On our recent trip to Seattle we took a day and drove out east an hour or so to Rattlesnake Lake.
It’s a very popular though not big lake and very beautiful.
No powerboats but lots of canoers and kayakers out and about.
Sweetie braved the ice cold water and sharp pebbles and waded out to these stumps. See that rock ledge behind her? That is Rattlesnake Ledge and there is a trail up there.
We didn’t make it up there but a lot of people did.
We had a great time. And no, we didn’t see any snakes.
Saturday I ventured back out to the Fair Grounds here in Tulsa to the State Fair to see the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show and Grand National Wedding Cake Competition.
I have no idea if the cakes are edible but the decorations are amazing. I ended up taking 152 photographs of the event and no I’m not going to make you suffer through them. The skill of these sugar artists is just wonderful.
These are like wedding cakes on steroids.
I have no idea how one would have the patience and stamina to do all the detailing involved.
The creativity was pretty far out there also. But you know the cakes were not the most impressive things are I saw there.
I was blown away by the masks. I wasn’t even expecting them.
They are incredibly delicate. Earlier a motorized wheel chair bumped into a table and destroyed almost all the masks on the table. I’m sure that everybody felt terrible about it. You can be sure that I kept my distance.
Have you ever been to a sugar art show? I’m coming back next year. If you haven’t been yet this year, you are too late, the sugar art show closed Sunday.
It’s the time for State and County Fairs, have you been to one yet this year?
I took my Diana Mini toy film camera to the midway this year. The midway is legalized madness. Lots of people, bright lights, the rides, the games of skill, the fair food. Who can explain it all?
The Diana Mini has a half frame mode where you get two photographs on one frame. It’s kind of fun to see what the pairing are. I like the way the Ferris Wheel turned out. To me the Ferris wheel is the king of the midway. If you don’t have one of those, you don’t have a midway.
I was just walking around shooting from the waist. It’s kind of hit or miss actually. There is a world of difference between raising a camera to your eye and just shooting from the waist. The EMT crew above had somebody on the gurney. I don’t know what the story is.
The carousel and a small roller coaster were right next to each other.
The not very well kept secret of the midway is that the people are the main attraction. Lots of people make fun of “Fair People” and I don’t know why. I mean if you know what a fair person looks like, then you are one also, right?
My third week participating in Scavenger Hunt Sunday. I love the challenge of the meme. Each week there are five “items” given and the challenge is to find photographs that have the items. It is also interesting looking at the fellow participant’s interpretation. There are some really creative bloggers participating.
Yellow
My son SuperPizzaBoy at a disc golf course at Tulsa’s Chandler Park late last winter.
Getting Ready
My niece Mary’s son Mr. Beans at my other niece Jillian’s wedding last summer in Colorado Springs. What a fine looking young man he is. I think he was the ring bearer.
Bright
Putting up the Christmas lights on the house last year under a beautiful Oklahoma sky.
Teeny Tiny
I participate in an obsession a sport called Geocaching where I use a GPS receiver to hunt containers hidden in parks and forests and other places by other geocachers. The classic container is an ammo box. This ammo box was apparently for micro ammo. See Geocaching.com for more information on this sport. Also, sorry for my unkempt fingernail. I’ll make sure its trimmed before I post another similar photograph.
Connections
Connections was really hard for me but you know a wedding is a connection right? (One reason that I love this meme, sometimes I have to think. I’m not used to thinking!!) I captured this couple in downtown Tulsa at Holy Family Cathedral. The photographer was posing the couple as my wife and I were stopped at stop light on our way to a concert. You can tell that the groom is really proud of his beautiful bride. Right after the picture he looked right at me and gave me the old Generation Y chin nod and I gave him a thumbs up. I have no idea who they are but I wish them well.
Anyway, that is it for me on this weeks Scavenger Hunt.
I went to the Tulsa State Fair Friday.
I don’t go for the food, the rides, or the cheesy merchandise.
I go because I like looking at the critters, especially the cows, and horses and the goats are interesting also.
Many of the animals were raised by young people. I think that it is great. Anything that takes kids away from their electronics is A-OK with me!
I don’t know a thing about these animals. I can generally tell a horse from a cow but don’t bet on it. These though are Belgian Blues. I think they are beautiful. According to wikipedia they are “double muscled” which gives them a muscular appearance but also means that they are very good at converting grass to lean beef. They are more pink in the photograph than what they are live. They have a beautiful blue color to them.
My sister Ellen posted in her blog the other day that she took a photography class and learned that when photographing critters the eyes should be the focal point. It was a revelation for me. There is a real difference in the “emotion” of the photographs where the eyes are the focal point and where you can’t see them. That Ellen, she is one smart cookie.
Herefords or “white faces” are another of my favorites. They have fallen out of favor I think because of the trend toward leaner beef. I think they are beautiful. Sorry, I couldn’t get one to look at me. I don’t blame them.
The goats are something else. Cows pretty much ignore everybody, the goats are checking everybody out.
Would you buy a used car from this goat? I wouldn’t.
The goats and cows both were being bathed and trimmed by their owners.
I came upon some young people showing off their horses. The tension level was high during the judging.
The horses and the handlers both were dressed to the nines.
The animals are beautiful, you can tell the young people and their parents had worked hard to get to this show.
If you live close to Tulsa the fair runs through October 7.
Chihuly Garden and Glass is in Seattle at the base of the Space Needle. It is dedicated to the glass artist Dale Chihuly and it is simply amazing. If you go make sure that you have plenty of time and that your camera is fully charged. It is simply amazing. The place is brand new and has room to grow.
We went through the galleries and gardens twice and still didn’t think we saw everything.
It’s been a month since we were in Seattle but I’m still blown away by the skies we saw there.
Road Sign in far western Oklahoma, Roger Mills County, where there are more cows and gas wells than there are people.
K, K, K? What can K be? I don’t know but it reminds me about what they say about the University of Nebraska Football Team. You know the Corn Huskers? Do you know what the “N” on their helmets stands for?
You are right!! The “N” stands for Nowledge!!
And this week’s K is “King Tut.” We saw reproductions of his tomb contents at the Museum of Idaho’s “Treasures of the Tomb” exhibition in Idaho Falls during our visit there this past summer.
Have you acquired any good nowledge lately?
Last week me and SuperPizzaBoy had some time to ourselves to we went to the Philbrook Museum of Art. We are members thanks to the world’s great MIL, SPB’s Grandmother “Nana.”
We di the whole thing, inside and out, we saw great murals.
Native American Pottery
Modern Native American Art
People brunching.
We love the entry hall at museum, it is grand and very geometric.
A painting of the Grand Canyon by Thomas Moran.
Their collection on Modern Design
We even liked the fireplace screens.
And in a house built by a oil tycoon do you expect the wild naked fish riding women to stay under covers? So to speak.
We also love the gardens of the museum.
We saw both Philbrook cats.
SPB went to say hello, the cat had things to do and places to be.
Philbrook is the place to be if you find yourself in Tulsa.