The Lone Tree
West Houston
February 16, 2004 - Monday

This tree isn't far from the company I work at and I thought it would make for an interesting black and white photo. Luckily the weather was great today and there was not a single cloud in the sky. I'm still experimenting with various black and white photo editing options in Photoshop so hopefully one day I'll get it down perfectly.



The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a movie theater, restaurant and bar all rolled into one. It has typical rows of seats like a normal theater does but the only difference is that every other row is replaced with a long table. The wait staff takes your order and serves you food and drinks at your seat while you watch the movie. Not to shabby, now only if they can figure out something so that we don't have to actually get up to go to the restroom! Just Kidding.


 

Animals Everywhere!
The Houston Zoo
February 15, 2004 - Sunday

After a solid week of rainy days we finally got a clear sunny day! Talk about perfect timing, I just got my new camera last night and had the perfect opportunity to give it run today. The Canon G5 has a ton more features that my Olympus doesn't have so I know it will take some time for me to get used to it. I wanted to get lots of shots off with this camera so I decided to try my luck at the Houston Zoo. I took a ton of pictures and I know as time goes on I will learn more about this camera so you will definitely see a progression in picture quality.



Here's a picture of a Bengal Tiger pacing around in his habitat. These animals make for great pictures if you're lucky enough not to catch them during their nap time. 



I'm a Toys-R-Us kid... Hehee. This is a new born Giraffe that was extremely photogenic.



This duck was actually very tame and let me get close enough to take this picture. In fact I was not using any zoom at all and actually had to move back a bit in order to get him to fit in the frame. At any minute I thought he would get spooked and take off but he never flinched and stood there the entire time I took pictures of him.



Well after a full day of taking pictures at the Zoo it was actually MY feeding time. I stopped off at Katz's Deli in midtown and had an awesome club sandwich. I think I got a good feel for the new Canon today and already know of some things that I need to experiment with a bit, that's where my Photo A Day project comes in very handy. I make it a point to pick up the camera and take pictures everyday so that it's a given that I will constantly learn about the camera and photography techniques in general.

The Carousel
The Woodlands Mall
February 14, 2004 - Saturday

I drove out to the Woodlands mall on the far north side of Houston for a little shopping. It has been a long while since I had been out there and there had been a ton of construction going on in that area. This is the sole picture that I took for the day. Would you let your kids ride that Carousel? I know I wouldn't. One of the reasons I did not take as many pictures today was because I spent most of the day shopping for a new digital camera. I finally decided on a Canon G5 - 5 megapixel camera. I have it charging up now and plan to put it to good use starting tomorrow.

The Aquarium Restaurant
Downtown Houston
February 13, 2004 - Friday

We kind of decided on a whim to have dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant located in downtown Houston. I had never been to this restaurant before but I have always heard great things about it. As it turns out we weren't the only ones in town that had decided to come here, we waited an hour and a half in order to be seated. Under normal circumstances I would not have waited that long but the Aquarium had a very cozy Lounge for guests to wait in and as long as they kept the margaritas coming, I was willing to endure the wait.



The Aquarium has a very cool fountain right out side the restaurant. Luckily there was a trash can nearby so that I could rest my camera and tripod on.



I think this picture came out awesome! The Aquarium has a little amusement park right on the premises and there stood this large Ferris wheel. It was about 45F degrees outside so not many people were riding it. The Ferris wheel remained still for about 10 minutes or so until some brave couple went to go ride it. Again, if I did not have this mini tripod of mine, these kind of pictures would not be possible, it was definitely worth the $10. This photo had about a 3.5 second exposure time set and it really made out for a very cool effect.





This is just a random picture of another fountain that was located in front of the restaurant.

A Little Piece of History
Katy, Texas
February 12, 2004 - Thursday

Color outdoor pictures have been very gloomy since the weather has been miserable for the past week or so. That my friends is why all of today's photos have been converted to black and white. I like how rustic B&W photos look, and it especially works well with today's pictures. The photos below are of the rail system leading into Katy, Texas which is a small town just on the west side of Houston. Curiosity about the history of the tracks led me to a website where I learned that the rail system was actually built in the 1870s and was originally called the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. In 1923 the railway was renamed to the M-K-T. History states that is where the small town of Katy acquired its name from, Katy Railway was short for M-K-T Railway.





This photo is of an old rice dryer that is actually in the city of Katy. I found out that this rice dryer was built in 1948 by the American Rice Growers Cooperative and is called the Co-op Dryer for short. Most dryers in this day and time are owned by big businesses but this one in particular is actually still owned by the local rice farmers that use it today.