If we had maize where I grew up in Northeast Texas, I have no memory of it.   I sure don’t recall seeing it in my Georgia years, but that might have more to do with the fact that we lived in metro-Atlanta.   Maybe it was well-established in South Georgia?    At any rate, since coming back to Texas ten years ago, maize has been an exceptionally-pretty crop.  I do know that maize is part of the family that we call corn.  Our Central Texas corn is mainly used for livestock feed.  Apparently so is maize.   Maize is also used to produce grain sorghum and is used in corn starch.   All that aside, I just think it’s visually-stimulating.  This one’s from earlier tonight near the Bell/Williamson County line.

After many years in Georgetown, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo has moved north, to Jarrell, Texas.   The venerable arena at San Gabriel Park has been on life support for a while.  The rodeo had to find a new home.   Thanks to the generosity of the Micheux family in Salado, the rodeo has  twenty acres of prime land in Jarrell.   The first of this year’s  two rodeos  was held last evening.   These images were taken then.   The second session is tonight..  As always when covering rodeo, I aim for the culture of the event, not the sports action.  Oh,there’s plenty of that, but it’s much more.  I particularly like to cover Mutton Bustin’.   Those kids and their sheep are a hoot!  Children in general always seem to love the rodeo.  Much of this post will (hopefully) get that message across.

While pursuing another photo idea last evening,  the western sky hinted at an approaching storm.   Neither the photo idea nor the storm materialized, but exceptionally-pretty light graced planted fields south of Granger, Texas.  When one thing doesn’t pan out, nature gives us an alternative.  

When visiting Taylor’s Bull Branch Park this week, I’d planned to take photos of the creek and the park’s pond, always good places to point a camera.  Then I met an adorable and cuddly (really!) Bearded Dragon called Lizzie having fun with her little human, 7-year-old Sage, joined by Sage’s mom.   Lizzie, now 4, has been with the family since she was a baby.  At home, she dines on grass, bugs and grasshoppers, all under Sage’s love and guidance.  Classified as a reptile, which might sound scary to some, Lizzie is gentle as a kitten.  “Would you like to pet her?” asked Sage.  I happily took him up on the offer.    When not playing with Lizzie, Sage has his own YouTube channel, Sage’s Universe, where he reviews toys.  Sometimes Lizzie makes appearances.   This is one of those little slices-of-life things that make community photojournalism an important part of my work.  

Much to juggle tonight, friends so posting two completely-unrelated photos, the first a bridge study near sunset, and from tonight, a mom and her family at a Taylor park.   We love our duck families here.

A few roads on the Blackland Prairie are made for peaceful drives.  This is one of those.   After Monday afternoon’s rain, the light as sunset neared was just to my liking.   These four photos were taken during a span of perhaps fifteen minutes, posted in the order in which they were made.  The prairie gives us so much to see. 

A couple of images tonight, friends, both made today.   The day began with a spot of rain, but by early-afternoon, the skies were filled with dissonance, a dissonance I happen to like as long as nobody is harmed.   At sundown this evening, the storms had moved on, leaving behind some nice colors in the Blackland Prairie skies.  

This section of county road outside Bartlett, Texas is among my favorites.   Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort to photograph the beauty of the Blackland Prairie, but have been remiss in documenting the places that are disappearing as so-called progress takes hold .   These photos have been sitting on my desktop since late-February.  When things stay around that long, it’s not unusual to find me sending them to the trash.  I’m glad these stayed around.   These are homesites along this beloved county road.  If you go by there now, summer growth has overtaken them completely.  You won’t see them, but they’re still with us.  The second and third photos are presented in black-and-white.  They are the same house, but with different points of view.

Earlier this week I had occasion to be in the Georgetown area in search of people photos. The oppressive heat that day seemed to drive most folks indoors.   At one public park, feeling a bit overheated myself, I found a shady area by a pond to relax while waiting on humans.   The humans didn’t materialize, but I became entranced by the activities of dragonflies darting around the pond’s vegetation.   The combination of plants and water produced some interesting colors.   As most of you know already, I do very little manipulation of images.  The goal is always to represent what I saw when there.  Mother Nature has a way of making things come together sometimes.   Oh, later on that day, I did find some humans at another park, but was pretty satisfied with the dragonfly ballet.

Now, as I write this at 9:19p.m. on Friday night, it’s not just nearing, it’s here.  In Central Texas, it officially began at 10:54a.m.    Last night I set my alarm clock for a little before 6a.m. in order to document the 6:30a.m. sunrise.   A small cloud cover obscured the sun at 6:30, as seen in the opening photo.   Scant minutes later, pictured in the second image, the sun peeked through.   As many of you know, I worship twilight and evening light.   Daylight Saving Time is unnatural,  leaving us with not only poor light, but hotter nights.  Texas is already hot enough.  We don’t need an extra hour of daylight.  I don’t budge on my opinion.  Each to his/her own.