1 Adventure

Backlighting Branches & Barns - On The Ranch

Took this several weekends ago. I liked how most of the them came out. The first one has been a small study I had been planning to shot but needed the right sunset and mesquite trees to do it. I had attempted the same look in the past, without much success. You must have a tripod! Otherwise everything gets blurred. I imagine an enlargement of that would be pretty interesting.

The other image is taken while backlight by the sunset. I hadn't planned to take this pictures, as I snapped it out of the windom of my jeep. It was too good to pass up, a couple of these shots came out well. I was using a 70-300 zoom lenses with the Canon at the time, which seems to blur easily without a tripod. This ended up being another exercise in how still I could make the camera and take a picture at the same time. It can be challenging, using your surroundings.
These photos are dedicated to Pope John Paul II, which I learned just passed away a little bit ago. He is seeing something more beautiful now.

Sunlit Yucca Branches - Leasburg Dam State Park

Spent a couple minutes taking these yucca plant branches while I was waiting for everyone to use the restroom. Sky was incredibly blue as it normally is in New Mexico. I was on long road trip this summer to the grand canyon to go backpacking several days. We stayed in probably one of the BEST campsites I have ever stayed in ever. It wasn't overcrowded, the facilities were really good, such as covered pubelo coverings. Community use showers were the best the entire 9 day trip. Ok, I'll stop about the camping. Leasburg Dam was considered the luxury camping spot on our trip. We stayed once on the way there and once on the way back. By most standards it was the bare essentials (covered rock pad), but for $10 a night for 4 people, I promise it was better than any Hilton I ever stayed in.

The last night we stayed at Leasburg, we basically had to break in to find a place. We ended up getting back quite late to the park, after 9, and they lock all the gates then, turn off lights, and you can't get in or out. Problem since it was the only place to stay for 50 miles, besides that we could sleep in the economy car, not fun in the middle of the Kmart parking lot. lol. So we ended up jumping the fence, waking some dude with a shotgun in a camper to find out if he knew the code to the gate. We probably looked pretty suspcious at 10 at night. We almost left, and my friend Dan asked is he knew the gate code. He did. We were in luck. So we drove in, and spent the night. :-)

Acacia

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Wow, these two shots are my favorite. The first one looks great in print, and gives me the feeling like I am seeing all this through a window. Its definately an awesome shot. The second photo is inspiring too, and it kinda follows the example of some of my other work in terms of style. I might try to enhance this shot a little and play with the colors.

Acacia Blooms

This plant was fun to photograph, except for the all thorns it had. I had to crawl under the bush to get some closer shots with the sky, while trying not to rip my clothes apart. But everything has thorns in South Texas! I am still not positive on what type of bush this is, but I imagine its somewhere in the Acacia family. Oh and the smell of the flowers (yellow balls) made it well worth all the time spent, it had such a great sweet smell. I like to many of these photos so I will post them in sections.