Day 16: Some Letters (Not Mail)

I have had several people ask me if i was finished with my Photography Challenge and posting new pics.  First off i am deeply humbled that people have followed my blog and have enjoyed it enough to take the time to ask me about it.  Next I am not done and even when the 30 Day list i am doing now is completed I have another way I am going to use to keep my creativity, photography and blogging going.  I am not going to give you a bunch of excuses why I haven't posted in a bit but I am sure if you can use your imagination or just your lives at this time of year and you can kinda figure out what has thrown a wrench in the mechanism.  I thoroughly enjoy this and will keep it going as long as I am having fun.

Back to the ranch, the next challenge facing my lens is Letters (not Mail).  This was a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, there are plenty of chances to photograph letters but for the life of me I had a hard time finding a subject that struck my artistic bulls-eye, being  relatively immature in my artistic endeavors  my bulls-eye is still rather large and undefined.  (My artistry is not the only immature thing about me just ask Wende how I love a good improper joke.)

I was feeling guilty that I haven't updated the blog in a timely manner so today I made myself go find some letters to capture.  As i was getting my camera together to go grab my shots it came to me that I own a few letters, well at least a few of the lettered series of John Deere Tractors.  My little collection of antique Deere's started with the G that belonged to Wende's granddad Edo.  I brought this tractor home from the Hobbs farm and did a little work to it to make it a decent lugger for antique tractor pulling.  One thing I haven't done to it is any body work or paint. (Just not my thing, to meticulous and clean I like getting greasy working on a tractor)

So here it is a photo of one of my letters, Edo's G.

Oh I almost forgot!  I used my 50mm/1.8 on this because i wanted a very shallow depth of field so that just part of the screen printed G was in focus. 

Come back next time for:  Day 17 A Clock

Day 12: An Animal

I really want to post the photo of the burrowing owl I took a couple months ago. (Getting fancy aren't I, making words click-able to take you somewhere else.)  But it really wouldn't be much of a challenge and educational experience if i just regurgitated photos i had already taken.  So alas another picture i shall take.

But what Smokey Zoee's dog, Tiger Zoee's cat or Thunder Zoee's rabbit.  Dog is too hyper, cat skiddish unless you are Zoee, rabbit has gotten a little wild and it is a rabbit so it is fast and I am not! Zoee's menagerie is out.  Just saw on TV that barbers were prohibited from practicing surgery in 1745 now if they will just ban Doctors from giving haircuts.  Back on topic I shot the owl today (No not like that don't call the game warden) but he was too far away and the light wasn't right and no dice on replicating my lucky shot of that little guy.  I think my little ground squirrel buddy has gone south for the winter or whatever those little guys do.

You guessed it I took the easy way out and too a pic of a cow.  I made it a little different at least it isn't your everyday cow chewing her cud looking looking at the camera.  I was headed home after a day of trying to stay awake at the office (not much going on this time of year being able to stay awake all day is a major accomplishment) and i saw the sunset and the heard munching away and headed to the waterin' hole. So i said to myself "Self why don't you get a nice sunset silhouette of a cow for your animal assignment." Here it is Day 12: An Animal.

 

Come back tomorrow or the next day or whenever i get to day 13 for Day 13: Your Favorite Building.

Days 7 and 8

Day 7: Something Green

Well something green sure as heck should be easy for me since I an a farmer and there is plenty of green to be found around the farm.  We have green in all shades, the gorgeous blue-green of cotton, yellow-green of peanuts, bright green of newly emerging wheat, the pungent green of a steaming cow patty, and of course John Deere green in all its shade from shiny and new to well used and faded to perfection.

"Well why didn't you just take a picture of on of those things and throw it up to stay on schedule we have been waiting on pins and needles for your next post."  I know that is what everyone has been thinking over the last couple days waiting on me to update my blog.  Not really i know you were too busy watching football.  Here is why i didn't post a pic of one of the obvious farm shots, first off it is late fall and the only thing growing and green is some seedling wheat, that isn't too photogenic yet, and weeds that are too dumb to realize that it has frozen and they are supposed to be dead,  I am keeping the steamer in mind for another photo opportunity so you may still see it in the future and I already did the John Deere thing.

While walking around Daddy Doc's old shop looking for something interesting to shoot I saw this old screwdriver sticking into a board holding a key.  I am not sure what the key goes to since we don't keep that old building locked since Cory took Old Blue to KC, Cory has that old truck looking good.  I liked the look and decided that this would be my subject for "Something Green"

Day 8: Something Tall

Guess what, I found the subject for my next challenge on the farm amazing isn't it?  I think part of this challenge is to take something you see everyday and find an artistic and unique way to capture in in one of the categories of the challenge.  When I first saw the challenge of the day was something tall I thought I had better call up my buddy Kurt, he is tall, but then I dont always go for the obvious, so lets look for something else.

I decided to use the old overhead fertilizer bins for today's shoot, might as well use them for something, as much as fertilizer costs I don't see them getting filled until we recover form this dad'gum drought.  They are tall I am guessing about 40' or so.  I stood under them shooting up the leg by the latter to force the perspective to make them look even taller. 

A little work in Light room to give them a harder more industrial look, so here we go with "Something Tall"

Come back tomorrow for Day 9: Somewhere you like to relax.

Day 6: A Colleague

Today's challenge is to shoot a Colleague, sometimes that would be a therapeutic release and not a challenge, but i guess that is not exactly the meaning the author of the challenge had in mind.  Websters defines colleague as: a fellow worker or member of a staff, department, profession, etc Webster defines it better than me, my definition is: Bubba that works with me.  Well I was out working with John yesterday and after we were finished for the day and knowing that the photo of the day was supposed to be of a colleague, so I grabbed the camera outta the truck and snapped a couple off.  John is a hard worker, as a matter of fact he did all the work i just pointed him in the right direction and told him how fast to do it (I'm a nice co-worker huh wanna job?)

Well it is time for John and I to get back to work, so enjoy my colleague, John Deere.

 All my guys that work around here are great, and i don't know how I would get along with out them.  We are all scattered out doing what needs to be done so I didn't even see any of them to snap a pic of any of them.

Come back Tomorrow and see what the Challenge: Green will bring. 

My View From the Farm

Howdy! Welcome to my little blog. I decided to try my hand at this thing called blogging. And what a better topic to blog about than what I love doing and that is farming!

I will use this blog to let you follow along with me as I attempt to have a successful farming operation in this challenging time of high input costs and low commodity prices.

Where do we stand as of now? Well that can be answered in one word: DRY! The winter and spring of 2009 has been extremely dry and windy here on the high plains of Texas. So we are starting a little behind the eight ball but there have been some scattered thunderstorms around so we could catch up on moisture anytime. Every day we are one day closer to a rain.

What is the current state of the farm? We have wheat for harvest growing and have begun haying some of our wheat. Fertilizer is going out on the cotton and peanut ground. I still don't have a good plan on how many acres are going into peanuts and cotton, but peanut acres will be down this year due to low prices and demand for peanuts. Please eat more peanuts!


I will do my best to keep you posted.