Trail Ride

Feb and March is rodeo time for Houston.  Every year there are a number come into town riding their horses and wagons on trail rides.  Some of the trail rides take over a week on the "trail."  The closest to me comes in from Montgomery, about 30 miles northeast of me.  This one is called the Sam Houston Trail ride.  They overnighted in Tomball.  But I caught them as they came into town (Tomball).  There were only about 3 wagons and 30 riders, this has shrunk over the years, but it was still fun.

Line Dance

The Tomball Community Center has a group of line dancer and they were showing off there skills while waiting for the trail ride to get into town.

Here they Come

Ride in Comfort

Used my Mobile, too (aka Cell Phone)

Tomball Train Depot

 A short visit to Tomball Train Depot to donate a book for their library.  Had to take some pictures while I was there.  There is a model train set up but it is closed for remodeling now, thus no pictures of model.  Got some images of the outside.

Plug in sky just to liven the image, was a overcast day

Had to take some pictures of the closed Dairy Queen.  The franchise owner got in a battle with corporate and closed all 26 locations that he owned.  So Tomball Texas along with 25 other locations are without the "Belt Buster."

Kleb Woods

 Went out to Kleb Woods yesterday, first time in a long time.  Still quiet and secluded.  But the surrounding area is developing fast.  The change in water flow from the developers dumping many yards of dirt in the area causing flooding has changed Myrtles Pond filling it with silt and stuff.  Hopefully there are plans for some improvements.

I wen there to practice some soft focus photography.  I played around with my Lensbaby Trio 28 lens and my Soft Focus Filter on the 28-70mm lens.  What did I learn from this outing - PRACTICE PRACTICE.  That's what I need to do with this equipment.

Objective was also to get some images for two challenges I have this week.  One is a texture image for the weekly Nicolesy Community.  I will submit the Leaf image from below for Nicolesy.  The other challenge is for the Northwest Houston Photo Club a soft focus image.  

Here are some of my shots from this outing.

Entrance (Note trail to bird blind on right)

Entrance trail

Beep Beep

Soft Focus Lens

Lensbaby Velvet Lens

Lensbaby Twist Lens

Soft Focus Lens

Lensbaby 

Soft Focus Lens

Interesting Textures

Now quit looking at my work and for take some pictures.

Early Morning Fog

Woke up early the other morning and there was a lot of fog. Not very normal for Houston so I have not had much practice  photographing fog.  This was my feeble attempt at fog picture.  

This was shot from my balcony looking into the parking lot next door.  Always a learning experience for me, or should I say "An Opportunity for Growth".  

This shot was hand held (to lazy to drag out the tripod at 7 am).  This was at 1/30 sec at f/9 ISO 4000.  Yes I did use Topaz Denoise to clean it up a little. 

What did I learn?  USE THE DAMN TRIPOD!  Okay now that I said that what else is there?  Long exposure and ISO 100 or 200 and maybe f/16.  

So now it's wait for FOG and being up early.  Maybe a long wait.   

A Visit to Arbor Gate

 A Sunday afternoon outing to get out of the house in the sunny weather.  Went to The Arbor Gate Garden Center and Plant Nursery.  The wife can shop for plants and stuff and I can take pictures.  Can't beat that combination.

Here are a few pictures I took - 

Practicing my Intentional Camera Movement (ICM)

Lensbaby practice Twist Lens

Wagons Ready

Some more practicing with my Lensbaby (Sweet)

Woodlands Waterway

Last night went out with the Houston Photowalks to the Woodlands Waterway.  Houston Photowalks is a group of photographers that meets once a month (ish) somewhere in Houston area to fellowship and take pictures.  There is no formal meeting its an online/meetup group that is organized to encourage us to get out and take pictures.  Always a lot of fun, if you are interested check it out at www.houstonphotowalks.com or just Google Houston Photowalks.  This months outing was a night shoot at the Waterway in the Woodlands.  The Woodlands is an urban development about 20 miles northeast of my home.  It is a city unto itself, this area is an entertainment area within the confines of the Woodlands.

Any way here are a few of my shots from the latest Photowalks outing.

 Here we are

Been away from this site for over a year.  Last time I was here Blogger was in the middle of redesign or something and wasn't working.  Couple that with some health issues nothing was happening,  I lost interest and struggled through the desert for a long time,  Then we downsized and moved, things did not get better.

BUT now it's all coming back. Blogger has some new features and my interest has been sparked. I've updated to look of the blog, so I starting this blog AGAIN and see where we go from here.

I am participating in a couple challenges plus remaining active with the Northwest Houston Photo Club.  Looking forward to a new year of challenges, opportunities and fun.

SO STAY TUNED ITS GOING TO BE A FUN RIDE