Dava's Space

Zilker Park, Austin, Tx

Dava — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:16:02 +0000

Zilker Park, right off 1st street, is an amazing park with a skyline view. Also there is a large field where people were doing everything from group yoga sessions, to playing Frisbee with their dogs, to flying kites with there children. There is also a hiking trail that runs around the park and continues out along the Barton Springs Creek. This creek was so clear that me and my husband had to go for a swim, even though it was October. Coming from Mississippi you don’t see water like that to often. There were kayak rentals all along the creek. Unfortunately we didn’t get to enjoy that activity. While sitting by the creek we were able to listen to a couple of musicians who came to the park to practice their music, which made for a very peaceful and relaxing day.If you are ever in Austin, you should put your partying aside to come and do as the locals do and spend a day at the beautiful Zilker park.

Beautiful Mckinney Falls State Park

Dava — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:53:08 +0000

Mckinney Falls right on the outskirts of Austin, Tx is a wonderful place for hiking, camping, and even swimming. It may be extremely close to one of the biggest cities in Texas but it is just as quiet and peaceful as any other national park. The stars at night are not obstructed by city lights and there is a lot of wildlife to be seen, like this racoon. He had no fear of humans. Actually, he hung out outside of our tent for quite a while. We also had a couple of Opossums who tried to eat our food. During our hike we came across several Deer to. If you decide to camp here make sure your food is sealed up tight cause these guys aren’t dumb!

Even though the falls had dried up from the drought this summer, the water still was very clear, if it would have been a littler warmer we would have gone swimming. Then if you walk about a mile down from the falls you’ll find this beautiful bluff area. If you hike a little bit farther you will find another area called the Smaller Falls.

This park is very peaceful , it will make you forget your only 5 miles away from the great city of Austin.

Crossroads Music Festival

Dava — Sun, 22 May 2011 02:11:15 +0000

The first Crossroads Music Festival was hosted by David Parker in Buffalo, Tx May 14 of this year. Not only were there great bands, but there was great food to! The music was perfect for anyone in a Saturday afternoon mood.Everything from Johnny Cash covers, to random songs based on a word thrown out in the audience, to originals written by the bands, this was the place for an up and coming band.

Like our band The Nervous Breakdowns consisting of David Cooley above (lead Guitar) Mike Withrow on drums above. From left underneath is David Cooley on guitar, Myself Dava Cooley on vocals, and David Cargill on vocals.

All the photographs were taken by Walker Ainsworth with a Nikon D3000.

Spring time!

Dava — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:02:47 +0000

Spring starts sometime this month, not sure what day, I’ve never been good with remembering when seasons really change. This means I can start gardening! This is completely off topic, but I’m super excited. There’s nothing better than being able to supply yourself with fruits and vegetables. The best part of it for me is knowing that I’ll have less trips to crazy Wal-Mart, and less money being spent when I’m forced to go. Something that I have never understood is that organic foods are more expensive when,

(A) They’re better for you and, (B) There’s no extra chemicals added so producing organic food is actually cheaper. It is something I can’t change so I’ve just decided to grow my own food. If anyone can explain to me why, in order to be healthy you have to have be on the rich side of life, please do.

I hope everyone enjoys spring! I’ll be posting some new pictures here soon.

Old Photography

Dava — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:53:36 +0000

When I first found interest in Photography I was about 12. My first camera was a red Kodak pocket type camera with 7 Mega-pixels. Looking threw some files on my computer I found 3 old photos that I had to put on here. The one above was taken with a flash, which now I rarely would use a flash, but it turned out pretty good for an unprofessional camera.

These photos were taken with the same camera. The photo on top I had played around on Photoshop a lot when I was younger. This is not really my style anymore, saturating a photo this much usually ruins the quality in my opinion, but this one caught my eye. The picture on the bottom was taken with just a simple flash but to me the focus was great for the camera it was taken with. The point of this blog is to show people you don’t have to have a thousand dollar camera to take beautiful pictures, all you need is a good eye and time to goof around!

Snow in Mississippi

Dava — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:08:28 +0000

This was taken by Walker Ainsworth, January 2010, in Madison, Mississippi. Whats so incredible about these pictures are that they are rare. This was the first time in 10 years that Central Mississippi had more than half an inch of snow. When the snow storm was over Madison was covered in 3 and a half inches of snow! The best part of the picture above is that you can see falling snow flakes, unless the flakes are huge, or you have a super expensive zoom lense its almost impossible to catch them falling.

I love this one, the focus is amazing! Pictures of snow covered objects are so hard to take believe it or not. Since snow reflects light it can make the contrast to bright, so trying several different angles to get a picture with good light and good focus is probably neccessary.

Colorado Critters

Dava — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:28:20 +0000

This picture was taken by Walker Ainsworth with a Digital Konica Minolta camera. It’s a Yellow-Bellied Marmot, which only lives high in the mountains. It’s incredible to me how close these animals got to him. This was taken without a zoom lense, so you can imagine how close he had to get for this photo.

This is a Rocky Mountain Chipmunk, once again, taken by Walker Ainsworth without a zoom lense.

I’ve tried several times to get this close to a chipmunk for a picture but I never got one as clear as this. Apparently, the trick is patience, and sitting as still as possible.

Picnik Edits

Dava — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:40:35 +0000

I found a website call PicNik which is a fun and simple photo editing site. It’s not for professional editing but when you just want to goof off and see what you can do with a simple picture, it’s a fun site to play around with. I took this picture from Walkers photography files. This was taken at the Memphis Zoo in March, 2010. I cropped it and added the dark edging and this was my outcome.

All I did with this photo was add some dark edging and dull the color down a little. I really enjoy editing my photos, usually I use PhotoShop or Picasa 3, but Walker showed me this website and I decided to play around a little.

Colorado Mountains

Dava — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:25:18 +0000

These photos were taken by Walker Ainsworth on a camping trip in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The photos were taken with a Konica Minolta Digital Camera.

Walker and I have a passion for photography and nature, the two just seem to go perfect with each other. Unfortunately, I was unable to go with him on this trip. When he returned home he said that the scenic views, wildlife, and the challenge of a hard hike were life changing. Acompanied by friends, they hiked 40 miles up into the moutains of Colorado in a time span of 4 days. Out of all the photography Walker has done, the Colorado photos are my favorite, So I wanted to share them.

Body Bumper Stickers

Dava — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:08:45 +0000

This was the outcome of a spontaneous outburst. The two most corrupt things about this world is the fact that people take innocent lives (animals and babies) into their own hands. Euthanising dogs and cats because they’re homeless and unwanted, or in “pain” should not be a decision for humans. First of all you’re not in their bodies, you don’t know how they feel, second of all if I were in pain and couldn’t express how I feel I wouldn’t want someone to decide to inject me with “humane” blue juice, which shuts down their organs, um hello?how could that not be painful. If they’re homeless, to me they’re better off living their life that way instead of dying, we don’t know if they’re unhappy. You don’t see me euthanising homeless people cause they’re miserable or over-populated. Next, babies in the womb have a heart beat at six weeks, so shouldn’t that be considered premeditated 1st degree murder? Also for those of you who don’t know, babies have nerve endings that early, they feel pain. They inject babies with a giant needle full of saline (just one of the ways to abort), what part of that should be legal? Other cruel ways, if you really want to know the truth, can be found at this website Abortion Methods. So instead of purchasing a lousy bumper sticker I took the more permanent path and got this tattoo to state my beliefs for EVERYONE to see. Here in a few months underneath Pro- Life will be my favorite quote ” You will not silence my message, You will not mock my God, You will stop killing my generation”. Last but not least, our local shelter does kitten and puppy abortions. When going to spay a female whos pregnant they detatch the kittens or puppies and despose of them in a trash can to die a painfully cold death. It’s sick and cruel and in no way “humane”. Your beliefs are yours and I can’t change them but before you think of doing any of the above, maybe you should look into it, and hopefully you’ll change your mind.

This was off subject from everything I usually do but I believe when you feel strongly about something it’s better to express it then to keep it to yourself.