Garden Angel

Debi Beauregard is the Activities Chairperson for Northwest Houston Photo Club. She, Alcy and I stumbled onto what we thought was a great photo opportunity in the little town of Wallis so Debi put it up as a photoshoot activity for the Club. Being a member of the Katy Photo Meet Up she also invited their members. In all about twenty or so photographers showed up. I will be posting more photographs from the shoot, but there was one photo that I thought deserved its own thread.

Having spent a couple or three hours photographing in Wallis the previous Saturday, I was trying to find something that I had not already seen or photographed. Most of the storefronts are vacant. I was intrigued by the fact that even though they were obviously out of business, surprisingly many still contain merchandise. So I spent a good deal of time with my camera pressed up against very dirty glass trying to get images from inside the stores. Of all the photographs I have processed so far this one stands out as my favorite from this shoot.

This small antique store is still in business but because of the anticipated three hundred bikers that was supposed to converge on Wallis for a fund raiser; all of the antique stores were closed for the day. Unfortunately, being opened did not mean that the front glass was much cleaner.

This stuffed toy, I assume someone’s interpretation of a garden angel, has a note stitched to the bottom of her dress that says, “Garden Angel hover near and bless the flowers planted…” I feel certain the next word was “here” but it could not be read because it was blocked by a replica military style handgun lying in front. I just thought that was a little incongruous and deserved a photograph. When stuffed angels won’t suffice there are more direct options… creatures beware!