Tuesday night I made a run late in the day on the Arkansas River Trail right off downtown here in Tulsa. I was able to get this shot above of a sunset. Pretty soon my evening runs will be in pitch dark but now I’m enjoying the earlier sunset and slightly cooler weather.
This is a cell phone photo from the lower yellow trail on Turkey Mountain looking roughly northeast across the Arkansas River across south Tulsa. I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the best view at sunset is not towards the sun. I love how the river is reflecting some of the pink in the sky.
Summer is rapidly coming to a close. The temperatures are a bit lower, the humidity is much less, and the mornings are very nice. Autumn is my favorite season in Tulsa.
I haven’t been able to do to much Skywatching type photography lately so I went back into my archives a few months for this sky at the Tulsa Botanic Gardens.
Holy Family Cathedral
When I was rummaging around Saturday looking for my generic Go Pro camera and I found my Takashi Special Effects Camera. It is kind of strange little camera with only 5 MP but it has various special effects built in such as negatives, black and white, sepia, and so forth. Check here for a list of my previous posts. Anyway I found it and fed it the AAA batteries it chews up like candy and took it for a walk at noon in downtown Tulsa.
I love the negative effect. It makes me see old sights in a new way.
It also gives scenes a spooky feel. I kind of like that.
The camera also has no shutter. When you press “the button” the camera just scans the photocell. So if you are moving the camera while it is scanning it distorts the image in ways that are pleasing to me. It is called the Lartigue Effect after a Frenchman named Jacque Henri Lartigue who discovered the effect in the early 1900’s. It can make buildings look kind of wavy.
I went down to the temporary replacement library for the Tulsa Central Library to pick up a book that I had on order and found out that that since they are closing it to move back to the regular library they moved it to another library, miles away. Oh well.
I love our library and the staff and have known a couple of them over the years but the present administrator I kind of worry about. The library gave him several months off to finish his PhD and then we come to find out that that he spends a huge amount of time and money flying to conferences here there and yonder. Much more so than libraries of similar sizes both regionally and nationally. He says that is where he found out about automated book checkout machines. Wow, I remember those from the last century. Oh well. I go to one conference a year and I think I’m pretty much up on what is going on in the natural gas industry. Oops, off topic.
My favorite sidewalk in downtown Tulsa on Denver avenue.
So I walked back to the office taking pics along the way. Isn’t it wonderful that electrons and photons are still free?
Downtown Tulsa in a negative mode.
The entrance to a downtown apartment complex.
Anyway I always dragging my lowfi funky Takashi out, feeding it some batteries and taking it for a walk.
Heather and I attended the Coldplay Concert at the BOK Center here in Tulsa Thursday night.
Heather is a big, big fan and I was a kind of well, you know, I like their song Clocks, and they are okay, you know, they don’t suck.
I’m a fan now. We have been to some great concerts over the years and this one ranks up there with the best. Heather said it was “the best” she had ever been to, even better than Sting. Sorry Sting, you are now second best in Heather’s eyes I guess
The lead singer, Chris Martin is a dynamo. Not only does he have a great voice and stage presence but he is very athletic. He was running and jumping while singing the whole show. And the special effects were timed perfectly with his leap and jumps. Confetti, flame, lasers, and big balloons. They spent a fortune on expendables that night.
They had an “A” Stage at the front of the Arena, a “B” stage in the middle, and a small “C” stage in back. They were everywhere.
Playing their heart out without a break for over two hours and 24 songs. Here is the set list.
They played rock songs and ballads, their new songs and some of their old songs, and everything in between.
The fans loved them!!
We’ll be back and I will trying to find where Heather hid her disk.
As an aside, they had four light people hanging from the ceiling. They looked all strapped in and belayed so probably OSHA is okay with it.
We missed the first opening act but the second, Alessia Cara is a dynamo who can really sing.
Official, by gum video released by Coldplay for the tour.
On an after work, post rain, run the other day I braved the security guards and dashed into Into the courtyard of International Plaza to take a pic of the multitude of various flags, glass, shiny metal, and standing water.
Cherry Street is a cool part of Tulsa with independent businesses and old storefronts and generally just a fun place to hang out in this day of mass merchandisers.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections
I snapped this a few weeks ago while walking our dogs in our neighborhood green space. I liked the big fluffy clouds.
Sunday morning I ventured down to the Tulsa River Parks to watch the River Parks Criterium segment of Tulsa Tough. Tulsa Tough is a three day series of races of all kinds here in Tulsa. The River Parks Criterium is a short cycle race that loops from river level up a steep hill overlooking the river and then back down to the river via a 120 degree hard right turn at high speed at the base of the hill. And then they do it again, and again. It is brutal.
Copied from TulsaTough.com I hope they don’t sue my butt)
There are about fourteen races in all on this course lasting about a half hour each.
The course is not for the faint of heart. The leaders are working the whole way. Y
This is where they head up the hill, and they are just flying.
Not only are they going fast, they are going fast while being close together. If one guy or gal goes down then the risk is high that others are going down also. It looks nerve wracking to me.
They alternated the pace cars. This one was a Jaguar. They run a couple hundred yards ahead along with a motorcycle to alert everybody to get out of the way.
The races are very exciting.
The riders are concentrating hard.
At the of the hill is Cry Baby Hill. It is kind of wild. It is in a residential area with not many sidewalks so you have to stand in the street. The residents have parties in their front yard. It is quite the party. I left about noon so I think I missed the peak of the madness.
Everybody is there to cheer on the riders and spray water and beer on them.
There are marshalls in zebra shirts with whistles and flags to keep the crowd behind the line. I guess this guy lost his shirt or something.
Lots of cowbells and a band cheer the riders on.
And toy baby dolls if you didn’t bring one.
It is quite the spectacle.
As I left people were still piling in.
And the races were still going on.
Addendum #1 Not my video – a collection of crashes from Tulsa Tough.
Friday is my day off, Heather had to teach an exercise class, and Logan is out of school so I dragged him to the Fairgrounds to the Leake Car Auction.
Lots and lots of cars there. I’m partial to red cars, lIke this Mustang above.
Or the Porsche being cleaned up. It is hard to be a Porsche for styling.
I also love the big American cars of the 1950’s like this 1954 Crestline Victoria. I love all the chrome, that beautiful blue color, and the swoopy curves.
I don’t mean I ever want to own one I just like looking at them.
I like the more homely but distinctive cars also such Trifun quarter ton truck. The three wheels are a gas.
And the tilting bed. They said only 300 miles since new but the seats and everything else in the cab was very worn. It was a very hard 300 miles.
And who doesn’t love a land cruiser. These are classic vehicles.
How about an air boat for hunting alligators?
I love the camo but don’t you know that thing is loud.
By far my favorite of the show was this heavily modified1967 Land Rover
It had the best and most puzzling hood ornament.
It looks like it could be chasing down lions and elephants in Africa.
I like the “scouting seats” up above. Scouting seats my butt, I bet rich Texans sat up there and shot at critters. If somebody wants to buy it for me I would sit up there and shoot critters also, with my camera.