Turtle Face

I was feeling a bit under the weather today so rather than going for a run, I chose to go for a walk to the pond. I took along some turtle food and my camera. I took some photos along the way and then had a nice, long, quiet time at the pond feeding the turtles and getting shots of my turtle family. There are dozens of them and they have different looks and personalities. Time flies when you're having fun, I spent 40 minutes just sitting there, and if you know me, you know that's a long time for me to sit in one place ;)

Strange Fog

Admittedly, this is a strange picture, you are probably wondering why I took this, much less posted it. First of all, it's either this or another in my long line of sky photos but second is that it's just odd so why not share. I'm driving to work this morning, it's a pretty typical morning and suddenly this fog is up on the road on the one side. I thought it was smoke, also strange, but as we drove into it, and everyone slowed down, you could see it was coming off a bit of water to the side. I had seen a few wisps of fog off the previous water sources but hardly any so this big patch was eerie...is it Halloween season?

And then...

I have quite a few pictures to look through after each soccer game. Each time, a different one strikes me as most interesting. This one is one of those "moments in time" photos. The action is what is about to happen and this is a freeze frame...what comes next?

Tree Frog

When I went out in the back yard this evening to do a little yard work, I had no idea that I would find a tree frog! I didn't even know we had these around here, much less in my pecan tree. I pulled down a few branches to do some trimming and there he was. Now I'm wondering what he is doing around here and if he belongs. He is so beautiful, bright green with gorgeous bronze eyes. Of course I had to take a few pictures and caught him talking to me. He also had an itch and did this weird little move, sucking in his sides and then pulling his back leg out from under and scratching before tucking back into his flat position. After a few photos, I put the branches back and let his stay on his leaf in peace.

Grasshopper Reflections

This grasshopper was on the outside of a glass window at the Performing Arts center in Dallas. I stepped outside to get a better view. He stayed still long enough for me to get in close for a couple shots before he scared me by of course, hopping off. What was fun here for me was not just getting so close to this (very) large grasshopper but playing with the reflections in the glass. The angle and light worked well to give me repeating grasshopper images.

Fuzzy

This one is a bit different, yet still on my sky kick. Still with my little camera. But what was interesting to me was how "fuzzy" the sky looked. It's not unfocused, but rather the sky had this surreal appearance. You can see that the clouds at the bottom have a much more defined edge to them and the sky above has the softer feel. If you ever wonder when I take these random photos, here's a good one, I took it from in front of my grocery store on the way out to the car with my groceries...

Through the grass

Warning: Sky picture again!

I am making an effort to take sky pictures to put together an entire collection and make my own screensaver set. But what I am looking to do is to get different photos of the same thing. Some with trees, some with power lines, some with the sun providing color some with the focus on the clouds and so forth. Today, I lowered my view to shoot through the tall grass into the rising sun. Honestly, I did not want to have the power lines in the shot and yet they do provide some good lines. There are layers in the clouds as well that are a bit different from what I've done lately. This reminds me of shooting through wheat up in Kansas. I am still looking forward to getting my DSLR back this weekend.

Find the butterfly

I really needed to get out and do a photo hike today but I still don't have my regular camera so I took out the Coolpix L110 again. I am apparently overthinking this camera as I'm not getting the shots I want. Also, the butterflies and dragonflies were more interested in landing on me than posing for me. It wasn't a great photo day, the animals weren't out and about nor were the insects being very photogenic. This photo is much too grainy but I like the way the butterfly flattened himself against the tree as I got close and the way the sun is shining, you can tell it's still in the 90s here.

My camera...

Today I was using a different camera, as my dSLR is off in California on a "vacation" without me. It gets to go see great things, meanwhile I am using a CoolPix which has gotten great pictures in the past but I wasn't so happy with it today. I'm used to having such control over what I'm doing in my pictures and this doesn't give me that. I guess, lesson learned is that I love my camera. This was one of the decent shots, Gayle is coming up on the ball and there's no traffic around so it's a nice shot of her in action.

Sun colors

Since the skies have been so beautiful lately, I decided to go ahead and try for a variety of sky shots. So, if you're tired of the sky photos, step away now...
I chose this shot because I could incorporate the trees and powerlines as well as the colors. The photo was taken at 7:15 am, as the sun was just coming over the horizon.

Country Sky

I am on a sky kick lately, or so it seems. I have been just enthralled by the beauty of sunrise and sunset these past few weeks. I only took photos today at those two times. This one is my favorite, though I got some where the sun was more behind the clouds casting awesome shadows. This was looking through a cattle fence and up through the trees into the sunset with the clouds reflecting and scattering the beautiful colors of light. Fall is my second favorite time of year to be outside, of course!

Austin in the round

This morning, we toured Austin on a Segway, those things are amazing and it was great. It did take me awhile to get the hang of driving and doing other things, like taking photos. I got a few and our tour guide snapped some for us. One of our stops was the capital building and I thought this was a fun perspective. It's the reverse dome like the capital building dome, this one going into the ground.

What is that???

Down at Aquarena Springs Lake this afternoon, I met a gaggle of geese. One of them I had a personal encounter with as he started talking and then walked straight up to me and ran his beak right into my camera lens. He then looked confused and backed up a bit and then looked at me some more before wandering back toward the water again. I was excited to get so close and yet wasn't quite sure what to make of this goose suddenly walking right up to my face. I didn't quite get a shot as he got too close, I was trying to figure out if it was a good or a bad thing that he suddenly made a run for me. I believe Eriq got a shot of him close to me on his camera. We shall see...

Sunset over Fort Worth

The sky was beautiful tonight. Storms started to roll in late afternoon as the soccer game was wrapping up. I was watching the sunset as we were heading through Fort Worth on the way down to Austin and it made the time go so quickly and we were south of FW before I even realized it. The sun and the clouds were beautiful colors and patterns and then even the traffic was not a huge nuisance as once when we stopped, I saw this and I just loved the lines and the colors and I was able to roll down the window and get a good shot. Now I realize, I have been on a streak of pictures with the sun and power lines, but this really is my new favorite!

Streaming Light

Admittedly this is nearly a repeat of a couple days ago. However, I was working to get the sun just placed along the power line pole and then following the lines off into the distance so it's a different take on the same basic picture. Interestingly, the photo was only take 6 minutes earlier than the last and the location of the sun seems much lower. Just a thought...

I fit!

My cat likes boxes, no, not likes them, she loves them, they all belong to her, at least in her not so humble opinion. I got a box of photographs delivered and after I took the pictures out she had to get right in.  "Who says I don't fit? I fit just fine, see!" Forget the back leg and tail hanging out over the edge..
She is nicely posed in front of some storage boxes I just covered with contact paper, thus the nice granite like background ;)

Bright and early

This morning the sun was coming over the horizon and streaming through the trees as I was headed to work. As I got to a signal, I pulled out the camera but the angles weren't great so I continued on. Then when I hit the traffic jam that happens each morning, I had this view and I grabbed the little camera again and was pleased with the shot.

Hello Lady

I didn't spend much time on photography again this weekend but thankfully my own backyard often provides me opportunities for some good shots. That's great for the sake of time and my knee, today's photo is simple, a ladybug on a leaf of the trumpet vine. His bright colored red against the nice green of the leaf and the background a sea of green.

Three Toed Box Turtle

Isn't this the coolest looking turtle? Rolf was kind enough to find this little guy for us. After all the rains, we had a nice muddy area where the water drains out of our yard and down to the creek. Rolf went over and found this fun little play thing and picked it up in his mouth to play with his new little "ball" toy. We shooed him away and found this cool little turtle tucked up in his snap close shell. Eventually he peeked his head out and then after deciding it was safe, he made a "run" for it. We helped him into the garden area and let him continue his journey.

13 innings!

What a game that was! I spent 7 hours at the Ballpark in Arlington tonight. I love baseball but I have to say that was a bit much. It did bring back memories of the 14 inning game at Long Beach State in March of 2007. We didn't get out of there with Matt until close to 3 am and I had to fly back to Texas the next morning. Tonight's game had us staying late to see the Rangers come back and beat the Yankees on a homer by Nelson Cruz to tie the game in the 8th and then another to win it walk off style in the 13th. After the game, there was more Blue Man Group and fireworks. I was doing pretty well on timing tonight and caught a few shots with good contact, tags at base, etc. Murphy is one of my favorite players and this was his single in the first inning.

Sunlight

The rain has stopped and the water is receding. We like getting rain here but that was certainly more than enough for a little while. It got warm again today, which we could do without but the sun felt good, even the bugs think so. The clarity isn't what I'd like here but overall I like the light and shadows and colors.

Flood!

It rained for most of the last 36 or so hours, finally stopping in the last couple of hours, for my trip home. The road I usually take home was closed due to flooding so I went for a walk with the camera. There were plenty of opportunities for photos on foot. I had just a short walk, maybe a mile and a half or so and had some great sights, another fish crossing the road, a snake, road signs nearly covered in water and of course the rushing of the water itself. I took a different angle on this photo and walked up behind the railroad tracks. It's a play on perspective as the water is not nearly as high as the tracks but I liked the view.

Soccer Season

I am cheating a bit here on photos. I didn't get a picture taken today since I was gone for work from 7 am until 8:30 pm and it was nasty rainy outside all day anyway. However, soccer season started this weekend and I need to put up at least one photo from yesterday. There are so many to choose from, sports photography being one of my top choices but I chose this one for really capturing an instant in time. The game is all about so many of these moments, but it looks almost choreographed as a still frame. Here's to soccer season 2010!

Great Dane

I caught this shot of beautiful Brynson at the soccer game today. She's sporting her new collar and was just glowing in the bright sunlight, especially against the bright blue sky. I took this with my big lens, as I went down hill and looked back up at her from a distance. It's one of my favorite shots of her now.

Webbed

I went over to the "duck" park looking for my duck family that I've watched grow this past year. I couldn't find them at first, then I saw one little head peek out and then another. I went over closer to see them and found that there's a new batch of babies. Only three of them in this set and the parents are young, they may very well be babies from the last set. The ducklings are adorable but my favorite picture is this one as I caught momma duck scratching her head with one of those bright orange webbed feet of hers.

Butterflies...continued

I had to go on another photo hike today, this weather is just to perfect to stay inside! This time I saw more of the same and some fun and different as well. I caught this butterfly in action but still lit nicely against the beautiful blue sky like the one from yesterday. It's butterfly season here.

Butterfly Skies

Summer is ending which means I am not only back to work but the summer weather is finally passing and we had a gorgeous day today. Having started a new job, I haven't spent much time on photography and last weekend I found that I was feeling a bit rough on my skills. After work today, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and I went out for a photo hike. I had a great time and got several shots I'm happy with but this one struck me. I was excited when this butterfly landed and I could capture the sun and sky just as you see them here.

Storms

This is horrible picture quality but for some reason it's the only one I got of the storms. We have really enjoyed the rain and especially the cooler weather that came along with it. Maybe fall is coming to Texas...

Good Morning Sun

This morning's drive to work looked like this with the sun peeking through some clouds in stripes. It was cool and calm and quiet. My new drive to work is a bit different but I'm still on somewhat back roads for quite a bit of the trip and I enjoy the view.