Day 2 - Oklahoma Bound

We got a better night’s sleep last night in Jackson, TN, but hopes for a good night’s sleep are looking slim due to the redneck pool party four floors below us. The whole hotel is fully booked, with some kind of group that, trust me, pings every redneck stereo type identified by Jeff Foxworthy.

Today we got up at 5:00AM again, and were on the road around 6:00AM after stopping at Jack’s for breakfast. I got a sausage biscuit and Jim got the county fried steak biscuit. He wasn’t impressed by the steak. The drive through Memphis was uneventful. We do think Arkansas is trying to secretly annex land because their welcome sign was placed on the bridge over the Mississippi River before we crossed the actual state line. We saw this again when we crossed from Oklahoma back into Arkansas, I’ll get to that in a moment. We stopped at the welcome center to pick up a map and use the restroom. Good thing we did because Arkansas does not appear to believe in regularly spaced rest areas with restrooms, a lot of semi-truck pull offs though. We basically made it through Little Rock, and to the Arkansas/Oklahoma border by noon where we made a few stops. The first stop was for lunch at Smokey B’s BBQ, which is a food truck parked in a small park next to a gas station. The pulled pork sandwich I had was good and Jim thought his brisket sandwich was pretty good. I also had a smoked macadamia nut cookie, which you could really taste the smoke in and was the right level of smokey and sweet. From there we went to Fort Smith National Historic Site which straddles the Arkansas/Oklahoma line. We noted that Arkansas had their welcome sign in well before the actual state line, thus the theory they are trying to covertly annex land.

Fort Smith was a nice little side trip, and I pulled out the real camera for that one. We walked the grounds, saw the foundation of the old fort and I got my National Park stamp. This is the first stamp I have gotten in the Southwest Region. I highly recommend if you like to visit national parks to pick up a National Parks Passport book, it is a great way to track what parks and national sites you have visited. After Fort Smith it was on to Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain. Specifically on to Oklahoma City.

We checked into our hotel around 4:00PM and that was when we found out the whole hotel was booked. We ate at a Cracker Barrel. Did you know Cracker Barrel now has a selection of wine and beer on their menu? Tomorrow it is on to Amarillo which we will not make by morning, more like noon, then ending the day in Albuquerque.

Comments

2024 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2025

This year felt a little off for me; I think it was because I was in a mental recovery mode. I finished my graduate program in June and immediately went on a week-long vacation to Palm Springs. I do not recommend Palm Springs in June; way too hot. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the graduate program mentally and physically exhausted me, which I think showed in some of my creative work. But being able to work with great people like Natalie Hanrion , Coralinx Cosplay , and Anastasia B kept me motivated. While I didn’t attend as many Cosplay Photo Shoot events as in the past, the ones I did attend were helpful in keeping the creativity flowing. I also took some time this year to reflect on a few things and will be making some changes for 2025. In 2024, I shot 6241 frames, which is a 30-percent decrease from last year. I edited 3187 frames, which is a 40-percent decrease from 2023. I think this year, I started focusing on being very min...

First Session of 2025 - Queen of Hearts

My first official shoot of 2025 was with Lady Cels on January 4 th , to shoot her Queen of Hearts cosplay based off the NoFlutter Design. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60-inch umbrella with sock 1 rectangular soft box 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 1 Platypod Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Primary Red Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Gold ring wedding altar pieces Playing cards Flowers Styrofoam block Scotch tape The set up The inspiration for this shoot was obviously the Queen of Hearts, but I took my set design cues from the original NoFlutter drawing. I wanted to create something similar to the swirls used in the background of the image, so I started looking at wrought iron garden fences and ended up on gold we...

Snow Session

On January 9 th , Washu Cosplay and I did a slightly impromptu snow session at Great Falls National Park. This was possible because of the passing of the Explorers Act which allows photography in a National Park with a model without a permit. Before you get too excited, the law limits equipment and the size of the party; you are allowed your camera, tripod, and handheld lighting equipment, and the group can be no more than 5 people, which includes the photographer, model, and assistants. So, there are no big lighting setups or big crews; for big shots, you will still need a permit. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 speed light 1 light stand The set up For this shoot I was mixing flash and natural light. In most cases, my model was partially backlighted by the sun. Thus, I u...

The Munchkin's Notebook

Search This Blog