Our New Riverwalk
The Woodlands, Texas
July 11, 2004 - Sunday

Today was a well deserved "Lazy Day" for Lisa and I so we decided to head to the mall for a little shopping. We drove out to the Woodlands Mall in North Houston in order to check out the new Riverwalk area that is still under construction. The Riverwalk here is suppose to rival San Antonio's eventually but as of now there is not much to see or do along the waterway. We took the $6 boat ride along the canal which was pretty relaxing, especially since the boats were air conditioned. That's one thing that the Woodlands has gotten ahead of San Antonio already.



The weather was very cloudy and gloomy so I knew my photos weren't going to look very interesting unless I made them black and white. So viola! They are black and white simply for that reason. Maybe the weather will be nice and clear the next time we make it out to the Woodlands. If so, I'll be sure to carry my 10D along with me then.
 

All Star Fan Fest
Downtown Houston
July 10, 2004 - Saturday

The 2004 Major League Baseball  All Star Game will be held here in Houston at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night.  We decided to drive to downtown to go see the All Star Fan Fest event that was being held in the George R. Brown Convention Center. They had a ton of activities including batting cages, pitching challenges, base running races and a lot of regular baseball memorabilia to check out. The photo below is of a mascot homerun derby. They had mascots from several different MLB baseball teams which competed for bragging rights. 



This guy turned a baseball bat out of a round stock piece of wood. It was very interesting to see the technique in person and I definitely have a lot of respect for this woodworker.



After we left the event we decided to walk around downtown Houston a little bit despite the 90+ degree weather. It was very hot out so we did not get too adventurous and headed back to the car fairly quickly.



Here's a shot of The Houston Center (on the right side) which is a small shopping mall and office building. I was very surprised that our rainy weather let up long enough to give us a nice clear day. Hopefully the decent weather will last throughout the weekend.



The Fan Fest event was decent, not a must see but worth checking out since it was in our own city. The NFL Experience event that we attended while the Super Bowl was in town was much more entertaining then the All Star Fan Fest.
 

West Coast On The Gulf Coast?!
Out And About
July 9, 2004 - Friday

Lisa actually took this photo while she was out and about at work. She noticed the trailer and knew since I was a big fan of the Discovery Channel shows that she had to get a photo. So today here is Lisa's entry in my gallery.



I was kind of surprised that Jesse's trailer was here in Houston. Oh well, It is a cool picture nonetheless.
 

The Long Way Home
Seven Meadows
July 8, 2004 - Thursday

I took the long way home from work today and I stumbled across Seven Meadows subdivision. I got a chance to try out my ND and ND Grad filters which cause the sky to be a little darker than it would be if I had not used them.



Unfortunately I had the camera set to ISO 400 from shooting images of my foot last night and forgot to switch it back to ISO 100. I will make it a point to get back out there to Seven Meadows one day to re-shoot this recreation center using the proper settings. Well the one good thing that came out of today's photo was that I learned a lesson about preparation! Hehee

Website Traffic Note: It's official, today's site totals have beat out yesterday's record. The site had a total of 121 visitors with 487 page views. Wow. I am impressed.
 

Taking It Easy
My Media Room
July 7, 2004 - Wednesday

I just sat back this evening and watched a little Houston Astros baseball on TV. They were playing the San Diego Padres on the west coast so the game did not start until 9pm our time. The Astros have pretty much been sucking big time lately and I have not been to excited about their games. As it turns out the Astros win the game 5-1.



This image was taken with my 10D and the 50mm 1.8 lens. I opted for this lens because of the low lighting in the room. The F/1.8 allowed me to shoot at a faster speed allowing me to minimize camera shake which would have resulted in a blurred image. It also gave me the look I wanted of having my shoe in focus while blurring out the entire area behind the focus point. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone so to speak.

Website Traffic Note: It seems that today was my busiest day for web traffic since I started my PAD Gallery a few months back. My little high tech web logging software shows that I had a total of 115 visitors with 458 page views clocked in for the day. It is very rewarding for me to know that people really enjoy viewing my photographs. It makes all of the work worth wild!
 

My Addiction
Hello My Name Is Abel and I Have A Problem...
July 6, 2004 - Tuesday

Well since I started this PAD Gallery I upgraded from my little old Olympus 3040z after about a month and moved up to a Canon G5 digital camera. I used that camera for about 3 months or so and finally decided to take the big leap into the digital SLR realm. I sold the Canon G5 and upgraded to a Canon EOS 10D Camera and have been loving it ever since. I have had this camera about a month now and I can't believe the amount of stuff I have acquired in such a short amount of time.



I still have two more lenses on my short list of things to get. Those include a Canon 70-200 F2.8L and a Canon 100mm F/2.8 USM Macro Lens. After those two big purchases I should be pretty content with my setup... well for awhile anyways.  :o)
 

A Nice Relaxing Walk
Crighton Ridge - North Houston
July 5, 2004 - Monday

We spent most of our day off today out driving around looking for new sights. We came across this neighborhood off of I-45 North and decided to pull over and have a walk around their nice lake.



We both really enjoy finding little places like this that are spread out all over town and having a chance to photograph them. Another great reward is posting them here on the website for all to see.
 

Independence Day
Sam Houston Race Park
July 4, 2004 - Sunday

We drove out to Sam Houston Race Park on the northwest side of town to go see their firework display. Instead of paying to get into the venue, we decided to stick around outside in the parking lot. Luckily we got a nice parking spot near a grassy field and got to use our newly purchased air mattress as a blanket to lay down on.



I had all of my camera equipment on hand hoping to get a couple of nice shots of the fireworks. I had my Bogen tripod and my new Canon RS-80N3 remote release switch which allowed me to release the camera's shutter without moving the camera at all.



Most of these images are taken with a 2 - 4 second exposure time in order to allow a lot more light into the camera. I finally got the hang of the technique for shooting fireworks near the end of the event so I am very thankful to have captured these "keepers".



The fireworks show was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about shooting in these types of conditions. Both Lisa and I enjoyed ourselves as we Bowled against each other on her cell phone while we waited for the show to start. By the way, I won very convincingly if I might say so myself.



Today was a very good day. All in all we had a lot of fun out there tonight and even the 45 minute wait to get out of the parking lot could not ruin our spirits.
 

Fountains Galore
Portofino Shopping Center - Conroe, Texas
July 3, 2004 - Saturday

Lisa and I spent the day out driving around town and we ended up in Conroe which is about 40 miles or so north of Houston. This place had a monster fountain setup which was very impressive.



Unfortunately I don't own a Neutral Density filter which would have made this image a little nicer. The ND filter would have given me the soft flowing effect. I need to make it a point to go to the local camera store and pick one up.
 

In Memory Of...
Bubbles Car Wash
July 2, 2004 - Friday

I spent the afternoon today running a bunch of errands that I had been putting off for a couple of weeks. One of which was to get my car washed. Since the rain has finally let up I decided to go ahead and take care of this one first, boy did my car need it!



The U.S. Flag was flying at half staff in honor of President Ronald Reagan who passed on a few weeks ago...
 

My Mother Is Doing Much Better
My Parent's Home
July 1, 2004 - Thursday

We drove over to my parent's house tonight to visit my mother and check up on her recovery from the surgery earlier this week. She is doing much better and is very thankful to be back home. Her doctor has said it will take about six weeks for her to fully recover so she will be taking it easy until then. 



The photo for today is of a painting which hangs over their fireplace mantle. Evening light was shining in through a window and only lit up this small portion of the wall. I thought it made for an interesting photo.
 

A Camping We Will Go...
Oshman's Super Sports
June 30, 2004 - Wednesday

Lisa and I are going camping next weekend in New Braunfels with a few friends. Since neither one of us own a tent, we decided to go out shopping for one. Hopefully the rain here in Texas will slack up some so that the river is not raging like it was when we were in Gruene a few weeks ago.



We also had a air mattress on our list of "must haves" for the camping trip so we picked one up as well. Texas in July is HOT so we will be packing plenty of cool, lightweight clothes for the weekend.