Bright Flowers

When taking pictures of bright flowers, especially during the daytime, you have to change the camera's settings to compensate for the brightness of the flower. I wanted to have the flower stand out in the picture but also have it be dark enough so that it isn't overexposed.

Bee Pictures

It is not very easy to take pictures of a small moving object, like a bee. They are small making them harder to be in focus and they move very fast. They stay at each flower for only a few seconds then fly to another. You have to just position your camera at one flower and wait for the bees to go to that flower.

Woodpecker

Like the other birds, this woodpecker also flew away when I tried to take pictures of it. When I arrived, it was on a tree. After I started taking pictures, it flew to the roof of this house. Using my zoom lens, I was able to take a closer picture.

Food Hunting

Away from the river, and back in the city, I found several birds looking for food. When I first stopped to take pictures, there were about 20 birds. After I stopped and started taking pictures, they all flew away. Except for this bird. It didn't mind me taking pictures of it, as long as I didn't get in between him and his food.

Crashing Waves

Closer to the banks of the river, the waves actually crashed. The shallow water forced the waves to fold over themselves. Like the other wave picture, I wanted to get as low to the water as I could, but the shrubbery and plants didn't allow me.

Waves

It was a breezy day on the river. There weren't many big waves, just a lot of small ones. I was trying to capture a wave folding over, but they weren't big enough to crest over themselves. I was also trying to get as low to the water as possible, but this was about the closest I could get.

Dead Tree

Still, on the banks of the river, I found this dead tree. It seemed odd that a tree would die next to water, but on second thought, I believe it died from a disease or it rotted. Another reason I took pictures of it was that the branches had no leaves on them. I enjoy the contrast between the branches and the bright sky.

Water Grass

Another plant on the banks of this river is this type of grass. It is very tall, probably since no one has cut it, and has a small flower on top. The grass stem seems green but the flower seems to be dry. How can that be if it grows in the water? I don't know.

River Plants

On the banks of the river are several types of plants. There is tall grass, small trees, and these plants. I wanted to take pictures of these plants because they are very simplistic with flowers only on the ends. I also admire how the trees and water in the background are blurred but still recognizable.

Tunnel Vision

Underneath a busy roadway is this river. I thought it was fascinating to see the tunnel get smaller and smaller, but it is also interesting since there is a fisherman. I also like how the bridge looks old. It has marks on the beams and pillars that make the picture more attractive.

Saturday Stroll

On a hot and windy Saturday, this family of ducks decided to go on a stroll. The temperature was about 97 degrees, but the wind made the air feel much cooler. The ducks probably didn't notice that the temperature was so high since they are constantly in the water.

Water Spiders

Some animals, like these spiders, are light enough to float on water. I found these black spiders in the shade of a tree. It is interesting how we can see the shape of the spiders. They have four legs that spread out from its body which help it stay afloat.

River

On the path that I posted earlier, this river snaked through the trees. The river offers some of a reflection from the trees in the background. You can see the outline and color of the trees but, the wind made a perfect reflection impossible.

Path into the Trees

I thought this path would be interesting to photograph because the bright colors pop out of the picture. The bright greens stand out even in the shade. There is a little too much green. I would have like to find a path with more water from the lake or brown from the trunks of the trees and ground.

Perched

Perched atop a tree, this crow was talking to all the other birds in the area. I like how we are able to see the colors of the tree in this picture. There is a clear difference between the black feathers on the bird and the brown branch from the tree.

Contrast

I like the contrast between the dark sky and the even darker branch. It is a very faint green, but I like how there is some green still showing from the branch. I wish the branch showed more of its color to give even more contrast to the sky.

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.