Saturday I was asked to donate photographic services for The Freedom Ball. This event raises money for scholarships for the children of service men. It was about the same thing as a wedding reception, with a couple of wrinkles. One of the things they do is show their appreciation for the widows.
One of the ceremonial portions was the “Missing Man Table.” It honors those who could not attend the event.
The Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild has monthly image competitions. Each month, anyone in the guild can submit images to the competition. Additionally, in a separate competition, there is a specific theme, and the images must be in that theme. For September, the theme was “a product.” I had planned on doing an image of pouring beer out of a bottle. I was going to have a glass and above the glass, at an appropriate angle was going to be the neck of the bottle, and I was going to have beer coming out of the bottle into the glass.
August is the month in which Hatch Chili Peppers are harvested. The “season” is rather short, but the green chilis are special. Debbie was at the store and saw they actually had a beer that had Hatch chilis in it. So, I changed my original concept. I wanted to photograph that beer. Next to it was a glass. Some beers are trying to distinguish themselves by having some form of garnish – usually a slice of a citrus fruit. I used that and had a garnish on the glass of a slice of a chili pepper, and surrounded the bottle and the glass with peppers. My image can in first in the competition.
Coming home from Clifton on Hwy 6, I found a couple of interesting rural scenes. This was an old windmill in a field.
This was an old harvester and tractor in a field.
And, passing through Valley Mills, I saw this Blacksmith Shop.
I went back to Clifton on Sunday because I saw some things on Wednesday that I wanted to get pictures of. One of those was more of the details of the Bosque County Merchantile Building. This is the front of the building (actually,the building spans the block and there are entrances on both sides).
These are some of the doors that I thought looked interesting, and these are the others.
The last place I stopped in Clifton was the old Santa Fe Railroad depot.
I mentioned in my last post that we went to Clifton a couple days ago, and I saw some things that I wanted to go back to get pictures of. I went back yesterday, and driving through town found some really interesting old buildings and places that made some fine images. The first of those was the Dansby Feed Mill.
Walking around it, I found lots to shoot. These are the old doors on the main building.
There was another building there that appeared to be an office. The windows were boarded up, but it wasn’t with plywood, it was with sheet metal.
Across the street, there was an alley with a sign that said “Artist’s Alley” so I walked down it. This was a doorway in that alley.
I went to the Doctor on Tuesday for a checkup. While there, in the waiting room, I saw a magazine about Bosque County. There were all kinds of things in it, but I saw that there is a Bosque County Art Center in Clifton. So, I decided we needed to go see what it was like. Debbie and I drove up there yesterday and spent the morning there. The Art Center was quite nice. They had a large number of pieces of many different types of display for their permanent collection. They also had a room of photography. I found out that there is a Photography Guild associated with the Art Center. So, we joined the Art Center and the Guild.
After that, we drove around. I found a couple of interesting places for photographs. The first was two old stone buildings on the grounds of the fair and rodeo complex.
As we were driving through town, another building caught my eye. It is apparently actually the back of the Bosque County Mercantile.
As I was processing the images, I thought those green doors really look interesting. Also, on the way home, I saw some other things I want to get. So, I am planning another trip to Clifton real soon.
The August Guild Image Competition included a “Challenge” Competition. The Challenge was a Black and White natural light photograph. One day last week when I went to get the mail, I noticed cobwebs forming on the remnants of the roses by the mailbox. So, I used those as my subject. I took a series of images, that were pretty good, but when I sent one to Pounds to have it printed, it came back and the focus was not sharp enough. I still had time. So, I took some more images and found one with really sharp focus. I quickly sent it to Pounds. That was last Friday. They did not process it until Monday and shipped it for Tuesday. The competition was Tuesday evening. So, things were tight. At about 5:45, it had not come yet. So, I decided to go without it. I got down to Franklin and New Road, and Debbie called that it had just been delivered. So, I raced back home to get it. The competition was supposed to start at 6:30. So, I had a little time. I drove down to Coach’s and got there in plenty of time. They set up the prints, and all went well. That is, until the prints were revealed. I was amazed at the extraordinary quality of the prints for this competition. Let’s face it, the prints are always strong, but these images were beyond that. Turns out, I didn’t place. But, I am not disappointed The images that won were really better than mine.
The final stop on the cruise was Aruba. Aruba is another Dutch island. Where Curacao was well developed for tourists, Aruba was more rugged, but had some spectacular resort beaches. We tok a tour of the island that took us from Oranjestad in the South to the Northern coast. There, we went to a “Natural Rock Bridge” that was a rugged, rocky coast.
This was not at all what I expected, as I have more or less thought, because of all the resorts that it would be mostly hotels and beaches
The third stop was Curacao. We docked in Willemstad. Curacao is a dutch island off the coast of Venezuela. The buildings were all inspired by Dutch tradition. Walking from the ship to town you are forced to walk through an old fort, and this was looking through an opening they used to fire canons from.
In that picture, you can see a bridge going over the inlet. This is a “Swinging” bridge, in that it actually pivots to allow boat traffic to pass by.
The second stop on our cruise was La Romana on the southern side of the Dominican Republic. The tour we took there went to Altos de Chavon, an village/compound of artists. 
This was an amphitheater. We were told that there were regular performances here. There were lots of flowering trees and plants, and there were more butterflies that I an have ever seen before. This is a Gulf Fritillary.
The buildings were all stone and adobe. I was struck by the contrast of materials – wood, stone, adobe, metal – and textures and lines in this wall.
