JDW Photos and Life

OK, this is the last of Bandera pics. It gives another perspective of the span on this set of horns - easily over 6 feet. Caption this..... I still can't believe what they did to me when I was just a baby! They never grew back. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Much easier to maintain in this drought. Less waste. Probably costs about the same. However, steaks are a bit tough. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

More soaking up the morning sun. You see one of my high school buddies petting a horse in the background - despite being allergic to horses.... Don't judge him too harsh, he really is a pretty smart guy! That horse had some serious chin itches that needed scratching! Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

The girl said she was a little shy. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Not to be outdone, the new guy on the block told me he could look handsome also (but missing the curly hair). His horns were longer and wider than the other steer but I prefer the curvature of the horns on the first steer if I had to choose. He is still a pretty impressive steer. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

One of the steers had a nice crop of curls in his head so he deserved a better close-up photo. Yes, I moved considerably closer for this shot but he never flinched past moving his head to watch me. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Like so many rural rental cabins in Texas, they have their obligatory longhorn cattle. I usually don't like to photograph these animals due to a very obvious Aggie bias but I am trying to be a big boy and stretch my boundaries a little. The far left and right are steers with the middle one a heifer (though I really don't know if she has ever had a calf). The two on the right have been there a long time with the guy on the left being a new addition. We were told the two that have been around longer were friendly and the new one is a bit more stand-off. They were laying in the field absorbing the morning sun and looked pretty tranquil so I headed out to the filed to get a better shot/view. They were not bothered by my presence. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

The next morning, we woke to a fog/haze view at sunrise. You can see some of the hills of Bandera on the horizon. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

So far, the sunset photos were taken of clouds opposite the sunset as rays highlighted only the highest clouds. The photo today was taken just opposite of those - where the sun set just a few minutes earlier. I used a wide angle lens for this shot so you get a little spherical distortion which I normally do not like but it works in this shot. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

This is an attempt to show you the full sky that night. It is a stitch of 4 photos and keeping the spherical perspective as I moved the camera. These photos are very large so they may need to be viewed on a computer sized screen. It was a spectacular display of colors and shapes. The photo below is a more typical processing of stitched photos where the software tries to flatten the image using warps at the cost of edge detail. I like the first version for viewing but it would not be so great in print. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Just a minute later and the sun set a bit lower below the horizon and the cloud fingers are a bit more defined and the light/color contrast is more defined. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

The sunset clouds continued to shift into the photo below. Fingers began the appear lit by the sun that was below the horizon at this time. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

In high school, I was one of six guys that hung out together. We have stayed in touch over the past 48 years and have tried to get together every few years. The group is down to five as one died last year. Four of the remaining five met up in Bandera and Fredericksburg this past weekend. We stayed in an AirBnB that worked out great. Bandera is not exactly a center of civilization and the BnB was about 7 miles out of town - pretty remote. That area is as dry as College Station with virtually everything dead/brown. We were fortunate to have some "cool" mornings and evenings where we could sit on the porch with a comfortable breeze. The first night there, we had some great clouds at sunset and that will be the focus of my e-mails for the next few days. When the sun is below the horizon, some rays are still lighting up the high clouds. As is often the case with sunsets/sunrises, the best view can be in the opposite direction. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

A covey of quail has showed up in our subdivision and have been spotted in several yards as well as crossing the road. They have visited our yard several time and I was able to get a photo of them a couple of days ago before they went into the tree-line. Maybe I'll get a better shot some day. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Every once-in-a-while, I will step out of my comfort zone and take photos of people. This young lady wanted some modeling type headshots to begin her modeling portfolio and her photographer invited me to go with him. It has been years since I took such photos so I agreed. For most of the shoot, I was helping the primary photographer with lights and posing but I did get a few shots in myself. I share with you a sample. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

I have to brag a little regarding my daughter. They hosted our son and his wife for a visit last week and got to slip in a fishing trip one day. This young lady landed a 5 foot, 110 pound halibut on rod and reel! It was an extended battle with all hands on deck to land it in the boat. The fish made five long runs nearly emptying her reel of line before it finally tuckered out. One of the best tasting fish in the ocean and it filled up a good section of their freezer! What an experience! Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Zinnias are a common flower with so many variations in color and form. We planted a group of them last year and we have a volunteer crop this year in the same area. The intense summer heat has not been kind to them even though they are known to be heat tolerant. Not much is good in the heat we have been seeing here in College Station this summer. We are now under a Level 5 water ration in our rural water district which states no outdoor watering allowed. To add to this grief, the header pressure dropped too low and we are also under a boil water notice to boot. Our last measurable rainfall was in May with 100 °F highs for days/weeks in a row lately. Last Sunday, we hit 111 °F with a 114 °F heat index. I noted it was already 100 °F at 11:00 that morning. The only good news this summer is the lack of mosquitos. With no water puddles/ponds around, they have nowhere to breed. This zinnia popped up a couple of days ago and has done its best to be pretty so I had to take its photo to share w...

People ask what I'm going to do in retirement. So far, that has not been a big problem given hobbies like photography and woodworking. One of the largest challenges I face inside my own head is having a purpose behind both of these activities. The bottom line is that I like to share what I do. There are only so many photos I can shoot nearby before they become repetitive and the personal joy factor goes down. There are only so many wood projects I can clutter up my house with. No offense to my friends but there are only so many wood gifts that I like to make before I could go broke buying wood these days. Fortunately, every so often I get the pleasure of using one of these hobbies to make someone happy. It's even better when they are generous to cover costs plus add a little pocket money. Such was the case with a job at start of the summer. Many years ago, this couple had built a small house adjacent to their house for aging parents that have since passed. Recently they made th...

The Subject line is a common phrase I use in conversations with students in addition to my internal thoughts. The internet is full of garbage and bad news/information but it is also rich with opportunities to learn about so many subjects. Find something to challenge yourself and the results will be obvious. It only takes a few brilliant people in this world to keep rest of us gainfully employed and/or entertained. This is another phrase I use often. I am not a smart man. I am an ant leveraging off the knowledge of others. I am not particularly creative but I'm a decent imitator of others. I try to be a sponge absorbing knowledge and and then try to understand and apply it. The JWST photos released yesterday are amazing. From a speck of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length, we see incredible detail and light that has travelled as far as billions of years to reach us. The scale is beyond comprehension for most of mankind but there are layers after layers of brilli...

Are you a science-nerd or maybe at least science-curious? Today is a special day in the world of astrophysics. The first set of images from the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) will be released today at 9:30 Central. The JWST was launched this past Christmas and traveled over a million miles from earth to a special stable orbit point using the earth as a shield to minimize sun light-pollution in images. A teaser photo was release Monday so my post today is OBVIOUSLY not my photo!!! I just could not find the 10 billion dollars to put the JWST in space - though we all contributed via taxes over the past decade getting it built and deployed. I hate taxes but support efforts like this. The technology development touches all of us. The above photo is from one small spot in the sky. It was described as about the size of a grain of sand held at arms length. It shows thousands of galaxies and stars in that tiny section of sky looking back billions of light years. This small section of space ha...

Here is a photo of the other shooter taking out a skeet. He shot a 12 ga. automatic and you can see the ejected shell mid-air just to his right. In the first skeet photo shared yesterday, the person was using a double barreled over/under 12 ga. The Brazos River is just on the other side of the tree-line in this photo. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

I have done practically nothing this summer - and that includes taking photos. The heat and severe drought has really taken its toll on my desire to get out. On 6/25, I was invited to go to a friend's land and shoot some skeet and any other guns. My first interest was skeet. Dad gave me his Ithaca 16 ga. pump that is just a blast to shoot. It is so much lighter than a 12 ga. without a huge loss in power. There is a reason a 16 ga. shotgun has the nickname of Sweet-16. There were very few skeet that hit the ground as all three of us were on our game that day. I do not have any photos of me shooting but I did capture a few of the other two shooters. I had not photographed skeet before so there was some guesswork taking place. This is my favorite photo of the day. He was shooting a double taking out the right one first (yes, he hit both). The target is still intact in this photo. You see the puff of smoke exit the gun and the wad approaching the target. You see a blur just in front of...

Well, you are probably ready to see me go to another subject. This is the last of my painted buntings from the end of May shoot and probably until next year. It was a great shoot as we found several painted buntings across several sites on the ranch. Though a bit repetitive for some of you, each bird seemed to add something special. I ended up with a surprisingly large number of good photos but it is time to move on to something else. I hope you enjoyed the shots. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

This guy flew down into some short ground brush and landed where we can get another view of those magnificent colors. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

These are not my best shots of the painted buntings but they show another view / angle. The harsh sun is doing us no favors at this point in the day. The first shot is this guy puffing out his chest and wings while flaring the tail a bit in a display of MY TERRITORY! Intimidating, right? Just a few seconds later, he decides he has made his point and leaves. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

This guy was practicing his roadrunner skills along this branch. I happened to catch him mid-stride. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

This is the same bird as yesterday after he flew into a nearby tree-line. As typical, he was deep in shadows but with a fortunate glimpse of light on his head made for a good photo. He remained on his mission to find food and grass seed was his passion. Here you see him eating a stem of grass seeds like a cobb of corn working his way down to the base. In my yard, I call those weeds but the birds call it food. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

As seen in earlier photos, these birds often forage on the ground with a varied diet of seeds and insects. Here is one eating a pod of grass seed of some sort. I have several photos in this sequence with this pod in various stages of being eaten but this one is a pretty clear view of it in the beak. I wish everyone a great 4th of July. I still believe this country is the best in the world. I cautiously offer my brief thoughts. Any more detail gets too political and no matter my view, I will not likely change yours. My wish is that we find a way to have civil dialog with enough empathy to better understand the diverse thoughts and desires of our population. Your view of "right" is not the only valid view for any subject. Judgement is left to a later day. None of our political "leaders" are setting an example for this wish so go be the example yourself in your daily interactions. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

At another location on the ranch, we found this guy staying in the shadows in a mix of tree varieties. This first photo is one of the few where the tail is raised providing a view of some detail. You also see where he looks like he has some blue extending into his chest but that is just due to wing position. In the second photo, you see the typical break in colors. This is the same bird in both photos. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Every once-in-a-while, you get lucky with a bird landing on an interesting backdrop. A dead twig in the middle of a prickly pear cactus provided this guy a perch to look around a thorny situation for a second. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

As you watch a bird fly, you will often see them coasting between wing flapping making their flight path look like a roller coaster. This bunting was doing just that though pretty low to the ground. It is a bit difficult to capture this behavior because these little guys are flying really fast. Even modern cameras have a difficult time adjusting and focusing on such a rapid movement of such a small subject in the frame (this shot is heavily cropped). Through chance and luck, I was able to capture this bird giving his best impersonation of Angry Birds! It's far from perfect focus but it is fun to see! Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/