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Pops is unusual in several ways:

1. It has built a business on pop which is available virtually anywhere and everywhere, but not in the variety you find here. I saw "Ranch Dressing Pop" for example and what seemed like thousands of other flavores.
2. It's a modern, new attraction on a famous old highway with old attractions. Pops seems to completely go against everything else I know about Route 66 attractions.

I can walk out of my house and find something interesting to shoot, but it's more fun to go to a cool location.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be in Salt Lake City, Utah for several months. Then I had a fun assignment to photograph points of interest in St Louis, MO and nearby Alton, IL.

But this past Saturday I got up early and after stopping for an apple fritter and coffee drove only twenty minutes to a couple of locations. Barely out of our Edmond, Oklahoma city limits on old Route 66 to the somewhat famous Round Barn and the more recent Pop's store. These attractions are 15 minutes from home and probably less than a mile apart. I enjoyed being there and photographing them as much some distant, exotic location.

If you look through my images you'll find I'm not very specialized, I shoot a fairly wide variety of subjects. I often shoot fairly normal everyday things which I find interesting, beautiful... I do considerable post processing to enhance my images, but seldom stray too for from a realistic look.

But with all that said I do occasionally shoot something a little on the weird side or it ends up that way. I am sometimes inspired from "who knows where" and may "veer a little left of center."

Actually my work is comparatively tame, but I felt it would be good for it to have a separate Gallery for those images anyway, I call that one:
"Other, Funky, Artistic."

Two of my recent Saturday morning photo outings were to the nearby lakes Hefner and Overholser right here in OKC. Both were because I couldn't think of anyplace else I wanted to go. So both were started with low expectations and then both outings exceeded my expectations. With all my years of photography experience I know the beauty and interest comes from the photographer, I know I don't actually need new or distant locations to make good images, but I still look forward to them. See more of those lake images in my "Oklahoma City Area Gallery."

If you asked me, I'd say, "I'm not a big fan of altering photos in post processing. It's difficult to make something from nothing, I might add."

A quick look at my image galleries and ah... Well, ah, I guess it's only certain filter effects that I don't like. More specifically, I seldom like the faded, muted, Instagram type effects. To me they often look like the worst photography from the 1970s.

Filters and effects can sometimes be used to alter or add a mood to an image. When I shot the old plane pictured above I had visualized dramatic, historic, romantic images. When I saw my pictures later I realized my imagination was much better than reality. The plane was not even very authentic looking. Some of the skin looked like it came from the sheet metal shop down the street.

I quickly deleted most of my images of the plane. There were however a couple of them with some potential. I probably could have processed 20, maybe even 50 images in the amount time I took making those two images look like what I'd imagined. Not the smartest use of my time, but I do like the results .

One late afternoon back in the fall I followed my five year old grandson Zach out to play in the park across the street. My grandson grabbed a plastic basket full of toys and headed for the large sandbox in the park. With no great expectations I grabbed a camera on my way out the door.

At one point I commented about all the colorful leaves and he immediately abandoned the sandbox, grabbed the basket, and started collecting leaves.

Typical for Oklahoma the wind was blowing the leaves ever which of way. The late afternoon light was pretty good, and I made some suggestions or directions, but few were needed with a five year old's imagination.

I got a good workout shooting and following Zach as he ran around the park excitedly chasing and collecting leaves. I also got a lot of images and a higher number of winners than usual. Check out my "With People" gallery to see them.

I've been drawn to this tree and bench at Lake Hefner and photographed it a couple of times before. To me there is something special about the simplicity of it. Somehow it seems both lonely and inviting at the same time.

Actually this area is very popular with normal people, but vacant when only one crazy photographer visits early on a cold, foggy, dismal day. The day was uncomfortable enough that I almost left without getting out of the car.

I had a conversation with myself while sitting in the car having coffee and an apple fritter. "Why am I out here, in this weather, at this early time?" "There's not much interesting here to shoot, I've shot this before, why did I come here?" "OK, burning daylight, I still like that bench and tree, I can sit here and do nothing or get out and maybe get inspired."

Yes, I shot some there and ended up shooting at various locations all around the lake till almost noon. I'd decided to get out on that day because fog was predicted and fog can sometimes add a mood to shots you get on no other days. It was also predicted to be the warmest day of the week, still not so warm it turned out.

I wasn't happy with any shots of this bench and tree until I started playing around with them in post. I typically like rich, deep, contrasty color, but for a moody shot sometimes I go to black and white. For this and a couple more shots made on that day I like removing all but a little color better than going to black and white. I really like this shot, I almost didn't take.

I enjoy shooting more than editing and posting images. I'd like to shoot every day, but usually it's only once or maybe twice a week. Even shooting that little I find my image library is growing faster than I can keep up.

When I planned a simple trip to nearby Arcadia, OK a few weeks ago it was to photograph a couple of Route 66 attractions there; the old Round Barn and the more modern Pops Attraction. After getting some shots of both I started looking around; especially since I still had a spectacular sun rising to the east.

I jumped in my little car and headed east to see what I could find before the best light was gone. Arcadia, OK has a population of... Well anyway I was immediately out of town. My instinct to go east was good! I pushed the accelerator down when I saw a farm silo and cows grazing in fog in the distance.

I took a lot of shots in a very short time by literally running and gunning up a little dirt road as the sun rose far too quickly. Latter I drove back the short distance to Arcadia and found a few more interesting shots in the little town.

That morning, that simple little trip which probably covered less than fourty miles round trip, still it was one of the quickest, easiest, "funnest", most productive ever. Profitable?

This is my first post here. I also have a blog which is for photographers, but I beleive this blog should be written for those who appreciate photography as art. I intend to write about some of the images I make, the story behind certain images, also what I do and learn along the way. Now after saying that, this first post was originally written for my other Buchanan-Photography blog.

Can you see like a photographer? A good photographer sees picture opportunities and it doesn't always matter where he or she is. The inspiration may come from the subject, but the photographer adds his ability to 'see' and then to show that subject in an interesting way.

Many of us would like to be stimulated with travel, beautiful new places, new people, big events... or whatever you imagine. But, good images come from the photographer, not the place, people, event... Good photography doesn't always come from the very best equipment either.

I hate this shot, but it makes a point. It was a completely accidental shot made as I fiddled with my iPhone and my grandson. The low angle, harsh light, but actually decent framing command more attention than many of the more boring eye level shots we take. I guess this is what I look like to my little grandson. I don't know why he likes me after seeing this.

Images are always around us, waiting for us to capture them. Many come and go with the changing light, we must look for them, see them, often in our mind first. A different angle, lower, higher, different composition, back light, side light, rain, snow, early, late, selective focus, blur... a new vision can make the ordinary, interesting, sometimes great.

I apologize for forgetting the details of a story I read long ago, but it was something like this: A lady was talking with a famous photographer. The lady wanted to know what kind of camera the photographer used. She said she wanted to buy her son the same kind of camera so that her son could take such great photographs. Offended, the photographer replied with something like, "Why don't you just buy him a paint brush like Rembrandt used."

I have almost 18,000 images on this computer, a few are from around the world, a very few of famous people... a few of them are actually pretty good. Some of my best were taken within a short distance of my home.