1 Adventure

Big Texas Sky at E-Rock

Wow! Took this yesterday while hiking enchanted rock. This is definately one of my favorites photos taken while at Enchanted Rock. I was admiring the brilliant sky as we sat atop Little Rock and started snapping some shots. I realized that many of the shots were pretty boring, so I told my friend Art to go stand out in front of the camera and hold his hand out to the heavens. This was the result capturing the moment. :-)

Views From Enchanted Rock

Amazing views from atop Little Rock, the main dome's smaller cousin. The last photo turned out kinda interesting, I didn't realize at the time but there is a person in the photo. They are very small in comparsion to the rock around them, but a nice touch of detail for the photo.

Ferns at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area

Some of the local Enchanted Rock vegetation. These ferns are all over the entire park and seem to prefer areas in between the rocks as you can see here. There texture and colors are incredible. Had to take a crack at capturing a few of these after the rain. I am kinda in between whether I like these photos or not, but thought I would post them. Was going for a unique perspective, don't know if I got it?

Ice Cream Truck Lost On Ranch

Took this last weekend along with a good amount of others from around the ranch. Once again this year we had really nice rain in the Fall and the beginning part of this year. Things are absolutely beautiful. I ended up spending sometime walking around sneaking up on wildlife (pigs, birds, rabbits, etc.) and ended back up where I took some photos of Acacia trees last year. Its kinda interesting to see how my photography has changed since then. There is quite a lot of improvement, especially in composition of this photo. Anyway, here is this ice cream truck that has been sitting in the same place for the last 20 years. Makes for an interesting subject and I like how this photo came out.

Making Trouble At Nana's House

Took these very recently at my grandmother's house at one of her famous parties with my new digital camera. I was sitting in one of the bedroom looking out at my cousins Henry and Madeline as they played (caused trouble) in the back porch. I quickly got the digital when I realized what a good oppourtunity it was to take some shots. Henry was having the greatest time being silly as I snapped shots through the blinds. He kept screaming and laughing each time I took a picture until his mom came back and put an end to all noise. Photo shot over.

Digital Cameras

So I finally broke down and bought a digital camera! I have been doing photography since I was 14 and have been raised on traditional cameras that shot with print negative film. I am one of those people that dream of having a darkroom day. I first used the Pentax K1000, probably one of the best cameras to learn on and for that matter own. I have never been much for digital cameras as I felt you lost that feeling of taking photography as an art form. It wasn't any fun with them. With digital cameras mainly point and shoot ones there was no element of mastery over your equipment and subject. You didn't have any creative control over how the shot would turn out. You just hoped it came out correctly. Which for the most part it would, but thats not any fun nor does it teach you anything. Plus digitals are way to darn slow at times and its difficult to enlarge images beyond 8 x 10 with anything lower than a 3 MP camera. Ok so enough about why I am not a fan of digital. That time has passed and eventually I hope to own a professional dSLR on day. I have my eye on a Canon 20D or maybe I will budget and go with the cheaper 10D or Digital Rebel. All really fine cameras.

So what did I buy? Well with anything I buy, I research it heavily before hand. I mainly wanted to buy a digital camera for the purpose of taking general shots of friends, family, quick snap shots, and very much for the small size. Lugging around the bigger full bodied SLR's can be burdensome at times. Like traveling, walking around town, doing anything where space and weight are an issue. Plus I keep a camera in the car at all times in case I find something interesting. Those disposable 35mm cameras you can buy at the store at horrible with picture quality. And I find myself fantomly trying to find a focus nob or light meter just out of habit, not to mention the adaption of controlling the flash with duct tape. It really doesn't work that well and pictures can be awful.

So I got the Canon PowerShot A95, its 5 MP, with MANUAL controls, uses AA batteries (rechargeables make it cheap), CF card, and the optical zoom isn't too bad either. Its a sweet camera, with a nifty fold out screen. Great for candid shots where people don't know you taking a picture. Plus its got a faster response time so far. The above pics are taken with this camera. So far I am loving it, I do however seem to way prefer the full body SLR better. So I guess it will be a good while before I am actually using digital only (if that will ever happen).