Tip Toeing (Thru) The Tulips

A Dutchman came to Texas and missed his tulips so much, that he decided to grow his own and start the Texas Tulip Farm. Situated in North Texas near Pilot Point (about an hour north of the DFW area) if offers an amazing sight of a huge variety of the flowers not native to the Lonestar State.

During blooming season, late February to end of March, try to make it out on a weekday if you can. Saturday and Sundays can be quite populated and you may have to wait in line to park and get in. They charge $ 2.50 a head to get and then you can stroll for hours between the different beds.

It's also a great opportunity to take family pictures, put please don't put your children in the middle of the tulip beds and therefore crushing the flowers. Actually this is not an amusement park and children should be kept on a "leash." Also don't show up in your stilettos, it's a farm, so the ground is uneven, wear rugged pants so you can actually kneel down in the dirt if you want to take close up shots.

You can take (cut, or hand pick) tulips home, but at a rather steep price. To make your tulips last, pick them while they are still closed, they will last much longer at home and  will give you enjoyment for a couple of weeks.

This was the first year we went there and I know I want to go back next spring, tip toeing not thru but next to the tulips.

Sources: texas-tulips.com
This shot and others are available for publication through photo agency, Dispatch Press Images, DPI. It is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio and in my Niume photo sphere blog.

Night Shift

A lone security guard at the end of the lobby, guarding an office building. As I love to document work in BW pictures I am really taken with the colors in this one. The almost complimentary colors are working wonders for this shot. And the "cold" outside fights the "warm" inside, but there is a guard denying access. There is something Kafkaesque in this shot. 

The BW on the other hand is more to reality in some certain ways: unarmed guards make minimum wage and do mostly "observe & report" duties. It just shows the job at what it is, a simple job. 

Both these shots are available for publication through Dispatch Press Images, a photo agency. They are also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio.

Flush It Out

In rural areas, public services have to come and flush culverts. Their job is to clean them with high pressure washers from debris and trash to reduce flooding, when it storms, so the rain water can drain away. One of the public sector jobs, where your tax money is at work to guarantee a safer community.

This shot and others are available for publication through Dispatch Press Images.

New Ten Gallon Hat

Getting a new hat is a ritual - not only the size matters, but the shape, the wideness of the brim, the height of the crown.

Did you know that a ten gallon hat is big enough to hold ten gallons of water for your horse, is nothing but a myth.

It's a word mix-up. As so many things cowboy (vaquero), its origin is Spanish. Galón means braid translated to English and a huge hat with a big crown can adorn more than one braid. So if it's a ten braided hat - it's a ten galón hat. Developed from the Sombrero (literally shadow giver), hats with a big brim to cover neck and part of the face are common for horsemen in sunny climates and came to the Southwestern US states via Mexico.
But the whole hat wearing thing can even be traced back into Asia, where the Mongolian horsemen were the first ones to wear something that years later evolved into a cowboy hat.
Popularized in the US during the 20's and 30's with the B movies and the protagonista, the singing cowboys wearing cowboy hats, they became a cultural phenomenon, that emerges and re-emerges to the "general" consumer in cycles like every fashion thing does.
Only the people that still work out there in the sun, look at it as relief from the sun and mostly as a needed utensil.

This shot and others are available for publication through Dispatch Press Images, a photo agency.

Lone Prairie

The vast skies, the meager grass of winter and a "herd" of cows mingled together against the far horizon. The lone prairies, a sight you may see quite often, travelling through the Lonestar state.

Oh carry me back to the lone prairie
Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free
And when I die you can bury me
Neath the western skies on the lone prairie

I'm a roving cowboy far away from home
Far from the prairie where I used to roam
Where the doggies wander and the wind blows free
Thought my heart is yonder on the lone prairie

Oh carry me back to the lone prairie...



This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

Sold

It's part of the American landscape and happens in almost every small town, several times a month, sometimes once a week. Farmers converge to sell their cows, heifers, calves and bulls. Buyers investing for breeding purposes or to satisfy our demand for meat. (No, it doesn't come pre-packaged from the super market, as you city slickers want to believe.)

And it's somehow mesmerizing to listen to the sing-song, as the auctioneer chant prices. And as the rhythm fastens and the prices may go up, the bidders bidding; only then you realize that there is a livelihood intrinsically related to the survival of a whole family. So while you are looking at my picture, finding all the details, listen to the auctioneer. "gezortenplotz" put a great shareable audio-file on freesound.org



This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.
Sources: freesound.org

On The Porch

If the world had a front porch like we did back then
we'd still have our problems but we'd all be friends
Treating your neighbor like he's your next of kin
Wouldn't be gone like the wind
If the World had a front porch, like we did back then

These lyrics of Tracy Lawrence's top-ten-hit (#2/1995) "If The World Had A Front Porch" written by Lawrence together with Kenny Beard and Paul Nelson, pretty much sums the content of this picture up, celebrating traditional values and socialising with your neighbour(s). Long gone in the bigger cities where we hardly communicate with our neighbour and most of the time may not even know them - the front porch is(was) a meeting place. It's societal benefits are endless, just start to think about it and spin some yarn.

I don't know what these two gentlemen were upto, but they got ready to contemplate the day and exchange some great togetherness and discussion.

This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

Salud - En La Perla

This more than a moment in time. It probably soon will be in the very past. La Perla is one of the last Hispanic bars on the legendary East Side of Austin, Texas. With gentrification and condos came higher rent and a change in demographics. Rich kids, mostly working behind desks in the moving in, while families can't afford the raise in taxes anymore. House prices soar, what could have been bought below $100'000 a bit more than a decade ago, triple, quadrupled or even quintupled. And it's not unseen that an "old" 50-60 year old home is bought, torn down, razed and replaced with a "McMansion."

All this is called progress. Progress for what and whom. By destroying the dives and neighbourhood bars - well there aren't anymore customers anyway - part of the social fabric is gone. Replaced by anonymous sports and music bars. Don't get me wrong, where ever there is music, let's check it out. But no more families celebrating a quinceanera, where somebody would have brought fajitas or gabrito, where the six year-old would have made her first dance moves twirling with her dad, where a Mariachi or the jukebox were playing songs by Ramon Ayala, Vincente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel or local hero Flaco Jimenez. No more. No it's a battle of the bands. Loud, agressive - far, far away from the all encompassing family feel to the fake "you're-a-part-of-the-crowd-now"-illusion.

People move to the more affordable edges of town, into non-descript starter homes - as living in a family home for generations now demand that you start a new. "Little boxes" (Thank you Pete Seeger) in cookie-cutter neighbourhoods, where you don't know your neighbours anymore. No social life on the street or in the corner bar - well there are no corner bars.

It's a lament of the times. So next time walk across the tracks or as in Austin under the once dividing highway and soak in a different culture. And have a toast to the times that are gone.

This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

Dreamin' About All Them Tools

I hate malls. I think these consumer palaces are responsible, besides the big box stores, in destroying or at least eliminating every single Mom & Pop store there is, or bettter there was.  
So normally I just tag along with my cameras, always trying to find something to shoot.

Well this was just to precious, this senior taking a nap in front of the Sears store, not at least bothered by the people meandering and rummaging around him. He probably hates malls as much as I do. Or he may have had a tool overload (as in a sugar overload) that mad him take a nap and dream about all the tools he could buy and take home to do his projects.

Daily Life. Sleep and dream well.

This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

In Line At The Convenience Store

Standing in line, waiting. It suddenly hit me, the anonymity of convenience. What used to be a meeting point, and everybody knew at least somebody, has become just another place you visit. A place to make a brief deal. To satisfy your urges. Your addictions. Sugar. Coffee To Go. Nicotine. Alcohol. On the spur of the moment instant satisfaction is guaranteed.
But where are the stories, where is the human interaction. Shouldn't I be writing a book about the four lives reflecting so many different truths, hopes and feelings in this store?

I hope that pictures captures part of this.

These shots and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

Technology Training

The gossip factory is working overtime. Will the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus see the light of day on 9/7, will CEO Tim Cook lift the veil, what about the design and all the features. Leaks are already talking about a dual-camera, a new operating system IOS 10 with 75 new features and changes. And if you're lost you will have to go back to training to use tomorrow's technology today.

These shots and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.