A Christmas Light Shoot

I spent an evening with my friends from the Northwest Houston Photo Club at Old Town Spring shooting some Christmas Lights.

No this was not part of our group.  Just a couple teens out enjoying themselves

Sunset Shot

Out for an evening stroll at the Paul Rushing Park in west harris county and saw a nice sunset.  We didn't wait around long enough, 1/2 hour later the sunset was spectacular  But again your take what you get.

Quick Trip to Brazos Bend State Park

Took a morning trip to Brazos Bend State Park. Been years since we have been there and it has flooded several times since our last trip.  It was an overcast day and most of what I wanted to photograph was too far away for the lens I had.  With that said didn't get many pictures.  Need to go back with a longer lens.  Here is a sample of what I took.

Some Black-bellied Whistling Ducks 

There are signs all over the park to be on alert for alligator and we were not disappointed

Via Colori

Each year The Center for Hearing and Speech of Houston sponsors a street painting festival in downtown Houston.  Professional, semi-professional and amateurs along with high school artist paint the streets around the city hall.  We visited and were truly amazed by the quality of the artwork.  Here are a lot of samples of what we saw.

Some had a 3D effect

An area where you could buy some chalk and express yourself, especially the kids

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and White Sands National Monument

While going to church in Albuquerque we met a couple and compared our road trips with them.  We said we were headed to El Paso with a stop at White Sands National Monument.  They recommended we stop at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  They thought the Sandhill Cranes might have started the migration to this place.  This refuge is just off IH 25 which was the route we were taking.  It was a worthwhile stop.  The migration had started and we saw the "early" birds.  I say early because there were about 2500 when we were there and by the beginning of December, there would be about 25,000.  We also saw snow geese and various ducks.

We traveled on to White Sands National Monument.  We got there late in the day so it's mostly sunset picture time.  Fascinating place, almost like a beach,  only finer sand.  Our traveling companions said it reminded them of Pensacola Beach Florida.  

Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

The next stop on the trip was at Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  These two are colocated in northern Arizona. We stopped there in the middle of the day, thus the colors are not very good in the Painted Desert. The colors have faded over the years and the best time of the day to see what is left is to visit during the early morning or late afternoon. But you take what you can take and move on.  

Looking over the scenery 

You see your shadow

 And what else do you look at?  Look close and you see some "petroglyphs" on the side of the big rock.

The one good example of petrified wood was this fallen "petrified log" that is now supported by concrete.