Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Scabbard with Beads

Perhaps a little more sedate in its purpose, think this might have been a scabbard of some kind.  If indeed these artifacts are authentic as claimed, they must be priceless considering their immaculate condition.

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Artifacts Made with Body Parts

One of the most fascinating aspects of many of the mounted artifacts was the use of an animal's body parts (besides the usual leather), sometimes with shocking effect.  Suppose the purpose was to intimidate or frighten an enemy, demonstrate virility, or who knows what else.

The pic in the bookmark above is a case in point.  Antlers, hooves, and entire skulls were also used:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Lobby Drum

The way the stick was laying across the drum head reminded me, ever so slightly, of this picture taken in Central Park, New York City.

Different perspective below, with a bit less depth of field applied:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Bones with Portrait

This is another corner of the lobby as you walk in street-side there at Faust Distributors.  On a lark I decided to give Glowing Edges a try on a portion of this picture, and it came out much better than anticipated, providing a measure of color against the black background:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Decorated Corner

Moving inside now, this was typical of how the interior of the building - at least the office and conference spaces - was meticulously decorated to celebrate the history of Native Americans.  This was at Faust Distributors, and just as the owner of Silver Eagle Distributors collected Civil War artifacts and memorabilia, here we have authentic items from various Indian tribes.

An interesting thing happened as I was wondering around taking pictures.  I noticed a darkened room with stuff on the wall and ventured inside, thinking it was another conference room.  After hearing something, I looked to my right and there he was - Mr. Faust, the owner himself!  The old man - I'd guess he was in his 80's - very nonchalantly said hello and seemed approachable, so I apologized for barging in and asked if everything there was truly authentic.  He enthusiastically confirmed that they were, and invited me to stay as long as I wanted to examine the things on the wall of his office.  Well, to do that I would have had to turn the light on, and didn't want to disturb his meditation or whatever he was doing in the dark, so said thanks and hastened my departure to other parts of the building.

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Lantern Posts

Before going inside, wanted to post a couple more pics featuring lanterns.  The one above had a large seam between the two slabs used to build the wall, as can be seen in the pic at bottom, which the random texturing made it easy to clone over:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Three-Pot Fountain

Here we are with two perspectives of the fountain featured yesterday; 8x10 below:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Adobe Angles

As could be seen yesterday, the front facade of the place was built to resemble an adobe hacienda, presenting lots of angles such as these.  Naturally a bookmark was created from the pic above.

The reason for the adobe village theme is because the owner collected authentic Indian artifacts, to be featured in later posts.

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Fountains

Stepping outside, you would never think that we were in the middle of Houston.  There were several of these fountains dotted here and there; window and peekaboo shots of others below:

Clean Vehicles Technologies Conference - Inside Shots Using Depth of Field

Not long after joining the Transportation group where I work here in Houston we hosted a Clean Technologies conference at Faust Beer Distributorship east of town.  It was an interesting exercise...not because of the work involved, but because of the discovery of the owner's collections that were displayed everywhere.  I worked with two different distributorships, this one and another that collected Civil War artifacts.  Don't know what it is about beer distributorship owners...guess it's because they're rolling in dough and need something to do with it.  It's a big plus for history, though, because the items are kept in immaculate condition and carefully curated.  In the case of the Civil War guy, he had so much stuff that he hired not one but two historians - one at the doctorate level - to manage the collection full-time.

At these functions we were supposed to mix, mingle and drum up business for our programs.  During a lull in doing those things I ended up sneaking away to capture images with the Big Cahoona, which was ever present at my side.  Played with depth of field in the pictures posted today, with fairly good results considering it was indoors with terrible lighting.

Allison's College Graduation - Using Highlight-Weighted Metering Mode

I've wanted to duplicate the effect in this pic of Hillary Duff, captured back in 2005, ever since it was taken.  Now that I had the D850 it was easy with the Highlight-Weighted Metering Mode setting.  Even so, had to darken some of the highlights in the flowers and the gentleman's hair, but am satisfied with the result.

Same done below of one of the students that had taken the stage to speak:

And so goes for Allison's graduation.  She's the baby of the family, so no telling when there'll be another graduation to capture.  But we are blessed - first for the fact that both our children graduated from college and are using their degrees to earn a good living, but also for the opportunity to sharpen creative skills in a challenging photographic environment.

Allison's College Graduation - Glowing Edges of Seated Graduates

The inherent pattern created by so many seated graduates combined with their colorful sashes and caps made this a prime candidate for glowing edges.  Where is Allison, you may ask?  See where she's marked below:

My, isn't she a looker?

Allison's College Graduation - Found in the Crowd

Now that we'd zeroed in to where she was sitting, I zoomed in to the maximum 300mm and began snapping away.  It was difficult to counter the shakes along with the dim lighting and middling performance of my walkabout lens, but finally captured a keeper...albeit one that required no small amount of post-capture work.  I'll spare Allison the indignity of pointing her out in this one, but will reveal the strategy in not losing her among the vast number of seated graduates:  There was a guy sitting very close to her wearing a distinctive uniform, which made a good reference.  This came in handy when processing the two pics to be featured tomorrow.

Allison's College Graduation - Overall View

Having two kids, and befriending many with kids of their own, we've attended our share of graduations...first high school, then college.  At every one of these I've had a camera in tow - first the Fujifilm Finepixes with their magical sensors, then the Big Cahoona (Nikon D300s), then finally the Bigger Cahoona (Nikon D850).  With every one of these there was a struggle to overcome dim lighting, knots of family members and friends vying for the best picture-taking spots, and striking a balance between the desire to get good pics and simply being there to share the occasion in the life of a loved one.

By the time Allison graduated from college at A&M I'd more/less learned how to conquer those obstacles by staying seated with the family during the ceremony and capture what I could from whatever vantage point that might be.  This resolve resulted in some better-than-expected keepers such as the one you see above.

And along with everyone else we were constantly craning our necks:  Where's Allison?  Does she see us?  Where is she in line to take the stage?  Can I make it to the restroom and back before something happens?  etc. etc.

It took a while but we finally saw where she was seated.  The answer to the first question is marked with an orange rectangle below:

Houston Zoo - Pot with Red Flowers

The sun was out full that day so was glad to find this gem tucked away in the shadows.  Deliberately kept it a little dark because sometimes that's best against the black backdrop of the pictures in these posts.

That's all for this round of zoo posts...next stop will be in College Station for our daughter's A&M graduation!

Houston Zoo - Purple Zebras

Took this on a visit to the zoo back when I had a membership in 2018.  The team at work decided to have a meeting there to inject a little variety, and this caught my eye while waiting for the others to show up.  Very little was done in post-capture, as the sun hit the scene just right, and the metal structures staking the zebras to the ground were hidden by those round things...whatever they were.

Houston Zoo - Meerkat Looking Away

Definitely a good candidate for lettering.  Already have a dozen or more bookmarks that have a message, and with time hope to have many more, as they've been received well by the few recipients that have been given them so far.

This little guy looks like a juvenile but I'm not sure.  Either way, there's a wistful tone here as it looks at or for something in the distance...

Houston Zoo - Four Chimps

Think I see a bookmark here...

Houston Zoo - Chimp with Blanket and Observer

It's interesting how chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans will take to blankets.  Caught their antics on an earlier visit when they had green blankets instead of gray.  Any of these primates behave in such a "human" way it's eerie...

Houston Zoo - Baird's Rat Snake (I think)

 

Houston Zoo - Ribbon Snake

Houston Zoo - Meerkat with Promotional Card

Always liked meerkats - they are so photogenic, cool-looking and active.  One thing that has evolved over the years is the concept of creating promotional cards for the blog, and this one was ripe because of the space for lettering on the right.

There's something ironic about these cards, as I never really cared to have followers or develop this into a commercial enterprise.  As stated before many times here, doing these is merely a creative endeavor that provides an opportunity to work with composition and lettering, which I've always enjoyed even before taking on this photography thing:

Houston Zoo - Lounging Leopard / 20-year Picture-Taking Anniversary

Haven't made it to the zoo lately, but did find one visit that wasn't featured in the blog.  It obviously was a short visit, or unproductive for other reasons, so today's will be the first of just a few keepers from November 25, 2018.

 

You know, it dawned on me the other day that I've been at this for more than 20 years!  Yes, November 26, 2002, was the first day that I took pictures with a digital camera...the 3 megapixel, Fujifilm Finepix 3800.  It's been a very enjoyable run.  I thought there was no way to improve upon what that little camera could do, but in time the sheer wonder of digital photography as a concept evolved into a serious pursuit of creative perfection, and before long I lusted after the latest and greatest tools.  This led to an eventual upgrade to the Nikon D850.

 

I use the term "graduation" loosely here, because photographically I haven't really graduated to anything.  Some have called me an expert, but that's not so...I'm completely self-taught, and probably could not answer even basic questions about the technicalities of the craft.  Some have called me a professional, but that's not so either...I'm far too slow to keep up with the demands a professional would face in the field.  I did do some magazine work, but that was no more than the luck of the draw, having met and befriended a professional writer in Galveston who was in a pinch.  No, what I've done for 20 years is capture average pictures, then put the work in to turn them into better-than-average pictures.  That is all.

And that's enough!  I'm one of the lucky ones who found something to do that is enjoyable, fills creative time with lots of color, and makes that time fly while engaged in the hobby.  As an adjunct, I've found a place to park rough-draft narratives and stories for the kids to enjoy in years to come.

Thus I am thankful, and know I'm BLESSED, to have found something like this to fill my time both in the field and in front of the computer in post-capture.  Yes, I'm one of the lucky ones.

 

Oh - and just for grins, here's a picture taken on that first day (sorry kids):

 

Belated Christmas-Type Pics - Gingerbread House Agains a Black Background

...and, enjoying bright colors against a black background, could not resist creating one of those with this gingerbread house.

Belated Christmas-Type Pics - Gingerbread House with Reflection

Always been a fan of color, so have always been eager to capture shots like these during the Christmas season.  A wholesome, colorful activity for the whole family.  The pic above is a closeup with a shallow depth of field, while the one below features more of the reflection and background, both captured with the Bigger Cahoona:

Houston Neighborhood Walk - Ventral View of Greater Horned Owl with Different Background

What we have here is the exact same shot of this magnificent creature, but cropped to 8x10 and with a different background.  Again a shot from Horsetooth was used, but on a different trip we took five years later, in 2011.  The technical quality of this background photo (taken with the 12 megapixel Nikon D300s DSLR) is much, much better than what was captured in the bookmark post of a couple of days ago (taken with the 3 megapixel point-and-shoot Fujifilm FinePix 3800).

To see the difference in backgrounds, click either image for an expanded view on your desktop or laptop computer, then use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard:

 

Houston Neighborhood Walk - Ventral View of Greater Horned Owl

I swung my rig around the tree for this ventral view of the bird, again pasting eyes from another shot to make this one look more alive.

Houston Neighborhood Walk - Greater Horned Owl Bookmark

With a potentially tall and narrow subject such as this, naturally a bookmark was in the works.  With this shot, cropped in as close as it was, I decided that the white areas of the sky in the background were distracting, so grabbed a photo from a 2006 vacation in Colorado to tone it down a little.  Thus, what you are seeing here is the bird in Houston with a pathway view from Horsetooth Mountain in the background.

But that's not all that was done.  The owl's eyes were almost all-the-way closed the entire time I was there, with the exception of one shot taken after I'd made enough noise to draw its curiosity (without scaring it away).  The open eyes from that picture were pasted into this one - as well as the pics that will be featured in the next couple of posts.  It was a labor of love.

Original of the owl below, as well as the original picture taken at Horsetooth just outside Fort Collins, Colorado, in June of 2006: