Category Archives: Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Road Trip Skies and Santa Fe Sunsets

Late last month we took a vacation to Santa Fe and Pagosa Springs. We drove from Tulsa to Santa Fe. It’s not that bad of a drive. Almost all the route is Interstate 40.

I love road trips and road trips to the west are wonderful because of the big skies you see once you get past Oklahoma City and are on the Great Plains.

Lots of people think it is a boring drive. Not me! I love it.

Big storm brewing up in the mountains of Santa Fe.

Once we got to Santa Fe and checked into our hotel we found out it had a rooftop bar and swimming pool. We went to check it out when the sun was about to set. We went up there and there were a lot of people. They were not at the bar or in the swimming pool. They were looking at the sky.

Sunset over the Jemez Mountains in the distance.

And a reverse sunset looking south. You can see the New Mexico State Capital and the Sandia Mountains that overlook Albuquerque. I always forget that when one has real mountains, you can see them a long ways off.

And this is looking to the southeast. That storm brewing up that I showed you in the earlier photo. It is still there.

And looking to the southwest.

Back to the Jemez Mountains to the west.

To the northwest. Great skies everywhere you look. We went up to the rooftop every night of our stay. We never got tired of the view.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – The Sky is the Only Thing that Kept Me Sane Edition

We have had a lot of stress recently in our family, not caused by anyone within our immediate family. We had been looking forward to our family vacation and we ended up going on it and we had a good time. In amidst the weeks before I dealt with the stress by taking photos. That always settles me down. They are not works of art but they are mine (that is why I call myself a “picture taker” and not a “photographer.” Being a picture taker is so liberating!!

This was the Full Strawberry Moon at the end of the month. I’ll admit I missed by a day or so but close enough.

And this was a few days before. The moon isn’t quite full.

A drone shot at 40 meters over the backyard looking to the northwest.

A local shopping center has a concert series in the summertime on a weekday night. This was at the end of the concert. The music was great but the sky said “my turn” and did not disappoint. This is looking west.

And another shot to the east. We don’t normally get reverse sunsets as nice as this.

Here is a neighborhood sunrise from our house looking east. I used a hipstamatic filter on this. I love the Hipstamatic App on my iphone.

And a jigsaw puzzle photo.

And this is the Goosenecks of the Colorado River in Utah. This has been on my bucket list to get in real life for some time. I’m told that during peak times there is all sorts of pushing and shoving amongst people to get the best spot for a photo. So until I get there myself and use my picturetaker skills to get my own photo, I’ll just use this. I’m not into pushing and shoving.

So that’s it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

The Skies of Tulsa – Summer Edition

The family just got back from a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We had a good time but it was one of those active trips where we were on the go every day as opposed to sitting on the beach a bunch. We had a great time, saw a lot of stuff, and ate lots of good New Mexican style Mexican Food. I’ll have photos from the trip in the coming weeks. Right now, I am still working my way through photos from June.

Drone shot looking north from south Tulsa

Here’s a drone photos from 50 meters over my back yard in Tulsa, Oklahoma looking north.

And a shot from my across the street neighbor’s driveway looking east.

I love infrastructure of all kinds. This is Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Power Station. It’s an ancient facility on the Arkansas River right in the middle of town. I used to work for the sister natural gas pipeline company, Transok Inc., that supplied the natural gas to the plant.

This is the Arkansas RiverParks trails right across the river from the power plant looking north. You can see that bicycles are to the right and pedestrians to the left.

And at the north end of the Trails, and across the river is where Route 66 crosses the Arkansas River. The city has installed a collection of replicas of vintage motel signs in a little park. Pretty interesting to me. This year is the 100 year anniversary of Route 66. I’ve lived a bunch of my life on Route 66. I love all the attractions on Route 66 but don’t care much for the road itself. Luckily in Oklahoma to the west coast most of the route is paralled (by the powers vested in me, I am declaring “paralled” to be word) by Interstate 40. I’m good with traveling on I40 and getting off to see the attractions as I feel led. Route 66 is too slow!!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – High and Low, Home and Away

Here’s a sky over my house and my neighbor’s garage.

And another sky looking west over my neighbor’s trees.

And a sunset from out in front of the house looking west. I like how the golden light reflects in the trickle of water on the street.

And this is 40 meters over my back yard looking west toward a rainstorm late in the day.

And here is a selfie of the drone pilot, yours truly.

And away from home at a local shopping center that puts on free concerts on Thursday nights in the summer.

And a view of the decks of a restaurant on the Arkansas River here in Tulsa.

And that is about it!! I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – From the Air and the Ground

A sunset drone shot looking a little south of northwest from Tulsa.

Another shot on another day from the same location looking more north of northwest.

A country road skywatch shot in southeastern Oklahoma.

A neighborhood shot looking west from our home in Tulsa.

A late afternoon shot from a drone 40 meters over our backyard looking towards the north. One can see rain falling up in the area.

That’s about it. I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatching in the Neighborhood

Earlier this spring the winds were high here in Tulsa. I couldn’t fly very far without the drone warning me to bring it down immediately. So this is a barely rooftop shot of some clouds to the west moving in.

posted 6/10/26 swf Tulsa Oklahoma Drone Shot

I’m happier when I can get to about 50 meters because I can get better photos.

Back in April there was a roofing crew replacing a roof nearby. They were humping it, rain was coming.

The neighborhood we live has five different communities. We live in the only non-gated community. The wealthiest neighborhood has a swan pond and we can go look at from the other side of a iron fence. Reminds me of a Dickens novel. Every once in a while we go looking at the swan pond through the fence.

And this is looking west down the street toward a sunset.

So I don’t have to drive anywhere to get Skywatch photos.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Spring Skies Edition

I went on a walk to Tulsa’s Gathering Place and took this photo of the Williams Crossing Bridge across the Arkansas River on an overcast day.

The Gathering Place has its own swimming beach on a pond inside the park. Cool and overcast meant not many people sunbathing.

I was at Chandler Park a few days later and took this photo of downtown Tulsa and the Arkansas River and a big blue sky with a thin layer of clouds.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Oklahoma Sunset Skywatch

I fired up the drone a few days ago and launched it over my backyard up to about 40 meters and pointed west and got this. Not much color but lots of drama. I’ll take it.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Mid Spring 2026 Edition

I launched the drone again a few days ago. We had some blustery weather that caused the drone controller to start squawking at me at only 15 meters so I just took one photo and brought the drone down to calm down.

I took this drone photo with me at about 1.7 meters. Should I get a flight suit?

I captured this over the fence sunset on a dog walk in the green belt near our house.

We went to ONEOK Field to check out the Tulsa Drillers. An AA Farm Team for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a pleasant evening.

Another skywatch shot at the stadium.

On another day, another dog walk in the green belt, another photo.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday- Flying Through the Air

I went on a bike ride during a sunny, cool morning this week. It was glorious. I stopped here at the Arkansas River as it goes through Tulsa. That bridge going across the river is Williams Crossing, named for the corporation that donated about one gazillion dollars to build it. I saw some people gliding, almost flying across the bridge.

This is them. They stopped at the western end. Two roller skaters and a scooter. No wonder they were so smooth looking going across.

This past week, I broke out the old drone and launched it from the backyard to get some skywatch shots.

Here you can see a front coming through.

I put this photo through a filter to get some color.

One day storm clouds were building up. I launched the drone but it started barking at me at about 15 meters warning of high winds. So this is a low level shot of the clouds. You can see that the drone is just a little above roof peak level and below the power lines. When the drone barks I listen to it. I don’t need it flying away in the wind. It almost got away from it once and I went through the recall procedure and it came back.

Here’s a street level photo looking east.

Another looking west.

That’s it for this week. Join me at Skywatch Friday

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