The weekend we returned from Arizona, we experienced a rarity in little Grapevine – fog.
Saturday morning as I headed to my workout I got sidetracked when I stopped to photograph for some of the local sites in the fog. I never made it to workout but I figure the working out with the camera was where I should be.
I love this tree – it is kind of like a little fairy in the field doing things his or her own way.
A view of the Palace Theatre with the Grapevine City Hall in the background – you can barely make out the guy with the lattern in the fog.
A view from the arches of City Hall.
Over to the Tarantula train tracks.
I love how the fog plays with the visibility of the grain elevators.
I went out to DFW Airport but you could not see a thing which was incredibly eerie. I could hear the airplanes fly over me in their final approach but you could not see a thing. So I went out to the Lake Grapevine Dam which was kind of like driving into the clouds or heaven.
The spa conference finished Wednesday about noon so Steve and I hightailed it out of Arizona and on through New Mexico. I really wanted to stop and photograph the monster sized roadrunner statue on the edge of Las Cruces, New Mexico but we flew by it before we knew it and were afraid trying to get back to it would have us passing through El Paso during evening rush hour. We ended up stopping for the night in lovely Midland, Texas where we had a late night dinner at I Hop (one of my fave places to go on the road) before crashing at a Comfort Inn.
Thursday morning, we woke to the chilly 20 degree weather that had moved in and were on the road pretty early in hopes we wouldn’t run into ice or that we got home before ice hit the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. On our drive to Tucson, we were amazed to see what looked like hundreds of windmills between Abilene and Midland area. So of course we had to stop on our way back to get some pics. These babies were massive in size and I really wanted to be near one that was operating to hear it in action.
Did you know there is a windmill museum in Texas? It is actually called the American Wind Power Center and Museum and it opened in Lubbock in 1996. I graduated from Tech in 1987 (I know, I’m aging myself) and we have been back to Lubbock for at least one football game in 1999 – I know this because we used the Tailgator for margaritas in the parking lot and were the talk of the tailgating parties. But I didn’t know there was a windmill museum there. Check out their website, www.windmill.com, there is a really touching story about the founders – they have a newsletter to keep you up to speed on all that is happening there.
Here is some info on the wind turbines. I am a big fan of the idea of harnessing the wind and rain that comes our way – surely they are both gifts from God.
There is my handsome husband/photographer partner extraordinare with his camera of choice for this trip.
It is hard to tell from this small photo but Steve has the look of fear on his face like a turbine is falling or maybe King Kong is walking by.
The white off to side is not snow but actually cotton – this part of the world has just gone through their cotton harvest. See, it is great to drive every once in a while…
The dirt road that took us back to the interstate.
After this road trip, I really want to plan a “Field trip” to photograph elsewhere. Anyone up for it?
As a professional photographer it is unfortunately easy to get into the rut of worrying about the business and forgetting about the love and passion we have for actually photographing. One of the speakers at the spa conference spent time talking about this and he made some great points. One thing he suggested is carrying your camera with you everywhere you go and photographing for yourself at least once a day. That not only will this keep that photographic love alive and kicking but it can continue to help you hone all sorts of skills required to continously grow within our chosen medium of expression (photography). It was an incredibly inspirational talk and it made a great impression on me (Kim).
So the next morning, as usual I was excited to see the sun rise but because I was in a different part of the world it was even more special. So I grabbed my coat and my camera and headed out the door and here is some of what I saw.
This little bird reminds me of my friend Michelle who has always had a soft spot in her heart for little round birds.
This was taken later in the day on a break. It reminds me of some reflection photos I did years ago when Steve and I traveled to Italy and the reflection photos we took around Venice. I should find those photos…
Thanks Parker J for the poke in the right direction.
Slide show time – do you like the new slide show software we learned about at spa? Hot, huh?
Recently (two weeks ago today), Steve and I did a road trip to Tucson, Arizona for me (Kim) to attend the Senior Portrait Artist (spa) conference being held there. When we talked about the trip, for some crazy reason, we thought why not do a road trip and see some of this great country of ours versus flying. Can you tell we are crazy people who spent too long with flight benefits from American Airlines?
The more we thought about, the more sense it made. And when I offered to Steve that he could either attend the conference with me (which wasn’t cheap) or bring his mountain bike and make it a mini vacation for him, he jumped at the idea. So off we headed to Tucson via I30 (to where it ends) onto I20 until where it ends in I10 and then we still had another three hundred miles to go. Steve was excited to see the end and beginning of these roads as these milestones were firsts for him. I really didn’t care.
We learned that there are lots of trains carrying lots of cargo in that part of the world and beyond the flat parts (like around Midland-Odessa), there are some pretty “mountains” around El Paso and thru New Mexico. Remember, I’m a metroplex girl who went to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock – they looked like mountains to me! We left Grapevine about 9am and arrived at the hotel in Tucson about 10pm – with the time difference, this equated to 14 hours!
Here’s our shadow as we drive – that’s Steve’s bike off our back end. No, that is not my idea of a mountain in the background.
Here’s a few photos of the sun setting as we drove west. As the passenger, I was loving it. Unfortunately for Steve, it is was not helpful to his already tired eyes.
Making the most of my time, I was editing Christy and Nick’s photos as we drove along.
Steve likes to pass trucks – I liked the reflection of the sun on the side of the truck.
It is definite – Spring has sprung in Colleyville! Kim Cooley with Carpe Vita Photography spent a little time this afternoon capturing some local blooming wisteria as well as some other fun sights. Click for a slideshow to get you twitterpated/in the mood for Spring. P.S. Can you see the little inch worm in the photo?
