Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Something I grabbed a few months back at a church bazaar/festival. They set up a few booths in the gym so members of the congregation with skills could help members who were a little down and out… and the light here just wanted to be shot.

Got the scanner cranking again, pulling some critter shots from the files…

As days go, this is one OF them.

Hell with it, I’mma go shoot something.

* Yes, I know birds don’t growl. Deal.

I try to get to events like Audrey’s just a little early – when there are hoops to be jumped through it helps to have time for a running start.

When there aren’t hoops, sometimes there are other attractions to snap instead.

Like this Rice Paper Butterfly (kin, I’m told, to the Monarch) who dropped by with a few hundred lookalike friends.

Or these two, who put on a few aerobatic displays to amuse and entertain the wandering itinerant photographers…

(thanks, guys, you were great!)

Okay, load up, time to get back to work….

If you were in Houston about this time last year, you’ll have run across mention of the Amazing HMNS Corpse Flower, Lois. She bloomed, which is apparently quite rare, and the moment (several months of the moment, actually) was covered well past a fare-thee-well by the local corpse press. (sorry.)

And a bit later, thanks to the gent who became the Twitter Voice of Lois, (@CorpzFlowrLois) she got a sibling.

And this morning, the sibling got a name. And a little exposure.

With Audrey, of course, is proud “papa” Zac Stayton, HMNS’s resident Horticulturist To The Stars, and “mama” Julianne Maddox, who submitted the winning name to the Museum’s Name That Plant contest. (Maddox said it seemed like a plant that smelled like dead people should be named for a plant that chowed down on them. Makes sense to me.)

Now if you’re one of those folks who just can’t get enough of giant strange flowers that smell REALLY bad, HMNS is now offering patrons and supporters the chance to “adopt” Audrey (she’s a growing girl, y’know, and those critters COST) beginning at $20 a parent, which seems a reasonable way to get credit and a few goodies. Details on HMNS website here.

Celebration at PlazAmericas down the street… music, dancing, food, more music…

I was tied down most of the day so the food was gone when I got there, but there was, of course, still music. There is ALWAYS music.

And where there is music there are photographs.

And tomorrow is Monday. There will be pix somewhere, because, hey, day ends in “y.”

June 20 is World Refugee Day, which invites us to reflect on how fortunate most of us are… we have homes, clothes, food… water.

We take SO much for granted here… Maybe we shouldn’t.

Very Hot and Harsh today. Go find cool pix.

More or less out of nowhere, fellow gearhead Joe Linbeck dropped tickets for the 2011 Classy Chassis Concours d’Elegance on me, which of course meant I had to go see the pretty machines, with cameras.

It was a truly rough afternoon, but because I knew people would want to see pictures I forced myself to it…

Back at HMNS for this round… a few shots with the Panaleica from the Quetzalcoatlus preview.

This was a members’ preview of the new Paleontology hall, which is slated to open sometime next year. This will be one of several REALLY cool things on exhibit. Tonight, though, it* gets top billing as a solo act, and when you’re a star, not only do they throw parties for you, but people also line up to get their pictures taken with your wings around them. It’s a great life — as long as you don’t have to be alive for it….

It’s excessively hot again. Get a tripod and go shoot long exposures during the night.

* I didn’t ask if this was a male or a female. It really didn’t seem terrifically important any more.