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: