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.