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Live
Concert
Traders Village
July 31, 2004 - Saturday
My friend's band, Silver Tongue Devils won a local radio
contest and was given the opportunity to play live at Traders
Village here in Houston. I thought this would make a great chance to
get to try some low light concert photography before the Dave
Matthews Band show in a couple of weeks. The venue they played in
was very dark so I shot mainly at ISO 800 and even pushed it to ISO
1600 at a few points.
I used my new Canon 70-200 f2.8L lens for these shots and realized
that it will be way too long for the DMB show since I will be
shooting from the base of the stage. I guess I will stick with my
17-40 and my 50mm lens for the show.
Today was a great learning experience for me and I took a ton of
photos for both my benefit and also to post on the band's website.
Hopefully I can get a bunch edited this week in order to add them to
the band's gallery. I really like this new long zoom lens and now I
know that it might not be much use at the DMB concert.
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Concentration
Barker Cypress Softball
Fields
July 30, 2004 - Friday
Since I have been on a mission to use my 70-200 to its
full extent I decided to swing by some softball fields near the area
where I work to catch a game. I took a few photos of a game in
progress before I decided to fight the traffic home.
I hope to make it back to the fields one day in order to try to
shoot some more photos and practice my timing. I'd like to catch a
shot with someone making contact with the ball.
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Rustic
Post
Barker Cypress Softball
Fields
July 29, 2004 - Thursday
I drove by the fields to see if any games were going on
and I realized that I was way too early so I decided to snap a
couple of pics of this post.
I didn't stick around too much since I just decided to come back
tomorrow since now I know what time the games start.
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A
Lily And A New Friend
Mary Jo Peckham Park
July 28, 2004 - Wednesday
I made another trip to the park today for lunch and after
I ate my very nutritional cheeseburger and french fries I headed out
to snap a few photos. It is very nice to have the flexibility to
zoom in on subjects since I have been very limited with my 17-40mm
lens.
There is no way I could have gotten this shot of "Rocky"
with my wide angle lens. The zoom lens makes a big difference and I
am glad I finally took the plunge and bought one.
I need to make a trip out to the Houston Zoo so that I can really
see what this lens can do. I am really glad that this lens is in my
bag now since I know it will come in very handy.
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I'm
Just A Baby Duck
Mary Jo Peckham Park
July 27, 2004 - Tuesday
I ordered a new Canon 70-200 f2.8L zoom lens last night
online and just had to have it delivered overnight. It came in just
before lunch time today so I slapped the new lens on my 10D and
headed to the park for lunch.
I am assuming that the parks department just released a bunch of
baby ducks in the lake because at one point I counted about 36
ducklings in one area. This lens is very nice and I almost feel like
a professional lugging around this big bad white zoom lens. I have a
feeling this lens will get a lot of use in the next few days.
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More
Storage
My Computer Lab
July 26, 2004 - Monday
I have never ran out of disk space on my camera since I've
invested a well spent $250 into that Hitachi 4gig Microdrive I
currently use. Just as a backup plan, I usually bring along Lisa's
Dell notebook computer just in case. I think the only time I used it
for backup was when we went on the cruise to Mexico. Every evening I
would copy my images over from my camera to the computer just in
case something happened to my camera like if it got stolen or
something. It was just an extra backup measure I took so that all of
my eggs were not in one basket so to speak.
I shot this image with some new GE Reveal 100 watt bulbs I picked up
at a local Walmart. A fellow PAD'er recommended these bulbs to me
since they were the purest white light bulb available at such an
inexpensive price. I think they worked out great and now I know
exactly what to use when shooting product shots like this one.
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Morning
Reflections
Our Campsite
July 25, 2004 - Sunday
This is the view we had from our campsite. I shot this
photo early this morning before any of the river was disturbed by
toobers or swimmers. I made it a point to get up and get this shot
as soon as possible so that I could capture the reflection in the
smooth slow flowing river.
Soon after I took this photo it was time for us to break down camp
and load everything back into the car and head back home to Houston.
Lisa and I had a great weekend and now we look forward to a good
nights sleep in a comfortable air conditioned room!
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A
Day Out On The River
Riding The Guadalupe River
July 24, 2004 - Saturday
Our group got up bright and early this morning, ate
breakfast and headed up the river to start out our day or a relaxing
river ride. The camp site we stayed at dropped us off up river about
3.5 miles and we made the 4 hour float back down to our campsite. It
was a blast to just sit back and float down the river with a bunch
of friends.
I decided to carry along my Canon S400 digital camera in a water
proof bag which I had bought to take on our cruise a few months
back. I had originally planned to leave the camera at camp but then
decided to go ahead and take it so that I could photograph our trip
down river. I was glad I did.
We got on the river at about 10:30am so there really weren't too
many people floating around quite yet. It was a very relaxing, calm
float down. There were a few rough, fast flowing, mini rapids type
spots but they were a fun change of pace. |
After the 4 hour float down river we arrived at our campsite and ate
lunch. The group we were with decided to go back up river and ride
down a shorter route which only lasted about 2 hours or so. Lisa and
I already had our fill of toobing for the day so we decided to hang
out at the campsite and get all showered up.
Once we got all washed up and clean, we took a drive up river about
10 miles or so to the dam at Canyon Lake which feeds into the
Guadalupe River. Supposedly Canyon Lake is one of the clearest lakes
in all of Texas and it seemed very nice just from the small portion
we saw. |
Here's Lisa striking an impromptu pose with the Canyon Lake Dam in
the background. We were very glad to get in the car and take the
drive in a nice air-conditioned car because Texas in July is HOT!
Here's yours truly slacking on the job and taking a break in between
shots. Lisa usually shoots with the Canon S400 while I use Big
Bertha (aka my Canon 10D) to photograph with.
I took this photo from our campsite as the sun was starting to set
behind the tree line. I thought the sunlight rays shooting up from
behind the trees looked very cool so I ran back to the tent and
grabbed my camera. I am glad I did because this shot is one of my
favorites from the weekend. |
Earlier when we had went to the Canyon Lake dam I thought that it
would be nice to drive back up there later that evening in order to
catch the sunset. Jonathon and Steven wanted to check out the lake
as well so we all drove up there to see the sights. Sunsets usually
always make for great photos and I think this one is no exception.
There was a half moon out tonight and I decided that it would be the
subject of my last photo for the day before we left Canyon Lake. I
really like the look that the silhouetted foreground gives to the
images during the sunset.
All in all today was a great day. Lisa and I spent a lot of time
hanging out with friends so what more could we have possibly asked
for. We definitely have to plan another outing like this in the
future.
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Roughing
It!
New Braunfels, Texas
July 23, 2004 - Friday
Lisa and I met up with Leane, Steven, Cindi, Jonathon and
Julie at our campsite at about 3pm. As we were setting up camp it
started to pour down rain! By the time we got all four tents up it
seemed as though we had went for a swim in the river already, we
were soaked from head to toe.
I assume our little rendition of camping is quite a bit different
from what most hard core campers are used to. I mean check it out,
we had a George Foreman Grill to cook our meals on!
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