Taken at Hurricane Creek Park with an Alpha 700.
Post processed with CS3 and MS Office Picture Manager

After my post on trees,  it was really nice to spend 5 hours in the woods on Saturday with the Birmingham Photo Group at Hurricane Creek Park.     Each month the group schedules a photowalk at a wide variety of locations.

 

'Distortions' are lens defects which tend to bend the image out of shape (but don't blur it). All lenses have distortions of some sort, though high quality lenses have distortions which are not as severe. (Jan 26, 2010)
~ MarkRaymondMason.com

Our perception is the lens through which we see the world around us. We can reduce the amount of distortion in our image of the world by developing a high quality lens.  The tools we use to refine our lens will vary for each of us and will differ at different times in our lives.   Regardless, keep polishing those lenses. 

Like Miyagi said, "Wax on, wax off".

Student Who Brought Camping Utensil to School Has Suspension Lifted

New York Eagle Scout Suspended From School for 20 Days for Keeping Pocketknife in Car

OK, so most of us have heard of the 'no knives' in school rules.
Guess where I found this?
In a teacher desk in a classroom. roflmao

I ended up at the oil change place after work on Wednesday with some truck woes.  Fortunately, it isn’t my truck.

There were a couple of people there when I went in the office area, but when I went in the shop area no one was to be found.


I looked down in the pit.


No one there either.  hmmm
I’m glad I didn’t fall in.  rofl   I wonder where they disappeared to.
After finding them all around the corner with the compressor repair man, I finally got someone to look under the hood at the broken fan belt.  I wish it had been a worn out wiper blade though.


That would have been a lot less expensive.
While the men labored for 30 or 40 minutes to install the fan belt


I went back in the waiting area in search of coffee.


There wasn’t any coffee.
Watching them through the window I could see 3 of them holding the old fan belt up to the one they ordered.  The new one was obviously too short.  Lots of talking and measuring and remeasuring occurs.
At long last, the manager came in and told me they had ordered the wrong size fan belt and had to return it and get one the correct size. 

After two hours of being entertained by the employee’s antics, I paid almost $200 and drove away.

Good times.

Note to self:  don't go there with a serious car problem.

It was a lovely, warm, sunny day and I tried to go on a photowalk.  I was tired from not getting enough sleep last night so I stopped in this coffee shop for a latte.

Back in December, I posted a blog about trees.  Trees have been on my mind off and on ever since that post.
There have been many trees in my life, forests and individual trees.    They have provided shelter, fun, friendship, wisdom, counsel, and solace over the years.  

This is mostly about individual trees I’ve known over the years.

The first tree I remember was a giant fig tree in my grandfather’s back yard.   I’m sure it wasn’t as big as my memory of it is.  I was very small when I played in that tree and it taught me to love figs.

About the same time in my life I came to love the black walnut grove at my other grandfather’s home.  His trees were full of friendly squirrels he had rescued as babies from logging operations, hand raised, and released into the safety of his property.  They would eat out of your hand.   I played and worked around those trees and squirrels until my grandfather died.  He kept saving and releasing squirrels until the end of his life.  I learned so much about being in tune with nature there. 

I played in many forests as a child.  My parents moved often and every few years there were new discoveries to be made, new trees to befriend.   There was this mimosa tree with the lovely pink flowers and the grove of young pine trees where I used to lay and look at the clouds floating by, painting their stories on my imagination. 

The next single tree I remember was a giant oak in Smith’s Station, Alabama.   High up in its strong sheltering limbs we built a tree house.  Most of the tree house was a wooden boat we kids rescued from the local dump.   I spent several years playing in and communing with that mighty oak.   My secret sitting place was there with my friend the tree.

The next tree I loved was another fig tree.   Outside the second story window of my first apartment this wonderful tree provided its delicious fruit.   I would crank open the window, reach out, and find my breakfast.
There have been so many trees in my life: the bay tree where Bay, the horse, knocked me off her back.  She stood there under the tree limbs laughing, waiting for me to remount; the giant fir almost on the top of the ridge overlooking the valley that provided a nesting site for the Golden Eagles each year.  Then there was the Redwood grove where I felt I was in a holy place.   I camped there many times always reverently amazed in their awesome presence.

At my last home there were many old, magnificent, and powerful trees, trees that had seen so much more life than I had.  There was one I hugged all the time.  I would sit on the edge of the porch and talk with it.  If you can conceive of a tree being your friend then you know my relationship with that tree.   I remember its face so well. 

For the last 6 or 7 years there has been a shortage of trees in my life.  I think that says more about my state of mind than it does about trees.  They are still around, living, loving, and learning, while I am lost in my own thoughts.  It is time to go play with the trees again.

Posted for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #72: Pairs

My Life, December 2009 from jr cline on Vimeo.

I'm really looking forward to shooting at the Atlanta Botanical Garden during Orchid Daze again this year.
Orchid Daze

I did this for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #71: Weather.

The weather where I live:

Monday was a gray day.

but was a bright sunny day.


Wednesday was much colder.


Snow was predicted for Thursday afternoon and evening. 
There was the usual rush at the grocery store.


It did get colder, rained, sleeted, and snowed. 
I don’t  think you can see the snow in the next  shot, but it is there.


Friday morning there was a little snow

and ice.


It is bitterly cold for Alabama.
There were still icicles on Saturday afternoon.

These photos where taken either with an Alpha 700 or an iPhone.