November 03, 2007
November 2007
A while back, my sister told me she liked the photographs on the web site better when I had more narrative with them. I have been thinking about that. I have also been thinking about why I pick which images to play with.
It comes down to this question: What do you like? Think about it. Try to identify three things you like so much they really define you. I am not talking about something like pie...after all, it's pie. I mean something you like even when you don't like everything else in the world. Something that picks you up and helps you find a better place in your head. Give it a whirl. Try it. It is harder than you think. I think the images on my blog already tell you what I like just by their presence. What else? I like my dogs. I like horror movies/books, but especially when they have something new and clever to say. I like well recorded acoustic music, especially blues. I like being home with CJ, wherever home is at that minute. It isn't very novel to say, but after lots of reflection those are a few things I am sure about. Maybe that is more than most people can say they know about themselves. How about you?
How was that, Sis?
This is a really nice shot of Henry. I played with it in Photoshop a few minutes, but the pose is really the image. Some guys just are photogenic. I placed the original shot underneath for comparison.
Here are a couple of portraits of the pups. They are such hams. When CJ opens up the studio, Gracie goes and plops down to pose. Henry is learning to do the same, as biscuits usually follow.
Gracie poses for her close-up.
My boy Henry.
When Teresa visited in October, we did a little local site seeing. We went down to the WWI Memorial and Union Station. This is a decent shot of Union Station and downtown KC. Union Station is beautifully restored, but parking is ridiculous and there isn't much of interest beyond the architecture insided the building. I was inducted into the Air Force within this building many years ago. It looks a lot better now. The next few pictures where taken with our pocket Nikon camera. The camera does a reasonable job considering the convenience.
This shot was taken inside Union Station. It is a bit dark, but gives you a feel for the architecture. It is quite beautiful, if terribly under-used. The city squandered an opportunity in not putting more accessible shopping and entertainment features here.
Here CJ and Teresa are walking along the park to the WWI Liberty Memorial. The WWI Liberty Memorial, like Union Station, is recently restored and updated. I have read this is the only WWI memorial in the country. Our memorial was inaugurated by Calvin Coolidge in 1926, but the site was inaugurated by Black Jack Pershing and Marshall Foch of France five years earlier. There is a huge museum beneath the tower. The day we visited was a school trip day, and the area was covered with kids. We elected to bypass the tour but I would like to come back and take a look when time permits.
This is Teresa and I at the Liberty Memorial. It was a windy Fall day. The sun was pretty bright and there was just turning crisp. It was a good day for sight-seeing.
Here is yet another shot of me with the the bulldogs at Shawnee Mission Park. They really enjoy the hike. It is a beautiful area and we are lucky to be able to use it. This is probably why we don't have time for golf anymore, by the way.
My boy Henry has grass allergies. He was upset with me for not letting him go out one afternoon a while back, and just lay down at the end of my feet and melted into the carpet pouting. You can see the sores he gets on his back leg if you look closely, in fact. It is just one of those things. I took this photo knowing the light was poor and figuring it might be a throw away, but the little guy has so much character I just took the shot anyway. I played with the image in the computer and came up with this. It is a combination of a photo and a cartoon painting, but I think the final image captures Henry's personality pretty well.
Yesterday was the first Saturday in a long time we weren't completely on the run. CJ and I slipped out to the park for some Autumn color photography. There is a particular tree not far from the park entrance we seem to shoot every year. For a photographer, CJ doesn't like her picture taken much. It seldom stops me, but even she agreed this was a shot that captured the spirit of the outing.
This shot presents a better look at the trees we came to photograph. Yes, that is CJ with her camera looking for the perfect angle for a shot.
It is hard to describe in words just how vivid the colors can be at this time of year, especially if you can catch the light. The next couple of pictures were just a sampling of the images we took. It was a beautiful fall day.
This is from a tree in Loose Park, in KCMO. This old tree seemed to stand out from the rest. It made me wonder how many people had photographed the tree, or maybe just stood underneath during a hot day.
This image was taken last month. We popped up one weekend and decided to take the pups for a walk in Shawnee Mission Park. The city is doing some development work around the lake and the water was very low. CJ got a little too relaxed with the dogs and Gracie made a run for the geese. Henry followed after and it was hilarious to see CJ scrambling to control the situation. I have no idea what Gracie would do if she got near one of the geese, let alone several. I have to admire the fearlessness of these little guys, though. In the end, everyone was muddy but no one injured. Gracie did swagger around for a while, but that is understandable.
In October, our friends Teresa and Paul from Dallas visited. Teresa is interested in geneology and suggested a day trip to Marshall, Missouri, in Saline County to do some research on her family. Marshall is named for the famous Supreme Court Justice, and luckily turned out to be a county seat. Marshall has a great old courthouse on a city square. The courthouse was missing a few shingles and needed some paint, but was beautiful. One of my favorite sites was an old painting of one of the founding fathers inside the courthouse, though it looked like something from a Disney movie. We also discovered Marshall was the home of "Jim the Wonder Dog". Evidently Jim was a phenomenon for his day, and even rates a park just a block off the main square.
Ted Koppel was a speaker at a business event I attended. The gist of the speech was that technology had changed the nature of news reporting from analysis to immediacy. It also makes us more disconnected because everytime a celebrity has a hangnail, the hangnail gains precedence over the war or healthcare crisis. I enjoyed the speech and understand the context, but the problem is not technology. It is the people that choose to report the hangnail. I got to meet Koppel briefly after his speech. I was impressed with his insight into world events and he was impressed with my size....fair enough.
