Photo Fairy Tail

I have finally given into peer pressure and started a 365 project. To those of you who do not know what this is, it is where you take a photo every day for a year and post it online. I also have the exciting news that I have a real internet domain now. For now it is still through blogger

Here is page one (picture number one)

You can find all the others at this address: http://www.photofairytail.com

A Noon Romp

I'm still tired and brain dead from this ride so no real good stories today. This ride was a lot of fun, but I have found out since getting back that the trail is meant for rather advanced riders. Well that explains why I thought I was going to kill myself a couple times there.....

An Evening Jaunt (I hope you like green)

YES!!!


If you do not know what this is, look at the third photograph in the previous post.

That aside, I have no real witty observation today. Mostly just the comment that the [enjoyable] effort I put into and the wasp sting I received to get my ol' mountain bike in working order and bike rack was all worth it to be able to ride again.

Here's my trip down the same trail as the last post, except a much further distance was traveled.



I like railroads, don't really know why, probably a childhood fascination of mine. So of course I like taking photos of said things, and that that goes on them. We have learned that the track along this trail is active, but tell me how several tons can be supported by THIS



I know when this picture was taken, but I do not recall taking it.... Oh well, I like it



How can I pass up a real mountain bike trail that is off the paved road? And I mean look at it. It looks nice a relaxing and enjoyable.



WRONG!!! The trail was awful, and apparently meant to be taken from the other direction than the one I came from. There were just awful spots that you could not feasibly ride up. The photos I took of the trail itself ended up blurry, so I'm not posting them here. One is up on my flickr however.

However-

Purrrrty



I never take pictures of myself, so:

During (equipped with dopey grin)



After (Get a haircut you dang hippy!)

An Evening Walk

Does walking even count as exercise? If so, how much do you have to do?

I am still waiting for my ankle to completely heal, in the mean time, I am stuck walking instead of running. Though earlier today I got my bike all up in working order again, so I hope to be able to ride it some too.

While going to a specific wine store the other day, I found out this place called Turkey Mountain is actually a lot shorter drive than I had always thought.

Well, we all know me, so on whim, I headed there the next day.



So, there is in fact slopes in the Tulsa area that are of a decent descent (you see what I did there?) Halfway down this hill was a broken sign saying "slow" on the ground. Guess that's what the bikers think of that.



I learned something this past week, apparently train tracks are still being build/laid, who'da thunk it?! Well, besides Warren Buffet.



Now then, who out there put coins on the train track to let them get squished by the train? I did! And on this walk on a rare occasion, I had a coin in my pocket. Woo! I cannot wait to go back and see if that train track is ever even used.



I still hate the walk back, but as I mentioned with the "I love you" picture, you do get to see things that you otherwise wouldn't.



Oh and I think I found an easter egg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_%28video_games%29) in life. This warning label:

An Evening Ride

Went for a nice ride this past Saturday evening with my roommate. We were expecting to do a 10 mile ride, but that did not happen thanks to the antics of a certain someone (Wasn't me for once! May very well be the first time too!) My roommate, Kelsey was wondering about why I was bringing my camera along, I attempted to convince her saying that whenever doing stuff like this, you should always have your camera. It is better to lug the sucker around and not take a single shot, then to ever have the feeling of, "dang, I wish I had my camera."

I showed her.



Just a little left of the "51" is where the shenanigans happened. Kelsey rockets down this hill ahead of me and at the bottom of it there is a left hand curve. All I see is her pull of this amazing trick. She does a 360 and lets the bike go under her legs and she sticks the landing. The bike however...



I am far from a bike expert, but I don't think its supposed to look like that. To those of you wondering, as I said she stuck the landing on her feet and got away with only a little scrape. We will have to wait for her to comment either on facebook or here for her version of the story. I personally think she just didn't feel like doing a full ten mile ride (even if it was her idea)



So for once, I didn't hurt myself, and I wasn't the one breaking a bike. I gave her mine so she could get the car. Well, had to entertain myself somehow.

An evening run

Well, originally I was planning on going for an evening bike ride on Riverside but thanks to logistical problems, it ended up being a nice run. It was quite a nice run, even though the heat index was 108 degrees with no breeze. Lots of people were fishing, riding bikes and running also, I was surprised.

So, how could I pass up a chance to take pictures on Riverside? So I carried my camera with me as I ran. Here's how it went:



Not long after I started running



Here I am on the bridge dam thing that was in the last shot. As you can see, its getting dark pretty fast, oh well.



I actually though this bridge was an before my starting point, but it was actually right after my starting point. Good thing too, I was getting tired.



This is actually after I finished running. I drove by here and then remembered that I had been meaning to take this picture for two years!

The Journey Back

You know, walking down that path was a lot of fun, but as often happens, I forgot about the fact that I had to turn and walk back.

I thought seriously about calling someone and having them come pick me up. Really did not feel like walking back for another at least 3 miles. I mean, I had already seen the scenery so there it was going to be boring.

Well, I was wrong. There are some things that can only be seen on the journey back.

I've walked awhile....

Well, continuing from yesterday. I did in fact walk down that trail taking pictures as I saw things. There really was not much to take pictures of. No critters or flowers, or other things. Plenty of houses, and the occasional bicyclist that road by me.

After walking for a couple miles, I got a nice view of downtown.

Still not sure when the trail turned at brought me downtown, thought I was heading west and not north....

I think this is the Methodist Church.

The Path

Hey, I am back!

So this past Saturday I decided to get some fresh air with my good buddy Sonya (my camera). So I headed on down to Riverside here in Tulsa to get some pictures of this one area. You can see my picture of PSO if you take a look at my facebook links.

As I headed back to my car after getting some pictures, I noticed a bike trail heading Westish by the parking lot I was on.

You can imagine what I did. And I'll tell you about it throughout the week, so keep checking back here!

Once you stop caring about the destination, life becomes an adventure.

BAMF

So, how is your day going? I actually wrote this post way back on the 27th. I am kind of out of things to write about at this point. Of the flower pictures I have done up to this point, this is the only one I actually did some serious editing to. Nothing was really done to the flower itself, but you can probably guess at what editing occurred to everything else.

I stand out

Day 3

I have had people tell me I should try selling my photos or doing freelance work of some sort. It is an interesting thought. I do however need to give a copy of that fountain picture to someone here at TU. I will do it for free too so long as it gets posted somewhere outside of the art school where people get to see it.

Now then everyone, I want you to spend the rest of the day like the center tulip, outshine everyone!

Remember, F11 switches to full screen mode so you can enjoy my photography better.

Shades of Tulips

You see, I wasn't kidding, its 2:20 and there is a new post up. Believe me now?

I don't know about you, but I think these bright and happy pictures improve my day whenever I see them. This one in particular, I think it belongs in the default desktop background selections of Windows and/or Macs.

That's enough talking for today.

Community Service

I have no idea why I ever bother thinking something is going to be uneventful. If there is one thing I can count on, it is that my very existence will cause chaos.

Well for my Accounting Honors Fraternity, Beta Alpha Psi, I have to do five hours of community service each semester. Three of it has to be BAP sponsored, the rest can be any kind of community service. I did my BAP sponsored service at the community food bank. It was rather disgusting. they had us sorting Wal-Mart bakery stuff and Wal-Mart produce that the stores couldn't sell any more. I say sorting, but it was really, get the stuff out of Wal-Mart boxes and put them in unmarked boxes. No idea why we had to do that, but whatever. For my other two hours I emailed my aunt who works as the CFO of YWCA in Tulsa, and asked her if there was anything I could do for YWCA. I suggested photographing something since I did that for one of the events and my sister's nonprofit before. My aunt and the head marketing woman said I could take pictures of the four locations here in Tulsa. I thought it would be boring, but it got my credit and I did not have to do something I did not enjoy.

Well that was my first mistake, thinking this would be uneventful and boring? Yeah right.

I said I would do it on a Wednesday morning, so my aunt could send out an email to the different branches saying I'd be taking external photos and that I had permission, so don't call the cops. I am actually kind of sad, at all four locations no one ever said anything to me. bah. boring.

Went to the first location. Missed the turn off because I skipped a step with the directions on my phone. I should make an important note at this point, I have an iPhone which has a GPS built into it that uses Google Maps. After getting there, I got the pictures taken, not the most photogenic of buildings, and it was wee bit cold outside, but got it done.

Decided I was hungry so I went to Merritt's Bakery for some breakfast, it was quite tasty, love that place, if you are ever in Tulsa, be sure to drop by there. After that, off to Quiktrip for gas. While at QT I was going for the one open spot, when this HUGE dump truck/semi/unnecessarily-large-vehicle that can't see worth a crap decided he needed to backup....right where my nice little Japanese car was. I floored it into a parking spot to get out of the way. While this truck is attempting to back up, for whatever stupid reason, a car tried to get by behind it, while the SUV next to me in the parking spot is also trying to backup, all in this teensy area. I still have no idea how we didn't have a three car accident. By the time I got out of the parking lot with my gas I had nearly been in four accidents. Okey drivers, pah! Us Arkansan drivers no how to drive, okay that is a lie, my driving test consisted of six right hand turns in a residential area. No left hand turns.

At the second location, which is where my aunt works, I took shots of a much more photogenic building, and got to meet the Marketing director. After I finished up there I was sitting in my car typing the next location into my phone GPS. It told me to go west and north and take several interstate/highway/expressways. I usually try to avoid these as I hate the expressway/interstate system in Tulsa since it is confusing and many exits have no names. Well, I took the route on my phone anyway and got to the location....well I went by it....three times and took two wrong turns. For your information, the location was supposed to be right off the interstate. I finally stopped in a big deserted parking lot to figure out how I kept missing the place. I really didn't like this since I was getting nervous, I mean I had seen around 12 police cars in the time I was wandering around. I eventually realized what happened. My directions sent me to NORTH Delaware instead of SOUTH Delaware. Once I realized this, I retyped the address, correctly this time. came up with directions, .4 miles. I thought "sweet, I'm not far from the location" nope, it sent me right back where it had been, to these deserted (I hope) crap houses. Well somehow my iPhone GPS which uses GOOGLE maps somehow had trouble understanding that the word SOUTH is different from the word NORTH. So I went on the browser and found the real location, I knew where it was by looking at it on a separate map, so I did not need directions, well, I wouldn't if I wasn't in who knows where Tulsa. I put that location off for last and typed in the next address into my GPS, making sure it didn't do any funny business with the address. It sent me fifteen miles North.

I eventually get into the general area of the next center and couldn't help but think my phone was screwing around with me again. I was in some city that reminded me of small impoverished Arkansas towns. I had no idea this city, whatever it was existed. In fact I still have no idea where I was. But after driving by the street once (it was one of those annoying cases where you see your street right as you drive by it.) I get to the location. This building took the cake with unphotogenic. It reminded me of the Fayetteville Jail, except plainer and less trees. After taking my pictures, to avoid the crap that my phone sent me through before, I forced it to give me directions to the general area of the final center. And once I was sure I was headed in the right direction, I headed out based on the phone directions again.

Well, my phone wasn't done messing with me. The blue dot telling me where I am was on the right road as I drove. The road I was on was the one by the YWCA but it went through neighborhoods as it led to the interstate. So I am driving along when I notice a speed bump ahead. Actually, it was more like a speed mountain. I think it was just barely under my ground clearance and was five feet in thickness. My car was not pleased by this. Then fifty feet later **whabump** I hit another of the suckers. Barely noticed it in time, luckily it had annoying white stripes on it. I go over three more and then get on a more or less newly paved road. I am driving along when **crakubump** The evil road crews added stealth bumps that blended in with the blacktop and had no markings. I got hit by another of the stealth car destroyers before getting off the new paved area. Then it was back to the marked bumps. All this time I kept thinking that it was weird that this road lead to the interstate. When I hit a deadend, I figured out what happened, I was supposed to be one street over.

When i finally made it to the interstate, I was on the on-ramp getting ready to get over when i realized that this huge semi wasn't slowing down or getting over for me to merge on. That was a bit frightening as I floored it, literally, that pedal couldn't go down any further, and somehow got ahead of the guy before he annihilated me. I think that was near accident I had seen or nearly been in number 15. Okey drivers are TERRIBLE!

My phone told me to just keep going on the interstate until I got to my location. Well what my phone forgot to mention to me was whether to merge right or left as the interstate turned into and expressway, another interstate, then a different expressway. Or the fact that there were detours due to construction!

I finally (read: somehow) made it to the Quiktrip across the road from my final location. I was at the QT since my aunt told me that would be my best vantage point. I got the pictures, saw another six near accidents, I gotta say, at least the Okeys have good reaction speeds. Then I went across the street and parked in the YWCA parking lot and took some more pictures. This location was fun as the house (it was a house, not sure what they do there though) was really pretty and it had a tree outside that was still had orange autumn leaves.

This is where I took the following picture, quite a nice place eh?

As a final note, I have since learned that the reason there were so many police cars at the wrong place where my phone sent me was because I was by the Prison. And what is cool, is that my photos are being used in YWCA presentations.

Check out their website: http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=ejIRK6OWG&b=4485239