Houston Fall Foliage 03

Downtown Houston has so many fantastic sculptures - I'd like to take a full day sometime just to concentrate on photographing them. The one in the background here is fascinating, though I don't know it's name or origins...

Houston Fall Foliage 02

One that contains branch patterns...

Houston Fall Foliage 01

Now for some Houston fall favorites. All of the pictures in this series were snapped downtown in a one-block area, in the northeast corner of the Bagby/Prairie intersection, across the street from the Aquarium restaurant. Each of the eleven in this series was taken with the 7000.

Very fortunately, it was foggy that day...

This particular shot was cropped in and a bit of work was done on the railing, including removing a seam in both tubes.

New England Fall 11

The first Wilmington snowfall of 2007...

New England Fall 10

This picture was quite dull until applying the "Auto Levels" feature in Photoshop Elements. Then it popped to life, exposing the color behind the trees while increasing contrast in their branches.

New England Fall 09

This and the next two postings are from the other side of the Brandywine River, looking into the wooded area.

Merry Christmas

New England Fall 08

Used a bit of flash fill on this one, so the bark pattern would show...

New England Fall 07

The same pathway, from topside, that was posted December 21st.

New England Fall 06

I was holding the leaf that you see in the lower right corner in order to achieve depth of field, with partial success.

New England Fall 05

...a trail that winds above the river's edge, about halfway up a hill.

New England Fall 04

The next four postings were snapped after crossing this bridge into a wooded area...

New England Fall 03

The sun, low over an afternoon sky, really lit up the leaves...

New England Fall 02

...from the same spot as the previous posting, tilted up and over to the right a little. This is one that I reworked for this posting - a birdhouse that was distractingly bright was removed, as well as a PVC drain pipe. The highlights were darkened by 7%, which served to simultaneously increase color saturation and contrast.

New England Fall 01

Haven't finished with '05 favorites, but decided to post fall pictures for a while. This is Houston, and the trees here are just now beginning to show decent color, so now that I'm in a fall mood here they are.

The first dozen or so postings will be from New England, taken at the beginning of December 2007, in Wilmington, DE. This particular shot was snapped from the balcony of a condominium right next to the Brandywine River.

All New England Fall postings were taken with the Fuji 3800.

From 2005 - Lighted Bags

Completely untouched, this was at the Children's Museum in Houston on a Girl Scout outing. As usual, the 3800 performed perfectly in white balance and exposure. By this time I'd developed a preference for spot metering, which helped in this shot...

From 2005 - New Ulm

In Colorado County, Texas, there is a resort outside of the tiny town of New Ulm. This is very near the entrance to that resort.

From 2005 - Letter Girl

At the University of Houston they have this piece of art with phrases in all kinds of languages. A cigarette butt and some other trash was cloned off of the ground near her feet, but otherwise this photo, taken with the 3800, is untouched.

From 2005 - Girl Scout Candles

A table was set up for a Girl Scout ceremony, and as usual I was tinkering around before the thing got started. There was light coming through a door in the background, which was cloned out with the surrounding darkness. This is the same type of setup that was used for the candle shot seen in the header for this blog (look up!).

From 2005 - Crayfish

A 3800 shot through glass at Moody Gardens in Galveston. Due to the darkness, crowds, and reflectivity, indoor aquarium pictures in general are a challenge.
____________________

I never cease to be amazed at the diversity of life on earth. Growing up we all imagine fantastic creatures from other worlds, and perhaps even have drawn pictures of what life "out there" might look like. But really, what can compete with what we have here?

From 2005 - Neiko's Portrait

One of the very first snapped with the 7000, right after it was taken out of the box. White balance not too far off...

From 2005 - Rodeo Cowboy

Slowed the shutter speed to one-tenth of a second for this shot...

From 2005 - San Antonio Rider

The 7000 was brand new to me, and this trip to San Antonio was the first in which it was used. For this shot I was experimenting with the shutter setting while panning to track the rider (set at one-fifteenth of a second). Blown out in some places and generally overexposed but the desired effect is there...