A Tale of Light Chasing

On a recent family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, I ventured out one evening by myself. The clouds and light looked perfectly set for a stunning, colorful sunset.

The spectacular light show took place while I was still driving. The clouds and peaks lit up with warm light. The colors changed from golden tones to pinkish tones. It was beautiful.

When I finally got to where I wanted to take pictures, the light had peaked and the colors were fading fast.

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I hung out in that grassy meadow (in Moraine Park) along the river for a long while. I sat on a boulder and watched the darkening sky and heavy clouds. It was so quiet and peaceful.

About 30 minutes after sunset, I got up and slowly walked back to the car. I was fascinated by some interesting clouds and couldn't figure out if they were lenticular or part of a thunderstorm or both.

A spot of white water in the river caught my eye and then the rhythm with the clouds stood out.

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I think I would have been pretty angry with myself just a couple of years ago for missing a sunset like that. Actually, I probably would have bailed out of dinner with my family just to be sure I was on location with camera in hand well before sunset.

Well, I stayed for dinner and even later with the family. We took our sons to ride go-carts after dinner, and we all had a blast. Those moments were far more important to me than that sunset.

I didn't capture the spectacular golden light on the mountain peaks. But I got 30 minutes of solitude in cool, clean air in a grassy meadow with a river flowing close by. My world slowed down. I only wished the rest of my family could have experienced that as well, but they were all tired from a full day of activity and back at the hotel getting ready for bed (I did indeed invite them along on my sunset photo-outing).

The point to this is that I was quite happy to be out there regardless of time and light. I was also happy with the photos, especially the one with the white water and interesting clouds.

Texas Wildflowers 2010, Part 2

My family and I spent three nights camping in Pedernales Falls State Park in the Texas Hill Country just after Easter weekend.

Along Hwy. 3232
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The wildflowers were great all the way from Houston to the park. Inside the park, however, there weren't too many. But I did find a nice patch of yellow near the banks of the Pedernales River.

Near Pedernales River
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I have other photos of the Pedernales River and also Bee Creek (a tributary) sans wildflowers. I'll get these up in a few days.

Sabinal River Gallery Finished

I've completed the photo gallery from our recent trip to Utopia, Texas:
http://www.texbrick.com/photo/utop_sab09

click to view gallery

It's been since March that I've gone outdoors and seriously photographed. My time in the field was short but very enjoyable. I miss doing that, and I'm glad I miss it :-)

The Sabinal River

The Sabinal River near Utopia, Texas:

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Two weekends ago, my family and I spent 5 days vacationing in the Texas Hill Country. We stayed in a house on the Sabinal River near Utopia. I'm slowly going through my photos, and I will post a few more of them in the coming days.

My wife asked me the other day how I was doing photography-wise and if I felt like I was back in the game. I really didn't have an answer then and I still don't now, despite thinking about it a lot lately.

What I do know is that I definitely had an urge to get out and photograph. I came home with 1245 photos :-) of course about half of that take were action shots of us using the rope swing to jump into the river (and my mom used my camera to take a bunch of those).

What was interesting is that my usual super-eager attitude and desire for photographing was not there. Or rather, it was quite diinished. I guess you could say that my desires have matured perhaps. I moved slower, picked through the landscape slower, and really didn't care if I took a photo at all. I had no expectations and no stress (I guess it was a real vacation then :-) ).

Something has definitely changed in my photographic attitude and drive. I realize this is boring to you and probably not worth stating. I doubt you've even read this far (maybe you just looked at the photo and nothing else... and that's just fine :-) ). But I wanted to write it down just as a journal-type entry to capture how I'm developing. And right now I kinda don't care. I'm just going with it... and we'll see what happens.