Take it easy

This is my little turtle (he's not real, he's made of rock). My turtle takes it easy and he reminds me to take it easy. I've been training for the White Rock Marathon since July. Sometimes it feels like it is taking forever to get ready for (it's in December). And sometimes I feel really slow (because I am). In this day and age we are all very used to instant satisfaction. Get it now. Do it now. Be whatever it is you want to be, now. Well my training has been a lesson in patience and pursuing good things diligently. Wish me luck because I'm not there yet.

The blue door

I have shared with you on multiple occasions my love for doors. Well, this is the door that started it all. Well actually there is a back story. Back in 2006 when I interned for HKS I worked on a large hospital project. One of my tasks during the summer was to "tag" the doors in the floor plans. Every door has to be tagged and scheduled. It was probably one of the most boring tasks I've ever done, but it is also very necessary. Each door has characteristics that must be called out in a schedule. So after this two week task I hadn't learned much technically, but I did learn something methophorically. Each door is unique and each door leads to something different. Hence, the beginning of my love for doors.

Then when I got back to College Station in the fall for graduate school I found this door. Well I knew of this door, but my appreciation for it grew emmensely after my return. It was this beautiful bright blue door on this old run down house no one lived in just off campus. The house leaned one way and the door leaned the other. Not a livable place, but certainly a lovable one. Well, I decided I had to take a photo of this door, but not an ordinary photo. I thought this door was special and that a digital photograph just wasn't what this door deserved. So I bought a polaroid camera just to photograph this guy.

This photo turned out great. I loved it. I still love it. The photo sits at my desk with the many other things that help me to remember. But, the interesting part of this story is that two days after I took this photo a car crashed into this home. Plowed right into the blue door in fact. It saddened me quite a bit. But, then I thought, well maybe, just maybe, the door had been given a little love and it was ready to go.

So, this polaroid is the last memory of the blue door. Cheers to you and where you led me.

Be bold, be bright

This door comes from Austin and from my five photo door series. I say door, even though the photograph is of the entire front entry of the home. As I've said before I love doors. And on this home, I absolutely love the color too. It's extremely saturated. I think people sometimes make fools of themselves and their houses when they do an extreme paint job, but this home's owner did not. This paint job works and it's fun. Plus, there were other houses around it with just as bold paint jobs.

It must be fun to come home from to a house like this. If you've had a bad day, it's got to brighten your day even just a little bit.

Number two pencils

I love number two pencils. You know, the classic-needs-to-be-sharpened-all-the-time pencil. In elementary school we used these guys all the time. I remember having smudge marks on the sides of my palms at the end of the day. I remember the anxiety associated with the saying "make sure you have a number two pencil for the test." I remember knowing what wall the sharpener was attached to in every room I had class in. And, it was a big deal when we transitioned from the old-school manual lever sharpener to the electronic sharpener. I still love the manual version best, it was much more graceful and not such a noisy nuisance.

So I keep a handful of number twos at my desk at home because I love their classic look. Every now and then when I go to grab a piece of mail I'll brush them and knock them around. They'll make that old familar rattle and I'll do a quick flashback 4th grade.

Macro vision

I got a new lens for my camera. It's a macro lens, which means it can take extremely close up shots. I wish they were called micro lenses, because that seems to makes more sense. Anyways, it is a 60mm f/2.8 which is a couple f stops lower than what I have on my 18mm-135mm. This will give me more opportunity in low lighting situations, but unfortunately no zooming capability. But, all macro lenses come in fixed focal lengths.

This photo is of my first lens, the 18mm-135mm, taken with the new macro lens. I am still so impressed with how close up I can get on objects. I went around my apartment last night taking photos of everything small, light switches, electrical outlets, the peep hole in my front door, my aggie ring. It was pretty cool. So, forgive me if I show quite a few close up shots in the coming posts.

Fire escapes of yore

Recently at work my project team has been correctly sizing and locating our fire escape stairs in our building. It's actually a longwinded task that would likely bore you if I explained it. People probably don't think much about fire escapes and life safety egress in buildings, but we architects do. In fact, we're practically obsessed with it because the code dictates so much about what we can do with our buildings. Anyways, fire escapes on the exterior of buildings are a thing of the past, but they sure had a fantastic architectural flavor. They did more than accomodate code, they were an ornament to the building.

This fire escape resides in Bryan, Texas. It looks as if it is more than an escape, but the actual entry to the office. All this photo needs is a person sitting about mid way up reading a book. Maybe Fahrenheit 451 would be appropriate.

Wipe it off

So I think this car's windshield wipers retired a while back, but then again so did the car. This ol' guy was parked in the driveway of a home in Seattle very near to my favorite coffee shop. I shouldn't say car, it was actually a truck. A beautiful truck at that. All the moisture in Seattle put a thin layer of green moss and rust all over the truck. It was truly a piece of art. Good luck to the owner getting it clean, if they ever want to take it for a spin again.

Stay focused

This photo comes from my field trip to the AFI Dallas office. I had fun that evening taking photos of their little outdoor plaza area near my apartment. Fencing in the area was this wonderful cabled fence. The new, crisp cable was held tight between old posts with peeling paint. A nice combination of old and new. I especially enjoyed the ends of the posts that had silver caps finishing off the cables. My camera had a little difficulty staying focused on the cap when I was trying to take this shot. Eventually I got the photo composed well and the camera agreed with me. I like how the cap is almost perfectly centered in the photograph, but not quite.

It's time

It's time to wake up. It's time to go to bed. It's time to eat lunch. It's time to go. If you listen people use the "it's time" phrase a lot. Well, last night I looked at the clock sitting at my desk and I decided to take a photograph of it. After I was done I realized the clock was stuck at quarter after three, and probably had been for a while. Time had stopped as far as that clock was concerned. And every now and then we'll have those moments too, where time is not a concern or even noticed. They're nice. I'd say, try to revel in those moments, but as soon as you realize the moment it's usually a thing of the past, no pun intended. Nonetheless, timeless moments are nice and to be looked forward to.

People power

I read the paper in the morning (online albeit) and drink my coffee just like millions of Americans. And while I read, like many, I wonder what can we believe in during this economic mess? Well, the answer is fairly straightforward, we can believe in ourselves. While looking back through some very old papers that I had in my newspaper bin I found this column by David Brooks written on August 2nd. It spoke to America's need to improve human capital. Meaning we need to improve ourselves and our skills. The column went on to be quite divisive at which point I tuned out, but the overarching message seemed to be right on. Each of us has the ability to improve ourselves. And we should because that's where real change happens.

The color blue

I've always been facinated with the color blue. It is, without a doubt, my favorite color. So once I discovered this building in uptown I knew I'd have to go spend some time photographing it. The paint is a bit faded on the masonry, but to me the color is still endearing. Something about blue, this color blue, is awesome.

When I was a kiddo I preferred everything in blue. I used to love to get ice cream served in the little blue plastic helmets at Texas Rangers games. I had a blue wooden egg I carried around with me as a lucky charm. In high school I had t-shirts that I wore to pieces because they were blue. My car is blue. I carry a kanteen that is blue. Simply put, I love the color blue. Why? No clue, I just do.

There is rarely reason for why we like our favorite color, but everyone seems to have a favorite. In fact, isn't that always a get-to-know-you question? "What's your favorite color?" which is usually followed by "what's your favorite ice cream flavor?"

Well, I like vanilla ice cream served in a blue helmet. And, I like my buildings blue too.

Inner beauty

Everyone loves a good flower shot, right? Well, this one comes from the rainforest of Costa Rica. These guys were little cup flowers that hung from their limbs. I got up under this one with my camera and tried to take a photo looking inside the flower, which was, ironically, much more beautiful on the inside than on the outside.

We the people

Yesterday I went to College Station. It was a quick day trip to make a presentation. I took my usual route down Interstate 35 through Waco to Highway 6. I started taking this route in graduate school instead of my old faithful I-45 route. I changed my route because going down 35 to 6 was so much more interesting, mostly because I got to pass through Calvert and Hearne. Calvert and Hearne are two little towns that got left behind a long time ago. They both have the main street that you have to slow down on when driving through. Old brick buildings of stores and businesses line the street. Some are open, some aren't.

And there's this one wall at the south end of Calvert's main street that I have always loved. The we-the-people wall. Everytime over the last two years as I drove by it I thought, I'd really like to photograph that wall. Well, usually I would drive past and say to myself, "next time I'll stop and get my camera out". Yesterday was my last "next time" for a while, no telling how long. So I stopped and got a portrait of my wall.

We the people here on main street. It's nostalgic and hopeful.

Small simple space

I was returning home last night and I saw something I hadn't ever seen before. I noticed these lights uplighting a wall near my apartment complex. So I decided I'd walk over and take some photos once the sun went down completely. Once I got over there I realized that this wall was part of the American Film Institute Dallas office. The whole office was very small, but had some very unique features I'll show you over the coming days.

Here is one of the lamps that was lighting the wall. The wall is actually a temporary wall that was attached with silver bolt caps. There was a rock courtyard in front of this wall with boulders randomly placed. It was a very small yet "architectural" space.

It was a pleasent surprise to find this place. You never know what you're going to find, even on a path you travel daily, so keep your eyes open.