Moving

I moved my blog over to billmellettphotography.com.  I don't plan on using using this blogger account anymore.  See you over there.

Green Bug on a Sunflower

Funny looking bumble bee.

Virginia Beach, VA

Summertime!  These young guys were having some fun at the beach.

Independence Day 2017

Happy Birthday, America.

Avadon in Texas

Today I visited the Avadon in Texas exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth.

Richard Avadon was a famous New York City fashion and portrait photographer for several decades.  In 1978 he took his photography in a completely different direction when he decided to photograph normal people for his book project, "In the American West."  He visited the snake roundup in Stillwater, Texas that year.  (Still held every year, I learned.  http://www.rattlesnakeroundup.net) He passed away in 2004.

I got to meet Mary Watts and her niece Tricia Steward who were photographed by Richard Avadon. I photographed them here with some of the Carter Museum docents.  Mary's sister Pat photographed me in front of another Avadon photo.  We had a very nice little chat.  They had some good stories about their experience.

Waterloo Village

Waterloo Village, Stanhope, NJ.  A very beautiful place.

Trophy Club Park

Oklahoma City Memorial

Newark, NJ

Stuck in Memphis

A few weeks ago was one of those weeks where I really didn't want to be away from home.  Not that I had anything special going on, I was just homesick and sick of the road.  I tried to put the foot to the metal to get home early but, it just wasn't happening.  So, I was stuck in Memphis for an extra night.  I decided to make lemonade out of lemons by finding something to photograph.

My evening stuck in Dodge turned out to be biker night on Beale Street.  I took 742 photos that night.  Here are some of the highlights.

Abilene

It is spring in Texas.  That means storms and our short window of wild flowers blooming.  I took these in Abilene, Texas earlier today.

Rancho Cucamonga at Dusk

I was recently trying to photograph the sunset in Southern California.  This helicopter was doing a sunset flight. I could hear the people talking after they landed. The passengers seemed pretty excited. So was I when they landed in front of me in the dark!

Sunrise the next day wasn't so shabby as either.

New Orleans Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

New Orleans is one of my favorite cities.  I love the vibe, the history, the architecture, the food...  It's just a cool place to be.  I think that people think of music first when thinking of New Orleans which it absolutely is but, I also can't think of a more visually appealing place.

Here are some images from my last visit.

Heaven in Hartford

Heaven is kind of an urban oasis for the youth of downtown Hartford. It’s a place where life is lived out loud. It’s part skatepark where young folks can get physical with a skateboard or bike and part artists’ canvas.  Only, it’s not exactly canvas. It is a lot of poured concrete and concrete block formed into a jumps and ramps and lots of large flat surfaces to spray paint on.

It is its own little world sitting in distinct contrast litereally in the shadows of tall corporate office buildings.  It is also part of the structure over the interstate highway I-84.  Heaven is probably not seen by the people glazing out of the corporate offices as an oasis to them.  They probably see the park as an eyesore.  Indeed, the park has been under threat of closing.

Step in Jet Blue Airlines. Jet Blue donated money to the city in order for them to be able to pay to keep the park open.  This is where the story gets interesting.  The artist community wanted to show their thanks to the company so, they created a huge mural in Jet Blue’s honor.  What is really interesting is that this mural itself as well as all of the art here has its own life as well.

The JB mural is really big.  It is on the single biggest wall and it is a drawing of a jet landing at dawn with the barb-wired toped fence, control tower and all.  What I hadn’t expected to learn is that the mural had been up for several months and nobody tried to deface the artwork.  In fact, to the naked eye all of the graffiti might look like vandalism but, it isn’t.  The artwork is meant to change over time as different artists put their mark on the surfaces.

I actually witnessed this in action. I visited heaven over two evenings. My photos below are in rough chronological order.  Compare the beginning photos of the control tower from the later ones.  You can see how the drawing changed.  It was improved.  I saw the four guys get out of a car with spray cans and tune up the mural.  

I will definitely visit here again.  I’m really interested to see how the park would have changed over a longer period of time.