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.