My Mother (left) and her ‘baby’ sister Ruthann. I think Ma is standing on tiptoes to look over Aunt Nan’s shoulder 
To me it is ironic that I never think of my Ma as being short, if she sets her mind to something, that thing gets done.
She never falls short, of her goal or in my opinion.
I am just trying to capture some portraits, got a lot to learn.
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I am sorry it ain’t a donkey pix Donny but,
Amber was about 1 year 5 months in this photo.
One of my all time favorite photos.
Amber, you were and are gorgeous!
Please note that she is giving me the finger 
My sister, Jeanie Hoppal, is one heck of an artist. One of her many talents is painting. She even teaches the Bob Ross style of painting. You might know of Bob Ross via his long time running show on PBS, you know, he was that curly headed dude that was always saying “and now let’s make a happy tree…” Unfortunately, Bob passed on before the home computer really caught on. But if he were still alive, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ‘painted’ using the PC and using GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). GIMP is free, and so are the many tutorials.
I might have to try to emulate the results in the above tutorial. But I do not expect similar results for unlike my sister, I have no talent.
A Christmas story;
One of my first gifts was a fabulous fuzzy panda bear. I had that panda until I was eight years old, and then it simply disappeared. When I turned eighteen, it showed back up in my Christmas stocking. For all those years, it had been kidnapped and held by my Mother! As she tells the story, I had pretty much had worn ol’ Panda bare and she had taken him to protect him. No matter what story is true, my eighteenth Christmas was a truly special one.
Santa is on the move!
Merry Christmas and God bless y’all.
This add made me a bit nervous;
Hmm, I haven’t talked to my older sister in awhile …
Over 40 years ago, there was a feller that slept in the bunk above me. In one of those “Where is he now” type of things, I sought out this not so anymore young feller. It was kind of easy ’cause he is my Uncle (or so I claim, don’t know if he claims me) so I kind of know where he lives. As always, he was more gracious then I deserve.
To see this image and others in a larger size, please visit the Wray Post Photoblog. There you can click on the image you want to see larger and it will open a new page from where you can down load that image.
Dreams long past, almost forgotten are not any less valuable as the latest hair brain idea that wishes to be a dream. For example, some 30+ years ago I wanted to be a photographer. I know that this is news to everyone for I think that I have told no one. Having a dream about a career that did not involve sore back muscles was not something that was glorified to me as a child. So I chased the dragon more easily sleighed. Though the dream of photography has occasionally reared its head through out my life as displayed in the picture of me at age 19 trying to look the part as a western Ansel Adams. 
There are other instances where the dream has reared its head and poked its way out from behind the veiled curtains of the sub-consciousness to the ever on-going reality that we call life, or at least what I call my life. One was at the time of when digital photography was just starting to become less expensive yet was still slightly obscure and more or less dismissed by the professional crowd. As different and as original as Ansel was in his day, I went out and bought a refurbished Olympus D-100 (I still retain this camera also)to advance my art. The camera was/is severely low-powered with only 1.3 megapixels, but the idea of capturing a moment of time without the expense of film was all I needed to have the dream joining up with the circus and leaving town again. When I consider the ramifications of that camera and other following “digitals” along with the lure of the dream, I must admit that the dream was the soul behind the creation of the Wray Post and PhotoBlog.
There is one more turn of advents of the dream that I care to share with you that has me setting here writing this long winded drivel, and that is the dream has reared again for I am waiting (maybe not so patiently) for the delivery of “serious” camera number 2. I ordered a Nikon D-60! For those of us that have been stricken with the photography dream (please note I did not say ‘bug’), know that Nikon is the brand brand name for a 35mm buff. I will not argue that this the best camera to have, nor did a slick salesman spout off a ‘hook and loop’ catch phrase that could snag someone with weak will power such as “this the first camera that has …” But before rebuffing me with why and what I should have or should have not bought, please remember that this is my “dream” camera and hope that although I spent probably more then I should afford for it (and the other paraphernalia that one has to have with a “serious” camera), this dream I hope will play on and on again for at least another 30+ years when I can say, “I still have that camera”! Step aside Ansel, here I come!
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