For the Birds

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Here we have a couple Black-bellied whistling-ducks enjoying the scenery at Hermann Park in the Museum District of Houston.

They breed from the southernmost United States and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas and are some times known to vacation in southeast Arizona and along the Louisiana gulf coast.


More from Hermann Park

Water drops

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These are a couple of my first attempts at reverse lens macro photography. Just some droplets of water on a CD surface.

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out

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This is a composite of 5 separate 30sec exposures taken as a cruise ship eased it's way down Lady Bird Lake in Austin Texas.

I was heading back to my car and I saw that a restaurant/cruise ship had left out of it's dock so I hurried down along the shore of the lake to see if maybe they were going to turn around and head back this way. And to my luck they did. So I sat there and waited patiently for them to make there way into my line of sight to take these shots.

Technically not the whole photo is a composite. The buildings and water are a composite of the last 4 of the 5 photos. I did this because after looking at the photos on the computer screen, I realized that the first photo was blurry, so I only used the light trail from that photo. Also the sky is a single photo, I used photomatix's natural/fusion to do the composting but I didn't like how gritty the sky looked so I selected the sky of one of the original photos. This is also how I took only the streak from the first photo, once I had an initial composite of the 4 photos, I used that composite and the blurry first photo in the photomatix process again and selected all but the streak and use the orirginal compsoite and
voila...

Title from "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The evening darkens over, After a day so bright, The windcapt waves discover, That wild will be the night

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My third favorite from the other night at White Lake in Cullinan Park.

Title from "The Evening Darkens Over" by Robert Bridges. Click on the poem title to see the poem in it's entirety.  A great poem, it's worth a read.

The other two from that night:

Only a mighty sadness fills, The silence of the dark

Fire in the sky

Fire in the sky

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Another one from the other night at Cullinan Park. This time facing into the sunset.

Clouds on clouds, in volumes driven, Curtain round the vault of heaven

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White Lake at Cullinan Park near Sugar Land, Texas.

The lands of Cullinan Park were first settled in 1828 by Alexander Hodge, a member of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred.   For over 150 years, this Columbia Bottomland country was then used for raising cattle, sugar cane, and other crops.   In 1989, Cullinan Park was acquired by the Houston Parks Board and City of Houston, and opened in 1991 as a nature preserve with improvements funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Title quote by Thomas Love Peacock

...By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow...

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Exploring the George Bush Park and it's sprawling 7,800 acres. Well I probably only explored a single acre, but I plan to make many more trips.

 George Bush Park is a city park in Houston, Texas in the United States. It is the sixth largest city park in the nation, covering 7,800 acres (32 km2). It was previously known as Cullen-Barker Park.



Westchase Park Sunset

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Pass by here frequently while driving the Sam Houston Toll Way. I was on my way home with a better then average sunset in progress so I had to stop and catch this. In front of Westchase Park Houston Office building.

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate

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A bared window and a locked gate to some where on the canals of Venice, Italy.




...Title quote by J.R.R. Tolkien...

More photos of Venice: 

Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else 
Roof of St. Mark's Basilica 
Long day at the Doge's Palace
The winged lion of Venice 
The ever watchful eyes of the Piazza San Marco 
So at a knock, I emptied my cage, To hide in the world, And alter with age 
The doors on the canals of Venice  
Standing in the presence of giants... 
The columns of the Doge's Palace 
First upload! - Campanile di San Marco (St Mark's Tower)

 

 

 

 

 

Chisholm Trail Crossing in the rain

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Back a few months ago in another world called Austin, well actually Round Rock, Texas. This was the first really hard rain we had in a while there, gully washer some might have called it. This is a train bridge of Brushy Creek in west Round Rock next to Chisholm Trail Crossing, the place of Round Rock's naming. It's named after a large round rock (what else) that is mostly above the water not far to the left of this scene.

So at a knock, I emptied my cage, To hide in the world, And alter with age



These doors were a big hit with every one so here's a couple more I took. It's weird how my processing tastes have changed so much since I started this obsession with HDR, these were some of my first attempts and I still think they're great but I think if I were to process them today I would desaturate them a bit.

Like these? More here: The doors on the canals of Venice



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Kapellbrücke in Lucerne, Switzerland

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Here we have the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a foot bridge that crosses the Reuss river in Lucerne, Switzerland. Named after the nearby St. Peter's Chapel, the bridge is unique since it contains a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed along with most of the centuries old bridge in a 1993 fire. Subsequently restored, the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. It serves as the city's symbol and as one of Switzerland's main tourist attractions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_Bridge

The doors on the canals of Venice

While in venice we took a gondola ride along some of the canals. Along the way I was busy snapping photos of what ever caught my eye while my wife snapped at me to stop and enjoy the ride, lol. One thing in particular  that drew my attention was the many doors that we passed, they were all so interesting and each one unique. While I was in Venice I tried to capture any sign of the rising water levels and these doors show it more then anything else.

Like these, more here: So at a knock, I emptied my cage, To hide in the world, And alter with age

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