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...