December 31, 2010

happy new year!

pour champagne...shoot the bubbles...drink...pour champagne...shoot the bubbles.. drink....

the things a photographer does to get a shot!

As the year ends, I look back at the photographic journey of shooting an image a day. From Cincinnati to New Orleans to Santa Fe, I found scenic images to shoot. However, the every day challenge was to find photographic images in Lubbock, Texas. I shot the unusual, the unique, and the ubiquitous windmills and sunsets. The experience led to a greater appreciation of my hometown, a sharper vision and enhanced photoshop skills. But the journey is not over -- join me as I look for new images, post old favorites and even resurrect vintage photos in 2011. Find me at www.sjfimages2011.blogspot.com. Thanks for the encouragement and support as I traveled 2010 day by day, image by image.

December 30, 2010

new year wishes

New Deal, like many other small West Texas towns, needs a prosperous new year. Seen alone, without the accompanying North Pole window, this elf more resembles a leprechaun with a bag of gold than Santa's helper. Maybe the muralist mixed his myths.

December 29, 2010

bicycles

Racks of bikes wait for Texas Tech students to return from Christmas break.

Stangel Hall
Texas Tech Campus
Lubbock, Texas

December 28, 2010

call to prayer

Crescent moon symbol atop minaret
Islamic Center
3419 LaSalle
Lubbock, Texas

December 27, 2010

paperwhites

Blooming paperwhite narcissus is one of my Christmas traditions. Around Thanksgiving I purchase bulbs and plant in glass containers. This year I found a fishbowl at the Salvation Army thrift store and it holds eight bulbs. The bulbs grow visibly, inching up daily, and finally produce aromatic blossoms at Christmas. Bulbs are gifts to friends and one returns the glass container so I can "regift" her each year.

December 26, 2010

whoo?

Barn Owl - South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
Christmas Open House - December 18

3308 95th Street
Lubbock, Texas

December 25, 2010

merry christmas

Santa Land at Mackenzie Park
Lubbock, Texas

December 24, 2010

christmas eve shopper

This man in a red suit was spotted in the shopping center picking up last-minute gifts. He was also handing out candy to little girls (and big girls too).

December 23, 2010

one horse open sleigh

This horse doesn't dash through the snow but rather makes rounds in the Kingsgate parking lot, but the occupants in the vis-a-vis sleigh still laugh all the way as the bells on the bob-tail ring.

Whitehead Carriage Rides
Kingsgate Shopping Center
82nd and Slide
Lubbock, Texas

December 22, 2010

bulb and barbed wire

December 21, 2010

shiner bock reindeer

Don't you think the Shiner bock on the beer tap resembles a Christmas reindeer? We visited the bar at the Overton Hotel before attending "A Christmas Carol" production at the Civic Center Theater. Don't see the resemblance? Squint your eyes or drink more Shiner.

December 20, 2010

red raider christmas

guns up!

4900 20th Street
Lubbock, Texas

December 19, 2010

pancho claus

Pancho Claus, possibly an indirect descendant of Pancho Villa, made his 37th annual visit to Lubbock today. Hundreds of children lined up to whisper Christmas wishes in his beard.

Maggie Trejo Supercenter
Lubbock, Texas

December 18, 2010

tech's christmas spirit

Texas Tech University

Chemistry Building with Administration Building Tower

Lubbock, Texas

December 17, 2010

christmas glamour

December 16, 2010

lubbock's north pole

This is the 54th annual SantaLand hosted by the City of Lubbock's parks department. As I told each new employee orientation class, Mr. and Mrs. Claus are part-time City employees. SantaLand has expanded in its home in Mackenzie Park. Do you remember the original location on 23rd and Avenue Q?

December 15, 2010

mrs. claus

A youthful Mrs. Santa Claus
Part-time City employee
Lubbock's Santa Land
Mackenzie Park

December 14, 2010

better be good!

"He sees you when you're sleeping..." What kid could sleep with this Santa lamp lit on the night stand? There would be nightmares of short, stumpy red-suited gremlins with gleaming eyes in pursuit rather then visions of sugarplums.

Vintage Santa Lamp found at Tornado Gallery

December 13, 2010

christmas cactus

December 12, 2010

cedar christmas

Ranching Heritage Center

Lubbock, Texas

December 11, 2010

petsmart santa

Even cats and dogs have Christmas wishes, but there were a few who were hesitant to sit on Santa's lap at Petsmart. Like all the leashed and caged animals in the store, even Santa was restrained behind glass.

December 10, 2010

806-68-style

Chrome, a shopping boutique located in the old St. Mary's hospital at 2601 19th Street, advertises itself as the coolest store in Lubbock. Their Christmas decor was cool but I'm probably not hip nor young enough to shop there.

December 9, 2010

gift suggestion

Need a gift suggestion for your ritzy friend? How about a dainty wreath and ribbon for the hood ornament of the Mercedes Benz? No Mercedes? Then Alderson will be glad to sell you the model of your choice-- complete with Christmas decoration.

Alderson European Motors
1702 Texas Avenue
Lubbock, Texas

December 8, 2010

4 drummers drumming

The Christmas display in front of College Avenue Flowers lacks a complete dozen drummers but then again there are only four stanchions on the portico.

College Avenue Flowers

2002 Broadway

Lubbock Texas

December 7, 2010

texas christmas wreath

Spotted on a Ford pickup in Sutherland Lumberyard parking lot

crafted from one length of rope

December 6, 2010

my christmas stocking

About 1957 my grandmother (Burma Mae known as "Mom") made all the grandkids stockings. They hung every Christmas on her mantle until her death at age 91 in 1995. My least favorite decoration was my school picture. The jingle bells are lost but every sequin and pearl, stitched on with love, are still intact.

December 5, 2010

seasonal work

Holland Gardens
50th and Memphis
Lubbock TX

December 4, 2010

" it's beginning to look a lot like christmas"

Vintage Township
114th and Quaker

December 3, 2010

handblown

Glass ornaments by Sandstorm
First Friday Art Trail
Tornado Gallery
1822 Buddy Holly Avenue
Lubbock, Texas

December 2, 2010

christmas bulbs

Have you hung the outdoor lights yet?

December 1, 2010

poinsettia

Let the Yuletide season begin

November 30, 2010

last sunset at the sunset motel

The rooms at the Sunset Motel, 2305 Clovis Road, have fresh air and not-so-fresh linens. The "no trespassing" signs discourage visitors from the condemned site. Built more than half a century ago on busy US 84, the motel's quality of clientele declined as the Sunset became a "no tell" motel with semi-permanent, down-on-their-luck guests. The only press on the Sunset in recent years has been about drug busts.

November 29, 2010

old faithful

I admire those dogs who patiently wait in the bed of the pickup for their owner to return.

November 28, 2010

collard greens

Need a mess of collard or turnip or mustard greens for supper? The produce field on US 87 south of the former "strip" was open today. Might have to call Grannie from Beverly Hills for the recipe.

November 27, 2010

caprock

Caprock Canyons State Park

North of Quitaque, Texas

November 26, 2010

pot crop

Coyote Candle
South Slide Road
Lubbock, Texas

November 25, 2010

thanksgiving

Piney Grove Chapel, Georgia
March 19, 2010

November 24,2010

west texas sunset in november

one more reason to be thankful

Lakeridge
Lubbock, Texas

November 23, 2010

birds of a feather

Grain scattered around the Attebury elevator on East 37th Street is an avian smorgasbord.

November 22, 2010

lubbock bridge

Buddy Holly Recreational Area
Jim Bertram Lake System
North Fork of the Brazos River
Yellowhouse Canyon
Lubbock, Texas

November 21, 2010

full moon over budweiser

Budweiser is building a new distributing facility in the Lubbock Business Park east of the Lubbock Country Club off I-27.

November 20, 2010

module building

Cotton farmers are hustling to get the fall crop harvested. Three strippers, three boll buggies, and three module builders were transported from a finished field to this section to pull the open bolls. 70 years ago manpower rather than horsepower brought in the crop. Cotton pickin' has come a long way.

November 19, 2010

vignette at veazy's

The business district of downtown New Deal was a bustling place in earlier decades - before Interstate 27 took the traffic west of the intersection with the blicking red light. In the early 50s Grady Henly built what in later times would be almost a strip shopping center. The structure housed the post office, a grocery store, a drugstore/cafe and a barbershop. The artifacts pictured above are in front of what was Veazy's Drugstore -- although I don't remember drugs or notions in the store, just a fountain with stools and booths. Frank Veazy's enterprise didn't last long; June down the street had been there longer and pulled in more customers.

November 18, 2010

lone star

November 17, 2010

yellowhouse canyon

The placid water in the draw of Yellowhouse Canyon probably looks very much as it did in 1877. On March 18 of that year, the canyon rang with the sounds of battle as the Buffalo Hunters and Comanches fought in one of the last Indian skirmishes in the area. Hard to image that this scene is just yards off Broadway near the south entrance to Mackenzie Park.

November 16, 2010

tony dorsett

Paintings of Cowboy stars like Number 22 adorn the hallways at Cowboy Stadium. At first impression, the structure is more resort hotel than football arena. Today's visit as part of MMRS Workshop showed us places not on the usual $49.50 tour. Led by a member of the Arlington Fire Department, we saw the usual sights like the field, the huge Scantron, the Absolut club, a private suite and other places like the control room, the command center, one of the first aid stations equipped like an ER and even the jail with its two cells -- complete with stainless steel toilets.

November 15, 2010

bowling

My meeting with FEMA Region VI in Arlington was on 616 Six Flags Drive so I expected to see Six Flags, the Ballpark and Cowboy Stadium, but the giant bowling pin at the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame was a surprise.

November 14, 2010

king cotton

Last week's freeze and rainy/sleety weather slowed the cotton harvest, but it's still a great crop. Some cotton sold last week at $1.36 a pound. My dad was telling the story that in 1945 my grandfather ginned, for a New Deal farmer, the first bale of cotton in Lubbock County. Back then the first bale was auctioned off on the courthouse lawn - it sold for about 20 cents a pound.

November 13, 2010

last geranium of summer

Last night's freeze signals time to bring in the patio plants and winterize the yard. Spotted in a garden on the Studio Tour on the way to Don's cantina.

November 12, 2010

canyon junction

The juxtaposition of a "canyon" junction sign in an urban setting intrigued me. I shot the scene earlier in the day but decided it really needed a train. I returned in the afternoon and lo, a train went by! A junction is a place where rail routes converge. As the railroad came to Lubbock in the early 1900s, this junction, now at 2nd Street and Paris Avenue off Avenue Q, was on the south side of the Yellowhouse Canyon. The Santa Fe Railway brought the first tracks to Lubbock but other railroads soon followed. Lubbock became known as "the Hub of the Plains" as tracks radiated to the eight principal points of the compass, resembling the spokes of a wheel. Railways included the Pecos and Northern, the Crosbyton-South Plains, the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains, Burlington Northern, and the West Texas and Lubbock, which still runs today.