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Monday, December 28, 2015

77,000 views....

I have always looked at the Blogger view count as far as the number of views my Blog has received. This morning I checked out Google for the number of views they have counted through their counting service-those that have used Google as their source for access to my blog. I was astounded !!!!  Over 50,000 views from google alone-this doesn't take in  account the Blogger numbers !!! I am amazed. Looking at the map from Google that tracks visually locations of people viewing the blog the North America and Alaska are dark green with interest shown in Western Europe and Asia. Wowie Zowie.....who'd a thunk....

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Reminds me of Bob Dylan.......Hard rain's a gonna fall.......

I am so glad we live on a hill......

We have had at least 7 inches since the rain began and looking at a forecast for 3 to 5 more...

I can swim if necessary or I'll just jump on the Ark..................

Friday, December 25, 2015

Resolutions ..........again..

This year I'm going to try to do something different. But to avoid potential "told ya so" remarks, I'm not mentioning what it is to anyone but Karen. It should be an interesting three months coming up. There may be an announcement then....

One thing is for sure though, 2016 is going to be a bang up year for my photographic work. I am going to actively pursue the Commercial side of the business as I have the time and with new hip and knees, I should be able to run with the wolves. Granted when I get out of the sack in the morning I have the first moves of Evil Knivel, a bit wandering and disjointed, but after a few steps I'm ready to take on the world. With the new camera which I am amazed at, in terms of clarity and sharpness, there are no boundaries I can't cross. As I have mentioned in the past however, the equipment IS just a tool, it doesn't make a photographer successful. That success takes a ton of experience, 44 years in my case as a full time professional photographer, an art background which has given me the ability to see beyond the obvious, and just plain ol' love for my job. OK 16......watch out !!!! Gonna be a great year !!!!  YEEEEEEEEEEEEE  HAAAAAWWWWWWWW !!

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Long time gone-back with new knee and hip......

The Summer of replacement....right knee in July, left hip in November. Fast summer, memory erasing drugs and not too much pain....at least I don't remember it. Needless to say the photographic assignments took a hit but only temporarily. I'm back in the saddle and just sold to a hospital 7 prints for their lobby of western Oklahoma. I also spent some bucks on a new camera that delivers 37 megapixels of image for outstanding clarity, color balance, and enlargement capabilities. Rocking' and rollin'.

The images were sort of a "seek and find" variety. I knew what the designer needed and all I had to do was find the shots. Karen and I took off in Pearl, our Honda, to start the search. Oklahoma is an outstanding state for variety of landscapes and locations. We had a ball driving and exploring the western parts of the state. I edited the images when we got back, met with the designer, and the deal was struck. He needed 7 images, I showed him 8................and he loved the 7 he took. He told me that  evidently I read his mind.
                   

                           The above image is of the Salt flats that are several miles long and wide.
 



This lonesome old truck was parked in a field beside the road. As I was photographing it a guy stopped too tell me that it was a "48" International and had been in the field for over 20 years.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Promised images............

From my last shoot I had promised you a couple of more images that caught my eye. You never know what you're going to see if you aren't looking....




Monday, October 26, 2015

Amazing location...

If you have been following the blog for a while you know that this has been the summer of replacements. July 20th was my right knee, now it matches my left knee which was replaced 7 years ago by Dr. Roviro of McAlester Oklahoma. I'm going to get a new left hip the 9th of November so I'm becoming more Byonic as I coast down the razor blade of life. The reason I bring this up is because in traveling to and from Tulsa to McAlester I noticed a scrap metal yard that looked very interesting. As you also may know as a follower I' m working with an Interior Designer from Oklahoma city to produce some abstract images for a Fraternity house on the campus of O.U. This site looked like it may fill the bill.

It went so far beyond my expectations that it isn't even imaginable. I asked them at the front desk for permission to shoot there and got look of skepticism but the gal went to a superior to check it out. She returned with a positive answer and a couple of weeks ago I spent several hours in photographic heaven. I won't post the images the Frat will use till they are approved but I caught several others that I m keeping for myself. I really like these found images. I'll post more tomorrow.


Monday, September 28, 2015

Perhaps the last Red moon...................

I guess about everyone on the world last night looked up and saw the red super moon eclipse, unless it was raining, or you were where there is a war going on, or you forgot about it. We went out and neighbors were seated in the middle of the street, in yards, or just standing around. A few ooooh's and aaahhhh's but mainly small talk. However every now and then "Mike, are you taking pictures ??" Oh no, I'm just standing in front of a camera on a tripod for kicks......................drives me crazy.

I don't think about the extended future very much...it just doesn't register very much with me. I'm fairly content to get through the days, a week or month at a time, unless there are plans for a trip, upcoming birthday, or a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. It hit me last night that at my present age of 65, this may be my last eclipse. I've never looked at anything like that and am wondering where that idea came from.

Some of you may have noted that I've been pretty vacant when it comes to writing and updating the blog. July 20th I had my right knee replaced by a fabulous Doctor in Muskogee, Dennis Rivero. He did a fantastic job !!! I was in the hospital three days, came home and tossed the walker away. I was walking unassisted. Before I went in for the surgery, my left thigh at the hip started to feel as though I was having a knife repeatedly jabbed into it. The most pain I had ever encountered. We were in What A Burger chowing down on some health food and I could feel the knives starting to jab as I was getting ready to leave. On occasion I can slowly move my left foot around and that will trip what ever is causing the pain........but it doesn't always work. After 10 or so minutes I just gave up and told Karen to get ready......The restaurant was not totally full but there were several couples in eating away.

I positioned myself in the booth so I could make one smooth move up to the standing position, counted to three, and stood up. Because of the amazing pain, I let out a whoop of sorts, sounding as though I was dying, which I felt like I was for a few milliseconds, and noticed all of the people looking at me with amazingly wide eyes and mouths open. They knew they had witnesses an awful death. I mumbled something about a pinched nerve and exited stage left. We don't go out much anymore. I'm telling you this as I will probably have my left hip worked on soon so I will be gone again for a short period of time.

I have two very important commercial jobs on the books, I'm just waiting for a product to be done and a final decision on the date of the shoot for the other one. After those jobs are completed I think we'll get the hip fixed. It's getting tougher to get through the airport.....

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Golden shrine to Flamingos...

Walking through life the other day I ran onto the fabled Golden Shrine to the Flamingos. I had heard stories for it's existence since I was a small child growing up in the Cultural Mecca of the Ozarks but really never believed it existed. Every now and then I do go out on an aimless walk to see if I can find anything to photograph which generally results in a few images. I had NO idea I would be so lucky yesterday. The weather was to take a real turn for the worst as they were predicting thunderstorms and heavy rain to the extent of flash flooding. I went out early. That was good because as we all know....Flamingos eat early in the morning and party all night. The only chance of ever seeing them is as dawn breaks.

I've never been much of a hunter, I wake the dead with my footsteps, and I'm relatively clumsy besides. I've been known to go down tripping over blades of grass.....

I rounded a corner of a grove of trees that seemed to radiate a golden pink and there they were,
totally oblivious to my presence. I crouched and set my cameras shutter speed, F stop and focused.
Fortunately they didn't fly.....The picture of a lifetime......shared with you. Look for your own Flamingos............they're all around....

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

New Lotus...

I've been waiting most of the summer for this Lotus to bloom. We bought it in Arkansas and we hadn't seen it flowering so the curiosity was on the rise as the  bud started to form. I think Blue was a bit premature in checking it out, however he may have just been in a claiming mood. First come first served....

Friday, August 14, 2015

Three windows...

Looking through some files from the Paris trip I came across three images that seemed to call out to me. The provincial nature of Paris, the age of the buildings, and the subtle colors throughout the country are exemplified in these images. I really enjoyed being there and the people and food were amazing. It seemed as though anywhere I looked I saw an image screaming out to be captured. It always seems as though when in a new area my senses get tuned up for new "visions". This is not only in situations where I am traveling but also when on a job in a factory or plant producing images for a client. I guess that because I have been photographing professionally for 42 years that I should expect this kind of reaction to what I see in visual situations. I try to have my camera with me all of the time and inevitably when I don't,


I immediately regret it as a striking image will present its self and because I don't have my camera, it is lost forever.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

The reason for no recent postings.......

You may have noticed that I have been somewhat AWOL recently from posting news on what's going on photographically. Just to let the cat out of the bag so to speak, my past self abuse and knee jealousy has caught up with me. About 7 years  ago I had my left knee replaced due to several "stumbles" and too many years playing raquetball. It just got too painful to operate correctly so I did the ol' switcheroo and had an artificial one put in. As the years have past and the combination of heavy yard work and making new photographic environments in the yard my right knee started to act up. In addition to that I started to get a sharp pain that is beyond description in my left thigh that just came from seemingly nowhere.

To make a long novel shorter, I'll just say that I am recovering from right knee replacement and I have a disk in my back that will soon start receiving steroid shots until it settles down. The disk is where my thigh pain is coming from. It comes and goes and sometimes signals that there is going to be the feeling that someone is jabbing a long knife into my thigh and twisting it just to keep me on my toes. When I get this feeling I try to micro move my foot until I can feel as though there is no "trigger" for the pain and can get up. Sometimes that works, most of the time it doesn't. We were out grabbing a quick burger at a diner last week and I couldn't find the "sweet spot" and just stood up. I think that all of the other patrons of the establishment thought I was dying, having a heart attack, or had nailed my foot to the floor. Their eyes were on me and saucer size with expressions of Holy ___
what's wrong with him. I did wail a bit.....

The knee is getting along really well and the first shot to the back is next week.....if that works start looking for some new imagery. Thanks for hanging in the with me.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Where it came from.....

I really never talk about the origins of my visual work but in the instance of the last post I feel as though I should. My fathers dad, my grandfather on his side, died when my dad was very young. As we were going through drawers at Mom's after she passed we came upon the fisherman...my fathers father with a stringer of fish. I've had no memory of ever seeing it before and on the back of the print was his name Claud D. Morgan. Sort of a piece of the puzzle came to light - what did he look like, what kind of man was he.......etc. I've had a ton of speculation ranging through my mind. He was a working man owning Carthage Foundry manufacturing articles for retail sales. I remember one story Dad told me when I was young, it goes as follows;

My dad and his father went down to the foundry on a Sunday so his dad could check on something. Leaving dad in his office my grandfather went out on the factory floor. My father spotted a putter and then noticed several ball bearings displayed on a rack on the wall obviously needing to be used as golf balls. After a while my grandfather returned to find the aspiring golfer with ball bearings scattered around the office and a putter dinged up from hitting the steel balls around the room. Sitting my dad down in a chair after examining the putter with the dings he told dad that he had really harmed the putter and another one would haver to replace it. He ended the conversation with the remark I still remember to this day, "You never get ahead buying the same thing twice". Lesson learned.

Seeing my grandfather with the stringer of fish in the photograph at the time I was assembling the post from yesterday really seemed to fit. Of course one other sideline is that the WWW should exist for as long as mankind, and if my relatives in the future stumble upon my blog they can see the only photograph of Claud D. Morgan taken after a good day of fishing.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Fisherman...

This has transpired over the last several days and may still evolve.....

Not real sure of the origin but fishing has always been in the family...

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Blu........one of the favorites....

Blu is another of our dragonflies. He's fast, aware and fun to watch. Evidently they are territorial as he is constantly skirmishing with Red. Our pond just isn't big enough for the both of them.

I'm going to be away from my blog for a week or so....occupied with other things. But as Arnold said, "I'll be back....."


Thursday, July 16, 2015

A new member of the "family"...

After noticing a robin hanging around the pond and back yard I discovered her nest just off the deck. It was obvious she was nesting as she really never seemed to leave. Yesterday I noticed three beaks reaching skyward when she landed on the rim of the nest at lunchtime.
I guess two of the three are camera shy and one wants to be seen............It doesn't seem as though they will be around long as the feathers are sprouting and they are really crowded into the nest.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Last post on pond......for now..

As promised I had to wait for the Lotus to open...

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Why we have a pond................

I've been speaking of our pond for the last few posts and you may be tired of hearing about it. I will have one more post after this one so I may address the Lotus that is about to open and maybe be able to catch a shot of the third dragonfly I spoke of earlier. These are several images of the lilies in different stages of blooming that I saw today.



Thursday, July 9, 2015

RED !!!!

It seems we have three dragonflies that inhabit our pond area...Red, Blue, and Tangerine. Occasionally they are there at once but mostly stay apart flying from different twigs or plants around the pond. All are pretty territorial but there seems to be enough room for them as long as they are separated by 5 or 6 feet. They make amends and will get on the same branch or lilly but that seems to be a short lived effort in building a community and are soon chasing each other out of the area.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

New Lilly....

I guess, in the interest of equal time, I need to introduce you to my new lilly. The white one looked great but the pink one is just outstanding. It was acquired as an "unknown" in terms of color and quite frankly I was surprised when it opened up. Great early morning light made this work.....

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Fayetteville Flag 2

As I mentioned in another post this the other flag from Fayetteville. I have seen this repeated several times on barns throughout the U.S. Farmers are proud of their heritage and flag.


Saturday, June 27, 2015

Flag detail.......

I had mentioned several posts back that I wanted to do another book of images with particular content, that being of the flag. As we were wandering around Fayetteville a couple of weeks ago I caught up with a couple of more shots. Here's one of them. You never know where and when you will find them but they are there. Ya just have to look....
.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Peachy Keen.........

As I mentioned a couple of days ago the Koi Pond is the center of our life in the back yard. We initially had one Koi, then purchased six more last year. That was followed by a population explosion with  around 50 small fry...no pun intended..and now we have a school of fish. Of the ones we have, many of which are named, Peachy is a favorite. She ( ?? ) swims with Nancy ( ?? ) almost as if they are in a synchronized swim club. I seemed to mention too frequently the orange coloring she was getting on her fins and tail so in an effort not to be too redundant.......I don't say much any more about the color shifts. We named Peachy after one of my Mom's favorite expressions, "Peachy Keen".............Mom lives on...

20,000 views passed yesterday !!!!

Thanks viewers ! I just passed 20,000 views yesterday.....Fabulous !!!!!
21,000 soon to be !!! In a month or two 30,000 views for sure...

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The pond.....

Several years ago, long before we moved to Tulsa, we lived in Joplin, Missouri. We had a great house with a fabulous backyard and a 3000 gallon Koi Pond. Time would be spent watching the fish and life in general around the pond, seeing changes daily in the fish personalities and growth of the plants. After being here in Tulsa for 13 years I decided to change our ski sloped backyard into something other than a pain to mow, landscape of nothing. I extended the patio from our "old deck" to the East eliminating the top part of the hill and also adding an area to use for portrait sessions. From that a deck was added with another just below it adding more portrait area and eliminating more of the downhill slide. That left the old deck to the west, with a wide gap between the old and the new decks. It was obvious......we needed a new Koi pond.

The digging started down the slope, size was generally determined by what looked appropriate for the area, and after a few revisions the pond was built with a 1000 gallons or more water. Seven fish were acquired and promptly named, then there was a population explosion...............we had 45 or more babies. They have grown from quarter inch fish into three to four inches long and are growing more everyday. The colors are fabulous, each one seems to have habits unique to themselves. Fiver rules the cave under the falls while Phantom, our oldest fish, darts through the depths showing himself occasionally. His tail is half of his length and coloring subtle but amazing in the sun. Peachy is basically white/silver but gaining orange pin striping on her fins. Cali swims through the whole pool just eating anything she can get following Goldas' lead. Golda is soon to be enrolled in weight watchers.......she is huge. Nancy is a bright orange and swims in unison with Peachy throughout the pond. Co, Cali's sibling is almost identical to her sister....both calico in appearance.

The pond supports several lilies and other assorted plants which are just starting to bloom. The habitat seems to be balanced in PH and the water
fall adds the necessary action to keep the water moving which eliminates the growth of mosquitoes. All in all it was a good move...I didn't realize how much we missed it.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

As promised a new image from the weekend. Not really sure about it ....I guess I have to live with it a bit longer. I usually don't like to post something I'm wavering on but I'll take the chance and go from there. I'll post some images from the weekend tomorrow again that won't be altered with a recommendation on how to spend a VERY interesting couple of days.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

20,000 in sight....

Perhaps you're getting tired of the count notices..... I hope not because it's been really interesting to me. To think that I could, or anyone for that matter, can just start writing about something that seems to make a difference to them and can attract the volume of reads that this blog has is just amazing to me. I started the blog about 4 years ago for the hell of it to see if I could attract an audience. I guess I have. But it's very interesting to me that although I am soon to have the BIG 20, I have a small number of followers on my Blog site. I guess that is just how the cards fall....

Anyway it's been fun and will continue. Next weekend a road trip is in view so expect some images to appear the following week from it. This week I am reviewing files for the creation of new views like the last two, and if I can get a commercial account off the "dime", there will be more commercial images.....the ride continues, thanks for reading.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Larry the River God...

Well the journey continues...and while at the creek I ran into Larry the River God. Didn't expect it. It was very early and I guess he was just checking it all out. He asked me why I didn't have a pole and I replied that I didn't have a license....no license...no pole. "Oh", he said.....and that was that. He left.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

At the beach...

As I mentioned the other day, I'm looking to return to my college creative days of negative blending etc. The creations really spring from associations of files to one another not as preconceived ideas.
Glancing through my files the ol' connections started to work and the image you see evolved. I'm not too sure of the solidity of it....it may need some more tweaking. I'll keep you posted....

Monday, May 25, 2015

A few more images from Baghdad 1990....

As I have said in a previous installment, I was a member of Peace Wave, a group of people put together by John Quigley. We were to try to secure the release of Japanese Hostages from the Iraqis just before the first war, Desert Storm. While looking over my files I have come across these never published images of the group. Not everyone is present as they were involved in the negioations to secure the release of Hostages from the Government.

The hostages had become a real problem for the Iraqi Government as virtually every country had people that couldn't leave Iraq, so the International Sports and Musical Festival was put together by the Iraqis as a cover to get rid of the Hostages. We were to get the Japanese Hostages, and the Japanese the Americans. 





Coming back from Babylon we were taken to and amazing 10 story structure designed by the Japanese. It appeared to be emerging from the desert in an oasis river. Obviously our wish for peace didn't prevail.



Some of the Japenese members of the event.




Just before the Basketball game.



Since we didn't have uniforms we borrowed from the Iraqis.




The immortal Quigley jump shot......



After the event we went to the Japanese Embassy for a very late dinner and chill out time.
Although we were catching up with the Iraqis at the half, the game was called due to unknown reasons. Probably to guarantee a win by our opposition. The gentleman just right of me was one of the American Hostages known as "The walking dead." This was one of three groups in Iraq at the time, the Known, Unknown...those kept in hiding by Iraqi friends, and The Walking Dead. He was known to the American government AND the Iraqis but was left in limbo as he wasn't "held", but had no exit out of the country. He did get out with the Japanese as I understand. As we were landing at LAX a couple of days later the pilot announced that the American Hostages were in the air with the Japanese.

I must say that I never expected the war, which started a month after we left Baghdad, to last as long as it has. I deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women and their families on this Memorial Day. I wish I could have done more....

Sunday, May 24, 2015

19,000 views passed !!!

Thanks all...Twenty thousand views coming up !!!!!!

Back to the past...

The rain has been relentless, 3.5 to 5 inches last night with more on the way. There's going to be a lot of down time in the office so why not capitalize on it. Traveling to Missouri and Kansas decorating graves of past family members I happened upon several images that seemed to be destined for a new reality. While in undergrad and grad school the creating of these realities was a passion. I've been away from the process since I closed my darkroom down in 1996 and am now reaching to my MacIntosh to rekindle the vision.

This is a composite to start the ball rolling and look for more to appear. Ideas seem to be jumping up as I think about the possibilities so a review of past files is in order to look for material. Only the Shadow knows for sure......

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Getting a better look at my images...

I hadn't thought too much about it before, but did you as a viewer, realize that clicking your cursor on
any of my blog images you can see it enlarged ? Try it ...it makes the viewing of the images much more satisfying. As soon as the rain quits......more images are coming.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Wet..............

The rains are still falling in Oklahoma.

The good side of the coin..
Ponds and lakes are full
The water table is refreshed from being 13 inches down.
Lawn mower sales will be up.
Moles have drowned.
Ducks are happy.
Fish are swimming.
I haven't had to wash the car.

The bad side of the coin.
It's still raining.
The Koi pond needs to be drained a couple of inches daily.
I need to buy goats as the grass is too high to mow.
Getting stir crazy with cabin fever.
Animals have been seen pairing off and looking for a BIG boat.
My toes are growing webs between them.
It's still raining.
It's going to rain until Monday morning.

RAINING.............

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

19,000 views around the corner....

With the recent weather here in Oklahoma...tornadoes...rain...more rain...and more rain coming, my personal photographic efforts have come to a standstill. The commercial work is still coming in but I can't seem to get time to shoot for myself. It is somewhat frustrating because I like to produce personal imagery. With that said, after Wednesday of next week the rain should subside and I can get out and shoot. It feels like, no pun intended, that I've been enduring a drought of personal photographic creativity. I really hate that ! In all probability I will look at some old imagery and see what I can put together this weekend.

With that in mind....look for my Blog to surpass the 19,000 view mark next week. That's pretty exciting....who'd a thunk....

Thursday, April 30, 2015

The pond...

Several years ago while still living in Joplin, we had a large Koi Pond and spent hours beside it watching the Koi. Last year we built one here losing a useless hill and gaining hours of enjoyment with the new addition. As  you know, I enjoy light and how the world interacts with it. We planted some Water Iris last year too late for them to bloom so it was somewhat of an unknown what to expect. This Spring has been delightful with the arrival of the blooms.

I'm sorry to be so brief but I have a commercial assignment to get to. I'll include more images of the pond at a later date.





Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Some things just can't be ignored.....

Saw it, had to keep it...

Time and technology......

Traveling through the southwest part of Oklahoma I was struck by the number of Windmills in the wind farms. Being in southern California several years ago I was impressed with the number there but I NEVER expected to see the number of them that we saw in my own state. It's like a marching group of troops facing into the wind. Their size is misleading when viewed from a distance as they don't look like they are 300 feet tall. The juxtaposition  of the older wind mill and the present ones was just too good to miss.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Floating Clouds...Anchored Rock......

In southwestern Oklahoma there are the remains of huge mountains that rose millions of years ago and have now dwindled in size leaving an incredible variance of formations. While traveling through the area recently I was struck by the variations of the land forms and quite frankly the amount of water in the lakes and streams. The rocks are mainly granite with some sandstone town in for "effect" and color variation. The fields appear to mainly grow rocks of all sizes and they are abundant where ever you look.

The force of the pressure that sent the mountains upward is visible in the angles of the huge slabs that support the whole pile. The color is typical Oklahoma red...aka after a few centuries..."Red Dirt". I guess the total palate could be boiled down to, as far as the rocks are concerned, red, grey, and black.
Mind you that these are not small rocks, they are huge boulders and slabs everywhere you look. From a distance the Mountains appear to be touching the sky. I caught a few shots and I'll show you some today and a few more tomorrow.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Fine day for Spring....

Was out this last weekend and caught a couple of shots that had perfect light. Soft and even....a get time to shoot.


Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Spring time colors...

Last year we planted a Japanese weeping cherry because of the shape of the tree and the blooms....

It looks like it made it through the winter...

Monday, March 30, 2015

Signs................

There are some images that speak for themselves.............I guess placement matters.
Have a great day....and look for the signs you never expected to see...