Galveston Island

The family took a long weekend in a rented house just off the beach.
I had never been to Galveston, and enjoyed it much.
Mostly South Texas-based folks, tho' one couple are currently stationed in Minot, North Dakota.

Our niece graduated from high school--the ceremony of which exposed us all to drenching rain and possible death by lightning. Favorite graduate's name heard: Destiny Dream Weaver.

On the second night we had our usual Monopoly game.
Last summer, despite having buildings on Boardwalk and Park Place early, nobody landed on them for hours so I eventually sold out of the game for $20 cash American.
This time I played better and had some luck, and actually won the game.

When the sun finally came out I made a 5 minute trip to the beach with my Sony F828, and shot around 10 variations of the scene below, in infrared of course:

Jumped back in the air-conditioned truck and went back to the house, knowing I had something special.
I love it when that happens, especially the part about not getting greedy and ending up with a sunburn because I kept shooting when there was probably no point.

Pretty sure I missed a good color long exposure the night before (featuring stormy clouds) because dinner ran a bit long, so by the time I went to the beach it was too dark.


On the last full day a few of us went to the restored part of downtown that caters to upscale visitors.
Shot this one with my phone:

I'm weird, shooting with a 13 year old camera--in infrared no less--OR just using my Samsung S5.
The plan is to change this up in the near future and get something approaching a current mirrorless so I'm excited to shoot inconvenient color and night photos again.

Black & White Challenge

 A couple weeks ago my friend Mark called me out on Facebook to a Black & White 5-Day Challenge. We named a few other friends and members of our photography club to join us as well.

Apparently I wasn't given all the rules, because I was the only one who shot brand-new photos instead of just posting old favorites. This was actually a good thing because it inspired me to get off my butt and get back into photography for the fun of it, so Thanks, Mark! 

As always, I shot these using the F828 capturing infrared light only.

Two Views

When we got off the gondola at the observation deck before heading up to one of the ski lodges higher on Heavenly (for some reason this mountain always goes by the one-word) I grabbed this look back down at the western half of S. Lake Tahoe:

From the top we have clouds, snowy mountains, tall trees, then water + civilization which was a ritzy neighborhood and attached marina.
Quite by accident the next day I wandered into that 'hood and marina and found a delicious nature preserve, which would be the brown grass with reddish foliage right below.
In the arrowhead-shaped field there's a prominant tree, and if you're a little OCD like me that green spot jumps right out at you.
(At the time I noticed none of this--just living in the moment and only editing/blogging pictures that enhanced whatever narrative struck me when my companions started drifting off).

Going through what I shot, my visit to the nature preserve has some of my favorites.
Here's one--a look back in the other direction:


Turns out it was a small stand of pines instead of a single, but then it's hard to tell from 5 miles away.
You can see one of Heavenly's lower ski trails on the far left--in the first photo I was probably on the edge of the frame and 1200 feet higher.
It's funny that while I was enjoying the low clouds, cold temps, and sporadic ground fog, my girls were above the murk stashing their coats in lockers and skiing in the warm sun--and yet none of us could see the lake!





********************************************************
Anyone remember "NetBooks"?
Those small and cheap laptops with reduced specs were all the rage for about 18 months, and I was sure it was a brilliant solution for travellers who wanted to update their MySpace and check email.
Then came tablets and serious smartphones, a flood of apps, and finally Facebook's desire to stuff your RAM to the brim and encourage your processor to heat up enough to make Cup O Soup.

Glad I decided on a laptop.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

The band had to play last night, because just like the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, the day before is the biggest drinking night of the year.
I got to play bass at the end of the night, and it was a lot of fun:
To be honest, I really miss playing regularly and am trying to get this part of my life fixed. It's terribly frustrating and depressing.


Here's a view of the sky just before the cold front blew in:
From the '80s to the 40's in a couple hours--on a drive across town I started with the AC in my truck and ended up switching to the heater.


In a newish neighborhood ("The Parc"--how pretentious!) on FM1516 near Converse my brother detoured me to this scupture of a deer made from scrap metal:
It's huge--at least 40 feet high. You can get a sense of the size by the bicycle sticking out of the buck's chest.
It was already dark and I didn't have a tripod, so I did the best I could for a photo. Definitely going back for daytime color and infrared pics--especially since the high thin cirrus clouds I love for IR photography are finally back in season.


Sadly, some rotten scumbags stole tools and clothes and jewelry out of a truck parked at the family gathering today. Instead of shopping for Christmas on Black Friday, they'll be buying necessities just to get through their visit, which is just wrong.
At least nobody got hurt, although I would give thanks if the thieves had an "accident" and lost their teeth and maybe some fingers...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

Sorry I've been too busy to take nice pictures lately, but with Christmas coming soon you just know I'll be shooting some cool stuff for our card so be on the lookout for the outtakes. 

More Power

I really appreciated the comments on the last post.
Here's another from the same series that might elicit some valuable feedback.



I have never been a fan of odd angles/twisted cameras unless they make a valid point. Keeping my horizons level also keeps my OCD at bay.
But I liked this one as I was shooting it, and I still like it.
Do crazy angles offend you in general or in this particular photo?

You also might notice that when you clicked on the thumbnail, it came up bigger on your screen.
I would like to hear what monitor sizes and pixel resolutions y'all are using these days.
My system is OLD (Win2K!) with a 17" Dell CRT monitor set to 1024x768 pixels, but I know a bunch of you must be using the latest and greatest so some data in the comments might help me re-think the way I'm running this blog.
Should my pictures be bigger?
(And for you LCD folks, are they bright enough? If not, calibrate your monitor. Just sayin'.)

I would appreciate your input, in the name of growth and staying modern.
Personally, I feel like the detail and texture of my photos just aren't coming across the intertubes the way they could.
Might be time to share the versions I'm already making for myself, web pirates be damned!

Please, will you let me know what your thoughts are?
Thanks.

No Wheels--No Problem

It's that time of year when the clouds in South Texas might be high and wind-blown, which to my eye makes them not only dramatic and unique but also perfect for shooting in infrared.

A few days ago I checked the sky and my first thought was to curse the boy who wrecked my car and robbed me of the chance to drive around looking for something to photograph, but after a few moments of consideration I realized that there must be a way to bring home a decent shot without a car.
Sounds like a no-brainer now, but at the time I was worried.

Because I live in a typical suburban neighborhood, when I want serious clouds in the frame the main thing is to get out someplace where there's visibility instead of just trees and houses.
I hit the streets on foot and headed to the nearest place that offered such views, knowing that I only had a drainage ditch's width of clear sky but hoping for the best.


Timing is almost everything.
The dramatic clouds I was watching were in a good place while I was out there, which sounds simple but they were moving very fast across the sky so a bit of luck was involved--I don't usually sit around in the sun for hours waiting for better conditions.


The deciding factor for these pictures, however, is that I was down in a concrete-lined drainage ditch a good 4-6 meters below street level and shooting up at trees and powerlines on the edge of it.
This eliminated a huge mess of suburban crap that would have blocked my view of the clouds or cluttered the space between, which would have ruined their value as a background.

I'm pretty sure the powerline shot is one of my best over the last year or so.



.

Red Helicopter

More Chalk

More sleep would have been nice but I never miss Chalk It Up!







People + dog-watching at it's finest, with bonus art.

Cloud Talk

Click to enlarge the photos, as always.


I call this one Comfort.The obvious reason is because that's the name of the closest town to where I shot this while driving to Kerrville on IH10. (Literally while driving, through the side window).
The other reason is that after the horrible summer we've had so far, ANY clouds offer some measure of comfort, from shade to the possibility of badly needed rain.
In fact, when I got home early the next morning I found that we had gotten an inch of free water, which our lawn appears to have appreciated.
In case you didn't know, plants of all kinds do better with rainwater compared to tap. Trace amounts of chlorine in treated water can't be good, and rain has more oxygen, nitrogen, and nutrient-carrying dirt in it.

The next night I caught this while taking a 2 minute break from working my ass off.
It's title is Rooftops, in the Robertson style, but it could just as easily have been Comfort, Too with a little crop.
A nice sunset calms me.


BTW--if you ever check properties on my photos and notice that the dimensions are exactly 900x602 pixels, you'll know that you're getting the entire frame just as I shot it--no cropping, just resized for the web.
I don't have a preference either way, although I tend to see the world in a slightly narrower aspect ratio than 3:2.
Maybe because I wear glasses, or because I have a 4:3 computer monitor?

"The Pearl Is In The River"

Anyone who knows this movie quote also knows that 'river' was a mispronunciation of Liver. Name this flick?
There were actual munchkins in it.


On Firday night--a rare free Friday for me--we drove around looking for satisfying food. Going towards downtown on Broadway I was trying to stay open to messages/ideas from the ether while we discussed our options when I spotted Sam's Burger Joint.
Knowing that Sylvia had never been there before, and having eaten Sam's burgers myself back when Acapulco Sam's was a huge draw on the Riverwalk, I quickly turned and parked under US281.
Me and Sam go way back--I used to run sound for bands at Acapulco Sam's at least 4-6 times a month in the late '90s, and even did a bunch of gigs when he was located in the Chopsticks building on Loop 410 and Summit Parkway circa 1991-2.

The 1/2 pound classic burger is what a burger should be, plus nicely seasoned onion rings. Cold fries on this visit but at least they were real.
Her tea got dumped out and replaced with a slightly less ass-tasting Diet Pepsi.
$17.50 not entirely well spent, but the burgers and rings are good and we want to try the tater tots.


Walking to the car I noticed the sunset. It was spectacular, and the clouds had insane shapes lit perfectly.
I set out at a very fast walk towards the Pearl Brewery complex, intending to use the main building as my subject in front of the awesome sky.
In my heart I knew I would be too late, and I was by about 20 seconds.
The lighting conditions change every second as the sun goes down--the difference between 75 and 65 degrees overhead is almost meaningless, but when the setting sun is lighting clouds from below the change between -2 degrees and -3 is huge.
Sometimes a beautiful scene simple disappears in the time it takes to remove the lens cap.
Oh well...


Luckily, we parked our butts at a table next to a fountain and hung out for a bit.
I shot the fountain for fun while we talked and people-watched.
Then the sky turned on some more magic and I rushed to get this one.
Remember--as soon as it gets bad, it can get good again.

On Flickr I titled these photos Scaffolding 1 and 2 as a nod to my friend Matthew up in Toronto.

A Hole In The Clouds

Hand-held, in a nightclub parking lot at 3am.

I thought this was a throw-away until it got a strong response elsewhere on the 'net.