17DEC11

This was taken with 'night mode' outside of the Lowe's in Beaumont. Beautiful, yeah? Have I ever told you I love Autumn? ;-P

16DEC11

These colors made me so happy! Autumn is really such a fantastic season! <3

15DEC11

I couldn't decide which photo should be THE photo of the day today, so I included both of them. The one with Pop felt very 'Abbey Road' to me. Dunno quite why, but that is what screamed at me when I saw the end product.
Also, I love how--in the second shot--the blinds changed color a bit in the photograph. They are much more off-white in real life. And--of course--I love the Autumn trees in our yard!

14DEC11

On the way home from Bible Class, I realized that I hadn't taken my daily photo yet. I began to look around for something interesting. I took a few photos of the town's Christmas decorations, but they just didn't turn out right. Plus, it was sprinkling a bit. :( I turned in to a parking lot to try to get a better shot of the decorations, but then I saw the flag right next to the fire hall whipping in the wind. I've always been a huge fan of the American flag, so I took a few shots. Of the four that I took, this one ended up being the best one. I chose it cos of the composition--the way things lined up with each other. What is strange is that I never tried to do a good composition or anything. I just wanted to get a neat shot of the flag, but the tree in the background ended up 'shining' and it made the photograph more interesting.

Hey, am I talking too much? Oh--and I wonder how this shot would have turned out if I'd used the 'night' feature. Would the tree have showed up better?

13DEC11

It stayed foggy all day.  This photo was taken after noon!  There was such a nice symmetry/pattern to these foggy power lines!  Nature--even in the form of yucky weather--always fascinates me.  This photo was taken on the south side of Houston, by the way.

12DEC11

Snow White playing with a pine cone!

11DiEC11

I'm really impressed by the two congregations in Silsbee.  Recently, they have been in talks to see if they can merge.  This morning, they--and I--worshiped together at the Southside congregation.  I met plenty of people whom I'd never met before today, several of whom are pictured below.  Don't they just look wholesome?

10DEC11

This set of trees is just outside of Rosharon.  They just really drew me.  The pattern they are set in are interesting.

09DEC11

Pop and his brothers.  They came to visit him within 20 minutes of each other on Friday.  Pop really seemed happy  to visit with brothers.

Pop and Corbett by the tree.  Corbett brought us some tiny oranges! YUM!

Wilburn and his wife, Helen Ruth came to visit, also.

08DEC11

The clouds above my cold-weather photo project tree are purty, yeah?

P.S  Click on the photo to see more detail of the clouds.

07DEC11

It is amazing how different photos can be when you take away or add in some flash!

06DEC11

Tuesday, I stopped in at one of my new favorite restaurants--Humphries, in Dayton--and had a delicious cup of potato soup and eat a 1/2 roast beef (with jalapeno bread) sandwich with au jus.   Anyway, I had the whole restaurant to myself--the entire time!
After I enjoyed my delicious meal, I decided to try to take a few pictures here in the restaurant.  I was working the entire day and didn't get a chance to take a photo outside with my new camera.  Thankfully, the chef--on his way out to a break--agreed to be a part of this experiment.   I have seen really neat photographs taken in a reflective surface and wanted to try my hand at this type of photograph.  It doesn't seem like it turned out just right.  If you have any experience, give me some hints, please?

The photo below is my favorite of the day.   I like how--because of the flashing red open sign outside the window--this wall seems kinda Christmas-y.

Yes, I do have a little bit of a romantic heart. I've never really thought in detail about what time of year I'd like to get married; however, I do not I'd prefer it be cooler than, say the middle of summer. When I saw this arbor at the 'door' between Humphries and the neighboring gift store, I thought it looked so lovely. I had to take a photo! Then I thought it'd be a pretty cool way to decorate a 'wedding arbor', if you happen to be getting married during the Christmas season. I, personally, would get rid of the gold ornaments, though, and replace them with some other Christmas-y color, say metallic blue? I'm not a fan of gold, really. I might even get rid of the red and replace it with maroon. Anyway, I liked this arbor a ton. What do you think?

05DEC11--You know Dasher and Dancer

Two Sunsets

I found these two photographs very interesting.  They are taken of the exact same location, approximately one minute apart.  The first one was taken with a flash.  When I saw how dark it was, I turned off the flash and took the bottom one which came out looking like what I saw when I took the camera off my eye.  To me, it is very interesting that the flash--which is supposed to make things brighter--made this photo darker.

Anyone have an explanation for it?

04DEC11

Today is just gorgeous.  It rained like crazy the first half of the day and--now--the rain is gone except for a few sprinkles here and there.  What is left, however, is these lovely dark clouds which will probably bring us some more rain--we really still need a ton.

I happen to really love cloudy, cool days.  In the Autumn especially, they make for such a lovely view.  I couldn't help heading outside late this afternoon to take several shots of the landscape around our house.  I know that the first photograph is the same focus as the two I took and posted earlier today, but the look of this photo versus the other two is completely different.  

For whatever reason, the monochromatic grays in storm clouds against the colors of Autumn leaves (or really even the regular old green of Spring and Summer) just looks like the most gorgeous picture that ever could be.   I can't help wanting to photograph this kind of beauty.   

This one was effort on my part of accomplish a certain kind of look.  I think, perhaps, I failed.  I liked the vertical lines of the porch and tried to "frame" that little orange tree with the columns and make the space between the columns equi-distant.   That wasn't really possible if I wanted the whole tree to be between any of the columns.  I wanted to add the porch swing which Pop's grandson made for him, but I'm not sure the photograph is balanced.  Any thoughts?

This would have been great if I had noticed that white truck was there and waited a few seconds! All those different colors make me so happy.  Check out those grays against the greens?  Lovely, yeah?

Two Trees

I went outside this morning to put the dog out--she wouldn't go cos of the rain. While outside, though, I noticed that the rain made everything kinda pretty, so I decided to take a photograph. The photos are in chronological order. I thought that the second one was a more balanced photograph and more interesting because of the rain puddles and the fact that there was more to see cos I was standing further back and bending down to get more into the photo. As most of you know, I am just a beginner in the art of photography, so any insight, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, or praise would be welcome!
Which photo do you think is better and why? <3

04DEC11 Oh, Christmas Tree!

Here is our Christmas Tree, put up last week by Pop's son. What a grand job he did! <3

03DEC11

Well, I upgraded my camera y'all. Remember that Kodak Easy Share I got last year for Christmas from Pop? It died Tuesday. :( So, I had to invest in another camera. I could have just gotten another point and shoot, but I figured that every new camera should be an upgrade until I get the one that I am happy to have without wanting to upgrade. Make sense? I'm not even sure it does to me, but we'll move onward. I still don't even know what in the world I'm doing, but I figure I've got enough down to be able to take a picture. This one is the first one I took after I formatted the camera/memory card. I was eating McDonald's so I hopped out the back door which heads out to the playground and took this one while there was still light out. Not award-winning, I know, but it works for a first photo. :) Oh, I guess I should tell y'all which kind of camera I got--It is a Canon EOS Rebel T3. Does anyone know what EOS means? ;-P