Pumpjack (Oil Rig) In The Sunset

North Central Texas only has a smaller oil basin compared with the Permian in West Texas or the Eagle-Ford in South Tecas, so Pump Jacks are rather a rare sight. This one is located above the Bend Arch - Fort Worth Basin oil reserve between Alexander and Stephenville, Texas. I thought that the silhouette with the setting sun would make a great shot.

Not only refers it "romantically" to the old days of using fossil fuels, but it may also signify the end of doing exactly that. As the barrel prices are currently quite low, the pump jack stands mostly idle waiting for better times, where the parent company may make more profit. Also as the cost of a pump jack is "only" around a million dollar, many prospectors are coming back to this old method of gaining oil and gas resources out of the ground instead of using fracking.

Let me know what you think about the picture and our future concerning fossil fuels.

Sunflower Glowing In The Sunset

This is the only sunflower that started to grow from one of these strips that are supposed to produce a whole 10 feet of sunflowers in a row. Well, one is better than none and the other day my wife told me to take a picture of the flower in the evening, as the flower will be completely formed.

I waited right before the sun would set behind the cedar bushes, a couple of first shots, I did not use my flash and obviously got pictures with a relative dark silhouette of the sunflower. So to get more details from the flower I started using the flash, slightly diverted from the white brim of my cowboy hat, to not make the extra light not too harsh on the flower.

In post-processing, I had to enhance some of the darks and whites, basically playing with the contrast, till I had the picture I wanted. I also had to increase some of the blue tones in the sky a bit, to get a bit more life into the sky as well.

I then proceeded to make a BW version of the picture, with different contrast settings to make the monochrome tones work. Thanks to the solar flares, I think that picture works as well.

What do you think? Leave me a comment!

Monochrome Texas Windmill

Stell Dich mitten in den Wind,
glaub an ihn und sei ein Kind -
laß den Sturm in Dich hinein
und versuche, gut zu sein!

Put yourself in the middle of the wind
believe in it and behave like a kid
let the storm embrace you
and try to be good!

German lyrics Wolfgang Borchert / translation by me

Sunset - Promise of a New Day

Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Last March, on a trip back to Texas from Atlanta, we had just crossed the Chattahoochee River and came into the little hamlet of Columbia, Alabama. The combination of church and sunset, made us stop, it just looked magical.

Finally coming around, editing the picture - I did some research on that church building and found out that the Columbia United Methodist Church had quite a little history in its walls.  According to a website that seems to not have been updated in over 15 years, the town of Columbia was founded in 1821.

So called circuit riders (clergymen on horseback who rode from congregation to congregation to give their sermons) were the first to teach, until 1845 when a full-time pastor was appointed. After being housed in a single room building, where the High School is now, the church saw a need for a new building as their congregation was growing. In 1889 the pictured church was completed on Church Street (also named Alabama State Route 52) and Davis Street. After World War II, in 1949 the church was bricked and in 1956 and 1978 tow annex buildings for sunday school and a fellowship hall were added.

But not everything is new, the website says that the church still houses the original bell of the first church, which was carried over to the United Methodist Church in the picture.

Sources: Columbia United Methodist Church

I'd Rather Be A Fence Post In Texas...

I love the story in this simple picture. Sitting on top of the former eastern coastline of the Kansas Ocean, on a formation called Trinity Group, formed around 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Due to the high caulk & limestone amounts, most of this area is mostly used as ranchland to grow cattle.

Once grains were cultivated here, but the yields were mediocre and some of the grain mills in the area closed. So it's mostly open spaces, austere to a certain degree, but still full of beauty. I also love the negation of the wide open spaces with the prominent fence post and its barbwire in front, well at least from a picture point of view. And as they say, fences make for good neighbors or at least they keep the cattle from roaming the road.

As singer/songwriter Chris Wall said in the 90s - "I'd Rather Be A Fence Post In Texas, Than The King of Tennessee."

First Sunset of the Year - 364 To Go

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we had a great sunset on New Year's day. With temperatures hovering around 70 degrees (20 C) we got spoiled for the first two days. The colder days now (below 40 / 3 C) give me at least time to edit some of the pictures I shot strolling through the vastness of the land. Even though there weren't many critters of any kind around, there is always an opportunity to find something, like the beautiful large cocklebur I posted yesterday. I can barely wait till all the wildflowers and the butterflies return.

Unfortunately it started raining that night and I wasn't able to take pictures of the gigantic Milky Way above us. I'm sure I will be trying again pretty soon.

And no - don't worry I won't post another 364 sunsets, even though every one up on the bluff is a real blessing.

Sunset At St. Peter's

Sunset at St. Peter's Roman Catholic church in the north Texas small town named Lindsay. The church, originally build in 1903, seriously damaged in 1917 by a Tornado and rebuilt, is now part of the National Register since 1979.

 Extensive renovations in the inside and roof are now completed and the church shines in this gorgeous sunset.