If you are interested in buying a 5x7 or 8x10 print please feel free to email me at abel@nxracer.com


 
 

Texas Hunting License
Stop light on the West side
February 23, 2004 - Monday

I was on my way home when as usual after work and just so happened to pull behind this jeep at a stop light. At first I just glanced over his "Hunting License" proudly displayed on his rear window and didn't know what to make of it. I had to make a double take because the sticker had a very legit look to it. After reading it a second time I instinctively reached for my camera and took a picture. I know these photos don't exactly have the same quality of technique or composition as the past few days but I'm not going to be lucky enough to get those kind of shots everyday of the year. Sometimes there will be some that are just plain old boring observations that I make. By the way, this particular license is good year around.




 

  
 

Foot Bridge
Post Oak Park in Uptown
February 22, 2004 - Sunday

This is a small foot bridge in Post Oak Park which sits just below the Williams tower in Uptown Houston. There is a lot of construction going on in this park and in fact this bridge was off limits due to the work area. I actually took this picture looking through a chain link fence which was set up to keep people out of the area. Once the weather clears up I plan on making a trip back out to this area to get some pictures of Houston's landmark Water Wall.


 

  
 

Houston's History
Downtown Houston
February 21, 2004 - Saturday

Well this picture doesn't necessarily fit in the topic but I wanted to post it anyways. This picture was taken in Memorial City Mall. I thought the clock had a very cool look to it especially with the sun reflecting on it.



Sam Houston Park is nestled just beneath the skyscrapers of downtown Houston. The park was originally founded in 1954 by the Heritage Society and is host to 8 historic Houston structures, two of which are seen in this picture below.



St. John's church was built in 1891 on the northwest side of Harris County by a group of German farmers. This particular church was given to The Heritage Society by its congregation in 1968 and relocated to Sam Houston Park for preservation. The church still has its original altar-pulpit and cypress plank pews as it did when it was first built. The church sits in the shadow of the 762ft tall Texaco Heritage Plaza building which was built in 1987. Ninety six years and about  2 city blocks separate these two structures. 



This cabin is named The Old Place. It is thought to be the oldest remaining structure in Harris County today. It is estimated to have been built in 1823 by one of Stephen F. Austin's original Texas settlers John R. Williams. The cabin was originally located off of the west bank of Clear Creek which is just west of the present Gulf Freeway. The Old Place was given to the Heritage Society in 1970 by the then current owner and it was relocated to Sam Houston Park in 1973.


 

  
 

Nighttime Flowers
Sugar Land Airport
February 20, 2004 - Friday

I drove by the Sugar Land Airport off of Hwy 6 in west Houston and saw some very cool landscaping. I pulled in to take a few pictures and test out my Canon's low light focus abilities. These flowers were very dimly lit and the camera knew just how to handle it. When pressing the button half way down, the camera shot out a small beam of light to help the camera focus correctly.




 

  
 

Our Colors
Our Company's Flag Pole
February 19, 2004 - Thursday

After about a week of crappy weather we've been fortunate enough to finally have a few sunny days. I got back from lunch today and couldn't help but hear our flags flapping in the wind. I immediately thought they would make for a nice photo with the nice blue sky background. I set highly nutritious lunch down (aka McDonald's) and broke out my camera. God Bless America. I hope our troops get home safely.


 

  
 

Sam's Boat Restaurant
Sugarland, Texas
February 18, 2004 - Wednesday

I had dinner with some friends at Sam's Boat in The Fountains shopping center in Sugarland. The Fountains has a large man made lake which a number or restaurants surrounds and makes for a very nice setting. The weather was great so we opted to eat outside on the patio and enjoy the view. In fact, the view in this picture was actually from our table.



Near the front of the restaurant there are these small water falls that run along the length of the footbridge that leads to the other restaurants. Like many of my photos, this one required a slower shutter speed in order to capture a good amount of light in order to make for a decent picture. The slower speed made for the softness effect in the water.



There was a large tower near where we were sitting that that about 12 levels of neon rings inside that lit up one after another. This picture was taken looking up into the tower and the slower shutter speed makes it look as if the levels were all lit at once.



This long footbridge linked Sam's Boat to the other surrounding restaurants on the lake. There was this guy on his cell phone that kept pacing back and forth down the bridge so I couldn't get a nice clean shot. Finally after about 15 minutes, I saw that the guy walked far enough my way so I set down my camera on the ground real quick and setup for this picture. He saw what I was doing and was nice enough to stay behind me while I snapped off a few pictures. The original color picture was too washed out by the hideous yellow lights from the light poles so I opted to make this one black and white. It definitely makes for a better feel in the picture.



I went to Freeport, Texas for the day to oversee a deck assembly. This one was similar to the one I did last week in Louisiana. The small city of Freeport is about 70 miles south of Houston right on the coast. On my drive there this morning I passed through another  small town named Lake Jackson and noticed a weird street named "This Way". I made a mental note of where the intersection was so that I could stop by later that day. Once I was done with the assembly I drove back through Lake Jackson and made it a point to drive down "This Way" and find a good place to take a picture of the sign. As it turns out I stumbled across "That Way" about 2 blocks off of the highway and knew I found the perfect intersection. These are true actual street names and I just had to shoot a few pictures of it.


 

  
 

Brookshire, Texas
15 miles west of Houston
February 17, 2004 - Tuesday

I had lunch in Brookshire today and on my way back to work I saw this old house in the center of town. I decided to stop and take a few pictures and come to find out it was actually a recorded Texas Historic Landmark. I learned that Brookshire is named for Capt. Nathen Brookshire who received a league of land in 1835 to create Stephen F. Austin's fifth colony. This particular house was built in 1910 by Dr. Paul M. Donigan and the entire first floor served as his medical clinic while him and his wife lived on the second floor. The stair case shown below led up to a large wraparound porch on the second floor which was very typical in the architectural designs of the early 1900s.



Here's another view of the flared out concrete staircase that led up to the second floor. It was very obvious that this house has a ton of history embedded in its walls. The overall house is very weathered and presently serves as the Waller County Museum.



This is a house that has been condemned and looked to be prepped to either be relocated for restoration or destroyed altogether. It was located about a block north of the Donigan house that is pictured above. I did a bit of research in order to find out the actual build date of this house but came up empty when searching for this address. It may be safe to assume that this house was brought to this location in order to be restored or for some other reason. I will have to dig a bit deeper and see what I come up with.


 

  

 
 
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