Photography: Overcast Test

As always, click on any image to see it full-sized. CTRL-click will open the image in a separate browser tab. Note that this thing got accidentally posted way before it was finished.

Today was overcast, a good time to test the new camera. It wasn’t much of a test on my knee, though. I’m at the point where it grumbles, but cooperates and I had no trouble making a 16-mile (26 km) ride. That is, the knee wasn’t a limiting factor so much as the rest of my body. My muscles can remember long rides, but that doesn’t mean they can do it right away after just a few days back in the saddle. Actually, my hands caused me more discomfort having to adapt again to long rides leaning a bit on them. The bike itself is just dandy; I have a kickstand now. I wore a bright reflective safety vest because I intended to stop often and take pictures next to busy roads.

The first shot above is Pecan Grove Park on the way out. This is mostly chasing north on Midwest Boulevard up to Wilshire and back. The cloud cover was very thick, but it still came out rather well. On the northbound pass I stopped to catch this shot of the new levy extended out under the eastern side of the Midwest Boulevard bridge over the North Canadian River. The far shore behind the levy has the same massive boulder rip-rap and the river has a decent flow after the rains.

I very much love how this ridge stands above the river valley plain, so I grabbed several shots. This is viewing NW from NE 63rd just off Midwest Boulevard. Farther north along the same ridge the slope is adorned by massive oak trees.

On the east side of the Midwest Boulevard sits a huge sod farm. I rode down the stub of Wilshire Boulevard to the river banks and turned back to capture this view (right) that eluded me with the little camera. The same sod farm viewed from the front side (left) looks back down toward the river where it turns north.

As I headed back south, the same ridge line kept calling out its beauty. Viewed SW up near Wilshire it shows another property with an old barn and deadfall that hasn’t been picked up since the massive storm that hit this last spring. Farther down the trees obscure those houses we saw earlier.

That really is a beautiful spread those folks have; I couldn’t resist this view from farther south along the same road. It eventually brought me back to that enigmatic stone wall with wrought iron gates. It’s all closed up now and the landscaping site on the north bank of the river is all fenced in completely. The saplings are still held upright by poles.

Here’s the south bank in summer dress and with a good flow in the foreground. Recent rains have been just enough to deposit a substantial buildup of sand, making the higher cut bank look rather short. I’ve seen this same bank looking like a cliff taller than my own head, but I could climb this one, even with my bad knee.

Panning left along the same bank (southward) you can see where the new levy juts right out from the tree-lined shore. They have cut-outs to plant young trees, but I guess that comes later. I went on over the bridge most of the way to show the size of this thing; wide enough to accommodate a one-lane road. This also shows how they almost closed up that flow that blocked my escape back in April when I came riding out the woods there behind where they built the new levy.