People of Florida | Oklahoma Photographer

I have a thousand photos ??? that I shot during vacation to Florida, mostly landscape of the Gulf County/Apalachicola region. Yet, it was on the journey of our trip to Crescent City when we spied this man Sunday morning setting his roadside stand up, somewhere along the Interlachen area. I would have to look at a map to remember exactly where. His name is Vincent Shand and he's 80 and shared his story with us. As my husband listened I shot photos. He talked of how he quit smoking and drinking and became a Seventh Day Adventist who shares the gospel. His church was just across the road.


We bought onions for $1.50. And an old Bible for $5.


The last two shots were of Mr. V.A. Shand and his fellow 'brother' Brother McKinney. This was the second to last shot and I loved the complete honesty of their joyfulness.
One of the reasons I chose to make this my first Florida post was the impact that Richard Bickel had on me. If you walk into his gallery in Apalachicola or know of his work, then you will understand why this post honors him. He is a fantastic photojournalist and someone who understands the people and that region. If you are an aspiring photojournalist, I encourage you to learn about Bickel and his works. I bought one of his books and he signed it for me. That's another post.

Look how she's grown | Oklahoma Photographer

Almost 3! And I have to be one of the luckiest 'memes' ever to have such a beautiful granddaughter.




And here she was two years ago!

Creamy Summer Tones | Oklahoma Photographer

Got a new lens and had to play. Thankfully MM was in the mood, slightly, to run around to a couple new 'locations' for photos. This first one is just perfect. She's at that stage where it's either she's refusing to cooperate for photos or she's hamming it up and this one makes me smile.


And look at this one! So cute.


I have a whole set of these in a fun bright color too. I'll post them later today plus some from a 'patriotic hay bale' moment!

Best Fireworks Show ever! | Oklahoma Photographer

I say this for a couple reasons. One, we thought the rain would spoil it. Two, we always argue about where we will park or sit when we go to Marlow for the fireworks show. Three, we usually have to listen to some creep make remarks, or smoke like crazy, then we have to fight traffic to get home.


But this year, Duncan Chamber of Commerce put on a spectacular fireworks show, and from where they set them off we never had to leave our home, sorta. My husband set his chair up in the alley and we could literally see the set off point and the only distraction were the power poles, but I looked at that from an artistic point of view. And the fireworks were awesome!

What was funny was that my husband said, I'll 'call you' when they start, and out the door he went. I was in the bedroom hanging photos and believe me, when they started, I knew!
Scared me too. The house shook from the booms and I thought for a moment that the neighbor's fireworks had got away from them and we had trouble. Nope. I had my cell phone in one hand and camera in the other as I flew out the door.
It was so much fun, just wished all the kids had been here to enjoy it.


So thank you to everyone who made this show possible! Keep doing shows like that and Marlow may have some competition!

This and that | Oklahoma photographer, today a blogoholic

I admit that I'm a blogoholic. Now this isn't to go on the record and say I want to cure such addiction. Just the opposite. I blogged when a lot of my photographer friends thought it a waste of time.
Sure, I don't get comments like many people do out there on more trivial life items, but I still like to post my photos and blog my thoughts. I can look back and see old entries in my online whatever journal that make me realize how far I've come as a photographer mostly.
And I absolutely love looking at other blogs. It can be photography, art, home decor, food, it doesn't matter. I don't discriminate as long as it has visual impact that makes me happy or provides fuel for my own creative drive.
Do I have any thought to this entry? not really, just felt like dashing it all out.