1. Mirror

The bald headed guy is me sneaking a selfie with my no-tech low-fi film Lomography Diana Mini camera a few years ago at Tulsa’s Mayfest. I love film but it is getting harder to do. Walgreens tells me they are shutting down their in-store film processing nationwide in July. They will still take your film but they will then “send it off” as they say. I can send it off myself thank you very much!

2. Stripes

Memorial day is on Monday. What can I say? There is no way we can thank enough the people who laid their lives down for our Freedom. Be mindful is what I say.

3. Crisp

I love going tot the grocery store with my Ipod with the Hipstamatic App. The fruits and flowers are always fun. I noticed a long time ago that Sprouts forbids photographs of the interior of their store. Why I wonder? I’ll just do as I please thank you very much.  Nobody has ever said anything to me. In doing my research I found out that Sprouts has now banned firearms from their stores. That’s kind of upset the crazies but I felt such a load of relief cuz I don’t think that they will shoot me for taking pictures.

4. Energy

Hey you know fracking is a dirty word these days. I don’t buy into it. I’m in the business though so don’t believe me so just check it out for yourself is all I ask. These rigs are drilling into the Cana Woodford Shale west of Oklahoma City.

5. Negative Space

Hmm, negative space. I am not sure I know exactly what it is but I’m nominating this work that I found in downtown Dallas last year. I think it is supposed to be a reflection of the inner realm of your outer consciousness, or maybe its the other way around. Maybe it is both simultaneously, or neither, simultaneously. Or maybe it is something that accidentally rolled off a truck earlier that day. Or not. Maybe the check bounced. Who knows?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I have been gone way too long from Ashley’s weekly scavenger hunt and it is time for me to come back.

1. Weather

This is an old shot from the Tulsa State Fair. I went there one Saturday morning and I was about the only one to show up. It looks like the sky was about to open up. They did a short time later. Not much money was made on the midway that day.

2. My Perspective

One of my favorite cameras is an analog fisheye camera. It is cool. Fixed focus, not adjustment, no nothing. Just point and shoot and hope for the best. You pays your money and you see what you got. This is Snoqualmie Falls in Washington. The babe to the left is my lovely wife.

3. Technology

How about a cool 4-H STEM poster for technology. You know what STEM is right? It stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” I think that is great but I (and many others) think we should change to “STEAM” Which is STEM with Arts added in. Of course I live in Oklahoma where we are happy with just many of high school graduates learning how to read.

4. Fresh

Oh man, I cannot resist a trail and fresh air. How about you?

5. Me

That’s me, and Heather. Isn’t she beautiful? And know those leaves on the my shirt is not marijuana plants. At least I don’t think they are. And no, those are not my cows. And GOODNESS NO!!!!, I didn’t go to the University of Oklahoma. (AKA “The University of Texas at Norman). Its a great school and all. I mean they have done a great job the last few years building a university that the football team can be proud of. (I know, don’t end sentences in prepositions. I tried and it didn’t read very well, go ahead and make suggestions if you want.)

Well that’s it for the Scavenger Hunt this week. Come and join in the fun. Check it out at Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

1. Double

I love double exposures. This is one of my favorites of a cityscape doubled up with my office building which has lots of glass.  Double’s are a very hit or miss proposition. I go through lots of combinations before I find one that that I like.

2. Friday

Fridays, hmm, how about Friday Harbor up in the state of Washington. Ferries fascinate me. They really do. You have to have patience for ferries and I don’t have it.

3. Memories

This is from a long time ago. My mother to the left in the white slacks, my sister Ellen to the right and Ellen’s daughter, my niece, Dana holding my mother’s hand on the shores of Galveston Island in 1978 or so. Now my mother has been gone a number of years and Dana is all growns up and married and is about to have a baby of her own. Life goes on you know!

4. Busy Day

This is  a very busy construction guy in downtown Tulsa. Don’t be bothering him because he is busy. And safe to with his helmet and everything. I like the barricade to ensure that nobody trips over him anything.

5. Where I Stand

Well, this is where I was standing and I saw all these folks out on the water doing some stand up paddling. Boy I tell you the whole time we were in Seattle I was the only overweight person I saw.  I’d never seen so many people walking, running, sailing, biking, and paddling. It is a very active city.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It is time again for Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday. So lets get to it.

1. My View

Sorry for this crappy shot, blurry and with reflections and all. I work on the 17th floor and we get a pretty good view to the west with the Arkansas River and all. I love it. Next month we are moving down to fifth floor and the view west will be occluded by several buildings. I’ll miss my westward view but I’ll have to make do with the a “City Side” view as they say. That’s all right, I’ll just work with what I have. My office is now a beige box and I’m going to another beige box so what is the difference. I’m just glad to have a spot.

2. In My Bag

I carry books with me whenever I go anywhere, or magazines, or my Kindle. I don’t ever want to be out of stuff to read.

3. Warm

My Dallas Cowboys fleece blanket. Keeps me warm on those cold nights.

4. Sleeping

This is Abigail. She likes sleeping on a pillow.

5. Part of the Body

Unlike some Hollywood celebrities, if somebody hacked my phone looking for body parts, my boots are about the only thing you are going to find.  Not that boots are a body part but you know what I mean. Well, sometimes my thumb will show up but that’s about it. I think those celebrities were done wrong but can anybody out there explain to me why somebody would have nude photographs of themselves and loved ones on their phones? Or anywhere for that matter. Of course, I know that Ms. Sisk’s readers are much too genteel to participate in such shenanigans.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

1. Details

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is Boston Avenue Church here in Tulsa. It is a notable art deco masterpiece designed by Bruce Goff. Something about it keeps drawing me back. Something beyond their parking lot where I change into my running outfit after work on Wednesdays that is.

The thing about Art Deco is not just the grand design but the design details and my favorite are the horse riders done in terra cotta on the south side of the building. This is a testament to the circuit riders of the early Methodist Church.

2. Friend

I captured this image at a local coffee shop. A child playing while his mother visits with a friend. Something that everybody needs, especially moms of young children, is a friend.

3. Comfort

This is our big ole Maine Coon hogging the heat on a cold night. She is gone now but she certainly knew how to stay comfortable. She was the Alpha Queen of the pets in the house. She didn’t take any lip from any of the other dogs and cats while she was still around.

4. Above

I go to Houston every now and then on business to see my customers down there. Downtown Houston certainly has some tall buildings.

5. New

New, new, what’s new? Oh, I know what is new!!! At work we finally finished our new plaza area. It is very cool, it is a lot more open than the old one and has shaded seating areas. The smokers are not too happy, they have been banished across the street to a corner just outside the parking garage marked off by orange traffic cones. But you know, they could use the walk right?

Linking with Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Its time again for Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday where we are given a list of prompts and have a week to go find photographs that go along with the prompts.

1. Key

Key, key, how about the Black Keys from a concert here in Tulsa. Does that work? The concert was great!

2. Triangle

Well, the only triangle I know about is this company. They sold drafting and engineering supplies and they went out of business recently. Everything is on the computer this days.

3. Favorite Word

Hey my favorite word is family!!!!!

4. Celebration

My wife and I are celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary!!! Too big a deal for one day is what I say. I hope that we celebrate it for years to come.

5. Best

I hate to admit but I’m a cake decorating fan. Tulsa hosts the Grand National Wedding Cake Competition, hosted by the Food Network’s Kerry Vincent is held in Tulsa during the Tulsa State Fair and I am addicted to it. The creations are fantastic. So anyway I went again this year, the winners haven’t been announced but I think they are all the “The Best.”

That is it for this week’s edition. Join in!!!!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I’m doing another installment of Ashley’s Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday where she provides a list of prompts and then you try to take photos that match the prompts. So without further ado, lets get to it.

Stripes

Son Logan spends a half hour a week or so participating in therapeutic horseback riding at All-Star Threrapy Group. It helps him with his core strength and also keeps him engaged as a horse needs a leader. He has been doing it for a few years now and really enjoys it. The people who work there including the many volunteers really have a heart for their clients. The guy in the stripes is Bob who owns and runs the place.

Packed

This is the family car stuffed coming back from vacation at Gulf Shores. Funny thing about trips. Outbound everything fits really nice and compact. Coming back it is a lot looser. I think it has to do with the second law of thermodynamics. You know, in a closed system, entropy increases. You know Q divided by T and all that. For you non Chemical Engineers out there it just means that when it is time to get home you just throw everything in and shut the door the best way you can and go.

Travel

I’ve been spending way too much time in airports lately including the world’s worst airport DFW in Dallas. It is a mish mash added onto mess. However one of the terminals had a bunch of rocking chairs with handy electric outlets. So I passed the time rocking and clicking my fellow travellers.

Too Cute

Anything cuter than a lamb? And they …. Forget it. I don’t want to get everybody riled up so I won’t say it. It involved mint jelly also but I don’t want to offend anybody’s sensibilities too much.

Favorite

This is from a few years back at Gulf Shores, Alabama. Our favorite place to vacation. Son Logan is almost a fish, a very good swimmer (but not as good as he thinks he is so we watch him like a hawk!) We really enjoy hanging out in the ocean.

1. Color

Color, color? How about the colors of these decorations that I spotted at our local mall? I thought they were pretty colorful.  I confess, I exposure bracketed the images and then used some HDR technology to amp things up a little bit. I’m not into SOOC. If you are that is great. To each their own is my motto. I’m libertarian like that, on photographic items, not politically. I’m not sure what libertarianism means politically. But you know, I don’t really want to get into that right now.

2. View

How about this view from my old office. I got moved from this office to an interior office and now we are moving down to the fifth floor from the seventeenth. Somebody keeps messing with my view, because I kind of liked my old view even though it was actually a cubicle instead of an office. Tell you what, after forty years in the industry I don’t care whether I have an office, a cubicle, or have to share a conference table, work from home or out of my car or go the library. I can work anywhere and have! Still, a nice view is a plus.

3. Stroll

I spotted these two ladies on a stroll during a lunch downtown. Mainly I like how they are in step with each other. I’ve read that people will do that unconsciously. There are books that will tell you that mimicking another person’s gestures and posture will induce them to like you. Doesn’t work for me! Nobody likes me. Not really, I’m sure somebody does. Right…..right? Well, okay.

4. Outfit

Well, I don’t have much in the way of outfits. I have this though. This son Logan wearing a University of Oklahoma outfit from way back when. Some of us have been known to call the school “The University of Texas at Norman” because most of the players are from Texas. With wisecracks like this is it a wonder that nobody likes me.

5. Blocks

I am a bad Scavenger Hunter! Almost 40,000 images on flickr and not one of blocks. I’ve legos. They are kind of like blocks in my mind. Real small plastic blocks.

Well that is it for this week. Thanks for visiting!! Do have any block pictures? How about block party pictures? I don’t have any of those either.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday