brown, brown, and more brown

It's always fun for me to get to take my camera places that I've never been.  This was in California.  Of course, I did quite a bit of photoshop manipulation to this one trying to make it look a little bit like a painting.  Here's what's interesting to me about this picture. . .

It says more than it actually looks like.  I can't remember exactly where it was taken, but I know it was on the way back to Bakersfield from Tehachapi.  It makes me wonder if the people that live there even appreciate its beauty.  What do they think when they're driving down this road and look out their window and see this?  Do they see how beautiful the blue sky is contrasting the brown earth?  Do they see all the shades of brown represented in this one little frame of a picture?  I hope so.  When I drive around North Mississippi where I've lived all my life, I see cotton fields.  And I love the sight of it.  We don't have hills, or mountains, or oceans, or vineyards.  But when I drive around and see a huge field full of cotton, I often stop and stare–and realize how freaking beautiful it is.

It's really easy to get used to the things that you see all around you every day.  Sometimes you should stop and look–realize that what's in front of you is absolutely beautiful.  The expression "one man's trash is another man's treasure" kind of applies here.  People in California may drive by this and see a big brown blob and wish for a change of scenery.  I drove by and wanted to stop and take a hundred pictures of this brown blob.  Some people that live around here (North Mississippi) probably don't like the look of a cotton field.  Just look at it.  Turn the radio off and stare at it.  We've got our own little art museum right here in front of us.  And the pictures are HUGE!!  And BEAUTIFUL!!  And admission is FREE!!  What more could you ask for?

Thanks!!

Old, ugly boats

This boat was a picture waiting to be taken.  Had I been alone and lived in the city where this was, I would have hundreds of pictures of it.  It was blue, but due to the fact that I was rushed to take the picture, I overexposed it a little so the blue was a really light blue.  On top of that, I only took 2 pictures of it.  This is the first of the two.  It was the middle of the day, sun beaming down (all generally bad for photography), and I had to keep up with my wife, kids, and in-laws.  So I snapped the 2 pictures and moved on.  When I went back to look at them, I was pissed!!  They were slightly overexposed and the composition was just. . .blah.  Like I said, if I lived there (this was somewhere in California. . .I wanna say around Pismo Beach somewhere), I would get there at sunrise and go back at sunset and I would probably do that about once a month.  I would have HDR versions, awesome sunrise versions, all kinds of stuff.  But instead, I'm stuck with this cliché, quite plain version of an old boat.  Don't get me wrong, I love the picture, but like songwriting, what I envision before it happens and what I get after it's happened is 2 different things.

I guess next time I go to California I'll look for some old ugly boats and be there to take pictures at sunrise.

Thanks!!