Wallisville Swamp_2

A second shot from the Wallisville Bird Sanctuary this weekend.

Wallisville Swamp

I took this shot this weekend at the Wallisville Bird Refuge just over the Trinity River bridge on I-10 East of Baytown. The area features a wooden path and foot bridge leading to an overlook platform on the edge of shallow lake.

Battleship Texas 6

Another take on the Battleship Texas taken two weekends ago at the San Jacinto Battlegrounds.

Windmill and Clouds

From the Texas Panhandle this summer near Palo Duro Canyan State Park and Amarillo.

Grass Planters 3_ AKA - More Lens Please

This aerial shot was taken from the observation level atop the SanJacinto Monument at the SanJacinto Battlegrounds in Deer Park, Texas. The subject was the volunteer wetland restoration project in Burnett Bay sponsored by the Galveston Bay Foundation. This shot was taken as the GBF organizers set out buckets of cord grass for the volunteers who would be planting a little later in the morning. Which brings me to the subject of my subtitle - "More Lens Please!" I threw all the lens I had at the shot, which meant my 50-200 and 1.4 tele-converter. This combination along with a crop factor of 2 on my Oly E-3 netted a 35MM equivalent of 560MM. I would have like to had another 200MM available for a tighter composition but it's hard to justify the $7,000.00 price tag of Oly's flagship 300MM f2.8 lens. In the meantime I do think this wide shot will provide an interesting comparison for a follow-up shot in a year or so after the newly planted grass has had a chance to get established.

What your viewing here is a shot looking across the Houston Ship Channel with the historic Lynchburg Ferry in the foreground left. Beyond the chemical storage tanks the small man made islands to be planted can be seen. Some of the islands have buckets of grass placed on them and volunteers can be seen [if you squint] placing additional buckets on the islands in the right middle ground.

Grass Planters 2

Another shot from Saturdays Galveston Bay Foundations volunteer marshland reestablishment project near the San Jacinto Battlegrounds at Baytown, Texas.

Grass Planters 1

The Bay Area Photo Club was asked to document a volunteer effort this past Saturday for the Galveston Bay Foundation. Volunteers gathered at Burnett Bay, on the North side of the Houston Ship Channel from the San Jacinto Battleground, to plant cord grass in an effort to reestablish the wetlands that once existed there. These grasses provide many benefits including fighting against erosion and providing breeding habitat for shrimp, crabs, and fish of various varieties.

Moonlit Bird

This shot was taken in my back yard late in the evening earlier in the summer.

Big Bend National Park

From the archives, this shot was taken at Big Bend National Park in West Texas in June of last year.

Children at Play

This shot was taken in July of this year at my family reunion in Sweeny, Texas. I like how, to me, the soft focus on the boy gives the photo a dreamlike quality.

Too Close for Comfort 2

Another shot from Wednesdays fire at Stewart and Stevenson on I-10 in East Houston.

Too Close for Comfort

Yesterday while I was at work one of my coworkers looked out the window and noticed that our neighbors building was on fire! A portion of Stewart and Stevenson's building on I-10 in East Houston was billowing dark smoke from one of their overhead doors and along about 100 foot of roof line. In the end two or three engines from the HFD responded along with a ladder truck, an ambulance, and several support vehicles. The fire was out in about an hour and we didn't hear or see anything about injuries.

Lake Victory Dragonfly

This dragonfly was resting in the tall grass and pussy willows alongside of the small Lake Victory in Baytown.

Roadside Memorial

A shot from a rainy Sunday drive...

Fountain at Discovery Green

My last shot from last weekends trip to Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston.

Sailing at Discovery Green

Another Discovery Green shot from this past weekend.

A Different Perspective_Part II

Thanks Doug and Cindy [see comments below]. The image above was the starting point for the image I posted yesterday. I thought I might be able to pull off the composite but at the end of the day the image was just overworked and forced. Oh well, back to the drawing board!

A Different Perspective

I was thinking about the BAPC's upcoming Honors Night program and the assignment of "Unusual Perspective" when I took this shot. There are several things about the shot I like, but also a couple I'm a little cool on. Let me know what you think.

Kite Flying at Discovery Green

Another shot from this weekends trip to Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston. I watched these guys try and get this kite in the air for a while but they never did. Finally I asked my wife what she thought they were doing wrong? She said "there's no wind blowing", and I said "Hmmm." She always was the smart one!