Some Black and White stuff…

  Posted on January 8, 2015 By

 46 Comments

I normally post all the monochrome stuff on The Fuzzy Foto.

But, I saw this in my files and I remember how interested in it I was at the time.

Many years ago, somebody chopped off this very large limb from a Live Oak tree on the plant property.

It’s still attached to the tree.

The worst pruning job I ever saw in my entire life, I think.

It almost looks fossilized.

Tree-limb-dead

This crepe myrtle tree trunk looks exactly as if it has a face.

From my chair on the porch, I see a nose and just below that, a misshapen mouth.

In photographs, it never looks quite the same.

I call him my Tree Troll!

Tree-Face

This Gold Nugget Squash been on my kitchen counter for weeks.

I think I should bake it soon!

Squash

These canvas prints are of my sister, her husband and their granddaughter.

I had several prints done for them for Christmas

And stacked them on a chair when I brought them home.

In typical George fashion, I handed the prints to them off the chair!

Chuckle…

Canvas-Prints

The photo of Linda is from the Club poolside.

From about ten years ago.

We took Charlie swimming, and she was sitting at a table talking to somebody.

Since it is my all -time favorite portrait of her, I wanted to preserve it for her daughter.

The bottom one is a snapshot of Cate putting Grandaddy’s glasses on upside down.

It is his favorite photograph of him and his beloved granddaughter.

♥

(I told you the posts would be random…  Chuckle…)

 Category: Black & White Photographs, Family, Photographs, Photography      Tags: , , , ,

46 Comments on “Some Black and White stuff…”

    • HI, Narelle. I was happy to read about your business venture. You’re a natural for that kind of business consulting. You’re smart to do something that you are passionate about. I was very interested in the concept of free speech that we, in the US, take for granted. And I think you are absolutely correct in your assessment of it. I never thought about it consciously, but the same aspects of it that bother you also bother me. Thanks for stopping by. I always love seeing that face! 🙂 Love to you, too, Golden Girl!

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    • Me, too, Lorna. I was a champion tree-climber as a kid. I understand perfectly what you are talking about. I can feel their energy and hear them too. I became very attached to my fan palm trees, as you know. I have hundreds of photos of them and their magical leaves. More photos of them than any other subject, I think. It broke my heart when I learned that we cut down huge forests of longleaf pine trees from Texas to North Carolina in the early twentieth century for construction. They are extinct now. I have several pieces of longleaf pine furniture from the time when they were plentiful. That is one of the saddest and ugliest parts of our environmental history. Read about them. some of the boards are 24″ wide. I run my hands over the boards and marvel at the size of those mighty trees…

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  3. At first glance, I thought the photograph of your sister was you, George! You really do favor one another. The picture of Linda’s granddaughter is precious, and I can see why it would be a favorite. Nothing more fun than rearranging glasses on Grandpop’s face! I’m glad you posted this selection of black and whites…the tree troll made me laugh. All great shots!! I hope all is going okay for you, George! Thinking of you.

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    • Ah, my beautiful Elisa! I think of you often, you know. Linda and I do have that family resemblance in our smiles, but she is the pretty one. Chuckle… She wouldn’t agree, but she did like that snapshot years after it was done, so I printed it for her collection of family photos on a wall in their house. Hazel’s very favorite photo is that one of him and his adored Cate. I had one printed for Cate and for him. She loves hers too since she adores Grandaddy! Linda and Hazel spent a great deal of time with Charlie when he was little. He adored Hazel, too. They’re so good to the children. They loved Kelli, too, and took her home with them often for all kinds of adventures. They have been important in our lives always. Our family is very small, so their closeness is significant to us. Thank you for always being a keystroke away, Elisa. 🙂

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  4. Beautiful pictures, George! That wood does look fossilised, and I can certainly see the troll’s face – but it might be an Ent! The squash looks like the surface of a planet. But most by far I enjoy the photos of your family, they are truly beautiful, unposed portraits, and black and white does them proud! Take good care of yourself, my friend. Adrian xxx

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    • Thank you, Adrian. NO, he is my Tree Troll who only shows himself to me alone when the morning sun is at just the right angle. Chuckle… It always pleases me to see him. I had the wildest imagination as a child. I’m certain it drove my traditional mother nuts! I think we don’t shoot enough photographs of our families. I don’t much like posed photographs, but I love the candid ones. I had one heck of a time with the snapshot of my brother-in-law and his granddaughter. It was an impossibly unfocused, yellow-toned one that somebody snapped. But, I finally got it reasonably done and printed. Whew! You have some wonderful ones of family. I remember the one of your granddaughter that I loved. You shot it with the 105mm, I remember. I hadn’t though of using that lens for portraits. I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you for always visiting and most of all for the beautiful book of your photographs. I love that book! 🙂

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    • Thanks, Rob. Grandaddy’s favorite snapshot of him and his beloved Cate. I did one for him and one for Cate, too. She adores him. We don’t do enough family photographs anymore. I don’t much care for the posed, studio-type family photos, but I really enjoy the candid shots that we remember about where we were and what we were doing at the time. Get somebody to photograph you photographing wildlife. I think that’s really who you are and it’s important to keep for your grandchildren and their grandchildren. Promise you’ll do that for me! 😉

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  6. Loving the randomness.
    The 2nd photo looks like that of a bony leg & knee. Well – that’s the first thing that came to my mind when I saw it.
    Love the canvas prints. Nicely captured candid expressions.

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    • RoSy, I didn’t recognize you in your cute winter disguise! It does look like a bony kneecap! But, when the sun shadow is on it just right, my little Tree Troll appears. Maybe he only appears to me. 😉 I wanted to do the one of grandaddy and Cate because that’s his favorite snapshot of them. And, I always liked that shot of Linda. She has a collection of family prints on a wall in her house. Thanks, RoSy. Stay warm. I loved the wool shoes… I laughed when you posted them. I’d forgotten that you said they were on your Christmas list! 🙂

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    • Hi, Blue Girl! I think it’s the surge before the tide goes out! 🙂 Organizing my thousands of photos and deleting most of them is just too much of a task. I’ll never finish it. So, I surrender… Linda never likes photographs of herself, but she did like this one so I printed it for her. And, I’m happy that you keep coming to visit me! Thank you so much!

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    • Well, Switt, all I can say is you’d better have that knee “looked at”, as they say. Chuckle…
      I think I am the only one who sees my little Tree Troll there. You know, it’s like trying to show somebody else what you see in cloud formations. He only appears when the morning sun is at a certain angle. Then I see him! It always amuses me. It takes me back to my childhood when I could see faces in everything. I had the wildest imagination. I would lie for hours looking at cloud formations or insects in the grass. I must have watched more ant hills than any kid ever! Chuckle… I’m still crazy after all these years. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Sylvia. She loves her grandaddy and he absolutely adores her. Both of them were delighted with their canvas prints. I’m glad you can see my little troll face. I think you and I may be the only ones he is speaking to… Chuckle… Thank you for always coming to see me, Sylvia.

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    • Well, I don’t know about creative and aesthetic sense, but it astounded me to see a huge limb chopped off randomly at such a distance from the big tree trunk. It must have been done many years ago. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen it before that day when I was wandering around snapping stuff waiting for one of the guys to open the pasture gate for me to photograph the longhorn cattle for the post about Dean’s longhorns. Thank you, Joseph. You always encourage me! It’s a bit cold for me to be outside now. I don’t have the stamina to endure the cold this winter. I will be happy to see spring again. I know you guys will be glad too! This has been a terrible winter everywhere north of Texas, and it’s been very cold and wet here even! Kelli asked me to go with them on their annual trip to Colorado for the festival at the resort (the name of which always escapes me). I laughed. The elevation would do me in even though the cold wouldn’t feel much colder than it does in our humid weather. I do wish I thought I could manage it for Charlie’s sake, but it just isn’t going to happen! Chuckle… Hello to Liz and the Dragons for me! 🙂

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    • Ah, Alessandro, you, of the gift with words. Thank you. It is a large tree limb that somebody sawed off many years ago and at a strange distance from the big tree trunk. I’ve never seen anything like that on a living tree. Thank you so much for always coming to visit me and for your encouragement. It means a great deal to me, you know!

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    • Thank you so much, Nia. I’m glad you liked the wood. It fascinated me. It must have been sawed off many years ago. It was too low on the tree to have been hit by lightening. It’s just one of the odd photos on my hard drive along with several thousands more. I’m sure you have as many as I do!! I am hoping still that you will publish “The Cats of Istanbul”. Do it on Blurb.com. It’s inexpensive to do. At least, do it for your son. 🙂 I would love to see it finished. I did one and know it’s easy. And the quality is great. People can also buy it there. But, if only your family wants it, that’s certainly important to do. Thank you for always coming to visit me, Nia! 🙂

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  13. Loved the photos of the photos of your sister and her husband … it’s true, isn’t it, that some things are worth more than money … these images are priceless. Good for you for preserving them. D

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    • There are so many family snapshots that are lost. I used to go to antiques sales that were handled by an antiques expert who lives here. She called a few of us who were collectors before the actual public sale. I almost always saw boxes of old family photographs, and I always wondered why they were there. There are millions of lost family photographs in this country. It always makes me wish I knew the distant living relatives so that I could return them. Our children should burn our family photographs rather than allow them to be sold. There are many people who collect the very old ones. Did you know that people used to be photographed after they died. If no photograph existed, the person was dressed as if he were alive, set in a chair and photographed! The reason few families had photographs of every member was that they could not afford them. If you didn’t live in a city, you had to depend on a traveling photographer. I don’t know the real history of this practice, but it is very interesting. I need to scan the old photographs and identify who the people are… Maybe my sister will identify them for everybody before she dies. 🙂 By the way, almost anything intangible or personal cannot be assigned a price… The most valuable things in my life have always been intangible. That is the single reason I’m happy today. You and Joanna are on that list. 🙂

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      • Hey there George … what a kind thing to say at the end of that comment. But surely you cannot mean it … for Joanna and I but names blinking on your computer monitor! Family photographs are surely problematic. It is a shame that I cannot identify many of the people in the images that my mother has passed along. There folks from long ago, looking out at me, asking ‘Do you know who I am? Do you know why I might be significant? Do you know anything about my life? Do you know if I’m a relative, or just a family friend?’ I never can answer any of these questions. It’s frustrating. And, you know, that makes me admit that I have never been big on family history. I can tell you lots about myself, and some about my parents, and a very, very little of my grandparents … and that’s it. Should I be ashamed? I am. I have always lived in the here-and-now … I’ve always worried about the mortgage and the health of my family members, and on-and-on … and I’ve never given a lot of time to who I am. Is that OK George? I think the story about folks taking pictures of their relatives, after-the-fact, is fascinating. If I were a real artist, with time to spare, and $ to support such an undertaking (so to speak), there’s a really fascinating project there. I can see a book of images, documenting the history of the practice. Your comments are always such a joy George. I hope you are well … and comfortable. I am glad to be back from Switzerland, especially given all of the recent news out of France. I like being home, I like routine … tell me that’s OK. Have a good day. Thinking of you. D

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        • Hi, Dave. How did you write this comment without having it show up on the blog post? I need to know that. You describe my life precisely. I never paid attention to family history either. I live in the present very much like my mother did. I worried when things went well and when they didn’t. Dean worried about absolutely nothing. He fixed what could be fixed and moved on to something else. That is not my personality. I always told him that my job was to approve or nix his ideas. We worked well together because of that personality difference. Yes it is okay to live precisely as you do. Home is where I want to be, too. I am not ashamed that I don’t know the people in the photographs. Most of them were identified and listed on the backs of the photos anyway. We are who we are. I don’t think about who I am either. I do what I see that has to be done, period. You do what you do well, that’s obvious. You and Joanna work well together. That’s unusual these days, I think. No, you are not a blip on my screen. There was always something about you that said you care. About everything. When I read the title of the blog, I was curious. A play on words, symbolic, even metaphorical. A scientist and a farmer with a progressive “new frontier” mentality. And good people to boot. I instantly became fascinated with the photography and the farm. You and Joanna are such incredibly talented people. Sensitive and kind and compassionate. There are folks “on my list” and folks who are not. If you’re on the list, you’re on it forever. I’ve always been like that. I feel as if I’ve known you guys all my life. People who sit around thinking about “who they are” better hope they never find out! Chuckle… The rest of us are getting on with living and doing what has to be done. That’s “who” we are. Most of us live by routine. That’s how we function and how we get where it is we want to go. I hope whatever you’re considering for this coming year is what you want. That’s all that counts. Just do it. If you feel the need for change, you should change. Without hand-wringing about it. That hand-wringing stuff is a waste of energy that you could apply to whatever you wanted to do in the first place. Life has a way of working out. I’m glad you are back home safely. Hug Joanna and the animals for me. 🙂

          There are many resources for finding the history of those photographs of the dead online. It was an interesting practice.

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          • With regard to your question about my first comment not showing … I see it right there? I’m a bit confused.

            With regard to your extended discussion … thanks … I needed your counsel, really. This last year has, as you probably know, been very difficult for Joanna and (especially) me. I’ve been teaching at my current place of employment for 20 years now and have been in the business of higher education for more than 30 years. I enjoy being in the classroom, but change is well overdue. The farm has existed, in one form or another, for more than 25 years. I enjoy the animals and the work, but change is well overdue. I don’t think I’m selling out George for I’ve contributed a large chunk of my life to both of these endeavors. I’ve dedicated my mental, emotional, and physical energies to my work and believe it’s time to do something for me. Something with less responsibility and with less stress. Is that unreasonable? I do not think so. The difficulty is that I’m too young to retire and too old to be looked at seriously as any sort of job applicant. And, in any case, I’ve been trained my entire life to do only a single thing – teach. I’m stuck George, with no reasonable way out. Sorry to complain – it’s not fair of me to do so. Your note was very kind and very observant and very comforting. Thank you for taking the time to tell me that it’s OK to be who I am. I will try. You are a wise and wonderful woman.

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            • The reply showed up in the “bubble” in gold lettering! Now, it is showing up on this page. How very odd. WP went nuts, I reckon. Email me. 🙂

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    • Me, too, Sue. That thing fascinated me. I just couldn’t imagine who would have sawed off a tree limb that size at that distance from the tree! 🙂 It must have been done many years ago. Thanks, as always, Sue!

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    • Thanks, Naomi. Hazel loved that photo of him and Cate, so I decided to try to convert it for B/W printing. It was not in good focus so I didn’t know how it would turn out. He and Cate love it. So that’s the important thing! They don’t see through our critical eye! 🙂 The choice of printer is still the trick, I think. Some are better than others. Shimon told me that once. He said that in the film days, the skill of the printer was crucial. I think it still is. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I know you did with the kids at home!

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    • Cate’s grandad’s name is Hazel (the third, if you can believe that one). Hazel adores that child and that is his favorite shot of them. My sister sent it to me some time before Christmas, so I decided to try to convert it for a canvas print. Walgreen did them, by the way. And within hours. Remarkable, I thought. Each store has it’s own printer person, though, so you have to find a store with a good graphics guy. I was pleased with them considering what the guy had to work with. I am unfamiliar with printing so every time I have something printed, it’s a wild guess how to do it! Thanks, Kenn!

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  17. OMG!!!!! I am SHOCKED (and pleased) to see these on your blog! The canvas prints were a wonderful gift. I hung them today, in fact! You are your usual generous, thoughtful self!

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    • I’m happy that you guys liked them. I didn’t really like the one of Hazel alone. I’m going to work on re-doing that one to include his sweater and not so much face! I had no idea they would crop it that way. I like groups of family photographs. The first time I ever saw that done was on a wall behind a sofa in the huge living room at Dr. Bridges’ house in Lattimore. I really liked that so I never forgot about it. Odd, how stuff sticks in our heads while we forget other stuff. We enjoyed your visit so much. I hope you’ll be able to come again soon! 🙂

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    • I’ve had the Linda one forever. I don’t think you could have seen the others, though. Thanks, Ray. I think I’m going to give up on deleting the huge number of bad photos. I’m not making much progress! 🙂

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    • I used to never think of such things, but now I want to share a few of my favorite photographs. Hazel and Cate loved their prints, of course. I didn’t want the picture of my sister to be lost so I had the canvas print done. Some things become more significant to us when we get old, I guess! 🙂 Thank you, Colline. I hope you had a great Christmas vacation from school!

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  20. Linda and Hazel look great! Cate is precious. So nice of u to make those photos of them for Suz and grandchild! Been thinking of u and will come see u when it gets warmer, if that’s ok.

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    • Thanks, Glenda. Of course, it’s okay. Are you nuts? 🙂 Linda and Hazel are doing fine. They live in Denton, about 45 minutes north of Ft. Worth where Susie and her family live. Hazel adores little Cate. This was done from a snapshot that Linda sent to me recently. I hope you had a really good Christmas. It’s too cold for me now! I wish it were spring!! Kelli asked if I wanted to go with them to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for the February winter festival that they always go there for. I declined… Chuckle…

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