Photos From the Past

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Val of “Arty Ole Bird” is my good blogging friend who lives in Wales. She sent me the link to the WordPress Gallery instructions on how to do this gallery. I honestly did not know if I could make it work or not but I have found that I was lucky. Val is a http and Word Press genius. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for being such a good friend. She is super funny and very gracious.

http://artyoldbird.com/2013/05/02/question-time/

The link with instructions is here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/

These are all old photos taken eons ago. My children’s pic is quite faded and I think the original was slide film. Just don’t remember what was what when I took about 10 photos to the local camera store to be scanned to CD about two years ago. All of these are faded.

The photo of my Dad in the blue denim overalls was taken about 1984-5. That photo won a blue ribbon and I’ve been asked for copies of that one by several individuals. This is not a very good repro of it and I wish that I could show the pic as an original.

The photos of the cats in the window of the farm house back porch are all listing to one side. I suppose by now you can see I’ve always had a problem with “listing to one side or the other.” 🙂

Gracie came to live with me after my Dad died. She lived to be 17-18 years old. There is a story about Gracie that I’ll write some day if I live long enough. Gracie had a very interesting life, escape wise, and I hope I can do justice to her story.

Meetzie died at about age 4 and was most likely eaten by coyotes. That was a very sad day for my mother. She loved her little tortie so much.

Graybaby, came from the farm also. Meetzie might have been Graybaby’s mother, not sure. Bibble as my son Danny often called Graybaby lived to about age 14. The photo of Graybaby won a blue ribbon as well. I really like that one. I shot the “good pics” using two stobes (flash) or speed lights as I think they are now called with one flash bounced from an umbrella. I did all my pet photos without any assistance. It was really lots of work that called for infinite patience. I’m able to still get some decent ones using two flash heads and an umbrella. The amount of work required is exhausting but I am grateful that I can still produce a decent photo.

The caption on my son’s photo is obscured. Danny was about 15 years old in this pic. The little dog’s name was Andy, short for Andrew. When ever Andy was a bit of trouble I resorted to calling him Andrew. Andy was one of the smartest dogs that we were fortunate to have as part of our family. My son adored Andy and that little dog acted as if the sun rose and set in his human. Andy was 14 years old when he went to doggie heaven.

I’ve cried as I remember. And, while most of the pets lived to be old or really old, I think of my parents and the love they had for their pets. Of course, I remember the pets that were so important to my children as they were growing up. Pets and other animals and birds were and still are extremely important in the lives of my children. Each of my children continue to have dogs and cats in the household so it is not just their mother who has a love for the furry ones. 🙂

Post and photographs ~yvonne~

Some Family Nostalgia (click photo to enlarge)

My daughter with our dog Ranger who arrived as a stray about 1979.

 

 

Old photographs of family members bring back many memories for me. The pictures elicit a certain sadness as I look for various photos that I snapped many moons ago when my children were not grown and my parents were still living. I can visualize the settings and the things that I said to my impatient subjects who never could understand why I could not just  hurry and snap a picture.

I have mostly kept my award-winning photos in one place and have the negatives of the best photos archived in special folders. I hope and pray that the negatives are all still good. I want to get all negatives organized and then put them in a safe deposit box at the bank where the temp is constant. That is something that I should have had the sense to do a long time ago. My only excuse is that I was too busy working a full time job and being a wife and mother. My job was very demanding and stressful. I am truly surprised that I survived and that my cognition still appears intact. ( I think)! And now I am glad that I loved to use a camera. My regret is that I used a movie camera to take many pictures as my children were growing up. I have those reels and someone told me years ago that these can be put on CD or maybe is was to negative. Not sure about that- maybe I dreamed it. Anyhow, I need to explore that before I kick the bucket and speaking of buckets -no I do not have a list.

So here is a pic from the past.  Some of my photos were scanned to a disk and then down loaded to my computer. This image was not well preserved and needs editing in Adobe Photo Shop. The originals were sharp but when these are enlarged in this post they are grainy and have lots of little bits of lint, etc. I wish that I had used fill flash for this photo but is was sort of spur of the moment and my daughter was getting impatient to return to her book.  Even though this photo could have been much better it is still one of my top favorites.

So much for family nostalgia. Looking at this picture of my daughter with Ranger caused me to  cry. Mang things have come and gone over all these years. Some things happened for the better and some things happened that caused much pain- physical and emotional. But, I can look at this photo and remember the time of day and what I was telling Lisa. I just did not tell her to put a hand on her hip. **smile**

   

Post and photographs Yvonne

 

 

 

 

Trying To Grab A Sunset: Repost (11/2011 Click to enlarge photos

A live oak for added interest

                                                         

A vivid sunset across the lake

Central Texas sunset

Barren tree against a vivid November sky.

Dusk to night just a few minutes away

Note: This was posted November, 2011.  

I have my sights set on capturing sunsets. That is if the clouds and weather will help me out by producing the right atmosphere that makes for a vivid sunset.

Every day is becoming shorter and shorter. There is not much time to get to a place where you know a pretty sunset is putting on a show. The trouble is I never know when a good one is about to happen, that is unless I keep up with the weather forecast.  The sun produces the prettiest colors a day or two prior to rain or a cold front. Of course, the addition of some clouds enhances a sunset making it something other than h0-hum.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I grabbed a leash, put one of my best guard dogs and equipment in the truck, and drove to the lake. This is the only place near me where there are no power lines to obstruct the view.  I can get to the lake in about 3-4 minutes. Since I am a chicken and very paranoid, I never get out of a vehicle to photograph when alone. I also pack a gun.

I edited the pictures in Microsoft Windows which does a fair job. I still don’t know enough about Adobe to create anything other than sepia and black and white. I’m posting these pics with a promise to have some better ones at some point in the future. (I hope) 

     

Post and photographs  Yvonne

  

 

Attempting Sepia: Adobe Photo Shop 9

Muddy "On Alert"

 

Molly watching the squirrels

 Muddy, the lab in the top photo is more black and white and is far, far from sepia. I can edit to create a fair black and white in the program that came with my HP. It was installed by a computer guy  that set up this contraption for me but it will not produce a sepia color. For months I have longed to turn some photographs into the sepia color and in fact I bought the Adobe Photo Shop Elements 9 way back in April. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at long last, able to sit down with a photo shop expert for about an hour of tutoring. I still need more lessons for other things that can be done in Photo Shop but right now there just is not enough time. Anyhow, I hope to edit more of some of the photos that I feel will be enhanced with sepia or black and white.         

In case anyone is curious, the peculiar looking machine behind Muddy is a gasoline powered post hole digger. My son used it on a job that needed 4×4 inch metal posts to anchor a wrought iron gate.  The soil varies greatly in our area. A few inches past top soil and there is rock called caliche.  Generally, the rock breaks up fairly easily but then there is also solid rock which demands a pick and crow bar. The holes must be at least 2 feet deep or more and the anchor posts (corner) set in concrete that will support a heavy metal gate.       

I’m aware that the last paragraph is totally irrelevant to the photographs of the dogs. Please excuse the aside.       

 Post and photographs by Yvonne Daniel