Wednesday, June 30, 2010

AR 13 - Yellow, Green, and Sound!

Today's theme was yellow and green, picked spontaneously on-the-fly as the walk progressed.




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I took along my new audio recorder, and below are links to two sound clips. I'm quickly realizing that capturing sound is going to be a lot more challenging that I'd anticipated. Ha! I think I remember saying that about photography way back when... :-)


- Birds (MP3 file, 0.2 MB)
- Cicadas (MP3 file, 0.3 MB)


And so begins the audio learning curve.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

AR 12 - Toad, Snake, and Fog

I was back on the paved trail yesterday. My walk took place later in the afternoon just after a thunderstorm. It had been sunny and in the upper 90's (°F) before the storm, and the bad weather dropped the temps down nearly 20 degrees. Fog was forming just above the trail and made things surreal (and quite sweaty).




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A toad hopped out in front of me and I followed it off to the side into the grass. As I knelt down close, something moved a few inches away. This something turned out to be a juvenile cottonmouth. It didn't scare me as bad as I'd imagined, and the snake was cool about it too. It just slithered off somewhat slowly and then stopped about a foot away.




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I just ordered my next photographic accessory today: a portable digital audio recorder. I've been wanting one for a very long time. I would love to capture the sounds of birds, frogs, wind through the trees, etc. while I'm out photographing. Maybe if it works out, I'll post some short audio clips here in the future.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

AR 11 - Walking in a Storm

I walked in a different area yesterday: the equestrian trails in Bear Creek Pioneers Park.




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It was somewhat of an adventure and I enjoyed it. I was on the edge of a passing thunderstorm (it was just to the south of me). It rained on me for about half of the walk while direct sunlight hit the woods. The lighting conditions were pretty dramatic.




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Thunder boomed heavily in the humid air as I picked my way along the overgrown trail. The young banana spiders are out in full force, and I had to clear the webs to pass in several spots along the trail.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Henry Underwater

Father's Day was pretty good this year! (it is every year :-) ) Below is a shot of my son taken with my Canon G11 and my new underwater housing.




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Pedernales Falls State Park, TX

My family and I camped in Pedernales Falls State Park (in the Texas hill country) in April of this year.




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We planned to stay two nights at first, but extended our stay an additional night after having way too much fun. We had a really good time and all needed a break.




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The Pedernales River was high and flowing strongly, and it was a little bit scary swimming in it (way downstream of the main falls, where swimming is not allowed) with the boys. We hiked into the primitive backcountry and found an amazing spot along Bee Creek. The water was flowing well there too, but it was safe to play in.


Both photos above were taken in Bee Creek in an almost-slot mini-canyon.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

AR 10 - Spiders, Snakes, and Butterflies

Back with the program... well, maybe not :-) I managed to sneak in a walk yesterday. It's been almost a month since my last one.




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I resorted to the "technique" applied in my previous walk: whatever. Zero expectations and little or no thought about what to shoot - I just let it all go and responded to things as I encountered them.


The banana spiders are back! I spotted a huge crop of babies on their new webs.




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This butterfly tolerated my close presence and let me photograph it.




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It can't be a proper walk without a snake sighting :-)




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Steel, Part 3

Heaving lifting.




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Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Steel, Part 1

I've been playing field engineer lately on a very fast and intense project. I haven't set foot into the Addicks Reservoir to take photos in over three weeks. My only source of exercise has been walking around a fabrication shop :-) I decided to make the best of it and document the hard and difficult work being done.




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