Wedding Cake

This was taken at a wedding back in '03, with the 3800. What attracted me most to the scene was the light refracting through the champagne glasses...then the scene just grew from there.

The frilly icing on the right side of the bottom edge of the cake was blown out, so had to clone stuff in from other places.

Arlington Bird

This will be the last of my postings from Arlington. I followed this bird for quite a ways before sneaking in this shot of him peeking at me from behind his hideout. Some trash was cloned off of the cement and it was darkened, but otherwise untouched.

Arlington Tree

This tree with the cloud seemed like a good thing to capture. The Winterfest had just concluded, and we were all headed to our cars for the trip back to Houston.

Six Flags #5

All of the curves, lines and angles make this a pretty good entry I think, though it might have been better without the building in the background. It's really amazing to see what this park has become. Going for a day at Six Flags used to be, for me, the highlight of our family vacations at Lake Texoma. We went three years in a row back in the '60's, during the days when the log ride and the Runaway Mine Train were the premier attractions. Always will have fond memories of those days, sans the time I got lost amid the sea of people going from one attraction to the other.

Six Flags #4

This is the classic "of things through things" concept. The color was saturated by more than 30% to make the ride stand out through the branches.

Six Flags #3

While at the pond I managed to get these ducks while facing in the same direction...

Six Flags #2

This picture was taken through some bare weeds next to a pond. I took another one with the plants in focus but felt this one looked a little better.

Six Flags #1

Enough of Vegas - and back to some winter stuff!

I'm especially proud of this photo because it's my first black-and-white that looks decent (to me at least). I've always maintained that you're not really a good photographer until you can do black and white.

The reality is that I wish that I could take credit for the effort, but it was quite by accident. I was doing some post-capture work and noticed that, well, it turned out just about black and white anyway, so why not go all the way with it. The results surprised me, so I did a print to show my buddies at church. Now maybe I can work toward doing it on purpose!

We were in Arlington last weekend at a sort of retreat for youth called Winterfest. On our way from the hotel to the Convention Center we passed the park, and after seeing some of the roller coasters through the trees knew I had to come back. So I deposited my charges into the care of responsible adults and returned to the scene. It was cool out - probably in the 40's - but I didn't even notice as this and the shots from the next few postings came into view.

Follow this link to the second black and white photo posted in My Photo Blog.

Hoover Dam #2

Sometimes the value in a picture is not in its aesthetic beauty, but rather in the shock value in seeing something odd or out of place. This second Hoover Dam posting fits into that category. Normally we are used to seeing power lines standing straight and erect as they guide the lines through the countryside or next to a road. Walking across the dam, I did a double take upon viewing these towers jutting out of the cliff face at all angles; there is even one that is nearly horizontal.

Hoover Dam #1

This is a photo taken near the entrance at Hoover Dam. As was stated in the entry for January 15th, this was the highlight of the trip for me, as it was a good thing to be getting away from the city, especially a city like Las Vegas which is not kid-friendly at all.

Las Vegas #5

This was the most fascinating hotel for me - the New York, New York. The illusion is just incredible that there really is a piece of Manhattan poking out of the desert. The roller coaster is an interesting touch also, though we didn't ride...

Las Vegas #4

Back outside, some statuary at the Monte Carlo.

Las Vegas #3

The picture here represents a nagging question: When an artist creates something, and then someone comes and takes a picture of it, does that picture convey nothing more than an extension of the original artist's work? Is the captured image a work of art as well, attributable to the photographer?

I suppose the most stark example of this would be a photograph of a painting. It does take some practice, experience, and perhaps even talent to take a good picture of a painting. The objective of the photographer would be to capture as faithfully as possible the colors, nuances, and personality of the painting as intended by the original creator. This would render the role of the photographer as nothing more than a reproducer, not an artist, in my opinion.

In that vein, today's and tomorrow's postings are nothing more than sharing the creative talents of other artists...sincere plaudits to whoever it was that created them.

Las Vegas #2

This picture is just as taken, untouched in any way by Photoshop. It was getting dark and I didn't have a tripod, so had to do several takes before getting this zoomed-in shot.

Las Vegas #1

This picture was taken in November of 2003. We made the decision to go there because a person has to go and visit the city with 11 of the 12 largest hotels in the world just once.

Las Vegas is a photographer's paradise. Whether you're in a building or outside, day or night, everywhere you turn your head there is a great picture to be taken. The culture and the colors and the things that you'd never see anywhere else...very unique place. I saw many photographers - the serious type, carrying big rigs - with the same look of eagerness that must have been plastered on my face.

Interestingly, the highlight of the trip for me was going to the Hoover Dam. We're not gamblers, and all that glitz, glamour and noise can get to you after a while. Walking the kids through so many casinos sure didn't make us feel any more comfortable, either. So it's good that they have decent day trips that are conveniently available.

All of the Vegas pictures in this and the following blogs were taken with the 3800, a testament to the quality of what it could do with just three megapixels.

Frigid Bird #2

This was taken just a moment later. All I did was stand up so that the bird would be shown in greater contrast against the dark background of the parking level itself.

You can see a car in the lower left corner.

Frigid Bird #1

When people see this picture, I make them guess where it could have been taken. They suppose that it must have been taken up north, or next to a snowy field, or some such place.

Fact is, it was taken right in the middle of Houston...the background is the cement between two levels of a parking garage! Just happened to catch it on my way into work, on January 31st, 2007.

Flags at Sunset

I was at the George Bush Library in College Station at a business function back in 2003, and as usual was taking pictures of everything in sight. A group of us was about to go into the library when this picture was snapped.

It gathered electronic dust in the archives when one day recently I decided to go back into the folder and play with a function in Photoshop recently discovered...the tool that cures lens distortion. I had taken pictures of some framed art and saw how curved the edges were. That's when I stumbled upon this picture again.

It is the kind of picture that you don't think of until you see it again much later and discover that there might be something to it. First I rotated it so that the flagpoles were perfectly vertical, then used the black dropper tool in Photoshop to silhouette the foreground, which simultaneously increased contrast and darkened the highlights. Now a print is tacked up in my cubicle, and I very much enjoy seeing the fruits of that discovery each day at work.

Portfolio Page

This is what a portfolio page looks like. There are about 25 of these for the year 2006; have yet to catch up for 2007 and 2008.

Some people are amazed that this is all laid out in Microsoft Word. The feathered shadow is created in Photoshop Elements and placed behind. Version 2007 of Word is a little quirky, though, so am considering moving over to PageMaker.

Garden of the Gods

During the summer of 2006 the whole family piled into the van and drove to Colorado...my favorite of all of the vacations that we've taken. Nothing like the quintessential American experience of a long road trip with the family to see new and interesting things.

This image was taken with the 3800 at the Garden of the Gods. Truly a wonderful place. Just a little cloning was done, to remove some distracting elements among the brush.

Lonely Moon

Now that I've broken theme a little bit (away from winter images), I'll go ahead and post the other pictures that share the page with yesterday's posting.

This shot was taken at Lost Maples State Park. The moon really looked awesome as it was rising behind the tree that you see sticking up a little bit. I didn't have a tripod, however, and by the time I figured out what to do it had risen to this point. The camera was resting on the roof of our van; thank goodness it was the 7000 because the shutter speed had to be adjusted.

Hibiscus

This one is being posted by request. A friend and I were at a Whataburger in Houston waiting in the drive-through line. In the middle of our conversation I opened the passenger window and asked him to lean back, snapping this picture with the 3800. We were both surprised at how well it turned out.

When it came time to prepare this one for posting I decided to have a little fun and try to make it look even better - adjusted the midtone range, lowered the levels a tad, darkened the highlights, and cropped out the bright upper left corner.

In the cropped picture the narrow strip of light at the top was darkened some more so that it wouldn't be so distracting, and the sunlit area of the wall was cloned to look as if it were shaded. There were a lot of bird droppings that had to be removed...it's funny how much stuff you notice after looking at it a while.


This picture ended up unique enough to make it in my portfolio of favorites from 2006. Four pictures are placed on a page with title and metadata regarding exact date, camera used, and place.

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My wife showed me a book today called Kaffir Boy, the autobiography of someone who grew up in segregated, aparteid South Africa. Couldn't help but think of the time I ended up marching in a protest against aparteid in New York City.

It was during the summer that I was looking for work in Manhattan. I was walking down the street in my dress clothes, and saw a big crowd gathered near a platform where someone was giving a speech. Getting closer I saw that the guy giving the speech was BB King, and he was really fired up, but I wasn't close enough to understand exactly what he was talking about.

Just a couple of minutes afterward, Mr. King descended from his platform and commenced leading the crowd down the street toward the United Nations building...he passed within a few feet from where I was standing, and as they neared I could see the signs and hear their chants against aparteid. The people were from all ages and ethnic backgrounds.

I thought, "Well, I've never demonstrated before, so I'll give it a try." A few seconds after the lead end of the crowd passed, I ducked under the barrier and marched along with them, raising my fist and shouting "Down with aparteid!", over and over. It wasn't long before my voice became hoarse.

In just a couple of blocks I decided that protesting really wasn't my cup of tea, so ducked back onto the sidewalk. It was on the news that night that my buddies had made it all the way to the United Nations, and eventually aparteid ended in South Africa.

I am looking forward to reading the book, after my wife finishes.

Funeral Flowers #2

I love roses, and will post pictures of them from time to time...

Funeral Flowers #1

Here is a picture of some of the flowers at that funeral.

Flower pictures are often a cliché, but it can be refreshing whenever there is a unique perspective. This time I was lucky enough to have a tripod.

Silverside Steeple

Now back to a winter shot. At a funeral in Wilmington, Delaware in December of 2007, the service had concluded. Not being one to mingle for very long, I stepped outside to busy myself taking pictures. Boy, was it cold.

Getting this shot made it worth the weather, though. The steeple of the Silverside Church just happened to fit among these bare branches.

Houston Cityscape #6

This is one was taken while at a church function in the George R. Brown Convention Center; outside there was a park where groups would get some R and R between events. I love church steeples, and managed getting this one loosely framed by tree branches while some kids were negotiating a baseball play. Using Photoshop, some light fixtures and telephone lines were removed from the background.

Not being one to do portraiture, I do like to get candids of people. It would be interesting to follow up on self-described assignments such as, "Today I think I'll get pictures of sadness." - or surprise, or joy, or perplexity - and make it a mission to find those expressions and capture them in photos.

Houston Cityscape #5

Speaking of the old with the new...this is an old building sandwiched between the new building behind and the new building in the reflection.

This was not done at all on purpose...I didn't discover the reflection until much later when viewing on the computer screen.

How can the new year start without including the only halfway decent picture that I have of a firework? In 2006 we were in Fort Collins, Colorado, during the Fourth of July fireworks display at a local park. I didn't have a tripod, but tried hard to steady the camera while experimenting with different shutter speeds. After settling on a third of a second, this one came out OK.