Hand

This bolt reminds me of a hand reaching out for something. A thing that confuses me is, why did the lightning streak to another cloud? Why didn't it go to the ground? Maybe the bolt was attracted by another bolt so it went to where the other bolt was. Or, there was nothing on the ground that the lightning could strike, as in something metal or a tree.

 Bolt

One interesting thing to photograph about lightning but scary fact about lightning is it can strike anywhere, at any time, and at anything. I like how most bolts of lightning are not the same. It means that you might be the only person who has evidence of the lightning. 

Lightning

As a storm rolled through Texas, I was prepared to take pictures of it. I tried to capture the lightning by taking pictures of it. Once I realized it was nearly impossible to take pictures of lightning, I videotaped it. After the storm, I looked over the video and screenshotted the frames with lightning in it. It isn't the most effective way, but it works.

Background

As well as finding new vantage points, good photographers also try to find interesting backgrounds. In this picture, I like how there is another flower and a tree. I also like how the flowers contrast the darkness of the tree, but the tree doesn't fill the entire background.

Bunny Hops

After allowing me to take pictures of it, the white-tailed rabbit decided to move. I like how I was able to take a picture of the rabbit as it was about to hop along. Using the simple vantage point trick, I was able to dodge the fence and get a more interesting photo.

Vantage Points

When taking pictures, good photographers find unexpected vantage points to take new pictures that no one has captured before. One of the easiest vantage points is putting the camera closer to the ground. It is very simple but allows for more interesting pictures. I started taking pictures of this rabbit from a normal position, but getting closer to the ground made the picture more interesting.

Dragonfly

The water and heat attracted dragonflies to this creek. Right as I was about to leave, this dragonfly landed on the branch. It was harder to photograph because it was far away from me and the rocks in the background make the dragonfly hard to see.

Comparison

These are the same plants except one has holes in it and the other doesn't. I believe that the holes are a cause of either an animal eating the plant, or the sun burning hole in the plant. The more logical idea is animals eating the plant, but the burnt spots on the plant also make me think it might have been burned.

White Flower

While taking this picture, I wanted to show off the white flower among the green leaves. I focussed on the flower and adjusted the camera to have the flower brighter than the rest of the tree. In this picture, I was glad to have the sun overhead because it helped to brighten the flower which made it stand out even more.

Purple Flowers

I chose to take pictures of this flower because of its color. The color is like a dark blue-purple. I have seen many different types of flowers, but I have never seen a flower that has a color like this. Since the blue-purple is a darker color, it is easier to take pictures of. If it were a yellow or a bright color, I would have to darken the picture to make the bright flower look good.

Pollen

Starting in the spring and continuing into early summer, pollen helps to revive plants from their winter hibernation. The plants make pollen, then the bees take it, and spread it on all plants. Without pollen, plants wouldn't be able to grow. Without plants, there would be no oxygen and no oxygen means no humans.

Morning Dew

In Texas, it is very common to see dew on outside plants in the morning hours. Dew is caused by heat during the day that evaporates the moisture in the air turning it into a gas. Then the night cools the moisture turning it back to a liquid and putting it back on the plants. This small flower has tiny droplets of water on it which is the dew.

Slow Walk

After waiting for several minutes, the bird decided that no fish were where it was, so it slowly walked to find a new spot to wait. The bird had to walk slowly and carefully to try to not scare the fish away. I like this picture better than the other because of how the birds head is positioned and how the sunlight is on it.

Fish Hunter

After a short beginning of summer/Memorial Day break, I found this bird in a creek hunting for fish. As this fish-hunting bird waited in the creek, I seized the opportunity and took pictures of it. I like the algae in the background since it gives the eyes something else to look at.

Streaks of Light

During the late dusk hours, I biked to the corner of two major streets and photographed the cars as they drove through the intersection. I decreased the shutter speed, decreased the aperture (close the hole that allows light into the camera), and lowered the ISO to the lowest it could be. Before I edited this picture, it was too bright. I couldn't darken the picture anymore because I was already at the settings that made the picture the darkest it could be.

Colorful Bloom

As the heat continues to increase in Texas, more and more flowers are starting to bloom. As these flowers bloomed, their petals are bright pink and orange. I tried decreasing the apurature (close the hole that allows light in the camera) to not blur the background as much with a higher apurature. There is less blur in the background in this picture, but there still is some.

Summer Blue

This blue is unlike any other blues that I have seen before. There are some petals that are bright blue and others that have turned to a green color. The difference in the colors makes the flowers more appealing to look at.

Red Moon

During dusk the of a full moon, the sun made the moon turn to a reddish color. I was able to take pictures of the moon before the sun went down. The sun turned the moon red, so the next time there is a full moon, look right at dusk and the moon will be a reddish color.

Family Reunion

After I faded away from the family of ducks, they reunited. The water in this small river is really clean with algae on the bottom. Just from this picture, we can see lots of other objects in the water. In the top left corner are many pieces not commonly found in water, but I can't figure out water they are from this picture. It looks as if some might be bubbles and others might be leaves, but they might also be pieces of trash and plastic.

Walking on Water

As I approached too close to the family of ducks, the baby ducks swam away in fear of me. The mother duck saw me approach but didn't move as fast as the baby ducks did. I like how I was able to capture the water droplets in the air but the droplets also overexposed the picture. I think that the rest of the water helped stop the reflection of the sun, but once the water separated, the sun was able to reflect through the droplets.

Ducks in a Pond

Along with metal, water also reflects the sun. This reflection creates the problem of having an underexposed picture to compensate for the overexposed spot. An easy way for photographers to avoid this problem is to take pictures during the first two hours and the last two hours the sun is out. The best weather to photograph, especially objects that reflect the sun, is cloudy with no humidity.

Painted Sunset

The heavy rains brought a colorful and different sunset. Even my wide-angle lens wasn't wide enough to capture all of the sky. This was the best part of the sky, the part where the sun was able to get through to the clouds enough to make some colored and others not. The clouds were really spread out, some were big clouds but most were smaller broken clouds.

Raindrop

As a heavy rain storm moved through Texas, my roof overflowed with rainwater. As the rain fell, I tried to capture a picture like this. The raindrop that is 'going up' is too far back in the frame. I wish that rain drop was closer up in the frame. It is a really interesting raindrop. It hit the roof just hundredths of a second earlier and in this picture, it moved up and started breaking into smaller droplets.

Bluebonnets

While biking past a group of bluebonnets, I thought they would be really interesting to take pictures of. After I took a few pictures, I found that the bluebonnets are really hard to photograph. This bluebonnet's top wasn't very white, but the other bluebonnets I took pictures of had a white top. The white makes the picture underexposed but the white spot is still overexposed.

Headshot

As the turkey was about to fly to the rest of its friends, it took a look at me to see if I was close to it or not. I believe that it was checking to see how close I was to it. One problem when taking pictures of things that are made of metal or reflect the sun is the glare that they make back into the lens. When I was taking this group of pictures, it was mostly cloudy with some intervals of sun. When I took this picture, the sun was hidden behind the clouds which is why there is no reflection blocking this turkey.

Stuck

After staying on the ground with me taking pictures of them, the turkeys flew to the top of a house. Three of the four turkeys flew to the very top, but this last turkey didn't make it up all the way. It was trying to fly up with the rest of its group, but the metal roof made standing up difficult. I took a few minutes to take pictures then walked away and found this last turkey with the rest of its group.

Single File

One of the times I got too close to the turkeys, they ran to the cover of a bush. Sometimes after I walked too close, I would try and hide to see if the turkeys would walk out so I could get a closer shot. These turkeys seemed to know where I was and they didn't come out until I was actually far away.

Turkey Thursday

On a regular bike ride, I was biking down a friends street when I saw these turkeys. I didn't have my camera on me, so I raced home then returned with my camera. I went to the spot where I saw them last but they weren't there. I continued down the street and found them a few houses down. Not that I have seen any turkeys before, but these turkeys seemed really scared. I couldn't get within twenty feet of them before they ran farther away from me.

Crane Flies

Near the flowers was this crane fly. While they look like big mosquitos, they are not like mosquitos. The crane flies do not bite humans and instead eat nectar. This would explain why it was near the flowers, to eat the nectar in the flowers.

Yellow Rain

Like the other flower, this flower turns the rain droplets a color. Since this flower is yellow, the rain turns to a yellow color. The rain on this flower made bigger droplets than on the last flower, especially the big drop in the middle of the flower.

Spring Rains

The morning after a night rainshower, this flower was covered in water droplets. The colors on the flower turn the water droplets that red-pink color. I like how most of the droplets are in focus. This allows us to see an edge on them.

Swinging Low

One of the things batters have to realize is where the pitch is. Especially at 90+ miles per hour, you only have a split decision to swing or not to swing. There are also different spins and ways a pitcher can make the ball move. The ball could shift to the inside of the plate or spin outside.

Home Run

During the Ranger's first at bat, they were able to score one run off of Joey Gallo's hit. I took multiple pictures (around ten) during this single pitch. I set my camera to take pictures with a shutter speed at 1/4000. This is the highest it can go and I set it to the most amount of pictures it could take in a single push of a button. During the entire time, the ball was out of the pitcher's hand, I took four pictures. The ball was moving so fast that none of those four pictures had the ball in it. This picture happened under a second before the home run.

Foul Ball

The batter after Jose Altuve was Carlos Correa. He ended up being the third out of the inning. While he was still hitting, he hit a foul ball that appears to brush his face. I don't think the ball is as close as it looks in this picture. I think the ball is about two feet away from his face but the angle I was taking the picture at made it seem like the ball is right next to his face.

Pop Fly

As Jose Altuve's pop fly fell from the sky, the Ranger's center fielder made the catch. I like how I was able to stop the ball and mostly keep it in focus as it fell into his glove. The ball looks spherical and not like a blur in the picture.

Pop Fly

On Jose Altuve's first at-bat, he hit a pop fly to center. The next picture will show the Rangers center fielder catching this fly ball. I was trying to take the picture right as the ball hit the bat but the angle of where I was sitting and the speed the ball made contact with the bat made that very hard to achieve.

First Pitch

As the winter season comes to an end, spring brings baseball. The pitcher for the Rangers, Max Minor, started the game. I chose this picture because we can see the ball as it leaves his glove. I like how in focus Max is and the ball is just slightly out of focus. If I could change one thing, I would put the ball closer to Max which would make it more in focus. 

Icicles

The second to last picture from Colorado are these icicles. Like the snow falling in front of the light, these icicles are lit from the back by a light. The light helps us to see the icicles better and with more focus. Without the light, I believe we wouldn't be able to see the are bubbles in the icicles.

Clear Skies

After the first storm passed, blue skies followed. With no clouds blocking my view, I was able to look for miles at the mountains that surrounded me. The clouds in this picture are from the snowstorm that the last pictures were in. The contrast that is on the mountains is also very interesting. The white snow contrasts the dark trees and greenery that grow on the mountain.

Spring

After not receiving a snowstorm in weeks, the village at the base of this mountain was completely bare of snow. I took this picture between the first and second storms. After the second storm the village was completely covered by 3 inches of snow, but for now, it is bare.

Sun and Snow

The clouds rolled out but the snow stayed. On the top of the 10,000-foot mountain, we were almost in the clouds. The clouds dropped heavy snow and nearly made a whiteout. On one of the lifts, there were so many clouds, I couldn't even see the chair ahead of us. The clouds also brought 5 inches of snow, temperatures in the twenties, and a wind chill in the single digits.

Pine Cones

These pine cones must have thought the warmth meant spring. They appear to have started growing to bigger pine cones but the snow covered them up. What happens to the pine cones, or any plant, when this happens? Do they stop growing and wait for the warmer temperatures to return? Do they continue growing?

Old Wagon, New Snow

The snow continued to fall in big flakes as I walked by the wagon. It was very hard to take this picture since I had to keep my camera warm and protect it from the falling snow. I was able to put a plastic bag over my camera then cover it with some cloth to keep it warm. I must have been weird to see someone with a plastic bag and cloth taking pictures of an old wagon.

Standing Tall

This snow fell and stayed in its crystal formation. It is very easy to see the snow flake on the top of the intersection of the branch. The snow flake seems to stick out among the others. The flake is on top of the others which helps it be seen and it also has the most shape out of any of the flakes. It is mostly intact with the bottom half of the pile of snow with the other snowflakes.

Wet Snow

Towards the end of the snowstorm, heavier and more wet snow fell. This is caused by temperatures that are higher to freezing. As the snow falls, it melts on the outside but still has a frozen core. Closer to the ground, the snow starts to freeze again but the temperature must not have been cold enough for the snow to completely freeze.

Fallen Branch

The snow came down all around this pine branch that fell. The bright green branch seems to blend in with the snow. I focussed on the branch trying to capture the detail of the snow on the branch. I belive I succeded since it is easy to distinguish the different snow flakes that fell on the branch.

Ice

As the snow fell, the warm branch instantly melted it. The water formed into droplets and the droplets hung from the branch. I like how there are water droplets in focus than out of focus is the snow that is still falling.

Falling Light

While on a walk during the snow storm, I found this light lighting up a sign not seen in this picture. The snow turned to the color is the light as it fell into the light's path. I found it interesting that the snow looks like pieces of burning ash falling to the ground when it is in the path of the light. 

Fresh and Old

From this picture, it is clear to see that new snow has fallen. The trees are covered in the new snow and the rocky mountainside has no new snow on it. I like to see the white trees since it is something that I nearly don't take pictures of. Most of the pictures I take of trees, the trees are only green or have an interesting flower on it. These trees are green and white.

Accumulation

Another pine tree, more accumulation fell. The snow fell so lightly that if you zoom in on the picture, it is easy to see the flakes. From this picture, it is clear that the snow stopped falling. This is true but only for a few hours. The snow fell very heavily for two hours then stopped then resumed snowing very heavily after about three hours of no snow.