Thursday, January 26, 2012

Texas Isn't All Bad...

Okay. So. We went to Texas. In October 2011, we loaded our cameras and Mountain Dew into the new baby car and drove it like we stole it from Maryland to Texas in less than two days. The goal, as usual, was to photograph lighthouses and whatever else we found. Above, the car refuses to set foot in Texas. She relented. Eventually. Texas.

Heading southwest from the brief nightmare that was Houston, this Kansas City Southern train paced us for a while along US Rt. 59. We were quickly losing daylight, so it's not my best railfan work, but it is my first train shot in Texas. Texas.

Car. Growling at the Texas cotton fields. Texas.

Thunderheads are bigger in Texas. Texas.

Cow with horns! Texas.

This one's mostly for Mom, who dearly misses Rehoboth Beach's Purple Parrot. We're in Port Isabel, not far from the Texas-Mexico border on the Gulf. Texas.

Boom. Our first light. Point/Port Isabel. Not easy to shoot with all the people climbing all over it, and we could do without the streamers and signage advertising some town festival-y thing, but it is beautifully-restored and kept. Texas.

Still shooting film, too! Black & White, even. Texas.

Gulf-bound oil tanker passing Port Isabel. Texas.

The Queen Isabel Causeway, linking Port Isabel with the southern end of South Padre Island. Texas.

Much more to come. We followed the Gulf Coast north and east through Texas (Texas.), Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Come with us! Texas.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Zoo - With Lights!

December, 2008. Zoolights, at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. It's hard to get decent long-exposure shots without a tripod, but I tried anyway. Here's what I got. Above, the blue tree. 1/4 second may not sound long, but with a hand-held camera, it really is.

Welcome to the zoo - home of the blue pandas!

The dancing trees - warming up.

The dancing trees - rockin' out to Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Dancing trees, flowers and butterfly.

I think I like this 3/4 second zooming shot of a well-lit tree better without a tripod. It's more, um, organic. Or something.

Our favorite blue pandas with their mysterious golden bamboo.

Blue crab!

Flamingos and palm. It's like a little piece of Florida, right in the middle of Northwest DC in December!

What's cuter than a baby elephant? A baby elephant made of twinkly lights, stomping the yard while his parents watch. And maybe baby pandas.

How cool is our zoo? Our zoo has dinosaurs!

Bye!