I was feeling great after my friend’s funeral because I got some new images I really liked, but as I was driving home, I started seeing other things that I really liked.
This was on Hwy 36, and the framing was so perfect, I had to take advantage of it. Then, I used a longer lens to isolate the old car.
A close friend who lived in Snook died. I drove over there to attend the funeral. It was in a small country church outside of town, but to find the church I had to start in town. When I got to the center of Snook, I was glad I threw my cameras in the car. There were buildings there that I new I had to take pictures of. So, after the funeral and reception, I went back into town and got these pictures.
This was an old barn in the center town. Snook obviously had a strong Czech heritage, and it was apparent in the sign on this barn.
This was the old grocery an market in downtown. Then, on the way out of town, I saw this old farm.
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.
The Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild holds monthly image competitions. The members submit any image they choose in either the Professional or Associate Category. There is also a monthly “Challenge” competition where members create an image with a specified theme or technique. In February, the theme was a “Domestic Animal.” I decided to try an do something with cattle in a field.
I took an afternoon and drove out Highway 6. My plan was to photograph some cattle and try and get something interesting. I came upon a field in which a rather substantial steer was standing on the rim of a tank. I started taking pictures of it. As things progressed I started thinking more and more about the idea of isolating that one steer in the frame. I decided converting it to Black and White would add a little more emphasis to it, but that left a rather large area of sky to the left. I decided I could reduce that by cropping the scene into more of a panorama. That helped somewhat, but that sky was still too distracting. So, as I considered it, I began to think about cattle and the old Chisholm Trail and the Waco suspension bridge. That made me decide to add an image of the cowboy statue at the suspension bridge. So, the final image is
In the previous post, I displayed two pictures of the rear of the Water Works. These are from the front.
I was taken by the combination of cement work and wood at the entrance.
When we moved to Waco, The Water Works was a really cool restaurant. Originally, as the name might imply, the building housed pumps and machinery to provide water to central Waco. The restaurant was good but did not last very long. It closed and reopened several times, but it has not been functional in many years. These are pics of things in the back of the building.
Kim’s is another landmark that I could never get good pictures of because of cars. For a while, it was run down, and the pics would have been cool, but there were always cars blocking it. Then they closed it, and started to tear it down before I could get pics. Now it is restored and looking like new.
Another place I have had trouble photographing is George’s. It seems every time I go there, the parking lot is full. Also, many angles are impacted by power lines. So, Christmas Day was the time to try and finally get a usable picture.
Next to The Health Camp is The Elite Cafe – about as iconic as Waco gets. Again, here are two versions of one image and another one.
And the impressionist version.
There are some Waco Landmarks that I wanted to get pictures of, but I have always had problems because of cars parked in front and around them. Christmas Day was the perfect time to deal with that because there would be no cars to block my shots. The first of those places was The Health Camp. Here are to versions of it.
And an impressionist version.
