The Addicks Reservoir Photo Project

For about a decade, I have frequently visited a nearby area within the Addicks Reservoir to exercise. There is a 3.25 mile long paved trail in the reservoir (which is mostly dry except after very heavy rains), and it's a nice area of wilderness in this mega-metro area where I live.

I have walked this trail countless times. In the past year and a half, because I now work fairly close by, I stop on my way home in the afternoon and walk part of this trail.

Overall map of the reservoir.
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The section of trail I frequently walk is between mile markers 3.25 and 1.25 (2 miles one-way, 4 miles round trip). It usually takes me just under an hour to walk the 4 miles.

Close up map of the trail.
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Along this trail is mostly undeveloped land consisting of wooded areas, grassy fields, swamps, and bayous. The photos that follow were taken yesterday along my normal 2-mile stretch.

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I wanted to document the typical views that people see while they exercise there and to also set the setting for what comes next.

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The Photo Project

The Addicks Reservoir Photo Project is basically an exercise for me to practice photography. The idea is that while I'm out for my normal 4-mile walk, I will carry a camera with me and look for things to photograph.

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As I walk, I will look for interesting subjects. If I see one, I will stop and spend a bit of time photographing it. However, I will limit my number of stops to just one or two during any given walk.

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The outlet of this project will be one photo, per walk, posted here with a bit of a description.

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The purpose of this project, as stated before, is for me to practice photography. It's a way for me to spend time looking for things that interest me and to work on photographing them. Since I don't practice photography full time, i.e. it's not my day job, my skills need to be maintained. And I'm hoping that this project will also help me better my skills as a photographer.

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One thing I'm very sure of, it will be an excellent tool for helping me see things and then to quickly work with them to create photographs that represent the visualizations in my mind. This is the process that quickly gets rusty when not used, and I hope to keep it running smoothly as this project progresses.

It will also, hopefully, motivate me to exercise more :-)