Budding Photographers

Cora with my glasses on, this one taken by me with the camera phone.

When I've been in Indiana the past few times, my nephew Deacon has asked to use the camera on my phone to take photos. This time, he asked, and then so did his sisters. Here are some of their photos.

Since I started with Veda last time, I'll start with Cora this time. Cora, with her little hands, had a hard time holding on to the phone without getting a finger in front of the lens. This created a similar effect in most of her photos. Interesting artistic choice, I think:

Nana shuffling cards during a very competitive UNO game.

A glimpse of Deacon across the game table.

Aunt Amy and the lamp.

Steve, Cora's dad.

And, two of her sister. One.

Two.

Veda had the camera the least amount of time. She, with a few exceptions, had a steady hand.

Her sister, Cora.

Cora dealing UNO cards, with Nana's help.

A cheesy, non-make-up grin from Aunt Amy.

A very carefully crafted "self portrait."

And, well, an interesting close-up of her father.

Deacon started the whole photo thing, as I said above. He's played with the camera phone before, and seemed to have "direction" he was interested in capturing when he set out to photograph.

He started out with this duet of his sisters.


Then, before shooting, he told Cora to "look cute" in this photo.


Then he told her to "make a funny face." She complied.

He then tried to get a smile from this sister. She showed him.

But then later supplied a silly one while on Dad's lap.

Here, again, Deacon asked for the "silly faces" and got them.

Then, Deacon decided to go all artistic on us.

We'll call this one, "still life with pumpkin."


And this one, "getting to the sole of the matter."

He even worked to capture Nana's best side.
Of course, she doesn't have a bad side, and Deacon knows that too.

Anyway, as I sort through more photos, I thought you'd like to see the efforts of the budding photographers in the family. I thought they didn't do such a bad job with a sub-par instrument, for certain. And, they seemed to have lots of fun doing it.

Hoosier Weekend

Light coming through the trees at dusk - Brown County State Park, Indiana

I was in Indiana for an extended weekend last week to spend some time with my mom for her birthday. It was a nice visit - the weather was nice, we did some fun stuff, and I was able to see many of my relatives. (It's rare to see them all - they ALL live there, with few exceptions.)

Fall leaves are normally at their peak in Indiana between October 10-17, give or take. So, the fact that there were still leaves on the trees was a bonus, let alone that I happened to hit them near their peak. I have more photos of leaves than you could ever possibly imagine, and many are very good, as we visited the Brown County State Park at dusk, when the light gives off that special glow. Of course, looking at leaf photos, can be akin to - as S pointed out - looking at someones vacation photos from the grand canyon. But, I am going to bet that at least my Texas friends will enjoy a few views of the leaves as we rarely see them around these parts.

Close up of leaves in Brown County State Park

I will post more leaves later, but I'm still going through the massive index of photos I took last while up there. I wanted to get something up today - to feel like I was getting something accomplished in the endeavor to get through my photos - so here is just a peek into the "leaf files."

Brown County State Park is between Nashville and Bloomington, Indiana, basically, in the hills of southern Indiana. There are beautiful overlook vistas of the valleys. I'll share a couple of vista shots in another post.

Walking path to falls, McCormick's Creek State Park, Indiana

On Saturday, we went down to visit my dad, who was camping for the weekend at McCormick's Creek State Park, near Spencer. It was funny to me how different the trees and leaves looked here, at least in person, from the Brown County park, which really isn't that far away. The trees seemed more "dainty" and also had more yellow in the leaves. This was true even when you compared them at the exact same time of day.

Falls at McCormick's Creek State Park

My dad and I took this little walk just after prime light, which you can contrast with the Brown County photos - the McCormick photos are a little darker and not quite as vivid. It's the magic dawn or dusk lighting effect in action. I tend to capture more "dusk" lighting than "dawn" lighting in my photos. I rarely get up early enough to see dawn lighting very often in my so-called life.

The falls in the photo are so large in the spring and early summer that you can walk behind them in that little cove to the left in the photo. My dad said these were not very impressive falls at all compared to a different time in the year. An informational kiosk at the overlook explained they were created by glacial silt, and that, over time, the falls get shorter and shorter until they aren't falls at all, but just rapids. So, these falls, in addition to being their late fall (in Indiana) puny self, also used to be taller. The shale rock around the river bed added interest to this "fall leaves" photo, though.

Also, just as a photography note, the McCormick photos were taken with the Powershot as we just took a quick walk in the woods and I had that with me. The Brown County photos were taken with the Rebel XT. On the Rebel, I used several lenses - the 50mm, the 18-55mm, and also the telephoto.

Close up of leaves in Brown County State Park, taken with the telephoto lens.

I should also note that the close up photos of the leaves have not been digitally enhanced. They are, as they say, SOOC (straight out of the camera). The colors were that vivid and beautiful.

I've got more photos from my trip to post, if I can get through them. Some of Halloween, some at the campground, some more of the leaves, and some of things I can't even remember at this moment while I am writing this sentence, for certain.

I'm glad I was able to go up for a long weekend to visit my family. I'm also glad I got to experience some bit of a Midwestern autumn while I was there.

Cathedral Guadalupe

On the heels of Dia de Los Muertos, and in anticipation of All Saints Day in many Christian denominations, I thought it fitting to go ahead and get a post up about Dallas' downtown Cathedral.

The Cathedral Guadalupe was designed by Victorian architect Nicholas J. Clayton and dedicated in 1902. That makes it an old building in Dallas, for sure.


Cornerstone, dedicated a few years earlier.

As I mentioned previously, the building sits in the Dallas Arts District and has been undergoing some recent renovation, including the completion of the bell tower.

The main entrance to the sanctuary has undergone extensive renovation as well.
I didn't take photos inside, since people were in there praying when I was ambling by,
and I didn't want to disturb them.

Surely there are plans to fill that niche up there.

You know, when we go to other countries, we never miss going to the great cathedrals in each city. We need to make sure we're preserving our own history right here and taking care of our cathedral. In my opinion, it's more than a Catholic building - it should be a symbol of importance and history for the city as a whole.

The figure above the main entrance is of Jesus.

For its part, the Cathedral works to be an integral figure in the Arts District and downtown area. It holds outdoor festivals, offers its classrooms to outside groups during the week, and tries to be a good citizen of its community.

You have to get pretty far back to get the whole church face in, with the tower on the left.

From the northwest rear corner of the building.

On the northeast rear of the building, in order to have more of a presence in the Arts District, the church added a contemplation garden. It has WI-FI to help with your contemplation.

From a door on the west side, you can see a peek of the interior.
I like how you can only see a peek.

You can see where more work is needed here on the west side.

How much you can get in the viewfinder from directly across the street.

A slightly off-kilter view of the bell tower.

One of the restored windows,
surrounded on the outside by stonework still waiting to be restored.

Needs restoration and restored window side by side.

Bell tower from the west side.

I love this photo - first, the window is exquisite.
Second, a pigeon was helping Jesus bless on the day this photo was taken.

Another attempt to get the whole church face in the shot.

I then decided the trees, even without the top of the tower, helped make an artistic portrait.

One can see the tower from blocks away, even in a downtown landscape.

Another angle of the front face.

Close up of the detail over the main door.

Looking up at the bell tower from the front.

If you live in Dallas, I encourage you to explore the local architecture in your neighborhood. What's old? What's new? What's new and meant to look old? What should be preserved for future generations?

That pigeon, still lounging on the son of God's head.

I am going to try to post more about Dallas architectural landmarks here on the blog. It is the city I'm in, so I want to show it off. And, it gives me something interesting to photograph, which of course I love.

A pleasant view of the front entrance, with pigeon, of course.

One more of the front entrance.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of the outside of the Cathedral and were perhaps moved to go investigate architecture in your neighborhood. And, a little in advance, Happy All Saints Day!