Uglyhat and Flag Day

Yesterday was Flag Day, and the Caveman Crawl in Bridgeport.  I took the first shot waiting for the first runners to show up to my obstacle, UglyHat  looks pretty good, all J.J. Abrams/Micheal Bay-ed with the lens flare.  Then while on my way home I saw this and thought, "Only in Texas."  I have been to about 40 out of the 50 states and have never seen the state flag fly with Old Glory on top of a crane. 

Golden Hour Earth Day Flowers

Happy Earth Day.

random

Since moving to East Texas I have been a stay at home dad during the week, which saves us on childcare, but not on my sanity.  Somedays I have to break out the camera and just shoot whatever is available, and lucky for me we have a rose bush that is blooming out in the front against the house and we have a south facing bay window; that the wife put up sheer curtains.  When those days come that I have to DO something or go insane there is a little bit to work with and I am grateful for that.

These shots were just hanging out on one of my CF cards with which, I had't done anything.  This weekend is work and a drive to Dallas, but until then the boys need breakfast, and we are out of coffee so I may just kill someone later. 

Lonely Live Oak

This past weekend I was on the road on a Friday evening to get to a hotel room in Mexia Texas for a Tough Mudder race the next morning, so of course I had my camera with me and as I was driving south down FM 2015 just north of Tyler I came across this lone live oak standing sentinel in a field with the sun setting through it's boughs so I had to stop and capture the moment.  As is my new habit I grabbed my 5D my Lomo and my Iphone, and used all three.  The Iphone photo can be seen on my Instagram feed @utsanati and I am waiting to fill up my two rolls of 120 from the Lomo before I have one developed so that should be a fun day when I get those back.

Morning on Montgomery St.

This morning I took the wife to work since we are down to one car at the moment, and I need to run an errand today.  I took these on the way back from the high school on Montgomery St, right outside of Gilmer, with just the 5D and my phone this time; I have to change the film in the Lomo.  I had to stop and get this great light especially since I have to send the 5D back to the rental place, mine had to be sent in for repair, and we are stretched too tight right now for me to send in the repair fee, so I don't know when I will be able to take pictures like this again.  I rent so I can do paying work, but my art doesn't pay the bills.  Such is life. 

Sunset and Rust

I have been living here in Upshur county Texas now for two months.  I have yet to make it to all points on the compass throughout, but I have made it to a few places, and I found a nice one yesterday.  A back road bridge that is obviously frequented by the younger members of the community (hence the stencil) but I got to shoot the sunset on the bridge over the Sabine River.  I took these shots with a Canon 5D Mark II, but I also shot the same ones with my Iphone for Instagram (@utsanati) and a twin reflex Lomo that I bought off e-bay and have loaded with some black and white film (we'll see how those turn out). 

The hubcap with the bullet hole was on a gate right off the bridge that I hadn't noticed until I was pulling out from where I dropped the car.  The old gas pump; that I had to race back to catch, before the sun got too low, is back in town and 20 miles north of the river.

There is a singer/songwriter that I follow named Adam Carroll, his first couple of records are a lot about this part of Texas, so at least I have a soundtrack that fits the rust, the muddy Sabine and the sunset low in the pines of my new home.

Shenandoah Skyline Drive Detour

As was stated in my previous post (for anyone who actually reads this) I spent a few days in Virginia at the end of June for work.  My last work day there I was asked if I would like to drive the new company van back down to Florida...  Of course I said yes, I'm not one to miss the opportunity for a road trip, and so off I went on a 6 hour detour through the Shenandoah National Park.  I figured I could sit on I-95 in the DC/Richmond corridor in traffic for 6 hours or I could get my camera out and make use of it, while seeing something that would be new to me.  The park has a route that you can drive through called Skyline Drive that follows the ridge of the Valley; which allows for some really great shots, at various scenic turnouts, and the speed limit is 35 so you really get to take it all in for a little over three hours (its about 110 miles).  The last two shots are iphone shots; the final one being a North Carolina sunset that I caught after gassing up. 

It had been too long since I pulled out the camera and taken pictures for myself, and take my time getting somewhere.  Not a bad mental reboot for an over stressful summer that isn't done yet. 

Temporarily Nomadic

       Last week I made a trip to Virginia... the DC area specifically.  It was a working trip so being a photographer I of course documented the experience, because I can't really see anything without first looking at it through a viewfinder.  While that is something of a misnomer since three out of four of these shots were taken with an iphone and edited in Instagram, but that's just a technicality, the constraints of the iphone as a tool for photography and the Instagram square crop are becoming just as ingrained as ISO, shutter speed and F stop for most of us these days, not that I will every put down my "real" camera and shoot solely on a smart phone, I like to be in control of my shot in most situations.                             
       Anyway this was what I saw and where I went.  I flew out of RSW (Ft Myers) with a carry on, my camera and Uglyhat.  Got lost listening to the GPS, hung out with Bambi and enjoyed a post thunderstorm sunset.  I enjoyed myself, missed my family and got to sit in a lot of traffic.  Which is the usual sort of thing that happens to me on trips like this, oh and the random crazy person that I encounter when I sit at a bar, but that is a completely different story and I most certainly don't have the time or space here to go into that. 

tree

blown over

Saturday moon

Saturday afternoon's waxing gibbous moon, shot from the landing outside the apartment here