Dad Shares His Wisdom

Photo Information

Taken:	14 August 2007 11:06 near Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	6.4mm, 0 EV
	f/3
	1/125

Backstory

I know pictures like this are the real reason most of my family ever looks at this blog. I love taking pictures of Dad not only because he’s my dad, but also because completely ignores the camera. Because of this seeming unawareness, he always looks natural. Even shots I compose look like candids.

This one was a candid. He was lost in thought talking about something, and I was able to get him with his trailer, truck, and tractor as a backdrop. This is who he is, and he makes no bones about it.

–25 May 2012

Almost Everything’s Bigger in Texas

Photo Information

Taken:	14 August 2007 11:15 Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	8.7mm, 0 EV
	f7.2
	1/400

Backstory

Suna stands among the sunflowers that are taller than her. This just can’t have been taken at the farm. It must be somewhere near there because Dad hates sunflowers and would never let them get this big!

Too bad there was no GPS in this old camera.

–6 May 2012

Spider Skull

Photo Information

Taken:	14 August 2007 09:45 near Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	8.7mm, 0 EV
	f/3.6
	1/100

Backstory

The yellow garden spider is harmless to humans even though her cephalothorax looks very much like a human skull—at least in this picture. I’ve never known anyone to be bitten by one, but I have known lots of people to get freaked out by them. They’re big, fast, and voracious.

There are a lot of bugs to eat on a farm, and I’ve seen one of these babies catch and subdue a full grown gecko that had to outweigh her several times over. She made quick work of it, too.

Garden spiders were thick when I took this picture, which I’m posting even though it’s a little blurry. They were all over the farm, hanging anywhere there was an open space between two solid objects.

–23 May 2012

Behold My Plumage

Photo Information

Taken:	16 July 2007 12:13 near Ponder, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	5.6mm, 0 EV
	f5.6
	1/250

Backstory

I believe the peacock probably inspired the Beholder in the original Dungeons and Dragons role playing game a million years ago when I was young. I mean…look at all those eyes! For a nonviolent fowl, all those eyes make an intimidating display. And its cry! Just what I always imagined the Beholder would sound like as it called hordes of ravenous monsters to devour the party invading its dungeon.


Back in this reality, some of the tail feathers that graced the altar when Suna and I got married may have come from this very bird. Thanks, G.

–23 May 2012

Cannon Over Chattanooga

Photo Information

Taken:	4 July 2007 14:17 Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, TN
Camera:	Cannon C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	5.6mm, 0 EV
	f5.6
	1/500

Backstory

I love this picture. Adding the sepia tone to the process really makes it seem as if you were at the Battle Above the Clouds—well if you ignore the freeway, business parks, speedboats, and other intrusions of modern Chattanooga. It’s painful to imagine this idyllic site playing host to war, but the cannon reminds us of that inescapable fact.

Since much of her family hails from Chattanooga, Suna has many photos of her growing up next to this cannon. A friend’s family once owned much of the land on which the Battle Above the Clouds took place. So the picture has many personal connections beyond the esthetic ones that also draw me to it.

–26 April 2012

Deep Purple

Photo Information

Taken:	28 June 2007 15:33 High Point, NC
Camera:	Canon PowerShot A550
Exposure:	ISO 80
	5.8mm, 0 EV
	f/2.6
	1/400

Backstory

This may look like flower arrangement, but it’s not. It’s really the top of a single floral stalk in Prince and Flo’s amazing garden. And again, I don’t know what kind of flower it is because I’ve never seen its like before.

–22 May 2012

Purple Bells

Photo Information

Taken:	28 June 2007 15:32 High Point, NC
Camera:	Canon PowerShot A550
Exposure:	ISO 80
	5.8mm, 0 EV
	2.6
	1/160

Backstory

This was taken when Suna introduced me to her parents. Poppy Prince and Flo had such a lovely garden! I could (and did) spend hours just admiring the plants they were able to grow there, including this unnamed lovely. I don’t know what most of them were because they don’t grow in Central Texas. Not much does.

–21 May 2012