Cris' Photo Journal

The True Romantic Feeling

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:20:53 +0000

"Is not this the true romantic feeling - not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you."
- Thomas Wolfe

"I was not a classic mother. But my kids were never palmed off to boarding school. So, I didn't bake cookies. You can buy cookies, but you can't buy love."
- Raquel Welch

Wishing for you a Valentine's day of warmth, kindness and peace - and love in any one of its many beautiful forms.

It's been an incredibly busy time.

This photo journal entry was going to be of a cottontail rabbit. I'm guessing you noticed the picture above is not that of a bunny. When taking the dogs to and from the back yard, they have frequently paused on the deck to sniff - really sniff - between the boards in one particular spot. I honestly do not know how they keep from hyperventilating some times. This usually means that some little critter has made a home under the deck. As long as it isn't a skunk, I'm okay with that. There are probably other creatures that are on the please don't make your home under the deck list, but I digress.

One day while eating lunch and looking out the bay window onto the deck this winter, a young cottontail rabbit ever so slowly appeared out from under the deck steps. The fur on the top of his head was all a muss, like that of a little kid when popping its head out from under the bed covers. This prompted the thought of posting a rabbit picture.

During work today, I came across a folder of warm, richly orange colored gladiolus pictures taken last summer. (Just before the deer ate them - and the drought hit.) Happy, soothing colors. Sounds great to make a quick addition to the pictures in rotation of the computer wallpaper. That's how the quick break started. But the photo had other ideas. The photo said it had delicate grace, light and form and that all that color, though nice, was distracting. Hummingbirds would surely disagree. The hummingbirds are wintering south of the border, so they didn't get a vote.

The key word for the selected quotes was supposed to be, "classic," - prompted by the feel of many black and white photos. That lead to a quote about "not a classic mother," and the word love. That lead to thoughts of my mom who liked Thomas Wolfe, which lead to a quote about true romantic feeling, which reminds me - Hey! It's Valentine's Day.

So, Happy Valentine's Day.

Remembering Spring - A Gladiolus

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:26:04 +0000

"The Nature of This Flower is to bloom."
- Alice Walker

Thinking of spring and hoping for rain and cooler temperatures to give relief for all.

This was the first year I planted gladiolus. I've always enjoyed their graceful, ever-changing beauty. They come in a variety of colors. I had to be quick to cut the stalks to put them in water in the vase. The deer seemed to enjoy the tender flower buds - at least enough to try them out... aka, eat them. So, pretty much, if we wanted to get to look at them, we weren't going to be able to do that much actually outside in the garden.

The Splendor - Iridescent Peacock

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Sat, 14 May 2011 13:42:43 +0000

"I thank You God for this most amazing day;
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes."
- E. E. Cummings

Continuing is the theme of For the Birds - bird pictures. Mr. Shannon inquired as to the possibility of a peacock picture appearing in the mix. I shant disappoint. So these are for Shannon - and for Miss Joni too, who has shared her appreciation for these magnificant creatures as well. They are interesting birds. It never ceases to amaze me how colorful birds can be.

Both of these photos were taken at Clark Gardens Botanical Park, at different times.

There is a lovely, delightful young lady who works at Clark Gardens. We will call her Miss B. Miss B. has a waryness of birds, especially large ones. She never had a bad encounter with a bird, but she is, well, terribly afraid of them. Imagine how she felt, new to her job when she discovered that the peacocks like to stay in the area near the office building - where her office is. The peacocks like to look at themselves in the large glass windows (floor to ceiling) that are - you guessed it - at the front of the building on either side of the also glass front door. During some seasons, the peacocks will jump at the glass to challenge and attack the peacock that looks just like them.

Early in her tenure, Miss B. noted how the peacocks like to stand on her car, and how she would walk way around them to get where she was going, or wait until they moved away from the area she needed to be. It should be mentioned, these peacocks are used to being around people, so they don't exactly scurry away when a human is near. Now - that time has passed, Miss B. says they don't bother her nearly as much as they did in the beginning. Yay.

I'd like to extend a special thank you to Miss Eileen. Eileen, one of my favorite parts of wirting this little blog is the anticipation of getting a note from you. I deeply enjoy the stories and comments you share.

Until next time...

5x7 peacock photo note cards are available.

Hummingbird and Honeysuckle

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Wed, 11 May 2011 02:28:14 +0000

"I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Everyone wants to understand painting. Why don't they try to understand the singing of birds?
People love the night, a flower, everything that surrounds them without trying to understand them.
But painting - that they must understand."
- Pablo Picasso

"Different people have different duties assigned to them by Nature;
Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat."
- Anonymous

This week is for the birds. That's right. The next few photos will be of birds. Hopefully I will remember there is a theme in the works. Good thing it's in writing.

It would be wrong of me to lead you to believe that the picture above is a glorious capture of a hummingbid in flight, enjoying a honeysuckle flower. While those are the subjects, this is one image made up of two separate photographs.

One of the neatest pictures I never took was of a hummingbird. I was near my dad's house taking pictures of a butterfly on a lone and tall thistle flower. Quite content I was. Click. Click. Click, Then a hummingbird suddenly appeared. [Hummingbirds never slowly appear.] The butterfly and hummingbird were both enjoying the thistle flower at the same time. Wow! How cool is this!?. Oh - I should take their pictu... The hummingbird was gone.

This must be why we have memories. 'Cause we don't always have a camera. And even if we do, sometimes it's just more fun to enjoy the moment. Sounds like a great excuse from the person who missed taking a potentially awesome photograph. Have ya ever noticed how the pictures we miss taking were always going to be the best ever?

I like Pablo Picasso's quote above. You can just feel his frustration from hearing everyone else's views and questions of his work. I'm sure every artist must think, "I paint. You enjoy." Seems simple enough.

The hummingbird & honeysuckle photo above is available as a 5x7 note card and an 8"x10" fine art print. Until next time...

Happy Mother's Day 2011

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Sun, 08 May 2011 21:25:42 +0000

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of children."
- William Makepeace Thackeray

"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side,

yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and to become fully independent."
- Erich Fromm

"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."
- Shirley Temple

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I'm not a mom myself, but by being around lots of great ones, including my own, I have a deep appreciation for their patience, tolerance and love.

My mom taught me more than she will ever know, and I retained more of it than I would ever let on while she was here with us. Often, when I look at a flowering plant, the identity is shared with me by her somehow. I don't know how it works, and that doesn't matter. One time it was especially noticeable. Bill and I were looking at the flowers along our neighbors hillside. There was a single plant with a beautiful vibrant flower of flame orange-red. Bill asked me what it was. I told him it was a crocus. When we got back in the house, I looked it up and sure enough, it was a crocus. I don't know the first thing about crocus. Mom did. She knew everything.

Mom was a scholar, an intelectual, who knew to come in out of the rain. Not all intellectuals have common sense. She did. She told me that when she was little and in school, her desk was along the wall where the encyclopedias were kept. When she was through working on her school work, she would read them. She started with A and worked her way to somewhere past the middle of the set when the school year was over. (She told me which letter, but I can't remember.)

Mom loved plants and flowers and making stuff grow. And boy could she make it grow. She had lots of green thumbs. She had an opinion too - and shared it. It wasn't often at all that I disagreed; and I could always appreciate her view-point. She and my dad are the two most gracious and generous people I've ever had the privilege of knowing. So- to my dad - I wish you a happy day on this Mother's Day. Thank you for marrying my mom and puttin' up with me. I know you share my feelings for all the great moms, 'cause Grandma was awesome!

The lovely young lady in the picture above is my step-daughter, Laura (19). It was taken at Christmas 2010. She is playing her dad's guitar. His kids and I pitched-in to get it for him. Laura is one of my favorite subjects to photograph. She's always been a willing victim - and she's cute. Until next time...

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly - Spring Has Arrived

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:18:15 +0000

"I appreciate the misunderstanding
I have with Nature over my perennial border.
I think it is a flower garden;
she thinks it is a meadow, lacking grass,
and tries to correct the error."
- Sara Stein, The Woods, 1988

The butterflies are in abundance this year! All shapes and sizes and colors. Lovely flying flowers.

As I'm posting this, I'm listening to Frank Sinatra sing, "I Have Dreamed," from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. An amazing combination of talents. "How you look in the glow of evening. I have dreamed and enjoyed the view." Much can be said for dreams and memories... our way of seeing what we want to see.

Looking too closely at a butterfly reveals a complex variety of detail, some that is not always so beautiful as we may wish to remember. On the other hand... When I posted a closeup picture showing the texture of a monarch butterfly's wing, a dear reader sent me an email noting that it looked like a fingerprint. How enchanting that we may find a way to identify closely with a creature who is so different from ourselves. A humbling thought. Something so individualistic as a human fingerprint, that it can be seen in a resilient butterfly wing. Thank you for granting me another pleasant memory to tuck away for pondering while watching butterflies dance across the flowers of spring in the glow of evening.

This year the flower gardens are getting some much needed attention. 58 gladiolus bulbs of various colors have been planted in the sun garden. Yes, I counted them. The zinnia flowerbed was a pleasant experiment last fall, so it has lots of zinnia seeds, of which 15 have already sprouted. Yes, I counted them too. A couple of other sunny spots have a mix of seeds for flowers that are supposed to please hummingbirds, and a variety of perennials elsewhere. I didn't count those. Too many and much too small.

I hope you are having a pleasant start of spring. Until next time...

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly photograph taken at Clark Gardens Botanical Park. Canon 100-400mm lens @300mm, 1/1000 sec, f/10, IS0-400

Daffodil - Spring Is On The Way

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 05:55:08 +0000

"As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can."
- Alice Walker

Swan Song - Without the Tune

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:16:17 +0000

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
- Unknown

I hope 2011 is getting off to a good start for you and yours. We had a nice holiday season - well, except for the skunk that came to visit. He's gone now and so is the smell. Thank goodness.

The swan photograph used in the image above, was taken at Clark Gardens Botanical Park as we were leaving from a meeting there. Wonderful, hard-working folks there. Their 35-acres of diverse gardens are proof. At right is the photograph used to make the image above.

We've (Pro Epic) been busy building websites. One of them is for the Baker Hotel Development Project in Mineral Wells, Texas. We are just itching to take that one live. There are only a few more items we are waiting on from the hotel development team before it's ready to go. It is an exciting project. The renovation of the extraordinary landmark would be a welcome event. My mom and dad got to enjoy the hotel when it was open. I hope to be able to do the same when the Baker Hotel reopens its doors as a beautiful spa resort.

More to come...

Merry Christmas 2010

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:20:44 +0000

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving - 2010

cris@crisphoto.com (Criseyda Koonce) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:17:06 +0000

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."
- Albert Schweitzer

I hope you and yours are having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. A few years ago I got to see these wild turkey gobblers who were in full strut, trying to impress the ladies (aka: turkey hens). This was a fun picture to take. I was about 30 feet away walking parallel with them. They were walking very slowly and deliberately and would turn side to side so the hens could see all their beautifulness. I got lucky and they briefly decided to face the same way - at the same time. If I took one step toward them, they would slowly start to drop their feathers. As soon as I took that step back away from them, their feathers would go back up.