Trees are wondrous creations. They are so integral and intertwined with our lives that we often take them for granted. But we shouldn’t. Trees provide us sustenance with their fruits and nuts. Their shade comforts us. They entertain us by allowing us to climb them, build playhouses amongst their branches and to attach swings. We…
A Rockport road trip is just what I needed. With two knees surgeries and horrible weather patterns, last year just didn’t work for a photography road trip. I love photo road trips; they’re good for the soul. It’s getting away from home, your routine, and your cell phone. More importantly, just spending time doing photography…
Bald Cypress Swamp is my favorite part of Mercer Botanic Gardens. As you might expect in a botanic garden, they have wide array flowers and plants. All of them are carefully tended and presented in a most beautiful way. Bald Cypress Swamp on the other hand is to a large extent completely different. It’s natural….
The Big Bend area is one of my favorite places in Texas. This is the area north of the prominent bend in the Rio Grande where the course changes from running east-southeast to north-northeast. Within this area you’ll find Big Bend National Park [BBNP] (801,163 acres) and Big Bend Ranch State Park [BBRSP] (300,000 acres). In…
Silos in a cornfield is a common rural scene. They just seem to evoke the allure of farming and growing something. They bring out the yearning for the quiet, simple life of farming and getting back to nature. This is despite the reality that a farming life is often neither quiet nor simple. Yet, the…
Tilt-shift lenses are a versatile tool that you can use for many types of photography. They are known for their ability to control perspective which makes them an essential tool in architecture photography. However, with a bit of imagination you can use that functionality with any image. You can achieve more composition and cropping options,…
Certain images, the one that got away, stick in our memory forever. I’m talking about those perfect once-in-a-lifetime photo ops that we just missed or irretrievably screwed up. They’re a lost opportunity that haunts us as we wonder, “If only …”. The more we think about these images, the more significant they become. We would…
As part of recent road trip, I visited Pedernales Falls State Park in the Texas Hill Country. It’s a beautiful area although it is not the stereotypical waterfall you might be expecting. Rather than a pronounced vertical drop, the Pedernales Falls flows over sloping, huge slabs of limestone through pools and channels. Unfortunately, when we…
White Sands National Park is a truly amazing place. The Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico is home to the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. It covers about 275 square miles. More than half of this is preserved in White Sands NP. Imagine dunes of pure white sand as far as the eye can see. It’s…
