town. I had a great time and learned alot. It was also an opportunity to take a couple of rural pictures (I didn't have time to get as many as I would have liked). I would like to go back and take alot more....there is just something about the countryside. I guess you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl!

Zeus? Adonis? Atlas?

What is this guys name? Well we can just call him Fred for now. He lives in my mothers back yard. Well, both he and is identical twin brother live there. My mom has a great eye for garden statuary. (Have I told you what a wonderful oasis her yard is?)

You can see these two brothers from my mom's dining rooms. They work well in her yard. I was just wondering around her yard one night with my camera and captured the backside and the frontside. I had to do quite a bit of post processing because the original just had too many background distractions.

I am pleased with my capture. Can you keep a secret? I am going to blow this up and give it to someone as a Christmas gift. It will be a funny but appreciated gift. I can't wait!

Downtown

Since my daughter had to be at a reading class at the downtown library, I thought this was a good photo opportunity for me. I spent about an hour and covered all of about 4 blocks. I didn't want to get too far away from the library and it was about 100 degrees outside- miserably hot. But I got a few pics that I liked.

I may try again next week (only if it is a little cooler outside)

Welcome to downtown action city!

Up Up and Away

It is not everyday that you get this close to a hot air balloon. On the 4th of July we looked and just down the road they were blowing it up so they could go for a flight (or is it a coast?) It blew up rather quickly and was airborn and gone. It looks like fun, but I would first have to get over my fear of heights (or sit at the bottom of the basket shaking uncontrollably).

Fireworks and fires

I hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July holiday. Ours was nice and I truly enjoyed that extra day off work...can we have an extra day off every week??

My son and husband live for lighting fireworks on the 4th. They save up their money and then spend a virtual fortune (don't get me wrong I like to spend money- I just prefer to spend it on things that will last more than one day, like cameras and lenses...I call them investments)

So I was able to capture a few of the fireworks shots. Not too bad for an amatuer and this was my first attempt.

The fireworks show ended when they purposefully lit the log burn pile on fire.

Horses

Horses are such beautiful and noble creatures. They are so large and yet so graceful....such soulfull eyes. Yes, I always wanted my own and never got one. Not that I would even know how to care for it. But I can still be mesermized by their beauty and grace.

Recently we got to go on a trail ride in the mountains. It was stunning. I am still a novice horseman, but didn't do too bad and considering I was taking photos from atop a meandering horse. We won't mention the part where I dropped the lens cap and there was no way I was even attempting to get down and get it...they have more of those at the store.

The old abandon horse stable

So another picture on the same theme. Here is the old abandon horse stable behind the old race track. The stable was quite stoic standing there amongst all the overgrown weeds and trees. It still had its inner beauty. Again I could hear the past come alive.

Beauty in the past

My friend took me over to what appears to be an old abandon horse race track and stable in Alto, NM. When we saw it from the road, it was just chilling. It was like you could hear the voices and running of the horses of past. You could see the once white and now rusting inner and outer rails. The whole scene was fantastic. I am sure I will post more shots later. But this one spoke to me with the rails and the over grown grass and the spectacular view.

New theme!

At first my son was very excited to post photos on a blog. And like many 11/12 yr old boys, didn't want to do the work. So I didn't force it because I want him to take pictures and learn the computer because HE wants to, not because he has to.

So plttt.... on him. I am still taking photo's-- and lots of them. I am constantly reading or researching for more photography information and inspiration.

I am hijacking the mom and son photo blog and making it my own. I hope you enjoy it, and again feel free to leave comments.

Mom's Assignment 1..the color RED

We seem to have gotten extremely busy with school work and birthdays (and birthday parties) here lately. And now Kyle is celebrating Spring Break at his grandma's...while mom has to work. So I decided to go ahead and post mom's contribution to this assignment and we'll get Kyle's posted shortly.

Assignment #2

We looked at a list of possible photo assignments and agreed on assignment RED.
So we will take photo's this week of things that are red and post our favorites.
Stay tuned...more pics to come.

A fun together project

Kyle's photo of the administration building on the campus of Oklahoma City University.

Mom's photo of the winter landscape in our front yard.

Both Kyle and I like to take photo's. Kyle has been having his picture taken since he was a baby and has always enjoyed both sides of the camera. When he was about 3 we purchased him a kid camera- it had 2 handles. It was really cute. A little complicated to operate (from the parents standpoint) as you had to wind the film and use a special key to hand rewind the film.

But he did a great job and it was always interesting to see his pictures from a different perspective than adults looked at things. As a matter of fact, I created a photo album of his pictures titled "The View from Down Here".

His Poppy gave him a pretty nice digital camera for his 10th Christmas (at the suggestion of his mother). Kyle has had a lot of fun taking pictures and once again he sometimes takes a non traditional view and it makes the pictures interesting.

So as we both are interested in taking photos and improving our skills I thought it would be fun for us to start our own photo blog. I am hoping we can do "weekly" photo assignments and pick our favorite few to post.

I think our first post should be "landscape" I chose this topic because Kyle took some intersting pictures on a school field trip earlier in the school year. He has entered one of his pictures in the local private school art show. I am very proud of him- because it was his idea and I think his photo is great.