Cheekwood.....

As I mentioned in my last entry, we saw the Eclipse from a location at Cheekwood. The property is an extremely well maintained Estate housing an art museum and wonderful gardens. It is located in Nashville and really ought to be checked out if you're in the area.

The tickets for viewing the Eclipse were sold out pretty early as it was a complete venue with food trucks, a band, and a great forecast for the day. Here is just a couple images of the day and the location.

I must throw out a disclaimer as these images weren't taken by me but are from the Cheekwood webpage

A catch in the ol' getalong....

Before we left for Franklin/Nashville my left hip and leg seemed to be in trouble. It hurt to walk with pain from my left hip with an occasional spike down my left leg. I was coming down the stairs from my office and three steps from the bottom my left leg gave out....sort of disappeared so to speak. I became a temporary "Flying Wallenda" and landed on my right hip holding my Nikon safely away from the floor. I gave it the expected ooooh's and OH *****s but eventually hobbled into the bedroom and got in the sack.

The next day everything seemed to be good as the leg/hip weren't really bothering me so we took the road trip. While in Tennessee both parts of my body decided that they needed to be heard and they were. I had to use the cane we brought and a wagon to transport my cameras, mirrors, tripod etc. to the shooting site.

After getting back I went to see my doctor and he prescribed some pills that take the pain away but that's about it. After watching a million doctor shows on TV and an occasional Soap opera, I have decided that I need an MRI. And will look into that next week. In the mean time I remembered
the Grapefruit tree I planted while at Southwest Mo State while in my second year in college.

I ate a grapefruit in the cafeteria and found a seed and wondered if it would grow. I took it back to my room in Freudenberger and planted it in a paper cup. The damn thing grew. I took it to Grad school with me and it continued to grow. I started my business and it was with me. I took it to Louisiana in 81 and it still prospered. Then to Dallas....grow baby grow. It was really starting to get out of had so I started to trim it back. Back to Carthage and in the studio window it was graced with Christmas ornaments and lights and was trimmed back every now and then. When Karen and I moved to Tulsa it came with us. We got here in "02" so the tree at that time was over 30 years old. I had it in a large pot that was somewhat sizable. We had no place to put it in the winter with the exception of an upstairs office. SOOOOOO I took it up. For the next few years it would come down in the summer and up in the winter. It also got a trim every now and then. I guess it was 2 years ago in 2014......I just sort of forgot about it. The tree was 45 years old. The trimming kept the height under control but the trunk continued to gain in width.  The tree died from my inadvertent mismanagement of watering it, so it just sat as a constant reminder of my stupidity. A month or two ago I dislodged it from the pot it was in and took it outside and hosed off the rootball. I didn't know what to do with it. Turn it into a sculpture.....wall hanging reminder to pay attention........I was stuck. Last night it woke me up !
I had a vision !!!

I just delivered it to a master craftsman, Jim Vanderlind, whom I have talked to here in the blog before, and he is going to turn it into a cane for me. It took the first spin on the lathe this morning
and we got a look at what was under the bark. It will be a very light wood with a different colored handle of an exotic hardwood. One more reason to keep some stuff that has history...

The Eclipse....

With grand visions we left for Nashville last Thursday after downing a Starbucks cold Doubleshot. I have found that I can drive long hours with a little help from the Doubleshot. I'm very alert and it smooths out the drive. I had a thought or two about the Eclipse and how I wanted to shoot it and I got sorta close. I had visions of 4 mirrors on the ground reflecting trees, the sky, and Eclipse. Hoping that the mirrors would transform into square holes in the ground filled with trees, clouds and  blue sky and the Eclipse.

Really not thinking of the whole picture...it gets dark during an eclipse, stacking frames may not work, and probably a few other issues I hadn't thought of. All of  this was compounded by the fact that I took a rather nasty fall from the third stair from the bottom of our stairway and really knocked the dickins out of my left hip which had been giving me painful unexpected problems previously.

Karen helped me up and we went to bed with an occasional yelp from me. Morning came and the hip seemed OK so we left on the Great American Eclipse Road Trip. 8 or 9 hours later we arrived at my sisters where we were staying for the duration in outside of Nashville. I had ordered Solar Glasses from the net and were to arrive before we left. They didn't.......that fit in real well with the hip agenda.

metric and Canada.Arriving we were met by her "show dogs" a couple of Shelter finds, and we got settled.We messed around Nashville and the surrounding and had dinner with Nephews and Great Nephews, along with other activities.  Both of my nephews are very accomplished individuals, one is the Digital Director for a major implement company, while the other is an accomplished sound engineer and traveling with major recording stars running their sound for them in arenas throughout North America and Canada.

"E" day arrived and we sent out to Cheekwood for the viewing. It is a wonderful acreage that houses Museums, a sprawling park with ponds and trails. Fortunately my sister got us entrance tickets before they ran out. Almost immediately I spotted the site I wanted and we all advanced to it. As I was basically marking my site with the mirrors the area started filling up and I bent over and WHAMMO!
My back/hip shot a bolt of lightning down my leg. I'm glad I had my cane as if I didn't I would have landed on my duff. Andy, # 2 Nephew, set the mirrors up for me and we waited.

As forecast the eclipse started and immediately the clouds started to collect. I knew it ! The only reason they were around was because I was going to be photographing it. To make a long story short and not keep you drowning in suspense......the clouds parted, disappeared, and we got our Eclipse.

ling home I listened to my wife playing her Ukulele in the passenger seat. A great trip.

Looking up and forward.....

We are a week away from the last total eclipse I'll see, without traveling around the world, in my lifetime. I have some explicit plans to capture it but need to do some tests to make sure my plans will work. Of course it's raining now which limits my ability to do anything even faintly close to a test using the sun. Maybe this afternoon it will stop and I can start with the testing. I'm sure that some tweaking will be necessary to achieve what I want and from the location I'll be viewing. I checked the forecast as to the duration of darkness and it looks to be about 2 minutes. I will have to have everything set up in advance to complete the imagery. Hopefully there will be blue sky with no clouds and all will go as planned. I'll keep you posted.

Testing....

I have some thoughts of what I want to do with the eclipse that is coming up and today I'll start some tests to see if it is possible to complete my "minds eye vision". I've never done this type of shooting before so it should be interesting to say the least. I think I'll videotape as well as complete some still images of the eclipse as the old saying goes, "if ya don't have the pictures ya can't proceed with using them." I think this advice was found along with animal paintings on cave walls in France. I think that's what I heard.....

The eclipse....again....

Week after next we will be in for a real treat with the solar eclipse. I remember the one in the 80's which, although wasn't total, made the birds get crazy, traffic to pull over and stop, and everyone look around with a smile on their face. I'm looking forward to it with controlled abandon. It will obviously be the last I see in this lifetime unless I travel to one. Not likely. I have some pictorial plans laid out and it will be fun to see if I can pull them off. The time of the eclipse is only around two minutes so I'll have to do some preplanning as to the layout of my accessories that will be part of the shadow show. If I can pull my idea off it will be pretty amazing, But...you know what they say..Only the Shadow knows for sure......and he ain't tellin'. Tune in later to see if I was successful.