Travelin' About

I went on a Spring  Camping Extravaganza  hosted by Precision Camera and Mandy Lea Photo last weekend in Garner State Park. Despite the overcast weather, disappointing sunset and rained out sunrise, I came away with a few worthwhile images and good vibes from a fun photographic get together. My friend, Tricia, made her maiden voyage in her new-to-her Tab Camper, Towanda. I always enjoy an adventure with Tricia.   It was fun meeting the other photographers at a delicious pot luck dinner.  Saturday morning was overcast but we all had a good time seeking out worthwhile photos utilizing the reflections in the water and the fun trunks of the Cyprus Trees.   It was nice and serene in this beautiful spot and I was grateful for the time Mandy spent with me.  She helped me figure out a peculiar setting on my camera and explained why auto bracketing is preferable to manual bracketing. It was nice to catch up with someone who inspires m...

I took on this personal project of photographing what I see as "Beautiful Old Folks" because I wanted practice with my portrait photography and I believed these senior citizens were more approachable than high paid models.  What I've gotten in return is meeting some really cool people! Margaret Cox is a wealth of information on so many subjects.  Having worked as a librarian at UT for 35 years, she knows a lot about Austin and its history and its theatrical scene and so much more. She was there in '66 when Charles Whitman climbed the UT tower and shot 43 people, thirteen who died.  She was getting ready to go to lunch when the excitement began. "There were about 15 of us on the patio of the Academic Center when we heard shots.  Somebody said 'Hey y'all. We better go inside." The siege went on for 90 minutes and she could see people hiding in the bushes as she waited it out.  "35 years there and I was always looking over my shoulder for...

With her sparkling blue eyes, Clara Newby, showed me the "new" art she is selling at The Old Bakery and Emporium .  Clara, who has been an artist for many years, mostly painting flowers, is one woman who is willing to learn new things.  Just recently she has been experimenting with an acrylic art form (see the image on the bottom left) that "works a bit like watercolor" but the paints kind of swirl and take off on their own.  She has an eye for color and which ones work well together. Clara, a longtime volunteer at the Old Bakery, told me proudly that she is turning 94 in the end of March.  Hard to believe as you watch her move and hear her speak.  "I used to drive from Victoria to Rockport for art lessons," she explained to me. She didn't have a clue what she was going to paint until she got there but they always came out rather nice.  She showed me some of the notecards that she sells and I recognized them as ones I had already been attracte...

In my attempt to photograph some beautiful older people every week, it was my honor to meet Maida and Jody Meredith who just happened to be celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary.  A friend introduced me because not only are they kind, generous, compassionate people, but their roots in Austin's music history goes fairly deep. Jody "Slick" Meredith and the Round-Up Boys were regular performers at the Skyline Club which opened in 1946 and was popular until 1977.  According to Maida, it was the original, and for awhile, only music venue in Austin. A country-western dance hall in North Austin, Jody played there 4 nights a week, from Wed- Sat for 12 years. His band was the backup for Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Ray Price and Marty Robbins. "It was a family place," said Maida who showed me a box of memorabilia, filled with images of a younger Jody performing with a slew of stars. She taught her boys how to dance there and the honk...

Anna still loves participating in art classes. She showed me some of her paintings. So I'm intrigued with beautiful older people. They represent wisdom, experience, survival, knowledge...and I, for one, would like to learn more about them.  I was doing a portrait of my neighbor last week and remembered that she has a beautiful mother who is 95 and full of vim and vigor. So I asked if we could go visit Mom and photographer her. Dorothy loved the idea, because she knows what a treasure her mother is, so we headed over to Anna Scrugg's home where I was greeted warmly and shown some of her lovely treasures. She has the most amazing kitchen - large enough to cook for many and she told me about some of the large parties she hosted from that kitchen. She's been living in her current house for 40 years - at one time you could see Austin's Capitol from her porch - hard to believe with all of the development that has occurred over the years. She was a teacher ...

So, I'm not sure exactly why, but I see so much beauty in elderly faces. Perhaps it is because I have entered the Senior Years myself, but I look around me and am just struck by the wisdom, joy and life-stories that I want to hear and preserve from the cool old dudes around me.  I was blessed to do portraits at a Senior Center in 2015.  That was meant to give me lighting practice and provide the Seniors with an 8x10 image - something that they or their families could treasure.  I got so much more from those beautiful people than I gave. One woman dressed to the nines for the event, bringing along matching high heeled shoes despite the fact that she was 89.  Another woman was turning 104 the very next day. It was a diverse group - one couple from Japan, an elderly German gentleman and a Vietnamese soldier who had helped the US during the Viet Nam War and he brought his medals to show me. One guy wore a gold suit that was huge on him but he was s...

"The people in Cuba have an innocence because they haven’t been exposed to the “real world.”   You see the physical manifestations of that with the old cars, the 50’s architecture – it’s been frozen in the late 50’s."   "Every one is interesting."                                  - David Allen Harvey My cousin told me she's loving seeing my recent Cuba photos because they "exude such joy."  That's how I felt while I was there - filled with joy.  The people may be monetarily impoverished but they are not inside wasting their lives watching TV or complaining on Facebook, they are out on the streets, living life, participating, sharing, dancing, making music, creating art, making the most of their lives. I went on a Strobist X-Peditions Workshop earlier this month to Havana, Cuba. I've been following the Strobist blog since 2006 and have learned...