The long awaited Texas trip to visit Lori’s son, brother and sister in law was finally under way. This year I was taking my full set of camera gear with me hoping to get some good shots of the Nascar race on Sunday. As it turned out, over the course of 5 days I got a total of 2905 photos. Of course my goal was not to see how many photos I could take, but from the very beginning there were opportunities awaiting me at every turn.
For starters there was this really cute, purebred Saint Bernard puppy that was being flown to New Jersey. He was the pride of Elo Valley Saint Bernards in Pelkie, MI (http://elovalleybernards.tripod.com). I just couldn’t resist so I took out my camera and snapped some shots.
And then when we get to Derek and Jorjan’s there are a whole collection of dogs and cats just waiting to be photographed. Keith gave me instructions to get him pictures of the “boys” as soon as I got there so of course I had to once again pull out my camera and get to work.
And then Jorjan showed us her Audi convertible. It’s not everyday that I see one of those so of course once again I need to pull out my camera. Plus Jorjan said she didn’t get pictures of it yet so it was kind of an emergency.
And then there is Luke. He wakeboards or so he says. I knew the best thing to do with someone who says he does something out of the ordinary was to get them to do it in front of a camera. Then you have photographic proof that they either do or they don’t know what they are talking about. 500 photos later I came to the conclusion that Luke knows how to wakeboard.
And just when I thought I would get some downtime and be able to put my camera back in the bag we found out there was a live band playing at the Rahr & Sons Brewery in Fort Worth. Of course I’m a sucker for a live band, but this was the first time I had a chance to photograph a Top 40 Rock band so of course… I had to bring my camera.
And then came the day of the Nascar race. Of course I knew I would take lots of photos. The toughest part was getting a clear shot of the track every time Dale Earnhardt Jr went by. You see, people in Texas seem to have a real love for Junior. Junior Nation runs pretty rampant. Every time he passes by they raise their fists and yell “JUNIOR!!!”. It took me a while to get the timing right to avoid getting rings and wrist watches in my photos.
And then there were the couple of trips we took to downtown Fort Worth. No one prepared me for all the things I could photograph down there.
I even had to follow the girls into the stores to get some inside color.
I did find a horse modeling a hat on the 2nd floor. Sometimes it pays to browse through a womens clothing stores for photo opportunities.
But of course a Fort Worth shopping trip wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Flying Saucer. Beers from all over the world.
It was a great trip and a perfect vacation. Even if it took me a number of days to finally post a fraction of the images I captured. They can be found on my website page under Texas Trip.
