Jan. 20, 2009 - Backyard construction awaits the young workers!

January 21, 2009 - "Fantasy Longhorns" - I wanted to capture the steers in the morning light. I think the cattle almost look "on the trail" in this photo. This morning was a neat opporturnity to explore different angles for the shots. More cattle can be viewed at http://dakotacowboy.smugmug.com/gallery/7152728_md96P/1/458986907_dsh6U

January 22, 2009 - "The Watchful Eye of the Heron Decoy" - A decoy stands guard over my fish pond, as other Herons will stay away from his territory.

January 26, 2009 - "Yard Art" - A walk around the neighborhood provides a chance to try different lighting and composition ideas while photographing some yard sculptures.

January 27, 2009 - “Longhorn Golfer” –Yesterday, on a cold damp day, this lonely longhorn steer was captured longing for the links. He is ready to tee off, with his golf shoes on and golf balls in his hip pocket.

January 28, 2009 – “First Ice Photo of 2009” – An overnight ice storm coupled with early morning sun provided for some interesting photos. I had a hard time choosing which photo to post first. This photo of a Bradford Pear tree is the first shot that I took this morning.

January 29, 2009 - "Multicolor Crystals" - While similar to yesterdays photo, it is quite different in that several different colors are reflected from the ice crystals. The photo was cropped but not retouched.

January 31, 2009 - "Winter Break" - Its Saturday, lets go to the beach today! Photo taken at Dawn Beach, St. Martin in 2002 with my first digital camera.

February 1, 2009 - Yesterday afternoon, on a beautiful winter day, the sun lighting the flag with the blue sky background was motivation for this shot.

February 2, 2009 - "The Lone Wireless Telephone Pole" - I am enjoying the attempt to shoot new photos everyday. Photo opportunities are all around me that I never noticed before. I have walked by this old telephone pole many times and never even noticed that it was there. It is the one and only telephone pole in the woods in the middle of a housing development completed over 15 years ago. This might be more of a documentary picture than a photo.

February 3, 2009 - "Golfers Welcome" - I liked the lighting on this yard art.

February 5, 2009 - "Old Oak Tree Shadow" - This old oak tree provided protection from the north Texas early morning sun.

February 6, 2009 - "Daily Walk =s Daily Photo" - Great time of the year as sunrise is not to early!

February 8, 2009 - "Golden Reflections" - The early morning sun lighting effect really caught my eye on this one. It was shot about 40 minutes after sunrise.

February 12, 2009 - As I look for new daily photo subjects, I thought this chimney might be of interest as it appears to service three different fireplaces and also makes a very simplistic statement.

February 11, 2009 - "Surreal" - On Tuesday evening, a rapidly moving storm (65 mph) went through our area. Several houses in a neighborhood, about 15 minutes walk from my home, selectively had their roofs removed. Fortunately, no one was injured. What is unreal is that other houses in the area had very little damage. I have done some post processing to this photo of the damage that I took this beautiful sunny morning . This photo was taken about 11 hours after the storm, notice the TV news media satellite trucks all set up to do their thing. And virtually no debris or damage in the rest of the neighborhood! Update: "EF-1 tornado with a path 100 yards wide and a half-mile long, damaged 19 homes, four heavily"

Orton Effect

March 15, 2009 - "Late Afternoon Clouds" - I shot this a photo a couple of weeks ago while in my backyard. The cloud formations were unusual for this time of the year.