Brazos Bend State Park during migration?

My husband and I just got back from visiting my parents. I’d been planning the trip for weeks to time it with spring migration since I wanted to visit Brazos Bend State Park while I was in the area before we leave the country (be on the lookout for THOSE photos at the end of May).

Fun fact: Brazoria county has more species of birds than any other comparable area in North America and is a major migration route for waterfowl and neotropical migrants.

Anyway, to say the least, I was expecting a lot; I’ve never been to BBSP during migration and I’d been planning this trip for weeks! When I arrived at BBSP, I was a little disappointed (especially considering what happened on my last trip). There hadn’t been a good rain in a long while and the water was really low plus I didn’t see near as many species of birds as I was expecting. Despite all that, I was still very pleased with the images I produced.

For those who may be interested in the birding aspect, I saw: American coot, blue-winged teal, pied-billed grebe, common moorhen, white ibis, roseate spoonbill (only in flight), red-winged blackbird, yellow-crowned night heron, black-crowned night heron and little blue heron.

Here are my favorite images from the trip. I took these at the 40-acre lake. For the full series, check out the Aves gallery on my website.

Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal

American Coot

Common Moorhen

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

American Bulldog

A few weeks ago my brother-in-law and his wife adopted an American bulldog puppy, Sammy. She was previously in a not so great situation where she was kept in a crate pretty much constantly. My brother-in-law and his wife agreed to take the puppy off their hands since the owners clearly had no time for her. Anyway, a week after they got her, my husband and I decided to take Medina, our basset hound, over to meet Sammy! The following pictures are a few of my favorite shots from our visit. To view the entire series, check out the Dogs gallery on my website!

Hill Country Alliance Photo Contest

Several weeks ago I was entered into a photography contest put on by the Hill Country Alliance. Only photos taken in the Texas Hill Country can be entered into the competition. The three categories are natural treasures, hill country people and our unique economy. Anyway, I just learned today that one of my photos (seen below) was selected as a finalist! Be sure to check out the winners and finalists from 2009 and 2008.

Mudbug madness at Brazos Bend

Yesterday morning my husband and I visited Brazos Bend State Park. I’ve been multiple times in the past but my visit yesterday was the best BY FAR! I’m not sure if it was due to the recent rains or what, but all of the animals were very active and feasting on the bountiful crawfish. The trails were LITTERED with crawfish shells, the birds were fighting each other over them and I even witnessed an alligator feeding frenzy! I was also excited because right off the bat I was able to get a decent shot of an anhinga, something which I’ve never been able to do before (they’ve always been too far away). I also got some great shots of a pied-billed grebe, which I’ve never even seen before.

All in all, I took over 400 pictures but was able to narrow it down considerably. The pictures below are a few of my favorites (click on them to be taken to their respective galleries on my website).

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for an outtake!

American Alligator

American Alligator

Little Blue Heron

Pied-billed Grebe

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Anhinga

BONUS: My failed attempt to capture an alligator lunging for prey (which still turned out kind of awesome). This is what happens when you take the camera away from your face for a split second!!!

American Alligator

McKinney Falls State Park

This past weekend I spent three blissful days camping at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX with my husband and dog. I needed the time away to de-stress from my life. After eating and sleeping, all I did was read (I finished two books) and played cards. While I took a lot of my photography gear, I actually didn’t do much shooting. I did capture a few images I’m pleased with, however. I’m pleasantly surprised my waterfall shot turned out as well as it did considering the length of the exposure and the fact that I forgot a tiny piece of equipment that allows me to actually attach my camera to my tripod (doh).

Sunrise at the “Lower Falls”…

My husband, Jacob, and my muddy puppy, Medina, perched on a rock next to the waterfall…

Medina rolling around on some interesting smell. It was funny, we visited this same place the previous evening and Medina was rolling around in virtually the exact same spot…

On To Alaska With Buchanan!

Four years ago I went on a cruise of the Alaska Inside Passage for my brother’s wedding. We left Seattle and headed to Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Victoria (British Columbia) and then back to Seattle. As of last night I have officially finished editing the pictures! I started with upwards of 400 pictures and whittled it down to a mere 13 that I’m satisfied with (let’s just say that I’ve come a long way since 2006).

Back in 2006 I wasn’t using any photo management software and was editing my photos in Photoshop. Photoshop is great for editing single pictures but quickly becomes VERY tedious if you have to edit more than a few pictures. After trying to individually sort through 400 photos and choose the best ones to edit, I became overwhelmed and gave up. You can thank Adobe Lightroom for finally allowing me to finish!

Anyway, here are a few select photos for the blog. Click on them to be taken to their respective galleries. To view the entire series, go here.

Brazos Bend State Park

Back in November I visited Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, TX. There weren’t nearly as many birds as there are during the spring and I only saw a handful of alligators (whereas when it’s warmer I normally see around 30 or so within a couple hours). Anyway, I did manage to take a couple shots of the reptiles that I did see. Maybe next time it won’t take me so long to get them edited and posted 🙂

Lensbaby love

Last week I purchased a Lensbaby Composer. For those not in the know, this is a simple lens that combines a ball and socket mechanism (or bellows in the case of the Lensbaby Muse) to create special effects. The lens can be manipulated off-axis to move the area of focus to anywhere in the frame throwing everything else out of focus. Instead of the aperture being controlled by your camera, the Lensbaby uses a set of interchangeable discs and focus is only achieved manually. The results can be Lomo/Holga-esque. If you’ve been following my blog you know that I’ve recently become interested in this type of photography.

As you might imagine, there’s a little bit of a learning curve with this lens. Yesterday I went to try it out at Zilker Botanical Garden. Of the 114 pictures that I shot, I was only satisfied with 2 of them. The majority of the ones that didn’t work out were out of focus (the wind helped play a role in that along with my inexperience with the lens).

Anyway, here are my keepers (click on the pictures to be taken to their respective galleries). Let me know what you think and if you’d like to see more of this type of photography!

Hipstamatic

Today I downloaded Hipstamatic for my iPhone. First of all, to anyone who’s remotely interested in taking awesome vintage pictures, you need to download this! Anyway, had some fun shooting with it today at work (and then when I came home).

I carry my iPhone with me at all times and frequently take pictures. This app has inspired me to add a new gallery to my website called “Shelter Life” where I will upload pictures from my day job. Here’s a sampling… hope you enjoy! To view the gallery in its entirety, click here.

Stepping outside of the box

Those who know me know that I’m pretty predictable and I don’t really like leaving my comfort zone. A few months ago a family member asked me to shoot some pictures for her that’s outside of what I normally shoot. I was tasked with a vague concept of taking pictures of something antique-y, vintage-y, retro, whatever (architecture and doorknobs were specifically mentioned). I had a difficult time finding something to shoot (it took weeks of searching) but finally found something I thought would fulfill the requirements (however vague they may have been). Anyway, after some intense editing I finally received the prints in the mail today and honestly I’m quite stunned! I was concerned with how they were going to turn out but my fears were completely unfounded. I’m a little proud of myself – I stepped outside my box and it turned out quite well (in my humble opinion) 🙂 Click on each image to view a larger version on my website.