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Now back to pre-Nikon days. The next few dozen postings will be keepers from 2006, organized thematically. Being from that year, many if not most of these captures were from the 3 MP Fujifilm 3800.
The first grouping will be from Mexico. For a time our church group made a couple of trips per year to visit the missionaries supported by our congregation. Unfortunately, that had to stop because of the increasing violence between the drug gangs. Another unfortunate aspect of that whole business is the fact that Mexico is really a great country, with a great people, tainted by a few very bad apples.
This picture was taken in Monterrey, in a home very close to the Monterrey School of Preaching. It would have been easy to get that one pepper and photoshop in a different color. Didn't have to do that, though...this is exactly as I saw it, albeit with enhanced saturation to bring out the colors a bit.
At first I thought this picture was way overexposed, but discovered that not much detail was lost after working it a little in Photoshop. It took about six exposures to get the flag right; I don't yet know how to do burst shooting with the new camera, so they had to be captured one at a time.
This ends the Davis Mountains series, and my first shoot with the "big rig", the D300s. What are my thoughts? After talking about it with my friends for two years, I knew it was time to put my money where my mouth is, and do not regret the decision. It was a bit expensive, but feel that it will be worth the switch once I learn how to use the thing.
I bought David Busch's guide, and would recommend his books to anyone. This is a slow process, as I will be thoroughly reading the guide with camera in hand...something that will take several months. And in the meantime? Perhaps not surprisingly, I've lost all interest in my other camera (the Fujifilm 7000), and don't even feel like touching it. Whether I've learned it to my satisfaction or not, my next shoot will be with the Nikon...
There was a garden area just outside the office that provide opportunities for color and depth of field. Due to a knee problem I couldn't crouch down, so sat on a bench using elbows on knees as a tripod...
The top of the lodge, on our way back from the hike. There was a person on the left side, where the brown grass meets the trees in the foreground, but she was removed...
Of all the beauty that surrounded us, for some reason this pile of rocks drew special attention. We were at the top of the "mountain" seen in the posting of June 22nd.
This was taken during sunset at the McDonald Observatory...
The wives and girls were in some shop looking at stuff, so I whiled away the time at this flower bed. It was amazing at how the focusing system in the D300s could pinpoint and focus so quickly on any individual flower.
One of these days when there is some time I'm going to do a shootout between this camera - the big rig - and my "old" Fujifilm 7000. There is actually a little fear that I might discover that there's not that much difference in terms of quality and resolution...
Part of our journey took us to the town of fabled Marfa, Texas. This is the top of the court house, where a person can climb up inside of this dome. Unfortunately, it was closed the Saturday that we made it into town...
This photo is untouched...one of the lucky shots that you get once in a while.
There is a trail leading up to the top of this rock that we took the next day.
This is the sign one sees upon arriving at the Lodge. The staff in the office were friendly and helpful...in fact downright talkative, and genuinely interested in the clients that come their way.
This shot was hand-held and zoomed in a ways, but the vibration reduction steadied it enough for a pretty clear shot...even in the relatively low light of evening.
These cacti, with the multi-colored blooms, were everywhere. This shot was originally overexposed, but a little Photoshop work took care of that post-capture.
This frame is untouched...taken on our way from the restaurant back to the room.
The great thing about the Indian Lodge is the location; no matter where you are the setting provides a natural background.
This is the sign for the restaurant...not a bad place, especially for breakfast.
I bought three filters for the new camera: UV, polarizing, and neutral density (all Hoya). Pretty soon after we arrived the UV filter was installed and left mounted throughout the trip.
Well, as noted in the posting of June 4th, I did it. I am now owner of one of the "big rigs", as described in earlier postings - a Nikon D300s. This past weekend we went to the Davis Mountains, where I tried it out for the first time.
I forget exactly what it is called, but the lens was chosen to basically be mounted and forgotten...a 24-200 mm Nikkor with auto focus and not one but two levels of vibration reduction. I discovered that with that kind of power, some shots could basically serve as macros when the thing is zoomed all the way in. This is one of the first pictures taken with the camera, cropped to about 1/8th of the area and highly compressed (as all of these postings will be).
But nothing could cover the fact that I really didn't know what I was doing, and had to throw away about 80% of the shots due to over exposure. That's fine with me...as stated before, this is a journey that I'm very much looking forward to - negotiating the learning curve so that eventually the very best can be coaxed out of my new tool.
I've always maintained that this world is so beautiful that a photographer can spend two days in someone's backyard and open a gallery with his work...especially if there is macro capability where close-up shots are possible.
They say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. True enough. But I'll go a step further and assert that the beauty is there anyway, simply waiting for the eyes to see it through the filter of a creative mind and grateful heart...
This was taken last week at my brother-in-law Artsai's house, in his back yard. I got bored just sitting around and wondered back there to get a few snapshots...
As stated in an earlier posting, I was at Armand to eat lunch. There was a house with rocking chairs on the porch very close to the garden with the scarecrow. I plopped down in one of the chairs and ate with this view. Sure am thankful to have a job that allows an opportunity like this once in a while...
The other day we were driving somewhere - I forget just where - and came across a field with six or seven scarecrows. My daughter said it was one of the most creepy sights she'd seen in a while...
Volunteers were dispersed throughout the park, tending to maintenance and gardens such as this. The scarecrow provided a splash of red to round out the browns and greens of this rustic setting...
Though it was staged a bit, at Armand there was ample opportunity for capturing the kinds of rustic scenes that I like. The only thing to battle that day was the midday sun, which was in and out. The clouds passed overhead just long enough to get this shot.
Another thing I had to take care of were two distracting signs above the doorways, which were emblazoned with white letters telling visitors what was inside. I could have cloned them out entirely, but realized it would have taken a bit of time. So I settled for simply darkening them and removing the letters...
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Well, I finally did it. Last night I pushed a button on a computer, and they tell me that about Tuesday a Nikon D300s will arrive at the house. Along with the body, I ordered a nice lens (above kit grade), a strap that doesn't have the camera model emblazoned along its length, a nice set of three Hoya filters (neutral density, ultraviolet haze, and polarized), a lens cleaning kit, and David Busch's guide specific to the model. The only thing yet to purchase is a set of 16-gig memory chips. It would have been easier to group those in with the order last night, but I didn't think of it in time and now will probably go out and buy them separately, risking admonishment on the home front.
I'd like to say that, since it is certifiably a great camera with certifiably great accessories, now I'll have all I need and won't need to spend much in the future. The lens is highly rated - one that supposedly you can slap on and leave it there as a workhorse for 95% of the pictures you'll ever take. We'll see. At any rate, now I'll have a tool that can coax photos that surpass the ones I've been taking since '02, at least in terms of technical quality. At the least I'm looking very much forward to the learning curve as I get used to using a real camera for the first time. At the most having such a tool will spur my creativity to new heights, entering the door to new worlds of opportunities.
The other day I was in the Kemah area doing site visits for my work, and chanced upon Armand Bayou, a nature reserve. After saving the position on GPS I returned lunchtime to picnic there before returning to Houston for more site visits.
Snakes are some of the most interesting, beautiful creatures on earth...had bunches of them when I was a kid growing up. Since it is so hard photographing them in the wild, places like Armand and the Houston Zoo are about the only opportunities one gets. But then you have to fight crowds, reflections, and man-made artifacts within the cages. This little guy held its position long enough in its simulated habitat to finally get a decent shot.
This concludes the Topsail series. I'm not much of a beach person, but will admit that the beach there was a great place to have a wedding. The event was made all the more poignant because my dad passed away in 2007, and this was his favorite place to get away. We were all convinced that he was there with us as well, in spirit...
The walls of the place made for good background as well...
