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.
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 Heart of Texas Air Show was Sunday at the TSTC airport. I paid a little extra for “flight line” seats, and I am not sure they were worth it. But, the show was great. Several aerobatic performers, some vintage planes, three performances by The Golden Knights, and the Air Force Thunderbirds.
The City of Waco sponsored a festival/craft beer event at Cameron Park East last weekend. It featured beers from some small breweries and three bands.
I was not impressed by the beers. of the 21 beers that could be sampled, 11 of them were IPAs and 6 were wheat beers. There was one stout and one “amber” ale. There were three lagers.
There was a reasonable, but not huge crowd. The weather was threatening, and that was factor.
The first band was Barelands from Beaumont. They were followed by Waco’s own Billy Joe Shaver.
The headliner was Reverend Horton Heat. They played some interesting rockabilly stuff.
Last Weekend, McLane Stadium hosted the first (annual) Brazos River Rib Fest. I was hired to photograph the event. I got amour 1400 pictures. How can you have a Rib Fest without spare ribs? Here are some of my pictures of the ribs.
Those are actually the hands of Baylor President Judge Ken Starr who was one of the contest judges.
The April Challenge Competition for the Heat of Texas Professional Photographers Guild was “Repetitive Patterns.” Our train for New Orleans was late getting into Houston. The last time we went, I noticed the platform and how the supports lined up. I am not sure how many different pictures I took of them, but it was a lot. I finally decided one of them was worth more time. This began as an HDR image. After processing, the colors were rather bright, as much of the support was painted AMTRAK blue. So, once I had the composition I wanted, I decided to convert it to Black and White. This image took first place in the competition.
I never considered the haunting status of real estate to be something I should pay attention to.
These are a few pics taken in the streets of New Orleans.
One of the icons of New Orleans is the street cars. These are two images of the street cars.
