Renaissance Festival_5

I thought these two characters where the creepiest at the festival. Not just because of their elaborate costumes, but also because they seemed to be just a little bit too much into characters.

Renaissance Festival_4

I caught these fairies gathered on a hill at the Texas Renaissance Festival this past Saturday.

Renaissance Festival_3

I wanted to try and take away some shots from the Renaissance Festival other than portraits of the characters there. I thought that this 25' waterwheel feature was a nice addition to the landscape and might make an interesting shot.

Renaissance Festival_2

Also from this weekends field trip to the Renaissance Festival, this store keeper was kind enough to allow my brother and I to photograph her.

Renaissance Festival 1

This weekend the Bay Area Photo Club held our October field trip at the Texas Renaissance Festival at Plantersville, TX. We had a good turn out of about 10 photographers roaming over the 54 acre event taking a variety of shots. I would imagine that 95 percent of the shots were portraits of the different participants in a variety of costumes. Originally the fair was strictly limited to costumes and themes relating to the Renaissance period, but over the years it has loosened it's restrictions to now include the fantasy realm of witches, fairies, elves and just about anything else. I would put this guy in the "anything else" category.

BNC Great American Egret

Well, I did say no more Spoonbills right - not no more birds! This one is also from the Baytown Nature Center this weekend.

Spoonbill 4

This will be the last Spoonbill shot in this series. I promise to move on to something new to close out the week with tomorrow.

Spoonbill 2

Still in the same back lit situation as the shot I posted yesterday, but I like the exposure on this one a little better. As I was shooting this one my buddy from the other pond drove by. Happily he did not decide to honk in retaliation or give me that "special" wave. My wife and I figured he was probably on his way to the front gate to register a formal complaint!

Spoonbill and Freind

This shot was taken at the Baytown Nature Center this past Sunday. While I was scouting this shot I approached a different pond in the park and saw another photographer there already. He was set up with a tripod and what looked like at least a 600mm lens and looked prepared to do some serious bird work. It looked like there was plenty of room on the other end of the pond so I turned my little car off the road to set up. After I turned I saw there wasn't really enough room to get my car completely off the road. With camera and telephoto in hand I attempted to back up to reposition the car. As I attempted this maneuver my camera strap snagged the shifter causing me to inadvertently lay on the horn! When this happened the pond emptied completely of birds as if it where dynamite instead of a car horn. I'm sure the first photographer was impressed with my professionalism as I drove off to find a new [quieter] place to shoot - someplace that actually had birds...

A Foggy Morn

From one particularly foggy morning a few weeks ago....

Chasing Rainbows 4

My last shot from the rainbow chasing experiment couldn't include the SJ Monument because the Baytown Nature Center is on the opposite side of the Houston Ship Channel from where the rainbow was visible. Nonetheless the sky was still interesting to the south and I like the way this shot came out.

Chasing Rainbows 3

I had taken a shot of this vignette at the Baytown Nature Center a week or so ago because I like the mix of fall colors in the foliage and the texture of the trees. Because I had this shot on file already it was one of the first places I thought of shooting again while the rainbow was in the shot. Hope you like it.

Chasing Rainbows 2

While I was at the Baytown Nature Center Monday afternoon my intention was to try and isolate and photograph as many subjects as I could before the rainbow I was most interested in dissipated. In my mind the ideal shot I could capture was the one I ended up getting above. A rainbow, a stormy sky, a craggy branch and a sunning Osprey - man could it get any better than that?

Chasing Rainbows

Yesterday afternoon as I left work headed East on I-10 from Houston towards Baytown I noticed that my direction put me chasing a thunderstorm. I spotted a rainbow in the sky along the way and decided to take a detour by the Baytown Nature Center to see if I could time it where I could frame a few shots with the rainbow in the background. My luck, and atmospheric conditions, held long enough for me to frame two or three shots in the park that I like. This hill top gazebo always seemed to me to be a potential subject but just isn't interesting enough under normal conditions. I think with the combination of the rainbow and accompanying light it came out fairly well. More tomorrow.....

Contemplation

This weekend was the first field trip of the newly founded Baytown Photography Club. Participants met on historic Texas Avenue at the Baytown Art League facility and spit into groups to see what we could find. I caught this young man [one of the participants] in a contemplative moment during a break. Hope you enjoy it.

BNC Osprey Redux

I wanted to take another stab at this shot of an Osprey that I took this weekend at the Baytown Nature Center and posted earlier this week. When I posted the earlier version I had just switched to a new computer and didn't have access to Photoshop. Now that I do I've gone back in and done some additional work to the file. While Photoshop can't make up for a lack of lens, this shot is about a 30% crop of the original RAW image, I think the new file is considerably better.

Roadside Visit

I've been photographing roadside memorials for some time now as part of a future body of work project for the Bay Area Photo Club in Clear Lake. This past weekend three early twenty-something men were killed in a tragic automobile accident on Bayway Drive down the road from the Baytown Nature Center where I do a lot of shooting. I stopped by to take a few photos of the memorial for the young men and as I was shooting the young man in the photo pulled up and parked behind me. He was obviously a distraught relative or friend of at least one of the deceased men. As I prepared to take one more shot before leaving, to give him some privacy, I noticed his reflection in my rear view mirror. I thought the image was particularly poignant so a took a few shots before leaving.

Mantis One

This photo was taken Saturday in my backyard. My wife was planting a Crape myrtle when she spotted this juvenile Praying Mantis on the new shrub.

Bird of Prey

My wife spotted this bird of prey in a tree at the Baytown Nature Center this weekend. At first I thought it was a hawk but now I am leaning towards an Osprey. Let me know if you can ID it.

Wallisville Swamp_3

This completes my shots from this weekends quick trip to the Wallisville Bird Sanctuary.