Freeport 04

Walking perhaps a hundred feet inland, this shot was captured along the entrance to River Place. Wish I could have lingered longer to take more photos, but the break between meetings was only so long...

Freeport 03

Egrets are in abundance in Freeport and all along the Texas coast. In fact, there are many species of egret who's ranges converge along the waters of Brazoria County.

This guy parked himself mere steps from the door of River Place. In wildlife photography the secret is to focus on the eye. Unfortunately, I missed just a tad on this one, but fortunately I had taken another photo in which the eye was in perfect focus. The solution? Using the magic of Photoshop, I copied the eye from the other shot and pasted it into this one, feathering the edges (no pun intended) to blend smoothly with the surrounding features.

Freeport 02

Some people call sea gulls the "rats of the air", but I disagree. These little critters have a beauty of their own, and don't mind getting close enough to people to exhibit their unique personalities!

Freeport 01

While we're on the subject of critters and the Big Cahoona, I got the chance to snap a few while conducting a meeting in Freeport, Texas.

One of the best things about my job is that I get to travel extensively through the thirteen counties of our region, including Brazoria County. In so doing I get to meet with the finest people of our state - those who work hard to make their communities better places to live. Freeport is no exception.

This and the next three postings were taken just outside a beautiful conference facility called the River Place. Not only is it a unique and functional place to hold a meeting, even on short breaks participants get to step outside and enjoy the birds that are attracted by the river's water...

Houston Zoo 04, with the Big Cahoona

Now honestly...who could have resisted taking a shot at this?

Houston Zoo 03, with the Big Cahoona

Chalk up another one for the Big Cahoona!

Houston Zoo 02, with the Big Cahoona

This is the shot that convinced me that I have a pretty good thing going with the Big Cahoona...

Houston Zoo 01, with the Big Cahoona

The first real photo shoot that I did with the Nikon D300s (which I have taken to calling the "Big Cahoona") was in June of this year, at the Davis Mountains. 14 of these photos were posted the same month on this blog. During that vacation it was obvious that, from the first frame that was snapped, I would never go back to relying on a point-and-shoot - even an advanced one such as the Fujifilm s7000 - as a primary camera again.

Having said that, it was also obvious that the learning curve would be steep. Carrying the Big Cahoona around was like toting a brick. On top of that, with a rig like the Big Cahoona, you HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!! I fell, and still fall, way short of that criterion.

However there is no denying that, technically, the images are a leap ahead of what I had to work with before; all I have to do is learn how to coax them out of the beast.

The posting today, along with the next two or three, were taken with the Nikon on a visit to the Houston zoo. I still was totally unadjusted to carrying the thing around, and it felt awkward, cumbersome, and frankly...maybe not worth all the dough I had spent on it? This is the trip on which I accidentally stumbled on an image or two that convinced me that, yes, buying the thing and carrying a brick around would be worth the trouble.

I love to play with depth of field, using zoom as a primary tool with which to experiment. A helicopter flew overhead, and as I swung the beast around to capture it was distracted by this view of a glass building with color in the foreground that could be used to adjust depth of field. The lens that I purchased with the Big Cahoona has the equivalent of 11x optical zoom, so this shot was much easier to capture than it would have been with the 6x of the Fujifilm. Additionally, I noticed in post-capture that there appears to be far less work necessary to adjust for levels, color, etc.

Washington - WWII Memorial

In the spirit of taking pictures of things through things, this is a peek at the Lincoln Memorial through the columns of the World War II Memorial.

One of the most fascinating people I've met is someone nick-named Tinker, who served in that war. A high-level risk taker, he always volunteered to charge through the front in the first tank, which was his assignment (driver). Really had some great stories.

I believe this is a fitting conclusion to the posting of our vacation pictures...

Washington - White House 02

Anyone who's been to the White House has seen this character...a protester who has remained camped out on this spot for almost 30 years. We found her to be friendly, amiable, and very dedicated to her cause.