Finding Something Amidst a Whole Lot of Nothing

The Universe has been sending me messages that I need to get out and take pictures - not with my cell phone camera, as I have been doing, but with my good camera.

Because I don't have much spare time during my waking hours to do much of anything, I decided to do my photo safari at the athletic complex while taking Kane out for his daily run.

I was concerned that there wasn't going to be much to photograph at the soccer complex because there really wasn't much variety there as far as scenery goes.

But if professional photographers could find interesting subject matter in the sparsest and ugliest surroundings, I would have to do the same. Think of it as a creative exercise in developing my eye.

Seeing that the soccer fields themselves were nothing more than boring stretches of trampled grass dotted with the occasional waste barrel and bleachers, I focused on the perimeter.

The perimeter walk normally takes me an hour to do. But because I was photographing today, that walk took twice as long.

And here's what I saw along my walk:

Just beyond the parking lot is a wide untouched area - untouched in the sense that the land has not been developed. Prairie dogs run among the trees.

Some spots seem to be party spots as evidenced by the many empty beer bottles strewn about. And other spots have more interesting litter.

Lubbock is fairly flat, but there are some hills in the area,

as well as some odd and ugly structures.

But even at the base of ugliness, you can find some beauty.

More trees under wispy clouds.

Are these trees dead? Or have they not yet started to sprout leaves?

Lubbock doesn't have many trees, but here's a small stand of them.

I would find these purple flowers here and there along the perimeter fence.

Because a wide and flat environment may not offer much variety, it's often best to photograph the smaller details, of which many abound, like the gravel on this railroad tie.

This red sandstone rock is typical of the types of rocks found here. Some of them even have fossils of tiny seashells in them.

This plastic bag billowing in the barbed wire reminded me of a nursing sow.

(And upon seeing this photo, my daughter exclaimed, "Mom, you take pictures of everything!" How very true. LOL)

The fence is an equal opportunity catcher for tumbleweeds and litter alike.

Here's a tumbleweed up close and personal.

This shredded tarp will make nice nesting material for the birds in the area. Birds are great recyclers.

As usual, Kane finds a mud puddle.

And as usual, Kane winds up wearing a lot of mud.

Here's a shadow self-portrait.

And just for the heck of it, I wanted to see what that same pic looked like solarized.

So what do you think? Should I replace my froggy avatar with a shadow self-portrait?

Did you know that Lubbock was the birthplace of Texas Instruments? Now you know where your calculator comes from.

On the other side of the chain link fence is some farm equipment.

Kane is having fun examining the tall light posts laying on their side.

Those light posts are very long. They may have been the old light posts used to illuminate the playing field at night.

Multi-colored electrical wires sprout out of one of the light posts like a pony tail,

and cascade downward like a waterfall.

There were wood piles everywhere along one section of the perimeter.

Can you see the duck in the wood pile?

Or the head of some prehistoric creature?

On the other side of the wood piles was this row of neatly stacked logs.

The bottoms of the logs have interesting patterns.

Here's a closer view.

You can never have to much chain link.

The rolled chain link creates an interesting pattern and texture.

Even close-up the pattern looks interesting.

I took this photograph

and converted it to black and white. Somehow, there's more mood conveyed in the black and white version.

I have no idea what this machine was for,

but it looked interesting nonetheless.

Here's a roll of barbed wire.

And just to remind you that we were at the athletic complex, away from the fence is this wide stretch that contains several soccer fields.

Now we've come to one of the corners at the perimeter, adorned with tumbleweeds and litter.

Beyond the fence on the far end of the athletic complex is this wide open field. It's hard to imagine that we have all this wide open space still within the city limits.

A lone scrubby tree stands way off in the distance.

Here's a tree stump with spiny bumps.

And at the bottom of the stump are these termite holes. (At least I think they're termite holes.)

That's one thing you'll find in Lubbock - dry earth -

and lots of it.

I even found this big-ass owl pellet. Can't wait to dissect that baby. And when I do, I'll tell you all about it.

A plastic bag against a chain link fence creates an interesting pattern.

Here's more of those purple flowers.

Here's an up-close shot.

I was able to get a closer shot of that mysterious mound bunker. Unfortunately, this was as close as I could get with my camera lens. Do I dare hop the fence to get a closer look?

This road goes along side of the mysterious mound bunker. However, there's no obvious way to get to that road.

A typical crystal blue Lubbock sky.

Just look how blue that sky is.

Is this the same type of prairie grass that Coronado saw when he was exploring the Llano Estacado over 500 years ago? Of course, back in his time they did not have gas pipe lines.

Another lone tree off in the distance. That bit of land is part of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, an important archeological site.

Here's another sampling of the type of rocks you would find in Lubbock soil.

This one looks like snowflake obsidian, but I doubt it's that. But you never know.

Somebody's trashed umbrella makes for a cheerful banner.

A lone rock perches on top of the large sand pile.

Texas Tech University is a major presence throughout Lubbock.

A tumbleweed caught on a fence.

Yucca with the dried pods of last year's blossoms.

I have no idea what this is. As I was climbing up the embankment, my leg inadvertently hit the shutter button -

twice.

This is more of what the typical rocks in Lubbock look like.

Whereas in New England you would find a lot of quartz, here a lot of the rocks are prehistoric lake sediments. Sometimes these rocks look like bleached bones that have been lying in the sun for thousands of years.

And sometimes you could even find a heart of stone.

This large rock is a conglomerate of lots of smaller rocks.

Here's a young yucca plant.

I'm not sure, but I think this could be a mesquite.

The reason why I think this may be mesquite is the thorns. However, I still have not been here long enough to become familiar with the different plant species.

And speaking of species, I saw 2 blue birds today.

And I saw very interesting locusts. They looked plain, drab brown on the outside, but they flew with a flash of brilliant vermilion wings.

Unfortunately, neither the blue birds more the fancy locust consented to have their pictures taken. So you'll just have to take my word for it.

Kane chilling at the picnic area.

I found a small prickly pear cactus,

and a carpet of tiny yellow flowers.

Barbed wire.

On our way back, Kane met some new doggie friends. Here's Aja chewing on a large rock.

And here's Kane chilling under the trees with Kai.

I noticed this plaque the very first time I came to the athletic complex. In this day and age of global warming and deforestation, this is an apt quote.

Thus ends my walk around the perimeter of the athletic complex.