Roundbox Photography

Thursday, February 16, 2012

So today Abby went to the Central Texas Vet Specialty Hospital to let Dr. Runk repair a blown out ACL on her right knee. Last year it was a luxating patella that put my little ball of fur under the knife. That was her left leg - today Dr. Runk repaired her right leg. So after a THREE MONTH rest and recuperation period, Abby will again be able to do what she, terrier that she is, does best: pester the dickens out of Claire (resident cat) and chase her all over the backyard. Which is exactly what she was doing on Saturday when she blew out the ACL. Here is a pic I took of Abby as I left her with the vet tech at the hospital. I'm not sure which of us had the bigger lump in our throat....

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    Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day and I went for a walk around Lady Bird Lake. I was surprised by all the memories that sprang to mind as I crunched along the familiar gritty, granite trail. When I first moved here in 1987 I would walk around the lake happy at having access to nature right here in the city.   Several years ago I bought a house across town and don't get over to the lake nearly often enough.

This trail is a great place to take pictures.....there is such natural beauty here - birds, plants, trees, aquatic animals of all sorts (including giant nutria), waterfowl, etc. Today I saw something I've never seen before: a very weird fish in the murky shallows near the bridge.   A bearded man, staring intently into the water, motioned to me and whispered, "Hey, come take a picture of this. I'm a fisherman, but I've never seen a fish like this - it's weird!" I've been an aquarium enthusiast for years and I noticed that the fish looked like an algae eater - a plecostomus - only this one was a very BIG one. I offered, "maybe someone emptied their aquarium contents into the lake and the little plecostomus became this big happy one?" The fisherman shook his head and said, "well, maybe, but it sure is weird isn't it?"

In addition to the natural beauty of the place, the view of the Austin skyline across the lake is a favorite scene that has probably been photographed by every photography enthusiast in the city.

The other beauty one can find on the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake is the vast, wonderful diversity of humanity who call themselves Austinites. I have yet to figure out just how to walk up to a stranger and ask "do you mind if I take a picture of you?" It feels a little intrusive to me. So......in this post are pictures of birds, turtles, landscapes, even a weird fish, but sadly, not any photos of people. Hopefully, as I get out there more and more with my camera I'll find a way to become more comfortable asking people if I might aim my lens in their direction.

Around Lady Bird Lake

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Getting started........................

    Ok, so I've been trying to figure out what to do with this urge, this compulsion, this obsession with taking pictures. I've got files and files of photos stored on various hard drives. And 6 or 7 shoe boxes full of print photos from what? maybe 30 years back? When I first heard about blogging I thought: what a fantastic way to get organized and have a way to display my photos. And then I started looking online and saw how many many wonderful photographers were out there and all the cool, creative blogs they were designing and I got a little intimidated and overwhelmed.....

So after procrastinating for a long while, I'm ready to give this a go.

I've wondered: what is it about photography that feels so satisfying to me? I guess part of it is that by capturing moments of time and space it somehow seems to validate my existence; reflect my aliveness, my awareness. I suppose I'm a pantheist - if anything - and to me a photograph depicting any aspect of Nature is like a chronicle of spirit ~ every picture like a prayer. I've never said it that way before, but that description does seem to make sense to me.

A little about me: I retired from working as an educational counselor in 2008. A few times a year I'll take a short-term, substitute assignment. So there are periods when I have a lot of free time and then when I'm working, not so much.

I met a fellow photography buff at my last job and found out that she lives just blocks away from me. We've made a pact: let's get together and set up some weekly photography challenges to ensure that we keep those shutters clicking. So hopefully I'll have new stuff to add here soon!

      Most of the pics in this post were taken during the past 3 or 4 months. A few of them are a little older than that.....