Rythmic recognition

This woman, surrounded by blue lights, not only is the drummer in her blues band, she is also a spirited vocalist. At the Blues Music Awards we do not see many women drummers – she was the only one in 2016 – and did a rockin’ good job.

I’m partial to drummers since my brother Hank is a drummer and a fine one. When photographing bands, the lead out-front instrumentalists and vocalists seem to be the photographic targets of choice and the drummers, relegated to the back of the bus so to speak, get the short photographic shrift. Not so this time. The drummers are the stars of this show.

Click on drummer to see more drummer pix at Corndancer dot-com.

The pictures for this post come from the 2016 Blues Music Awards in Memphis. Unfortunately for this one, I was unable to match names with the fine drummers in the pictures, so you can either make up names or ask around. If you get lucky, let me know.

Be sure and see additional Blues Music Awards drummers on the Photo of the Week Page at Corndancer dot-com. There’s cool lighting and good looks at the Blues Music Awards drummers which, to the best of my knowledge are available no where else – just like the ones on this page.

This drummer taps out the rhythmic base paying close attention to the other performers.

To get these shots, it is necessary to snake your way through an obstacle course of speakers and cords and place one’s self at the one of the back edges of the stage. For that reason, most drummers are not aware of the camera since they focus on what is in front of them. This dude was an exception and put on his best smile. See another shot of him on the Corndancer Photo of Week page.

These drummers have to be some of the best, because they rotate in and out of the same set of drums for each band versus their own personal arrangements to which they are accustomed – and they still rock!

This is a get lucky long lens shot from way back in the audience. There is so much visual interference from camera to subject when attempting these shots that they are rarely successful. This is the exception.

These views for the most part are not available to most viewers and require a photo pass to access the points to shoot, so hopefully you saw some imagery not seen elsewhere. And you joined in our salute to the not-s0-often-photographed drummers.

And as a side note, my multi-tasking brother has other talents than his musical skills. He is also a pilot and flight instructor with permits to fly dadgumnear anything.

Thanks for looking,

Joe Dempsey,
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

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Back to the levee

A curious donkey extends a welcome to her territory on the levee. Fortunately, her deep curiosity was matched with outgoing friendliness, a good thing when she has big teeth and outweighs me by 800 pounds or so. Click on the picture to see our original November 2014 post, Miss Donkey Congeniality.

A redirected trip finds new donkey friends

Click the rice field above to see pictures from the ‘Balcony of the Levee’ on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

In November 2014 we planned a trip to Elaine, Arkansas  to shoot the jillions of birdhouses residents have seen to put up in the small Delta town, but a a split in the road leading to a nice stretch of levee with a good gravel road was too much to resist, so we headed down the levee to see what we could see. We did not expect to have a curious and friendly donkey stick her head in the cab of the truck but she had different ideas.

It was a delightful experience and an exercise in one-handed wide angle shooting since the camera to subject distance was minimal at best. Click here to see our original post, Miss Donkey Congeniality.

And be sure and see the first part of the trip on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com. It’s a trip down the “Balcony of the Delta.” You’ll see blue skies against golden harvested rice fields, cypress trees and a lot of levee cattle.

Thanks for looking,

Joe Dempsey,
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

It’s gonna rain t’mar

Agri-activity on a recent Sunday was fast and furious in anticipation of a heavy rain the next day here in LA. This tractor is pulling a ‘scratcher’ through this filed. The ‘scratcher’ aerates the soil and turns dead vegetation under. It is a preparatory step, but not the last one before planting. If the field is left untended before the rain, planting will be delayed.

Click on the  dusty tractor to see more ‘before-the-rain’ pictures

There’s nothing like a prediction of a heavy rain to stir up agri-activity here in the Delta. If you haven’t planted and the fields are ready, you get in high gear and get seed in the ground.You can see planting pictures on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com. We’ll wait here for you.

If your fields are not ready for planting, you get as much preparatory work as possible done before the rain because after the rain, you are effectively shut down until the fields are dry enough to work.

This tractor is pulling a ‘field cultivator’ which breaks up clods, turns dead vegetation under and aerates the soil. In this field, this rig is part of a field preparation tag-team.

The second part of the field preparation tag-team is a ‘roller-hipper’ which makes makes rows and prepares the seed beds in the rows for planting soy beans, corn, or milo.

Here’s the business end of the ‘roller-hipper.’ It is a complex piece of machinery which requires a lot of horsepower from the tractor to operate it’s sophisticated hydraulic system.

Here’s what the ‘roller-hipper’ does. It leaves behind rows with a seed bed ready for planting.

Since our beloved Delta is as flat as a pool-table and/or a pancake, it is unusual to see a tractor that appears to be on the backside of a hill. Actually, the long lens exaggerated a slight rise in the land.

The tractor turned around and lo-and-behold it is dragging a roller-hipper with an additional aerating device that looks like an old fashioned lawn mower.

Here’s where all this activity is headed – young corn a week or so out of the ground. A glimpse of the right center of the picture reveals an oops. The planter driver got a cell-phone call, slapped a skeeter, was trying to tear the wrapper off a Snickers or something else that caused temporary ‘distracted planting.’

The big rain came the next day right on schedule. The forecasters got it right. The next day it was warm and sunny. Just exactly what freshly planted corn needs. Most of this corn will go to animal feed. Critters gotta eat.

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Azaelas up close and personal

At long last, the azaleas have exploded in our azalea rich neighborhood. Their appearance was agonizingly slow – like molasses running uphill in January. Now all of a sudden the fickle plants make their presence known in a big way.

 Our azaleas have joined blooming neighborhood Dogwoods and camellias in their decoration of the macro environment. It is not often that all three are a blooming simultaneously. Perhaps it is a harbinger of a good rest-of-the-year.

Click on the blooms to see more azaleas at Corndancer dot-com.

We are giving you an up close and personal look at the azalea blooms since kneeling and squatting are not the norm for observing flowering plants. Be sure and see more of the Dempsey azaleas on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.  We are not captioning these pictures, the blooms speak for themselves.

Vertical

‘Nuff sed.

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

The underbelly of Highway 7

This old establishment is the quintessential mom and pop country store, or at least gives that appearance being connected to the family residence. It was probably the social epicenter of the hamlet in which it resides. A card on the front door identifies it as a former wildlife check-in station for hunters. It also has an old tube and tire patching press attached to the front of the premises.

Click on the bridge to see more Highway 7 pictures.

In Arkansas Highway 7, in its northern stretches, slithers through some of the finest views of the Ozark Mountains upon which one my lay his or her peepers. Almost completely forgotten is a stretch of Highway 7 that winds its way through the cypress-lined Ouachita River bottoms from Camden to Sparkman. Today, we take a few glimpses of what we found while recently traveling the road. Along those lines, we suggest checking out the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com where you’ll see other pictures of the area including a one-lane bridge across the Ouachita River.

Here’s a close-up of the old tire and tube patching press attached to the peeled-paint store premises.

Not far from the old store/station a resident is getting ready to prep the soil and plant the family garden. The roto-tiller stands ready as does what appears to be last year’s scarecrow.

A few miles more and we stumbled across this well-weathered old barn replete with a now roofless shed attached. Perhaps it is a piece of the former roof leaning against the front of the barn.

If your name happens to be Amy, take heart, there’s a town in Arkansas named after you.

Here is a former commercial building of some sort constructed with large yellow bricks. At some time in the past these bricks were in vogue, but apparently not for long.

Just outside Sparkman on the return trip I found this really cool looking tree full of tiny buds straining to burst forth with spring vigor.

In contrast to the upper stretches, this section of Highway 7 is as flat as a pancake and offers a glimpse of southern rural America, a refreshing change from lots of asphalt and obnoxious traffic.

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

Bye-bye hoops, hello diamond

Going for two in a recent state championship game. The game was ‘hard-fought’ and the red team (not the home team for us here in LA) took the honors from the defending state champs, our guys.

Click on the umpire to see more hoops and baseball action shots.

‘Tis the overlap season. Amateur basketball is winding down and baseball season is getting cranked up to full speed. After next week, hoop fans will go into withdrawal symptoms until next fall while baseball fans are reveling with delight. This week we will take an up close and personal look at recent images from both sports, good, bad and ugly. Speaking of which, you can see more hoops/baseball action shots on the Photo of the Week Page at Corndancer dot com. Take a gander and we’ll wait here for your return.

The runner won this race and was safe at first base. The pitcher is performing as expected,  giving backup to the first baseman. The white team, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff eventually won a big victory over Prairie View A&M, the purple/gray team.

Everything was going well for the catcher. He caught the ball and tagged the runner out at home plate. And immediately dropped the ball converting an out for him into a run for the other guys. Sometimes, it just ain’t your day.

Though baseball is traditionally considered to be a spring and summer sport, temps in the low fifties and upper forties fortified with a stiff breeze forced these fans to take cover March 20 during a game between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Prairie View A&M. I was bundled up like a sore thumb while shooting the game and still felt the chill winds more than I would have liked.

This is a good ol’ third base slide. The runner, confidentially the third baseman for the visiting team, was safe but all to no avail. The home team won by a comfortable margin.

The last hurrah for hoops at Weekly Grist until fall. The ball fell successfully for the shooter and he drew a foul in the process — and walked away three points to the better.

While basketball fans will soon start crying in their beer, baseball fan are rejoicing. In the fall, their roles will reverse. And life goes on. Here at the Chez Dempsey, we are looking forward to fuhbaw season, our sport of choice, and just now are recovering from post-superbowl withdrawal symptoms.

Thanks for looking,

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

The consequences of prolonged precipitation

Had the higher power not sent the sprinkle while I was shooting the spring beauties in my front yard, I would not have the water drops to capture. Keep in mind that this bloom is in the neighborhood of a quarter inch across at the widest point.

Finally, this afternoon (Sunday, March 13), we got a break in a tad over six days of belt-fed liquid sunshine here in LA – close to making Noah’s flood look like a morning dew. As I glanced out the kitchen window I noticed that our camellia and the wild spring beauties in the front yard had gone berserk in bloom production. Though we took a glimpse of these flowers a couple of weeks back, the rain has changed the game, so here we go again.

Our recent spate of rainy days kicked these spring beauties into the turbo mode in my front yard as shown in this turtle’s eye view.

I grabbed tripod, Kodak, macro lens, tripod and ground cloth and made haste to the front yard. As I got the rig ready to shoot the camellia, the rain began again, just a trickle, but promising to increase in intensity and frequency of drops.

A group of just sprinkled spring beauties stepping out of the shower are true to their name.

Click the poesy and our favorite camellia in all it’s glory on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

As I concluded shooting the camellia and spread the ground cloth the assume the uncomfortable but necessary supine position to shoot the spring beauties at ground level, the sprinkles intensified.

I managed to grab a few but not all of the shots I wanted, folded my tent and went back inside, tripping over the ground cloth and colliding with mother earth in the process.

Fortunately, my person and my camera and lens are unscathed as a result of the untimely collision. By the way, be sure and see our red camellia on its best behavior on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

Here’s another family portrait of some spring beauty cousins adjacent to the bunch above. In a week or so, the lawn mower will convert them to smithereens, but they will faithfully return next year for their welcome annual performances.

Minutes after that, the rain subsided, so I repaired to the yard and began the process one more time. As I concluded the second session, the almighty started to deliver some more serious rain drops, reminding me who is in charge, and don’t you forget it.

Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

Recalling the winter birds

I shot this egret at Saracen Lake late 2015, a good year for water birds at Saracen Lake here In Pine Bluff, Arkansas – the last good year for birds. Click here or on the egret above and see our December 7 post with lots of pelicans, grebes and egrets.

During the winter of 2014-2015, here in Pine Bluff, Arkansas at our in-city impoundment, Saracen Lake, we enjoyed a substantial in-migration of water fowl including pelicans, grebes, some unusual ducks and other species which made for good shooting for those of us who find enjoyment photographing wildlife.

By comparison, the nicest thing we can say about our 2015-2016 winter in-migration is: “lousy.”

My duck hunting buds tell me that lack of sustained cold weather up north and too much water down here are the contributing factors. Wild critters are smart, if they don’t have to travel to survive, they don’t. With all the water, the ones that did make the trip are scattered. All that said, since we have no new winter bird shots, we’re taking a look our December 7, 2014 post which shows the last successful batch of winter water birds.

Click on the pelicans and see a bunch more at Corndancer dot-com.

We captured a lot of American White Pelican photos at the lake during that period. There was a substantial winter population of these big birds (they have a six-foot plus wing span), and they hung out at a location ideal for long-lens photography.

See those photos at our Corndancer Photo of the Week . The pictures are a collection of the picks of the litter from several visit to the lake, including in flight shots and a frenetic feeding frenzy.

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

Flowers and felines

This is our second camellia, the one with ruffles. It resides in the front yard, next to the house. This year it is in sync with our camellia outside our kitchen widow – just a few feet away – which seems to get all the praise. I suppose that’s because we do not have to venture outside to see the kitchen window one. If plants could talk, the one would rightly accuse us of favoritism in the third degree.

Click the pic to see Katy, our nearly-all-Russian Blue – and more flowers at Corndancer dot-com

The camellias in our front yard are our notice that the light at the faraway end of the cold, cold tunnel is spring. It is a gesture we welcome. So notified, on an unusual, muggy 70-degree February day, I went to the front yard to document the notification.

As I went about my self-appointed duties, two of our cats, Nikon and Katy, decided to be close observers. This time, their curiosity outsmarted them.

As all cat owners can tell you, when they are the most photogenic, they immediately exit that mode, the second a camera shows up on the scene. Not so when their curiosity overrides their persnickety mode.You can see more of the cats and more flowers on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

Nikon, our giant American Longhair, joined me as I laid on my front side to photograph Spring Beauties at ground level. You can see another view with him looking in the lens on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

This Spring Beauty is probably no larger than a quarter-inch across. Macro optics give us the opportunity to see its dazzling details up close and personal. Nikon the cat was the photo assistant for this capture.

This is a young bloom on our kitchen-window-camellia. It will continue to unfold until it peaks out and then in a few days, it will drop to Mother Earth.

I’m not sure what the identifier is for this poesy, but in this mode, it reminds me of the famous Marilyn Monroe image over the sidewalk grating.

I thought this might be the lone jonquil in my neighbor’s yard. Then her husband stepped outside to walk the dog and told me where to find a few more. You can see those on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer.com.  Our jonquils are not yet in turbo-mode. When they get there, they will not be difficult to spot by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks for looking at our first spring images and tales. If you are farther north than us, what you see here gives you hope: it’s coming your way. For those of us down here in LA, it’s nearly “good riddance” to winter.

Thanks for looking,
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

 

 

Goin’ to the hoop

Mr. 12 defies gravity as he falls back from Mr. 35’s attempt to  thwart the scoring shot. Mr. 12 prevailed and continued on his downward path until the floor stopped him. He recovered in a heartbeat and scampered down the court with a smile on his face.

Click on the player to see more hoop action at Corndancer dot-com

Basketball offers a photographic advantage provided by few other sports – the heart of the action is predictable – right under the hoop. This is not to say that there’s no action on other parts of the court, because there’s plenty. It is however, not predictable. Which is why when I shoot basketball, I generally camp out under the hoop.

Speaking of which, be sure and see our sister site, the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com where you will see more action under the hoop.

Driving to the hoop. Mr. 22 is putting his best moves on Mr. 2 and Mr. 3 as he drives to the hoop. Writhing like a snake in a fire, he made good his trip.

Mr. 1 is making his airborne move to the hoop and was successful in evading Mr. Defender to the steel circle – but the ball ‘rimmed out.’ You can see the sequence shot just prior to this one on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

 

Mr. Offense (pale yellow) appreciates an open lane provided by the two purple clad defenders who were too little and too late to stop the successful scoring attempt.

Mr. 4 is on his way to hoop heaven in this hard-fought game which a few minutes later was decided in the last few seconds as the Whites came from behind to prevail over the Crimsons.

Most of the time I like wider crops but the three faces in close proximity to the bouquet of upraised arms and hands said ‘crop me please.’ Who am I to argue with Divine intervention?

It is my privilege and pleasure to provide these views of basketball otherwise not available. To those who are not sports fans, you may enjoy the intense emotions on display. If not, stick around, the flowers will return soon,  as will I next week.

Thanks for looking,

Joe Dempsey

Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html