Harry's Top Ten Pics Of All Time!

I was stunned when I saw my Flickr account has close to 1,600 photos uploaded. I have tons more I have yet to process but I had no idea I'd done that many. So I thought this a good time to pick out a few of my favorite photos of all time. Barry said out of a 10,000 photos he finds a hundred he likes. It is a volume business.

Some of these are special to me because of what I was feeling at the time of the shot and/or that time of my life. I had moments of unexpected therapy, fighting through the pain, wondering what I was even doing. Sometimes when I'd come back and look at the pics I was amazed by some of the shots, thinking someone else must have taken them. (Those were far outnumbered by the "Aw, crap!" disappointments when I'd hope for more.)

With a few honorable mentions thrown in, here are my top ten Flickr photos to date:

Honorable Mentions:


For some reason the light reflecting off the water in this photo just lifts me up. This shoot was done on the spur of the moment as I ran back to my car to get the camera after moping while staring into the Kimbell Museum's waters.


You can see my shadow dwarfed by the enormity of the structures. To some they seem like ordinary grain elevators, but to me they are descended from the temples of Egypt. Those were hard times back then, never knowing when the granaries would be full or empty.


Mockingbird Station at night. Dallas did its light rail right and I love the Mockingbird Station with its exposed structure and airy feel. I never fail to marvel at it when I pass by.

10.

Admittedly, I could do all top ten from the Japanese Gardens due to my partiality. So I will stick with the ones that stand out to me (while even then leaving many out). This is a sideways photo that just lets the garden colors bleed, removing the structure from the eye. I'd like to do this again with a more dazzling set of colors.

9.

I saw these townhouses two years before I took this photo and they haunted me ever since. They have a European feel and lie on the outskirts of downtown Dallas as an urban outpost. Somehow the rain made it perfect.

8.

This was a lucky shot from the Japanese Garden Spring Festival, trying to time my shot with the strike. Didn't know I had it till I got home.

7.

This is from an abandoned grain elevator and I felt like I was peering into a lost, forgotten corner of the world. I kept imagining the workers and their lives but having it all come to an end as the building calls them back.

6.

I just wanted some snow pics. Due to the parking lot light I got this funky pic and I'm still shocked it came out the way it did. I like this one because it looked like I planned the eeriness. Barry says I have my own style. I do. It's called "haphazard".

5.

The Japans: Serenity captured alive.

4.

"Wailing Wall". This also was at the Kimbell museum, I.M Pei's masterpiece. I saw this man on a Sunday afternoon and I was afraid of taking a pic of what I saw as a private moment. But I felt the art outweighed my objections and I'm glad it did. This is one of those times where a real camera and photographer could have made gold.

3.

"The Razor's Sun". The Bridge, Dallas' homeless shelter, set behind the barbed wire. Walking the area has the feel of a prison and this shot captured all I wanted to say about that feeling: harsh, brutal, in the twilight of our civilization.

2.

This posting got ignored. Unfairly so, I say. Again, unexpected therapy came out of the shoot and I'll never forget it even if I failed that feeling later on. But this "Cows and Kilns" photo came out so perfectly with the contrast between man and nature I dearly wanted to show.

1.

The Lost Windmill. I could have taken a hundred photos of this. Many of the photos of my Last Picture Show shoot came out like magic but this is the one I love most. I don't dare try to put my finger on why it puts me over the rainbow but I feel I'm in another time and space when I view it, of seeing something buried deep inside myself.