NY Trip - Day 14

We departed Savannah, Georgia and arrived in Destin, Florida today. We'll be hear today and tomorrow and then travel back home to Houston on Sunday.

Here are a couple of shots of sailboats I took at sunset today.

Title: "Destin Sailboat 1"


Title: "Destin Sailboat 2"

NY Trip - Day 13

Yesterday we spent the day at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Reinactors at Colonial Williamsburg recreate the atmosphere present in this town in the early 18th century.

Title: "Colonial Williamsburg Fife Player"

NY Trip - Day 9 (again)

Although we are actually 0n Day 12 of our NY trip, I'm so far behing in processing pics that I'm posting another couple of shots from Day 9. The first shot is of Lucifer Falls in Ithaca, NY. These falls are located in a narrow gorge in a breathtaking scene. I wasn't able to do the falls justice with any of my shots; this one is as close as I could get. The shot was taken from a footbridge extending over the falls.

Title: "Lucifer Falls"


This second shot is of some of the trees growing up the side of the gorge near Lucifer Falls.

Title: "Gorge Forrest"

NY Trip - Day 9

Yesterday, Day 9 of the NY trip, was all about seeing as much of the natural beauty around Ithaca, New York as we possibly could in one day! We visited five waterfalls located in or near Ithaca.

This first photo is of "Ithaca Falls" located off of Lake Street in Ithaca, New York.

Title: "Ithaca Falls"


This next photo is of some unnamed falls located near Lucifer Falls in Robert H. Treman State Park.

Title: "Unnamed Falls in Ithaca"

Civil War Remembrance

Here is a shot I took of some of the graves of unknown soldiers at Gettysburg National Memorial Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We visited this location last Tuesday on our current trip to New York. It seemed a fitting posting in honor of Memorial Day.

Title: "Civil War Remembrance"

NY Trip - Day 8

Day 8 of the trip was spent hooking up the trailer and moving from Pennsylvania to the Ithaca, New York area. We visited a friend of Emmas but not much else. I only took one photo (shame on me) so today I'm posting a couple more from Day 6's side trip to NYC.

Title: "NYC School Zone"


Title: "Times Square"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

NY Trip - Day 7

We spent a lot of Day 7 of our trip recovering from Day 6 of our trip (the trip to NYC proper). In the afternoon we drove around southeastern Pennsylvania being tourists. Today's photos are of a Quaker meeting house (specifically the 1710 Kennett Meeting House) and of some of the local Amish community working in their fields.

Title: "Kennett Meeting House"


Title: "Pennsylvania Amish"


Title: "Pennsylvania Amish 2"

NY Trip - Day 6

Yesterday we took a day trip from our campground in Pennsylvania to go to NYC! We parked for the day at Statue Of Liberty State Park in Jersey City and rode a water taxi to NYC from there. Today's post is of two different skyline shots taken from the water taxi and a shot of the crowd eating lunch in battery park when we arrived in Manhattan.

Title: "NY Skyline No. 1"


Title: "NY Skyline No. 2"


Title: "Battery Park"

Pennsylvania Smokehouse

Sorry for the inconsistent postings. It has turned out to be more difficult to post on the road than I had imagined. It is day 5 of the NY trip and we are camped in our RV at a KOA in Chester County Pennsylvania. I am assuming this little house is an old smokehouse because of its size (probably no more that six feet long). This is one of those scenes you just have to pull over and photograph.

Title: "Pennsylvania Smokehouse"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR using Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) > Photoshop CS3

New York Trip - Day 2

On day two of our New York RV trip we traveled from Meridian, Mississippi to Toomsuba, Alabama. It rained most of the the first half of the day but cleared somewhat in the second half. In Huntsville, Alabama (near Toomsuba :-) we met some old family friends at a local amusement park and had a good time. Today's photo is of the campsite when I woke up this morning to a beautiful day in Monte Sano State Park in Toomsuba.

Title: "Monte Sano State Park"


1/25s f/6.3 at 17.0mm iso400

NY trip Day 1

Posting photos from the NY trip Day 1 two days late because of computer problems. On Day 1, we left Houston and went through Louisiana to Toomsuba, Mississippi. This first shot was taken at the Louisiana Welcome Center.

Title: "No Swimming"


We encountered a lot of areas of bad weather on the first day. This next photo was taken at a gas station in Gross Tete, LA.

Title: "Gross Tete Weather"


Day 1 was mostly a travel day, and here is what my view was like, for most of the day.

Title: "Traveling Companion"

Baby Gator

This shot was taken on the Bay Area Photo Club's field trip to Brazos Bend State Park last Saturday. The alligator in this shot is a baby. Its whole head was about 6 inches long. During the course of the day I was struck by how much the baby and young alligators resemble the adults in general appearance. Only their sizes seemed to vary...at least to the untrained eye! :-)

Title: "Baby Gator"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
1/50s f/9.0 at 400.0mm iso250

Do U C What I C?

This was my Assignment entry for Honors Night at the Bay Area Photo Club last night. The assignment was "Motion Blur." I took the photo over the weekend at the Kemah Boardwalk. I used a tripod and took the photo with a long (5 second) exposure. Well actually I took 30 or 40 photo's and this is the one I liked best. :-) I really like the photo and it received good comments from the judges but was scored poorly earning a "No Award". As it turns out there were no Gold Awards given for any photo entered in the Assignment category (Motion Blur) last night. Well...anyway how would you have scored it? A "No Award" like our panel of judges, a "Gold Award", "Silver", "Bronze Award"? I know you don't know the actual judging criteria but this is just for fun anyway! :-)

Cheers!

Title: "Kemah Boardwalk Fountain"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Shot data: 5s f/9.0 at 55.0mm iso250

Emma at Lake Travis

I took this shot two weekends ago while visiting Pace Bend Park (approximately 30 miles west of Austin on Lake Travis).

Title: "Emma at Lake Travis"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Brazos Bend Bird

Here is a photo from a trip the Bay Area Photo Club took to Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, Texas yesterday. I have to admit I don't know what type of bird this is so if anyone can identify it for me I would appreciate it. Is is a heron?

Title: "Brazos Bend State Park Bird"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom

1/125s f/9.0 at 400.0mm iso250

Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Curves Adjustment Layer to improve overall contrast > Hue / Saturation Adjustment Layer to increase saturation a little > Merge Visible to New Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Clarity" preset for sharpening > Merge Visible to New Layer > Nik Viveza plugin to increase brightness on the bird and decrease brightness of the background in order to help bring the bird forward from the background > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

San Jacinto Day Eagle

I took this shot at the San Jacinto Day Festival two weekends ago. This was as close as I ever remember being to a bald eagle and I was duly impressed! It is easy to see how these birds earned such a regal reputation.

Title: "San Jacinto Day Eagle"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
1/200s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso100

Reluctant Jumper at Inks Lake

I took this shot last weekend while visiting Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, Texas. Luckily the idiot on top of the highest rock never actually jumped!

Title: "Reluctant Jumper"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

The Devil's Waterhole at Inks Lake

I took this shot last weekend while visiting Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, Texas. This location is called the "Devil's Waterhole". I'm not sure how such a beautiful (and, judging by the crowd, popular) location got such an ominous name!

Title: "Canoes at Devil's Waterhole"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin "Simplify" preset > Hue / Saturation Adjustment Layer to push saturation a bit > Merge Visible to New Layer > Curves Adjustment Layer to increase overall contrast > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Pipe Guy

This is a photo from the San Jacinto Day festival.

VFD Fish Fry

Taken this past Saturday at the Spicewood, TX Volunteer Fire Department fish fry. Rather that go out to eat at a restaurant on Saturday night we chose to attend this event because the cause was worthy and because you can almost always count on great food at these type of community events. It was fun to hang out with the locals and the food didn't disappoint.

Title: "VFD Fish Fry"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Post-processing: Created HDR from 3 handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Levels Adjustment layer to set Black, Grey, and White point @71% opacity > Curves Adjustment Layer to improve overall contrast > Merge Visible to New Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Clarify" preset @ 88% opacity > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Lake Travis Bluebonnet

We took the RV back to the Texas Hill Country this weekend. This time we stayed in Spicewood, Texas which is located about 22 miles NW of Austin and 16 miles SE of Marble Falls. This photo was taken this morning while we visited Pace Bend Park on Lake Travis. For those of you may not know the Bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas.

Title: "Lake Travis Bluebonnet"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom