Week 22 – Down on the Bayou

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The sun sets in the wake of the Natchez Steamboat on the Mississippi river.

I was able to take a wonderful steamboat ride on the Mississippi river this week as a part of a trip to New Orleans (reason: never been!). While on the boat, we were served dinner and got to listen to some nice jazz. Additionally, the sun set and made for a pretty scene. The above image is actually a composite of two exposures– not a true HDR (which I think requires 3 exposures) but just a lighter and darker image, with an image mask to reconcile them.  I think it turned out pretty nice. As did my trip.

Week 20 – The Wild World of the Driveway

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A tiny ant crawls across Chris' driveway.

In a somewhat last-ditch attempt for a photo this week, I surprised myself by getting a photo I am quite pleased with. I went and sat on the driveway with my poor man’s macro setup– one lens on regular, and then another lens focused to infinity turned around and held onto the front element of the attached one. Not the best or most controllable macro, and obviously there’s lots of issues with vignetting, but it is a technique that can produce usable images. It helps if your subject is less than active. I think this ant was alive, but not feeling too hot and wasn’t long for the world.

Week 19 – That’s no moon

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The moon "rises" "over" the waterway on Saturday night.

This is exactly how the moon rose over the Waterway by the mall on Saturday night. There was no image compositing involved.  Just trust me. I managed to expose it properly and get the moon looking nice with everything in the foreground. I promise.

Week 18 – Quackers and cheese

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A duck bobs on Lake Woodlands.

I didn’t get any outstanding photos this week– I didn’t put enough thought into taking pictures over the past 7 days. So I took some pictures of critters at Northshore. Duck pictures are a dime a dozen, but I picked this one out of a big batch and I like the composition. Hopefully next week will end up with a more unorthodox photo.

Week 17 – Good Weather = Good Times

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Stephen jumps and grabs a frisbee between his legs while playing ultimate.

I played ultimate on Saturday and only took a few pictures, so I didn’t get anything spectacular. I think this one is funny, though.

I’m not sure if this photo is posed or not. I took two like this– one, Stephen posed, then another, it actually happened. I’ll just be blissful in my ignorance on this one.

Week 16 – Blue, Like Jazz

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The Goose's Acre casts a glow out onto The Waterway in The Woodlands.

I went to see Blue Like Jazz on Friday, so I felt like getting some cool, Van Gogh-esque shot of stars and lights and sky. That more or less failed.

However, I did get this shot of The Goose’s Acre that I enjoy enough. And a pub seems to go along with my hoped-for Blue Like Jazz theme.

Week 15 – All Things Made New

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Children gather around a lamb held by one of the members of Crossroads Baptist Church on Good Friday.

This picture basically looks like something you’d see on the wall of a Sunday School classroom. That’s what I was going for, so… success!

Crossroads had a big focus on Jesus being the lamb on Good Friday, so they brought in some animals and suburban kids got to see what they’re really like.

Week 14 – Spring Flowers

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Shawna admires bluebonnets at Spring Forest park.

It was a nice day, and all sorts of flowers are growing now, so Shawna and I figured we’d go get some pictures of the bluebonnets we’d heard about. They smelled good.

I tried some artsy photos.

I also tried some silly ones.

But for this week’s “Official Photo,” a plain ole portrait worked. I used the fill flash on that one, but I’m not sure it showed. It was glaringly bright, so there were going to be shadows no matter what. Still, not many ways to mess up a picture of a girl sitting in some flowers.

Week 13 – An Oklahoma Wedding

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Karig and some of his groomsmen sing about friends in low places.

I got to go to Shawna’s brother’s wedding this weekend, which was fun, and (as most weddings do) presented lots of opportunities for good photos. It was dark as a womb in the reception hall, and my flash wasn’t recycling quite as often as I would like, but I did manage to catch this shot which I really dig. It’s not super-sharp and the noise is crazy, but I feel like it’s of “newsprint quality,” which is what I’ve shot for most of my photographic life. A quick black-and-white conversion fixed any other problems — those lit-up trees in the corner were an issue, but I couldn’t crop them out in a 2×3 ration and still keep the rest of the photo that I liked.

All things said, I’d say this photo became successful in post. And there’s nothing wrong with that.