Tag Archives: Tulsa

Chasing Shadows at Lafortune Park

Lafortune Park is big piece of land in south Tulsa that is just packed with attractions: A 3 mile walking path, two 18 hole golf courses, several playgrounds, a high school with a football stadium, baseball and softball fields, little league baseball fields, a pony league baseball stadium, a huge tennis center with indoor and outdoor courts (and pickleball), a community center, public swimming pool, and a public library. I’ve spent a lot of time there and in early October I grabbed my camera and went in search of shadows one nice sunny day.

Shadows on a bridge.

What I call “EKG Shadows” of weeds growing along the top rail of a chain-link fence.

Shadows of a bison herd.

Architectural Brick Shadows at Lafortune Park

I love these midcentury modern style concrete blocks.

Another bridge with shadows.

Guardrail Shadows

And handrail shadows on steps.

So I got some exercise and found a few shadows on the three mile trek around the park.

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.

I hope everyone survived Halloween last night and the time change this morning. We don’t pass out candy at Halloween because it upsets our dogs too much so we turn off the porch lights and pull the bulbs out of the driveway lamps, shut the front room shades and keep the lights off and we still have people coming up and ringing the doorbell. Just a few though.

We also had the time change this morning. I have so much digital stuff that I have to go looking for an analog clock to make the sure the digital time pieces worked right. There is a move afoot in the USA to have year round daylight savings time. I’m good with the present setup and if we are going to have a year round time then I think it should be standard time year round. Otherwise it is pitch dark at 7 am in the cooler parts of the year. I’ll survive and not fuss regardless of what the powers that be decide.

Shadowy Trail Bridges

I went hiking at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center last week. I saw all sorts of stuff including a couple of shadowy trail bridges

Shadowy Trail Bridge at Oxley Nature Center

I’m linking to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Skywatching on the Arkansas River

In late July this year I went on a bike ride on the Arkansas River Trails here in Tulsa. I took a “good camera” along. I only take a good camera if there is no chance of rain.

Here is the Public Service Company Oklahoma’s Tulsa Power Station. They have two sources of natural gas to run the plant. I worked for one of the source pipelines for eight years and then I went to work for the other source pipeline.

And here is my bicycle with the Williams Crossing Bridge in the background. It is a beautiful pedestrian bridge that is only about two or three years old. It was named “Bridge of the Year 2026” by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the National Steel Bridge Alliance. Read all about it here. I checked on the bridge construction almost weekly while it was being built. It was fascinating to watch.

Above is a photo from September 2025 showing the bridge at night. It has one of those funky lighting systems that can do all sorts of colors.

There were rowers on the river that day. Used to be Tulsa had quite a rowing community at one time, then Covid came, and then came the reconstruction of the Zink Dam and the Williams Crossing Bridge so it is nice to see rowing on the river again.

21 plus miles. Not a bad ride for an old fat guy is what I think.

Switching gears to the home neighborhood.

A neighborhood sunset in late July. If I don’t feel like launching the drone then I walk across the street to our neighbor’s driveway to get the right angle. The street is straight east and west and the sunset in July is a little north of west so I have to get a little south to see it.

This is a reverse sunset looking east on another day catching the glow of storm front off in the distance.

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Summertime 2026 Skywatch

I am still way behind on posting my sky photos. These are from the last half of July

This is a neighborhood photo showing a front blowing through.

A sunset photo looking west from our neighborhood greenbelt.

A drone photo about 40 meters over our house looking west from Tulsa.

I was on a bike ride on a trail I hadn’t used in a long time. It’s closed, for repairs. It looks okay to me!

A view from a bridge across the Arkansas River looking north. To the right is a complex of buildings that used to be the Oral Roberts Hospital and Medical School. They are now regular office buildings. The high rise to the left is the Muskogee Creek Nation River Spirit Casino.

Here’s a closeup of the Casino from the bike trail around the riverside of the complex.

And from the same trail only a couple miles north is a view across the Arkansas River to Turkey Mountain.

And July’s Full Buck Moon. I love moon photos. I have hundreds of them.

And this is a drone shot that I modified by having a program called Dynamic Auto Painter using a modernist acrylic techniques. It’s not AI. DAP has been around a long time before AI ever showed up. I kind of like how it turned out.

I am linking to Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Rainy Days and Cloudy Times Edition

Hey Look, a concert about to get going on the beautiful Jenks Riverwalk. We’re all there and minutes after I took this photo everyone was dashing for our cars. You can kind of see in the right margin that something was coming.

https://flic.kr/p/2spoCng

This is just a few minutes after we left, the storm had passed, the sun was shining, and a rainbow appeared. I love rainbows.

And another pic, from a bike ride. The Tulsa Skyline under some clouds.

At home, you can see the front passing through from left to right.

And a neighborhood shot of clouds.

Reverse sunset in the neighborhood looking south.

Reverse sunset looking east.

And a sunset looking west. I get asked if I used a filter on this shot. The answer is yes, I brought to bear every filter I had on this. Just so you know, I am not a purist.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Home Sweet Home Edition

We got home from vacation in early July. We had a great time and saw a lot but it was nice to be home.

That was before the big heat dome. We had big fluffy clouds in the sky and rain! I’m into rain.

Cockeyed neighborhood skywatch shot looking east.

And another one looking west. I miss the rain. We haven’t had any for weeks now.

This is a jigsaw puzzle I did on my ipad a few months ago. It’s the Goosenecks in the Colorado River in northern Arizona. I’ve never seen it with my own eyes. Accounts I’ve read say that some days its a zoo there with everyone elbowing and jostling trying to get the perfect shot. Anybody been there and can give us the straight scoop. Leave a comment and tell us about it.

I’m linking this 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 – 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.

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 – Close to Home

The neighborhood adjoining us has a “swan pond” complete with a black swan that chases off all the other waterfowl.

This is from my front yard looking to the west at sunset one day.

A volunteer group that I am a member of had a meeting a local brewery just out of downtown. Leaving I took this photo looking west toward downtown Tulsa and the setting sun.

This is a painting I found at our recent trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is “Home by the Lake” by Frederic Church. It’s a great skywatch painting.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

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