forster's tern

The Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council is sponsoring the seventh annual Featherfest in Galveston April 2-5, and as part of the birding festival they're having a weekly photo contest during the four weeks leading up to the event. I've been fortunate enough to win second place in each of the first two weeks. This image of a forster's tern was captured last May at one of my favorite spots for bird photography. It's an image that I had forgotten about until recently while going through my 2008 bird images. These little terns were so fast. They feed like a pelican, diving from high above and plunging into the water to capture fish. They hover for just a split second before they start their descent. It's probably one of the most challenging of all photography I've done -- birds in flight. Yet, it's also one of the most rewarding when you manage to catch a frame right at the peak of action. This is one of my entries for the final week of the competiton.

spring

...from the ongoing floral series. Hope you enjoy. This week is spring break here on the Texas coast, and the weather is supposed to be great. I hope everyone gets outside and enjoys the great outdoors - birds, flowers, beaches, or whatever inspires you.

Young Cowboy

More experiments with texture and tone --- this photo was taken at the Houston Rodeo on Wednesday as kids and women of all shapes and sizes took their turn on the mechanical bull.

Pow Wow

This photo has been around for a while. I've always struggled with how to present it. I was in Arizona a couple of years ago during the Christmas holidays, and we went to a Pow Wow in Tucson on New Year's Eve - during the day. Like most Arizona days, the sky was cloudless bright blue, and while I liked the overal face and capture here, I always thought the blue sky made it feel like more of a snap shot. Since I'm doing an upcoming tutorial for the Bay Area Photo Club on textures and edges, I've been experimenting with various techniques for blending layers and masking. Please feel free to comment, especially on the texture - does it help or is it a distraction?

handful of beads

Here's another photo from the Fat Tuesday parade from Galveston Mardi Gras last week. This image was postprocessed a little differently for me - some soft focus, tinting, desaturating, and some burning to simplify the background. I'd be interested in opinions. It seems a little counterintuitive to be desaturating Mardi Gras images, but I just felt like doing something different.

hats

Here's another photo from Mardi Gras last week in Galveston. It was taken at the pet parade down the Seawall on Sunday. As I was working on this photo I was trying to determine what kind of hat this is --- synthetic fur, not animal looking at all. Anyway, I was (and still am) stumped. If you have any ideas, please feel free to comment. A fractal texture has been added, so the level of contrast and sharpness is a bit exaggerated. Still, even though I couldn't figure out the hat, I thought it made for an interesting, and at the very least colorful, image. I got to thinking about the images of people I've posted on this blog since September, and it seems like most have hats on. It's almost uncanny. What is it about a hat that draws you to an image? Is it some kind feeling of nostalgia back to the days of when people got "dressed up," they wore a hat. And is the eye of the photographer or viewer subconsciously drawn to that?

Beads

Mardi Gras parades are all about the beads. It's not uncommon for people to leave the parades with huge wads of beads around their necks. This photo was taken at the Fat Tuesday parade in Galveston last week. This woman was on one of the floats throwing out beads. Strands hang inside the floats, and they are thrown to revelers along the parade route. Taking photos is somewhat dangerous. You're looking through a viewfinder and not really paying attention to the beads, frisbees, cups, and dubloons that come flying at you.