Category: Outings

Outing Cancelled

This club outing has been cancelled due to concerns about the corona virus and COVID-19. If you have questions about buildings, locations or photo opportunities in the area, please contact John Nixon. Stay safe, all. 

• 8 a.m., Saturday, March 21, 2020
• Meet at Walmart Super Center, 8840 Benbrook Blvd, Benbrook, TX 76126
• Explore historic Ranger and Strawn; lunch at Mary’s Café

Join us for a spring outing to photograph West Texas scenery, vintage and abandoned buildings and possibly/probably, wildflowers.

We’ll carpool to Ranger, Texas to photograph abandoned buildings and whatever else we find. Ranger is a town of about 2,500 people with a rich history. The town is named for the Texas Ranger camp established there in the 1870s. The area grew in the early 20th Century with an economy based on agriculture, oil and railroad expansion. The Ranger post office has a Depression-era WPA mural.

• Learn more about Ranger from the Texas State Historical Association.

After exploring Ranger, we will then have lunch at Mary’s Café, 119 Grant Ave, Strawn, TX 76475. After lunch, we can explore Strawn for images and wildflowers along U.S. Hwy. 180.

Outings are free; participants should pay for gas and their own lunch, and agree to PDF-Release-of-Liability.

COVID-19 Reminder

Be sure to follow Corona virus (COVID-19) precautions: stay home if you are coughing or feel sick or think you may have been exposed, cough and sneeze into into your elbow rather than your hands, don’t shake hands, don’t touch your face, use hand sanitizer.

Above, abandoned piano in Ranger; John Nixon

This club outing has been cancelled due to concerns about the corona virus and COVID-19. We hope to reschedule, eventually. If you have questions about buildings, locations or photo opportunities in north Texas, please refer to our Facebook page. Practice social distancing and stay safe, all. 

• East Texas and Caddo Lake Photo Tours Outing; PDF Caddo Lake State Park Map
• Friday-Sunday, May 1, 2, 3, 2020
• Individual reservations are required for photo tours.

Photograph the moss-draped ecosystem of Caddo Lake in spring. Caddo Lake is the only naturally formed lake in Texas. The lake and environs comprise 25,000 acres of forests and wetlands and the flora and fauna that thrive in that environment.

Boats hold four people; trips into the wetlands are scheduled:

• Friday, May 1, sunset, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (filled; available only if there is a cancellation)
• Saturday, May 2, sunrise, 6 to 9 a.m.
• Saturday, May 2, sunset, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
• Tentative: Sunday, May 3, sunrise, 6 to 9 a.m.
• Cost is $30 per hour to be paid upon arrival.

Please Note:

To join camera club attendees, you must notify Outings chair Marsha Ezell, who will submit the reservation to Caddo Lake Outback Photo Tours.

• Email Marsha.

Participants must arrive on time and pay at the departure dock. Participants also  are responsible for travel, lodging, food and personal costs. Find the club’s PDF-Release-of-Liability

Nearby lodging is available at Karnack (Lady Bird Johnson’s home town), Marshall and Jefferson, and there are campgrounds in PDF Caddo Lake State Park. Marsha’s recommended nearby restaurants include River Bend, Big Pine Lodge, Shady Lake Café and Circle S Grocery.

Aside from boat tours, Jefferson offers the Jefferson Historical Museum, Museum of Measurement and Time (clocks and surveying tools), Jefferson Railroad, The Grove haunted house, plus historic homes and buildings.

• Learn more about Jefferson.
• Find   places to stay in Jefferson.
• Visit Uncertain, Texas.
• Visit Karnack.

COVID-19 Reminder

Be sure to follow Corona virus (COVID-19) precautions: stay home if you are coughing or feel sick or think you may have been exposed, cough and sneeze into into your elbow rather than your hands, don’t shake hands, don’t touch your face, use hand sanitizer.

Above, Caddo Lake State Park waterlillies, courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife

• 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020
• Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd.; map
• People, Birds and Archives: A Visual Feast
• PDF-Release-of-Liability

Join Outings coordinator Marsha Ezell and a museum docent to learn about two exhibits and how to access the Carter’s internationally recognized photography library and archive.

The outing includes:

• Eliot Porter’s Birds – Porter set the model for today’s nature photography and the use of color to turn photographic prints into art.
• Looking In: Photography from the Outside – Images by six significant 20^th Century photographers, all telling a story about American life. Photographers include Richard Avedon, Morris Engel, Laura Gilpin, Dorothea Lange, Danny Lyon, and Paul Strand.  This exhibit was discussed at our Jan. 2 meeting by the museum’s Assistant Curator for Photographs Kristen Gaylord.
• Presentation and tour of the archives in the museum photography collection. We will learn about the Library/Archives, how to use them and view relevant collections.

After this visual and creative feast, we’ll eat lunch at Railhead Smokehouse, 2900 Montgomery St.

Free parking is available in the Carter museum lots or in the UNT Health Science Center lot, 3500 Camp Bowie, the location of our twice-monthly meetings. Parking fees are charged by the City of Fort Worth for the garage and lots adjacent to the Will Rogers Coliseum and the Community Arts Center. Find an area map.

Above, Eliot Porter (1901–1990), Eastern Flicker, Seney, Michigan, June 28, 1973, dye imbibition print, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, bequest of the artist, © 1990 Amon Carter Museum of American Art

• Leave promptly at 8 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020
• Meet at Walmart, 721 Boyd Road, Azle, 76028; find a map
• Outing to Fort Richardson and Jermyn; bring the PDF-Release-of-Liability

Meet club president John Nixon and others at the Walmart located at 721 Boyd Road in Azle. View a Google map.

The group will depart promptly at 8 a.m. on Jan. 25 for the one-hour drive to Fort Richardson State Historic Park in Jacksboro. The address is 228 State Park Road 61 Jacksboro, TX 76458.  Entrance fee is $3. View a map.

Says John: “The plan is to spend as long as you want in the park.  We will have lunch in Jacksboro.  We will then take a short drive up the road to Jermyn, Texas, to take photographs of the abandoned church. We will then conclude the outing.  The weather should be good.”

Fort Richardson was established in November 1867. The fort was the northernmost of a line of federal forts established after the Civil War. Today’s park includes seven restored buildings. Above, by Robert Chura.

The Old Jermyn Church, built in 1910, has been a popular site for club photos. The building is a Texas historical site that is largely abandoned.