Archives 2021

These shots were also from our Houston trip back in February, but it’s taken till now to get my site working well. The amusement park on the boardwalk on Galveston Island lends itself to shutterbugging anyway, but we pretty much had the place to ourselves because — well, February. The idea behind this technical exercise was to get ten shots and publish the best one. I liked more than just one, so here they are. These were all taken with my Canon PowerShot because it was just too cold to carry my larger, heavier camera around.

Yes, the sky really was that color, it was every bit as cold as it looks. This was the weekend just before the huge snowstorm hit Texas in February of 2021. We left on Monday morning, and that evening it got super cold, and the snow blew in.

Week 4 is a storytelling challenge, tell a story using a mirror. There is a story behind the shot, but it’s not the story the shot tells. I had pulled over to let an ambulance pass and I ended up stuck in the mud and wet pine needles. Normally, the road is as serene as this shot makes it look.

If there are cows at the beach, you must be in Texas. This is not the best-composed photograph I’ve ever taken, nor the best edited. The challenge for week 3 is Artistic – Land. The juxtaposition of grazing pastureland and tourist beach houses isn’t found just anywhere. We certainly don’t see it in Orange Beach or Gulf Shores.

Straight Outta the Camera means just that — you don’t make any adjustments to the image after you shoot it. Honestly, I positioned the birds in the frame but I didn’t plan on the other guy on the pier tossing a piece of bread at exactly the right time to land in my subject’s mouth. The impression I wanted to convey was how powerful the wind was that day.

At the east end of Galveston Island is a little viewing spot where you and the seagulls, and whatever other birds are around, can watch the ships, tugs, and barges moving in and out of Galveston Bay.

This was the Week 2 photography assignment for my 52-week photography challenge, and yes, I know this is not the 2nd week of the year. I’m playing catch up, and I’m okay with that.

The week 1 challenge is Story: Rule of Thirds; tell a story using the rule of thirds. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially in a Covid world. We can’t really go interesting places like we usually would, with a lot of people around. We’ve also had a lot of issues getting time off to go do things. I’m having to get a bit creative with my locations.

On a gorgeous sunny winter day, we went ATV-riding. I played around with composition on several shots, but this shot really shows the rule of thirds, even if it doesn’t tell much of a story:

It might actually be a good stock photo, so I need to remind myself to submit it to the agencies. I also ran a filter over it that embosses the outlines, and it really illustrates the “thirds.”

Happy new year!