Linda's Photo Adventures: July 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Of All The Gin Joints In All The World

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This will probably be the last of my deserted desert photos for a while. I believe the building was deserted but I really couldn't tell for sure.

In good times, people want to advertise; in bad times, they have to.

”Bruce Barton quotes (American Congressman, 1886-1967

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Goin' Nowhere

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This was another part of my desert adventure. Given the surroundings, I thought that maybe, just maybe someone might actually be squatting there. If so, they would be dying of heat exhaustion, as it was around 107 degrees. Yep, it was a hot one. Thank God for air conditioning in the car!

"I want to play trailer trash; I swear to God."

Joan Van Ark

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Come On Up To The House

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I took a drive last weekend to El Mirage dry lakebed and saw so many abandoned homes and businesses. It was eerie and looked like the people who had occupied the town had just gotten up and left. Now, the house (?????) I've photographed here was interesting to say the least. I'm not even sure if it's even a house. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Why would someone build something like this? Why are there wires going through the windows? Why are there 2 floors? Why is there the possibility of electricity? WHAT THE HECK IS IT? I've included 3 versions.

For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.

Joan D. Vinge

Monday, July 19, 2010

No Joy in Mudville

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What else is there in childhood but adventures, dreams and dirty hands.....? Oh, and beautiful perfect faces!

Childhood is frequently a solemn business for those inside it.

George F. Will quotes (American editor and news commentator b.1941)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

This Is Me

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I cross-processed this photo in Photoshop because of her compelling eyes. It all just seemed to fit.

Since I had the baby I can't tolerate anything violent or sad, I saw the Matrix and I had my eyes closed through a lot of it, though I didn't need to. I would peek, and then think, oh OK, I can see that.

Lisa Kudrow

Saturday, July 17, 2010

I'm No Angel

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This one's a beautiful mess; a spunky, growly, spirited 3-year-old. She had been having a lot of fun "building mountains".

"He doesn't let nobody mess with him, ... He's always been tough and spunky and I think if you're like that, you can overcome a lot."

By Rodney Roberts

Friday, July 16, 2010

Middle of July

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The first photo is the original. The second one is cross-processed in Photoshop. I hope there's not some little kid out there crying!

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”

Albert Schweitzer quotes (German medical Missionary, Theologian, Musician and Philosopher. 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, 1875-1965)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

We've Only Just Begun

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Ah! Young love -- so naive, so immature, so unsophisticated, yet ever so charming! Every generation warns the next of the heartaches and the heartbreaks that come with this love. Yet, each generation is eager to experience love. Authors have tried to express the happy occurrence we call young love. I watched this young couple at the Getty Museum. You could tell they were just getting to know each other, wanting to touch but not quite having the guts to try. She, especially, was very flirty in an innocent, cute way. I had to photograph them. I've posted the original and then a Photoshopped version.

No, there's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream

Thomas Moore

Wild Wild West

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A sand ball in one hand and a gun in the other, this little one was ready to conquer any sea creature that came his way.

I had a gun and I had to run and shoot, which is not easy.

Jimmy Fallon

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Runaway Feeling

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A photograph of my nephew, Robby, having fun in the surf.

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.

Sivananda

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Scream and Shout

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There's nothing like spending a July afternoon on an inner tube on a Colorado river! Ahh, the exciting days of summer.

"Swift or smooth, broad as the Hudson or narrow enough to scrape your gunwales, every river is a world of its own, unique in pattern and personality. Each mile on a river will take you further from home than a hundred miles on a road."

Bob Marshall

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Twisted

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The Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower was commissioned in 1999 to be the signature sculpture of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center. The Tower stands as a memorial to the late Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, a Museum founder. It is one of the largest Chihuly towers in the world, occupying the three-story atrium in the Museum’s main lobby. The Tower is 55 ft. tall, 7′ 6″ in diameter, and is mounted on a black granite reflecting pool. It is comprised of 2,100 individually blown glass parts, held together by a seven piece steel armature, or spine, with 2,100 individual forks, and weighs 20,000 pounds. Illuminated 24 hours a day, The Tower rises as a beacon for Museum visitors. It is one of the many tower-type sculptures Chihuly has made since 1996, of which no two are alike. Dale Chihuly's practice of putting together teams of artists with exceptional glassblowing skills has led to the development of complex, multipart sculptures of dramatic beauty and scale that place him in the leadership role of moving blown glass out of the confines of the small, precious object and into the realm of large-scale sculpture and environmental art. In fact, Chihuly deserves much of the credit for establishing the blown glass form as an accepted medium for installation art and, hence, for contemporary expression in late twentieth and twenty-first century art generally.

“When the Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried.”

Rudyard Kipling quotes (English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Nobel Prize(1907), 1865-1936

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Cadillac Ranch

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Just outside and west of Amarillo, Texas is Cadillac Ranch. Out in the middle of nowhere is an unusual sight. Ten Cadillacs buried nose first into the ground. When you're driving on I-40 in Texas there's not a lot to see on the south side, so when you come up upon this sight it's very noticeable. Over the years it's become a quirky tourist attraction. An eccentric millionaire, Stanley Marsh, is a driving force in unusual artistic endeavors in the Amarillo area. Over the years, the ten Cadillacs comprising the work of art have been ravaged by the elements and covered over with years of ever-changing graffiti. Every so often some company will do a commercial or they will be used for a movie. When this happens the Cadillacs might be painted with just one color or possibly with their original colors. No matter when this happens, within 1 - 2 days of them finishing the project, the graffiti will be put on again. Visitors come from all over the world to leave their mark and to add to the years of ever-thickening paint, which at this point, may be the only thing keeping the cars together. It can be difficult to get photographs without people in them as it is usually covered with tourists. I've included original photographs and copies of the photographs manipulated in Photoshop.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

Oscar Wilde