Mississippi HDR

So. Did anyone guess Vicksburg MS? After all those years I spent going back and forth from Marietta GA to Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Austin TX, The Mississippi Visitor's Center at Vicksburg - overlooking Old Man River as you can see - easily became my favorite rest stop. . . and some trips it was the only one! With my Suburban's 600 mile range I could drive from Marietta to Shreveport in one stretch. So, if I was going for a personal best I could fill up the tank (42 gal) and take a couple of turns around the Visitor's Center in Vicksburg and get back on the road with a minimal delay. Anyway, comin' or goin' I always stop in Vicksburg.

This lovely weather was the day after we did a good stretch of the Natches Trace Parkway in a driving thunderstorm then, after abandoning the Trace in Tupelo, ran out of gas coming into Oxford MS. The rain quit when I called USAA - I'm not sure how they managed that, but I appreciate it - and it was replaced by a great rainbow to boot! I guess that was the Cosmic Joker's way of saying, "Aw, shucks. I was just pullin' your leg."

The white bridge is the 4 lane I-20/US80 Vicksburg Bridge, which opened in 1973. The black one is the Old Vicksburg Bridge, a combination auto/railway bridge built in 1929, which continued to carry auto traffic across the river until 1998. Now, it carries the Kansas City Southern Railway and only maintenance vehicular traffic. I remember it as narrow lanes surrounded by a steel skeleton. But, since I don't have to use it anymore and it looks terrific (the American Flag is a nice touch), I hope it continues to serve as long as I'm around.

In this shot, I had noticed the flag standing out perfectly and zoomed in a bit to emphasize it. It may not be the best of the shots, but I love the detail of the bridge itself - as well as the flag. I took all these shots from the comfort of the Welcome Center veranda. I only moved the tripod once, a couple of feet, for the image below. I had just told Mom that I usually saw barge traffic on the river when I stopped and, lo and behold, a barge appeared, making its way upstream.

Oh. The Rangers lost last night (2-1), but beat the Red Sox tonight (5-3) to take the 3 game series.

OHIO HDR

You didn't think I'd forgotten about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, did you? Gotta keep practicin'. I had visions of spending a day in the junkyard with my camera, but it didn't happen. . . this time. For some reason, the eerie surrealistic qualities that HDR sometimes emphasize works very well with vehicles that have seen better days, be they cars, trucks, or planes.

I can't remember what this building used to be - a shed or a small barn. Don said they kept a few cows over here for awhile, but it must have been during the years I was absent. In any case, the weathered wood and the junk in the shed called me over to try my techniques at this site. So, without the cows, one might wonder about the rolls of hay in the first three pictures below. I guess it's just a case of, "You never know when someone will need some hay."

From the porch of Charles' house, where everyone sits and enjoys the early summer evenings - none of us wonders any longer why Uncle Louis always seemed so happy sitting there - that bare, well-lit remnant of a tree in the darkest section of the woods stood screaming at me to break out my camera. By the time I finally succumbed to its cries the light had turned orange (Hook 'em Horns) - just right for an old Longhorn.

This is my Lexus RX350 brochure shot, with the house in the background. I didn't notice I'd left the hatchback up until I started working on the post-processing when I got home. The car is Mary's; she loaned it to us for the road trip to Ohio and it served us well. (It wasn't the car's fault it ran out of gas east of Oxford Mississippi.) The skies look pretty intimidating but there were no tornadoes and precious little rain. This picture was taken in the early afternoon and we did get about 20 minutes of very refreshing rain about 6PM.

This was taken from near the same spot, the point of interest just shifted a bit to the upper right. The middle car at the edge of the yard is a tricked out Jeep Cherokee with a stick shift. It's hard to find a stick when you need one but John came up with this one. Lisa and Amy felt the need to practice driving with a standard transmission. Good for them.

This is the treat I got for wandering around with my camera all afternoon looking for targets of opportunity. Most all of the reunion attendees had gone home - those still in the area had turned their attention to other things. The late rain and its attendant rainbow had disappeared, leaving cool, clear skies.

Walking back across the pasture I just stopped every now and then and shot another set for my HDR practice. The house on the left is the Furey homestead. That on the right has some new residents: Austin and his wife Anna had started moving in a few days previously - nice neighbors.

I didn't know whether these two would work out or not, since they had people in them. I usually have to warn them to be still for a few moments lest their movement in the 3-shot HDR set make them appear to be apparitions or doppelgängers of Cathie and Charles. Even the petunias sat there quietly. No fuss; a sense of calm rules Grant Street.

A few more in my next post taken on the road home. Gillian and David may be able to guess where I stopped for pictures. I was very pleased. They turned out really well and took only a few minutes to shoot. So this post is done and I can move to my recliner and give the Rangers the attention they deserve. . . tied 1-1 just now with the Red Sox at the top of the 7th.

Road Trip: OHIO 2012

The last time I managed a trip to Ohio was in May 1999. Lockheed sent me to Pittsburgh to coordinate a demonstration we were putting on at US Airways. It would have been a one day trip but I took advantage of the Memorial Day weekend to visit a couple of days in Malvern before flying back to Atlanta. It was a low-key visit since I was traveling alone, but it is fondly remembered. This trip was a much larger production, but it too is fondly remembered. Cathie and I drove Mom up to Malvern for the Furey family reunion and had a wonderful visit.

Trips to Ohio for us were always "trips to the farm".  After so many years away it's no surprise that things have changed, but there are some constants. This is Don letting his four (?) year old granddaughter "drive" the tractor. (Note the ATV near the trees near the far end of the pasture.) For me, it was Uncle Arthur letting me drive his John Deer on the farm.

A carload of kids making circuits of the pasture is another constant. The driver here is Teddy. Lisa is holding Janie in her lap. Amy and her friend Shawn are in the back. I heard someone asking Shawn how he would explain breaking an arm or something on his vacation from Alaska. I can hear it now: "I was in a car crash -  the driver was 7 years old and. . ."                (Note Joe on the ATV in the background.)

These two are the second-oldest and second-youngest attendees at the reunion. Mom lost out to Aunt Mary, and Janie lost out to Milo. They're probably commiserating over their bad luck. Mom is Janie's great-great aunt.

After the kid-games came the prizes. Liz was a fine Game-Master. I failed to ascertain whether this is a perennial function for her or the job rotates among her siblings and/or cousins. I did ask Diane about her job, however; she is regularly in charge of the Furey Trivia game, which ended in its first tie this year.

Then there was the tug o' war. I'm not sure whether Ann actually ran that or was simply a booster. The team on the left won, which shouldn't have surprised anyone. My zoom lens couldn't catch everyone in one shot but, unless I botched the team shots, the gang on the left had 11 and the one on the right had 9. That nobody questioned either the set-up or the result is a tribute to the renowned Furey equilibrium.

Don had the Official Reunion Photograph all planned out and well in hand, so I just took a few shots of the family getting ready for it. I trust Don or Marilyn will disseminate the Official Reunion Photograph in the near future - hint, hint.

But, when all is said and done, I venture to say that Nick (above) and Zeke (below) will probably remember making circuits in the pasture from the time they could reach the pedals. Anyway, these kids are HAPPY.

The reunion brings to mind many of our childhood memories but, beyond that, there's real history on hand. The reunion winding down, Don is putting things in order. I understand Uncle Louis bought the Brockway tractor in 1949 and at some stage during its 63 years it merited this beautiful Furey restoration. The wagon was retrieved from the Wernet farm before it was sold and, likewise, it underwent a similarly fine restoration. The bill of sale for the wagon was found and showed that Austin bought it in Malvern in ____.

The reunion was great fun and visiting cousins and in-laws for the first time in over a decade (and meeting many of them for the first time ever) was just what I needed. I'll post a few more pictures in the next couple of days.