I Can Keep This Up for Weeks, People

Click to enlarge all photos, please
It's starting to look like I have a never-ending supply of Corpus Christi night photos, but I think these three are the last ones.

The marina was cool and quiet and calm, an inspiring place to take pictures and I tried to make the most of my time there.
It was one of the more rewarding night shoots of my life, and I'm glad the results have been enjoyed so much here, on Flickr and at Shuttertalk Forums where I have just started showing them off.
The picture above is one of the very few that needed more than minimal post-processing and I almost didn't bother, but am glad I took a second hard look at it.
Most of the rest are pretty much straight from the camera--it's all about unlearning daytime exposure methods and "rules" and treating the night with the care and respect it deserves.
Forget cranking iso and thinking too much about DOF, it's all about jamming as much light onto the sensor as fast as the situation requires to stay far above the noise-floor, and be sure to have NeatImage or NoiseNinja, too.
Signal-to-noise ratio is king at night.

Finally some life among all the inanimate stuff I usually feature.
This sea bird (what is it Bruce?) had an unusual way of moving.
It would freeze, then back up a step and freeze, back up and freeze.
Otherwise this photo would have been a blurry mess, so thanks Mr Bird.


Coming up next is either a break in the action or I might just finish out the Corpus trip with photos from the USS Lexington.

Corpus Omni

Two views of the Omni Hotels, from close by...

...and from afar.

Corpus Christi's Seawall

Please click on the photos
The seawall in Corpus is constructed to double as bleachers facing the bay.

The benches on top face both directions.
Normally I fight lens flare at night by tweaking camera position or just giving up on shots that are this bad. For some photos with minimal flare I'll clone them out in Photoshop, but it's not easy or quick and I prefer careful camera work over spending hours doing tedious digital processing.

There's something about the result here that I rather like, so I kept the flares and the photo.
I am reminded of two '80s movies--The Final Countdown and The Philadelphia Experiment, although I'm not sure why.

Corpus Christi Marina With Selena

click to enlarge, please
Selena was a big deal here in South Texas, before and after her fan-club president shot her to death in a motel room after being confronted with evidence of embezzlement.
Google for the rest of the story--my main point is that Corpus Christi was her hometown so there's a memorial for Selena on the waterfront.
People leave all sorts of mementos and messages. Our favorite was the one we saw a few years ago that said "Selena We Still Love You And Miss You OK?" because you always want to ask dead people for permission to love and miss them, OK?
They might say no, so you would have to stop.

Getting the kids involved in City-Funded Arts and NecroCrafts™ is cool.

A nice relaxing View Of Texas, marina-style.
Lots of little sailboat masts sticking up. Yuck. I like the expensive and empty section better.

The entire downtown bayfront in Corpus is lined by these concrete bleachers, so untold thousands can partake of whatever events are held. It looks like an effective breakwater if the outer two aren't enough some day.

To Be Continued...

Corpus Christi Part 2

I forgot to mention in the previous post that the first thing we did after arriving in Corpus was check-in at our hotel and then be forced to kill time waiting for our room to be ready. This was painful because the plan all along was to get into the room ASAP and watch the San Antonio Spurs versus the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals. The sailboat photo was taken during our wait, but it was the only thing that turned out OK because I was in a state of high anxiety. The TV picture was really crappy, so it was hard to see exactly what was happening. The Spurs won, and then we drove the rest of the way to the coast in a much better mood for the rest of the photos I posted on Monday.


An A-4 Skyhawk painted in Blue Angels livery is a teaser at the entrance to the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, on permanent display in Corpus Christi Bay.

A pair of the Lex's anti-aircraft guns were also on shore display. We had just eaten a seafood (and chicken-fried steak) dinner in a restaurant right next to the Lexington, and I was getting anxious as the sun went down.

Here's the Lex at night. It's nickname is The Blue Ghost because it was the only big ship to wear it's particular blue shade of paint during WWII, and the nighttime lighting plays on that theme.
The access pier is silhouetted against the ship--you enter on the hangar deck well below the flight deck.

This bridge spans the ship channel that leads to Corpus Christi's port facilities. It doesn't look as big as it really is--the largest ocean cargo vessels can pass under it with ease, and when you're driving over it don't look down.
The high winds typical of Corpus Christi were the worst on this photo. For the others I had my tripod on solid ground (parking lots and concrete walkways) and could hold it down against the 30mph gusts. This time I was in a grassy field and my previous technique would only sink the legs into the earth. This picture isn't sharp at all, but was the best of seven.

Looking back towards downtown CC from the same spot where I shot the Lex.


It's a curious phenomena that acceptable depth of focus changes at night.
Shooting this same scene during the day I would stop down the aperture for max depth, but at night when I need as much light as possible to combat digital "noise" I never hesitate to open it up, and I don't think the results suffer as much as one would think from a purely theoretical viewpoint versus actual experience.
Possibly, softer focus is more acceptable at night since there are already items in the frame that are blurring from motion, like the water and clouds in this shot.
I will entertain other theories.

Whatever the reasons, I'm not complaining.
Shooting at night has a huge range of technical problems and physical dangers that I gladly accept to get photos like this and the ones that will appear here in a few days.

Corpus Christi

We took a 24-hour vacation at the coast Sunday/Monday.
Corpus Christi (Body Of Christ) is on a large bay 2 hours away on the Gulf Of Mexico.
Despite Chicago's nickname, CC is the true "Windy City" with the highest average sustained winds in the continental US--18mph I believe.
This sailboat is passing one of the marinas that are protected by two breakwaters.

At a fishing pier on the coast of Padre Island we came upon this fisherman who had just landed a baby hammerhead shark. He didn't have pliers to remove the hook, but since I am always prepared (my camera bag has all sorts of things in it) he was able to borrow my folding multi-tool while I snapped this picture.
Everyone was catching these little hammerheads, and tossing them back.
Too small.

Barnacles and swirling water around the legs of the pier. We were about 200 yards from the beach.

A surfer dude and his chick. She was scared, and he wasn't very good.

I have a ton of material from the trip--next up is night photos from the marina.