Gather Ye Magnolias While Ye May...

Jan and I took another walk around the neighborhood, and I took along the Nikon to get a better shot of the white heron that hangs around the ditches searching out the minnows. I thought sure this would be the time.... but no success.

So, in order not to go away completely empty-handed, we looked for flowers to shoot. We came across a very large magnolia tree with several blooms near the top. Thank goodness for telephoto lenses! We started singing "Mag Nolia Grandi Flora, with your blossoms white and creamy..." a song from grade school. That was the only line we remembered.

I have a special "connection" with magnolias. I was born in the city of Magnolia, Mississippi. My mother loved magnolias, and had a painting of a magnolia flower hanging over the piano at our house for as long as I can remember. My sister Alice has it now. Her daughter Emily has painted magnolia flowers and the paintings are as good as any I have seen. And, not to stretch the point too far, the magnolia is the state flower of Louisiana, where I grew up.

Hope you like the photo. Tomorrow, I am invited to photograph birds. I hope I am more successful than I have been with the wily white heron!

Mike Z

In Heather's Honor, the Raven Totem

Heather, the Raven Lady, has had several posts on her weblog Raven Lady lately about her baby ravens and raven totems. Go there and check out her videos! They are amazing.

Seeing the videos and reading the posts about ravens and raven totem lore, brought to mind the photos I took of a raven totem pole at the Native Indian Totem Pole Museum in Alaska. The totem stood originally atop a very tall pole, and has a unique history, which I captured in a separate photo below (the photo is pretty dark, so click on it to enlarge if you have trouble reading it).


The other interesting totem I saw was a likeness of Abraham Lincoln! Obviously, Honest Abe held a position of great respect and honor in the native culture. Sadly, I can't locate the photo I took of President Lincoln's totem. Mea culpa.

More later. I hope to try my hand at taking bird photos at a friend's house this weekend. They have a feeder and attract numerous species including hummingbirds. That will be a challenge! Wish me luck.

Best regards, Mike Z

Bridge to the Clouds

We drove to New Orleans last weekend for my 40th high school reunion (yes, I'm THAT old...) and stayed at the Marriott Lakeway hotel Saturday night. Sunday morning I looked out the window and saw the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway (see the Wikipedia listing) seemingly going off into the clouds. I tried to capture that look with this photo.

The effect comes from the fog that was forming over the north end of the causeway, making the bridge seem to end in the cloud you see in the distance. At almost 24 miles long, the north end of the spans are difficult to see on the clearest of days.

For those that are curious, we did have a great time at the reunion. Saw some folks that I remembered, and caught up on what was going on with the old high school crowd. Good fortune smiled, and I didn't hear of anyone who had passed away since the last reunion I attended, the 20th. That one was a riverboat cruise on the riverboat Natchez, a pretty fun excursion! Jan had the great idea to bring my Senior Yearbook and have people sign it. I think people were amazed to see how they looked way back when. It was a great icebreaker, too--imagine a 57 year old geezer coming up to you and saying, "Want to sign my yearbook?" I can tell you it got plenty of laughs!

Some of the yearbook entries ran the gamut of optimism/pessimism, which I found pretty interesting. One fellow signed the book "See you in 40 years," another signed it "See you in a nursing home." That kind of thing. I jokingly told everyone that I think more people signed my book this year than when I was in school!

That's about all for now. I got to get to bed and get ready for work tomorrow. Thanks again for visiting!
Mike
PS if you go to the Wikipedia link above you can see the hotel we stayed in. We were on the 10th floor....

Sometimes weeds can be Beautiful

Another quick post to "show off" some flowers that Jan and I saw on our walk (see post below). As we walked Jan pointed and said, "there's some pretty yellow flowers, why don't you take some pictures of those?" I liked them so much I did just that.

I did absolutely nothing to this photo to make it "better." Sometimes the beauty in a thing just has to stand on its own. If I had tried to do just one little tiny adjustment to it, I think it might have spelled doom for the whole photo. The problem with post-production to my mind is that you (I) never know when enough's enough. So I left it.

I am so glad you stopped by to share these photos and stories with me. One thing about photography -- there's always something new to shoot. I hope you find the things I shoot interesting. 'Bye for now.