Category: Photography

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Light and Shadows

A morning of light and shadows at Big Bend

A black and white high contrast image of road vanishing into a mountainous background.

I was on a morning drive at Big Bend National Park in West Texas when I took this image. I saw the day breaking in my rearview mirror so pulled over, got out of the car, and looking back, watched as the light and shadow patterns began changing how the road, mountains, and clouds appeared with each passing moment. It was not long before the low angle of the morning light that created the long shadows and stark contrast in this picture became less acute until the scene was fully lit and it felt as if the world before me had finally awakened. What I love about still photography is how it can capture a short and passing moment in time and hold it forever to be experienced at will, time and again. This one always gives me a feeling of peace and calm.
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Seagull in Flight

Seagull in Flight
Seagull in Flight
This is a picture I captured of seagull in flight at White Rock Lake in Dallas last year. This bird was part of a flock that was being fed by a couple on the shore tossing food in the air. The serenity in this pictures belies the surrounding pandemonium created by the feeding gulls that was taking place at the time. It is definitely difficult to get the camera settings and point of focus just right to capture a good still image in that type of moving wildlife environment.
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Photography and Images Rediscovered

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and with the Trinity River at flood stage in the foreground.

Photographs Rediscovered

I have often said that when capturing images, as soon as the camera shutter closes one has visually captured the past. It may not feel that way while in the moment, but it will become increasingly apparent as time passes and the captured image is revisited.

Shooting Photographs sometimes begins and ends in one day for me with a 2 step process of capturing images, then downloading them to my computer. Once downloaded, unless I am time-limited, it may be some time before I get around to revisiting some of those images. It is later, when going through my tens of thousands of images, that I often “rediscover” images that I had forgotten about and depending on how much time has passed, may have taken on some level of historical significance. This picture was taken the last (and 20th) time the Trinity River crested above 40ft, a literal “high water mark” that has only been exceeded 22 times since the flood of 1908, before the Dallas levee system was built. Only time will tell if this image will gain any real historical significance, but for me, it created an opportunity to experience a nice morning at daybreak in order to capture a rare image of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with the Dallas skyline reflected in a body of water that is the flooded Trinity River. I am not sure when an opportunity like that will arise again but was happy to recently “rediscover” this image.

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A Statue at Fair Park and the Ever Changing Light

The statues along the Esplanade are some of my favorite photo subjects at Fair Park in Dallas. I went to the State Fair of Texas yesterday and took the picture below. I usually go when the weather is nice and sunny, but it was overcast yesterday and the first time I have taken a picture of the statues in the flat natural light that a cloudy day provides. It is much different than all my past photos of the statues I have taken in high contrast sunlight. These statues have stood in the virtually the same place since the Fair Grounds opened in 1936, but the natural and artificial light sources that illuminate their surfaces have been changing ever since and with that how they are perceived visually. I first saw these statues as a child, and see them differently today as an older adult than I did then. All this reminds me of the quote below from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. It is a quote that increasingly comes to mind as the years pass for me.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

This statue is the work of Lawrence Tenney Stevens and was created for the first State Fair of Texas when it opened in 1936.

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Statue at Fair Park

I always enjoy seeing the statues out of all the attractions at Fair Park and watching how the light and shadows change throughout the day on those statues facing south, toward the sun. They are artistically lit with artificial light at night in very colorful and creative patterns. I have yet to get a good picture of them at night but plan to on my next visit. This statue is the work of Lawrence Tenney Stevens.

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History in the Moment

Often when taking a picture, it is merely to capture the image of a subject I find interesting. The image visually captures that moment, often in a fraction of a second. What I don’t know exactly at the time, and only discover later is how I captured a piece of history as it was and will never be seen again. The level of importance of that image and it’s historical significance varies and is subjective, but what I find fascinating is how the visual image of that moment in time stays exactly the same, and yet how it is perceived can change greatly as the history surrounding it evolves.