Nothing says Texas like a dead tree full of vultures.
This was taken early one morning in June of 2001 at Colorado Bend State Park, west of Lampasas.
by James Brush
Tag: old photo friday
Since my wife is in Washington on business this week, I figured I’d post a scene from the National Mall taken in April of 1977. That’s my brother in the front. He was either two or almost two depending on the exact date of the picture.
These are the stairs leading down from Mt Bonnell. I took this picture sometime in the early ’90s when I had access to a darkroom because I did the print as well.
I used to ride my bike up there pretty regularly when I was at UT, and despite many attempts to capture the views of the city or of Lake Austin and the hills, this is the only picture I ever took there that I liked.
I guess that’s how it is with photography: sometimes the best images are the unexpected ones, the subjects that weren’t your main intention but for whatever reason call to be photographed. Sometimes an ordinary set of stairs leading down through the cedar trees says more than a whole city spread out before you.
As much as I love the view from up there, especially at night when the city lights disappear out into the plains, I haven’t been there in years. I should probably do something about that.
This is from my days as a camera assistant. It was taken on the set of The Substitute Wife, a movie-of-the-week that was filmed around Austin early in 1994.
That’s me with the slate standing next to Lea Thompson. Of the three stars on that set, Lea was the only one who wasn’t full of herself. The other two managed to make life miserable for everyone from the director all the way down to the lowliest film loader (me), set PA and sound assistant (my friends).
It was my first gig on a big budget set, and for the next few years, I got quite spoiled by all the perks. It was a fun and exciting career when I was younger, but as it turned out not something I wanted to spend my life doing.
Well, perhaps not that old, but I wanted something in the spirit of ACL Fest. I did this little photoshop number of my guitar, an Ibanez semi-hollow, a few years back.
With the fifth anniversary of September 11th so close, it seemed fitting for today’s Old Photo Friday to go back to June of 2001.
I took this picture from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Earlier that day we had discussed whether we wanted to view the skyline from there or from the World Trade Center. I’d been to both on previous trips, but my wife and our friends (who live in New York!) had never been up the Empire State Building so we decided to go there since it’s more iconic.
We figured we’d catch the World Trade Center another time.
I have clearer shots of the WTC, some quite good, but I think this one fits especially well today considering that as we get farther away from that awful day, our view is getting blurrier, more obscured. Thanks for that, Disney and ABC.
This little gem is of my neighbors Mike (with the gun) and Billy. They were our neighbors at Subic Bay Naval Base in The Philippines. My guess is that I took the picture sometime in 1979.
I have a whole series of these pictures of us doing action poses with the gun. Our friend Jimmy and Billy’s brother Chris were also involved.
Mike’s shirt, you’ll notice, reads, “Iran is a four letter word.” No doubt it’s back in style in certain circles. He also had one with a nuclear explosion that said, “Made in America. Tested in Japan. Use it in Iran.”
Everyone, including me, wanted those shirts back then even though we didn’t have a clue what Iran was all about or why eight-year-olds should be wearing shirts advocating mass death for an entire nation.
Fortunately, my parents had the good sense to not let me have one.
I wonder if we’ll soon be seeing such shirts adorning today’s youngsters.
Today we had to have our beloved cat, Morrison, put to sleep. He’s had diabetes and arthritis for the past two years, and today we learned he had cancer and that there was nothing that could be done.
So for today’s old photo we take a look at what’s probably going on in Heaven right now (after Zephyr finished sniffing his butt that is)…
Believe it or not, there’s actually very good news today too, but it will have to wait.
I took this picture of the ruins at Uxmal on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico on our honeymoon in 1998.
We stayed in Cancun for a few days and then rented a car to explore the countryside. We spent a few days in Merida and on one daylong excursion into the Puuc Hills we stopped at Uxmal, which turned out to be one of the most fascinating places I’ve ever been.
This is the Notre-Dame de Montreal Basilica in Montreal, Quebec. The collage of eight (I think) images was done during the summer of 2001.
