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.