Opening Post

Welcome to my blog. My name is Larry Armer and what you see here is an effort to create a vehicle to display some of my favorite photographs and say a thing or two. I just decided to set up a blog this evening after giving it some thought for a month or two. I'm really not that good of a writer or that good of a photographer but I've been watching my brother build his blog and it seems like a potentially good way to impove both. Also other club members have started doing the same and I couldn't resist the peer pressure.

Like any undertaking the hardest part is making the first step and for me the first step meant picking the right photograph to start off with. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use my "best" shot, my "favorite" shot, or my "fill in the blank" shot. So I got hung up right from the start trying to decide if I could even pick a place to start.

So what got me off "high-center?" Usually if you wait long enough an answer will become obvious an this was certainly true for me tonight. The answer was the back story behind this picture.

Last June my wife and I took a vacation to a resort a longtime freind of hers works for in Lajitas Texas located between the National and State Parks of Big Bend in West Texas. We had scheduled several outtings for the trip including a horseback ride in the foothills around the resort. The picture you see here is of our tour guide for the ride. Scheduled for sunrise only her, my wife and I were to be on the ride. We rode with her in the lead for a couple of hours, talked, took a few pictures and really enjoyed ourselves and her company. The ride ended and we went on with our other activities.

Five months later our photography club was having our monthly Honors Night program and this month members where invited to enter pictures under the assignment "Environmental Portraits" and I immediately thought of this one. I didn't end up using it, because of some technical flaws, even though I really like the photo. Since I had spent the time in post processing trying to improve the shot for the program my wife thought that it would be a good idea to e-mail it to the quide for her enjoyment and to keep it from going to waste.

That brings us back to this evening and the motivation to build this blog. When my wife contacted her friend at the resort to get an e-mail addess for the young lady her freind informed her that she had been killed in a car accident two weeks ago! Her and some other workers at the resort had been commuting back to work when tragedy struck and ended her short life. Instead of sending the photo for a possible smile from the subject, I sent the photo tonight to my wife's friend to show at a business meeting tommorrow in her memory.

It was crystal clear to me now that I had my opening photo picked for me, and I would like to dedicate this opening blog entry to this pretty young girl. Although neither my wife or I can remember her name I know we will remember her spirit for a long time to come.