Photography: Ride in the Park

As always, click on any image to see it full-sized. CTRL-click will open the image in a separate browser tab.

It was a high tension workout day, but I had the itch to take some pictures. So I got out my bike and rode to the Regional Parks system to see if anything spoke to me. Rather than associate the pictures with some kind of narrative order, I’ve grouped them by general subject. First up are some trail shots. I wanted to test some different settings on the camera and see how it affected the mixture of shadow and light from the sun.

Next are a batch of images along the banks of Soldier Creek. Again, there’s a strong interplay and light and shadow. The creek was fairly low today, but the autumn storm season has already begun, if only feebly. I’m looking forward to catching a lot of shots of heavy run-off. This tree with nearly all its roots exposed by washout is still healthy and strong. Just a little ways upstream stands this natural sandstone dam (image left) that makes a very nice spot to sit and hear Creation speak. The Parks Department put a bench there long ago, and it’s just about worn out. One of the the major hindrances for some of these shots is that I still can’t put too much pressure on the right knee. That means limited clambering around, and for someone as adventurous as me, that’s hard to face.

Next are some random shots of various open areas in the parks system. This first one is in Pecan Grove Park. Pecans are just starting to ripen but the squirrels are impatient, picking some that are still just a tad green. There are already a good scattering of husks and shells on the trails. Of course, the biggest is Barnes Park, right next to the golf course. At this point, the ground is down much closer to the water level of Soldier Creek and the Parks Department dredged it a bit to accommodate the wild waterfowl. This section of the creek stays full year-round.

Finally, I rode out of the park and into the edge of what was once a very busy shopping area. There’s a vacant warehouse on Republic Drive, just across the street from the Century distribution center. It’s much larger than the image through the fence indicates. Next is a few shots from an old quonset hut warehouse alongside the decommissioned tracks. I can’t recall what was there originally, but for part of my youth, Sears used it as their catalog sales facility. They had a regular small store nearby. This thing is oddly built, because the front faces the street squarely, but the quonset hut portion is parallel to the tracks, not square with the front. This old concrete pad next to the tracks was the rail dock; it used to have an adjustable steel extension for unloading rail cars. Now the pad hosts a pile of rusting rails pulled up from somewhere else on this line, plus a section of concrete conduit.