Category Archives: Weekend Reflections

Weekend Reflections – City Hall

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I like to get out at lunch and walk around downtown Tulsa. Generally I walk around two miles or so and I always take my little point and shoot Nikon AW110 and take lots of pics. Most of whom don’t see the light of day as my Flickr account has ballooned out to over 57,000 photographs. So this past week I walked by our City Hall which is covered in glass and I thought the reflections  of the big fat clouds against the blue sky we had that day looked pretty nice.  The above photo is the result. I did run the photo through my ipod app Snapseed just to give it a little oomph. (You are not going to bedgrudge me some oomph are you?)

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So I thought I would upload the photo on Instagram but I wanted even more oomph so I ran it through the various editing apps I have on my Ipod and I just went crazy. I used ToonCamera, Prisma, and DistressedFX and generated these in a matter of minutes. I like them all to one degree or another. And the winner is …..

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This generated with DistressedFX. I liked the gradient in colors that it produced from top to bottom.

So do you use Apps in editing your photos, or Photoshop, Corel, Picmonkey or something else?

Are you on Instagram? We should be Instagram buds!! My account is @yogiab. Recently I have been asked by the Tulsa River Parks Authority to post under their accounts @TurkeyMountain for the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Park and @riverparks. I’m just one of several people who post under those accounts but check them out anyway.

So everybody have a great weekend out there and I can’t wait to look at other reflections posts later this afternoon.

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Weekend Reflections – Lake Logan

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A cloudy afternoon, Lake Logan at the West Side YMCA on Turkey Mountain in Tulsa, Oklahoma

I was doing my Wednesday night run on Turkey Mountain last Wednesday night. I call it run even though I stop a lot to take photographs. I took 79 of them Wednesday. I had my trusty weatherproof, everything proof, Nikon AW110 point and shoot with me set on “Auto” mode and I noticed after taking one particular pic that a menu option popped up offering instant edits. So I decided to see where that took me and it gave me a choice of six filters. So I experimented with it and this is an example of the “Toy Camera” filter. I kind of like it as a variation. Luckily the camera saves the original image along with the filtered image so I can save myself if need be.

I’m looking forward to the day when cameras have just as good a filters as our phones and ipods do along with wifi connectability so one can buy and upgrade filters, as well as upload our photos directly to our various social media and photo storage sites. I have two cameras that have wifi compatibility but only with cell phones and setting up and maintaing the connection is time consuming and chews up battery life at an alarming rate and doesn’t work that great.

So, does your camera have some hidden features that you found?

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Running What I Can Instead of What I Want to Run

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The Jenks Bridge, now limited to pedestrians and bicyclists.

I haven’t been to Turkey Mountain in a month! What with traveling and conferences and this and that and whatever I have missed my coveted Wednesday after work run. When I went to change into my running clothes I found that I forgot my shoes. No problema I thought. I’ll just drive home and get my shoes and change and head over to the mountain and it will be fine.

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The former Oral Roberts University Hospital and Medical School, now an office building. If you think it is tilted just tilt your head.

Except, their was a huge traffic jam on the Broken Arrow Expressway and it took me an hour to get home. So I decided to “plug back and abandon” (that is fricking fracker talk for giving up the original plan) and go for a shorter run. I was under time pressure because I needed to pick up Logan at a certain time. So I was a little put out at myself at first but as I got into the run my cares just disappeared especially since I had some time to take some pics on the run.

So yep, one can have a decent run along a turnpike. I’ll be on Turkey Mountain Friday morning!! I am double checking the shoe situation.

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Weekend Reflections – Staycating for Spring Break

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Logan has Spring Break this week. Originally we thought we might go to New York City but one thing led to another and so we are staying in town but trying to get out and do things. Wednesday we all slept in and then breakfasted at First Watch and then went to Zink Lake on the Arkansas River and walked about three miles or so.

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We then went to the Philbrook Museum because I wanted to get some pics of daffodils. While there of course I had to take some pics of the Tempietto and the reflecting pool. I think more electrons have been spent photographing the Tempietto than any other feature in Tulsa.

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All that is lost on some folks who walk around staring at the little screens. 

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Back to the Tempietto, I think it is the prettiest thing in Tulsa.aaBack to the Tempietto, I think it is the prettiest thing in Tulsa.

Wednesday night we took Logan to see the “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” with Clint Eastwood. I saw it about forty years ago when it came out and wow, I was blown away at how good it is. What a great, intense, well done, movie. Logan loved it also. Afterwards we realized it is the first R rated movie we ever took him to see so I guess it is a rite of passage.

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Out of focus, and off kilter, I kind of like it that way except I wish I had the focus on the flower better.

I said something about daffodils, here are one and a half. I was trying to do the bokeh thing by messing with the speed and aperture. Next time I will figure out how to fix the focus so this is all I have for now. I’ll be posting my daffodil pics later.

Have you ever tried staycating? What is the secret.

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Weekend Reflections – Granite and Glass

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This is the building where I work. The building is polished granite and glass and its modern exterior stands out in Tulsa’s mostly art deco style buildings. I took this shot from the parking garage across the street. I liked how the building reflected the sky to the east, and another high rise.

The building started out as Cities Service Oil Company’s new headquarters at 52 floors but before construction could get very far there was first an oil bust and then Boone PIckens who drove Cities into the arms of Occidental Petroleum who decided to make it 37 floors and then they decided to sell it to my employer who capped it at 17 floors. So it is “hell for stout” as we say in Oklahoma. A 17 story building with foundations and steel structure designed for 52. Plus we have lots of elevators!  We can still feel the earthquakes we are having in Oklahoma.

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Weekend Reflections – Snowy Day

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I love a good puddle reflection

Well it was kind of a snowy day last Saturday. I dropped the kid off at his Improv Comedy class and then went over to the river to plod a few miles. It had snowed a little earlier that morning but had quit. Just the kind of snow I like.

River Trails Reflections - Topaz Glow - Whisker Wires 85 pct

I used Topaz Glow – Whisker Wires effect on this photo – true confessions

So I did my thing, stopping and taking pictures every now and then.

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This sculpture is “Crossing the Prairie” by Glenna Goodacre. I happen to love this work. More true confessions I used Topaz on this photo also.

I don’t like cold weather that much but I don’t mind it when I’m running. I have the right kind of clothes for running in cold wet weather and my movement keeps me warm. I’m just hoping that we don’t get any ice. I hate ice. Except in my scotch, I like it a lot there.

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Weekend Reflections – Christmas Lights

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There is something out reflections at night when it is pitch black outside. It is very disorienting and beautiful at the same time.

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Looking down into the water you don’t see the water, it seems like if you jumped in you would fall forever.

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Weekend Reflections – Noir

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Son and I went on a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park last week and as usual I took three cameras with me. A Nikon point and shoot, an Apple Ipod Touch, and my generic Android cell phone. I took this with my cell phone and then filtered the photo through an app on the phone with a “Noir” app that provided the ghostly reflections above.

It is kind of hard to see where photography is going, the cell phone apps are getting ever more sophisticated and both my point and shoot Nikon and my “big” Nikon have wifi capability where I can move photos from the cameras to either the Ipod or the cell phone for processing and posting. I’m really enjoying see how things are changing. I don’t know where they are going though.

So where are you on the App revolution? Do you use them or not?

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