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Over the Memorial Day weekend we decided to make a quick trip to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Home of The Pioneer Woman. For those of you who may not know, Ree Drummond has a show on the Food Network called The Pioneer Woman. The Mercantile is a really nice renovated old building in Downtown Pawhuska. Excellent dining and atmosphere. Much to our surprise, Ladd Drumond was outside greeting guests.

We went to the Mercantile and did some shopping but the line was so long we decided to wait a while to eat.

 

We went to the Lodge where the show is filmed. Its a very nice place that they renovated a few years ago as well. The view was beautiful.

They have several hundred head of wild horses on the Drummond Ranch. It has rained enough everything was nice and green.

Back at the Mercantile, we ate what we call LU-PPER. A cross between lunch and supper.

After getting stuffed, a little more shopping and Guess who we saw? The Pioneer Woman herself.

Afterwards, we took a little walk on the “Swinging Bridge” This was cool and Grandma went as far as anyone!

This is a white-Tailed Kite(at least from what I know). It is a member of the Hawk family. If you view the picture at full size, you can see its Eyes appear Red. It’s hard to take a picture of a bird at telephoto lengths on a swinging bridge.

Sunday I wanted to go to the Tall Grass Prairie. It is one of the largest protected Prairies in the US covering 39,000 acres according to the WIKI. It is really cool to see several hundred Bison roaming free.

We saw some up close and personal!

It was a very peaceful ride around the preserve.

There are several different species of birds there as well. These Western Meadowlarks are singing all over the place.

This Bob White Quail let us know he was there.

The Scissor Tail Flycatcher is the state bird of Oklahoma.

Once we left and headed home we actually took a Scenic Route! We drove about 30 miles or more on the dirt roads and ended up only 6 miles from Kansas.

Over all we had a really fun time. The best of rest are here

I’m not sure where our next adventure will lead us.

Stay Tuned!

Pody

 

 

I have been waiting to post this since the A to Z project. This is my iteration of Liquid  Photography.

 

What a fun project. I will say this is probably the messiest! Milk is not friendly when splashed around. Also to get the colored water right, I used some food coloring and Jello (not a wise choice). It took a half a roll of paper towels and some patience as well as a lot of shots to get what I captured. Over the few thousand pictures I shot, I managed to get several keepers.

 

The camera was mounted to a tripod and all settings were manual so I could control the speed and light. I used my remote switch to press the shutter. It sometimes felt like rubbing your tummy and patting your head trying to pour, drop, drip the liquid and snap the pictures at the same time. The hardest part is focus, especially shooting  in the aquarium. There is really nothing to focus on till the water or milk hits the water. Then its almost too late. At first I used a zip lock bag with a pin hole, then water bottles, wine bottles, solo cup, a turkey injector, and a concoction I made from a Garden Drip line and a Dollar Tree cup.

I used food coloring, Jello for the water and dollar wrapping paper for the backgrounds. The key is to get the drips fast enough for the collisions and not making too many ripples.

 

The aquarium was purchased at goodwill. I colored the water a bit with yellow food coloring. At each side I used red and blue colored gel paper to create the effect. Then came the milk!

Some of these are flipped upside down for effect.

 

A little wine?

 

Milk is messy in the little measuring tablespoon.

Ahhh…Coffee! I found the perfect burlap sack at an antique store. Sprinkle some beans and let my imagination do what it does. Trying to capture steam is not hard, but you have to be ready. The lighting setup was trial and many errors.

 

I’ll put some of the better ones here and the rest on my google page.

https://goo.gl/photos/Hm6AcyuBCnDTn5cA9

 _~_.
[(O)]
/|\

Pody

p.s. Make sure you enter your email address to receive updates.
Next month I will post pictures of our Corpus Christi trip in April!

Waco, Texas

March 11, 2017

We decided to take a road a trip with some friends to the home of Fixer Upper TV show, Magnolia Market and Silos last weekend.

For those of you who may not have seen the show, Chip and Joanna Gaines appear on a very good show on HGTV named Fixer Upper. Although the stars of the show were not there, we did see Joanna Gaines Mom plus a few thousand other folks. I have posted a few pictures here but the rest will be on my google photo page. I’ll provide a link towards the bottom of this post.

The Silos were built several years ago and remained empty for years till these two decided to Fix them Up. The whole thing encompasses their offices, a retail store and a bakery. Around the back  and sides of the property there are food trucks as well as a play area for kids and adults!

 

After a while I wandered off to downtown. Then we went to the Brazos river to see the suspension bridge.

Here is a link to the ALL photographs of the Market as well as other sites in Waco we were able to see while we were there.

https://goo.gl/photos/W7K79scPVqeVPY657

We all had a great time!

 _~_.
[(O)]
/|\

Pody

p.s. Make sure you enter your email address to receive updates.
In the next few weeks I will post my next project – Liquid Photography!

My version of an A to Z Project

Here it is and February is half over. Wow time really does fly.

Not much photographically happened over the last several weeks but I am trying a new photo project.

It is an A to Z project where the subject of the picture starts with or represents a letter of the alphabet. Some A to Z projects must be shot alphabetically or be a representation of the letter, but I’m breaking the rules (there really aren’t any rules). My goal is to complete this project by the end of February.

The hard part is not finding things, it’s making a photograph and not just a picture. There is a difference you know.

A quote from the great Ansel Adams:  “You don’t take a photograph, you make it”.

I’m trying to keep it to one or two photos of each letter. I also want to use photos I have taken during the project and not some already on my PC.

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

F:

G:

H:

I:

J:

K:

L:

M:

N:

O:

P:

Q:

R:

S:

T:

U:

V:

W:

X:

Y:

Z:

I tried to shoot things found in and around the house. It’s a little harder than you would think, but it’s a fun learning experience.

Stay tuned!

_~_.
[(O)]
/|\
Pody

p.s. Make sure you enter your email address to receive updates.