Tourist-y Summer

We've enjoyed playing tourist this summer; taking nearby day trips instead of longer trips (drive time and duration).  Our most recent excursion was on Galveston Island - ghost tours by Dash Beardsley.  We were surprised at how much we enjoyed this walking tour of The Strand area.  It wasn't a ghost hunting tour, but more of the history around several buildings including people who have died there, later seen by residents and visitors hanging around The Strand.

Dash Beardsley - Ghost Tour Guide/Hunter

 
Dash Beardsley - 6'4", dressed in all black, 2 rings on every finger, wore sunglasses at night.  If he were to appear as an everyday man -- he wouldn't be as interesting; maybe a bit over the top for some, but the "character" fit the tour.
(Disclosure:  I'm not comfortable taking pictures of strangers - face on (yet), I'm sure he's used to it, but I'm not... so... you'll just have to go on the tour yourself to experience his entire persona.  Let's just say - he reminded us a lot of Dog the Bounty Hunter, but nicer, cornier jokes, and a true interest in preserving Galveston history.)

2202 Strand St, Galveston (W.L. Moody Building)

The W.L. Moody building currently houses the (now closed) Colonel Bubbie's Strand Surplus Senter (as it is spelled on the store sign).  The original building had four floors, the top floor was lost in the 1900 storm. Stories of hauntings within the building must have come from locals and eye witnesses since I wasn't able to track them down through books or internet sites. From what I remember don't think the original owner was too thrilled with the current business. (The tour was over 2 hours long, too many details to remember).  FYI...This building/business is currently for sale - if you're interested.

Inn on the Strand (B&B), 2023 The Strand St (closed)

Again - the stories of this (now closed) bed & breakfast must have come from locals and eye witnesses.  This area of The Strand saw a lot of Civil War action, so naturally death and suffering along with ghosts supposedly haunt this area.  But the facts seem to be that the B&B is too haunted to keep maids employed longer than 3 days and a few never returned to collect their paychecks.  It is the the dark building (1 lighted window - why?) in the middle.

Hendley Market, 2010 The Strand

Hendley Market located within the first commercial building (Hendley Row), built in 1858 The center for the island's shipping and cotton industry, the building has witnessed island history since the Civil War.  The story we were told happened in the street - a case of mistaken identity - a father & son accidentally shooting each other during a Civil War battle.  They and other soldiers have been seen in the street at night.  Currently the Hendley Market is an usual shop and one everyone should visit (expect to spend at least an hour just browsing).  They have very unusual items, books, and sculptures for sale.

It was a great, fun evening and we all learned a lot about the history contained within those few blocks of Galveston's historic district.  Dash also told other ghost stories around Galveston that weren't included in any of his tours (the Face at UTMB for example).  There was a breeze, so no mosquitoes but there was a lot of standing (on concrete).  Walking distance wasn't long in between each location and he did make time for a quick 5 minute break at a carefully placed market with public restrooms and refreshments for purchase.  You can find information about Dash's tours on his website.  We plan to take another of his tours.

Tropical Storm Bill 2015

Those of us who experienced Tropical Storm Bill are thankful that it wasn't an intense storm.  Yes we've had rain and wind, and even some storm surge, but along the Texas coast it wasn't that bad on Tuesday. Ironically the day after started out with more severe weather... heavier, steadier rain and wind, and I imagine we'll see more flooding with Bill's trailing bands and training storms from the Gulf.

The kids & I took a quick trip down to Galveston Island to check out the beach and the incoming storm (not what you are supposed to do, but we were responsible about it).  We knew this wasn't a life threatening storm and we were going to the state park beach area.  Call it an educational trip - a study in physical geography.

Red flags were flying along the entire Galveston Island coastline.  We weren't planning to swim - just sight-see.

Tides were higher and there was a bit of storm surge;  much of the beach area was covered in water.

A few people were out - fishing or playing in the surf.  The water was really warm and the incoming dark clouds were definitely filled with rain.

The gulls were spending more time on the ground - not wanting to fight the constant wind.  This is usually a sandy beach path that turned into a rather deep pool in some areas.

Along the seawall, the tide/surge had completely covered up the small beach area.  We stayed on top of the seawall - not a time to venture out onto those rocks/jetties.

On the way home, we stopped at the store for a few (real) food items - not storm supplies.  There obviously had been some panic buying going on in the bread aisle.  The news stations had been covering the storm for 24 hours and although we appreciate their urgency to be prepared - it panicked a few people.

The next day - voila - more bread appeared and there weren't many people in the store.  The rain day turned out to be a decent day (we did get intermittent showers), and the heavier rains came the next day.

I'm sure this storm will cause flooding in other areas as it moves through Texas and other states dropping heavy rains onto already saturated ground (goodbye drought).  But everyone along the coast is back at work and life resumes -- so we go about our business -- in the rain (which was a day late to the party).

My originally planned post about our trip to San Antonio will come later. I wanted to share a few images from Tropical Storm Bill.

For those interested:
lens:  Nikon 16-85 f3.5-5.6 (I use this lens often to walk around with)
last 2 images were taken with Galaxy S5 (& taken quickly)

Weekend Rewind (3-19-12)

Weather-wise it was a beautiful weekend, great for fun activities and those that just needed to be done (mowing etc).  We did get the opportunity to visit Galveston for a day trip and as usual I wasn't disappointed in the beautiful flowers and landscaping around the island. 

The Colonel paddleboat docked at Moody Gardens

Post processing for the image - HDR - sorry - the clouds & water were just asking for more than the SOOC image showed.  But I did hold back on any "funky" processing & attempted to just enhance the details, shadows & highlights.  On to the flower pictures.

bottlebrush - attracts butterflies

Several of the plants/bushes were small - I imagine businesses are having to replant after the tremendous drought & heat we experienced last year.

Hibiscus -- or as my family says "Hi"-biscus (sometimes our humor is a bit off)

I did a little processing on the pink hibiscus image, trying to bring out the delicate petals and the tiny lines in each one.  I haven't jumped onto the texture plug-in fun yet, but thinking this one might be a good one to try.  Any suggestions on textures?  (free ones preferred)

Hibiscus - bright red against the cloudless sky

I posted this on Wonderland's Earth Wonders recent photo challenge for Favorite Color - realizing that the older I get, the more I am drawn to the color red. 

Meyer Lemons

FINALLY!!!! Those lemons came off the tree - dang drought - these were supposed to be off the tree around Christmas, but they just didn't finish juicing up until recently.  Actually I was taking them off - whether they were ready or not - there are flowers & the beginnings of new lemons already budding out - the tree needed the energy for the new growth.  Lemon Bars this week!!  (trivia - we picked 48 lemons)

weed-filled flower bed

And onto the monarch waystation project.  This is an existing bed in our yard that we haven't weeded in 2 years (obviously) - 107 degrees & the ground felt like concrete - just didn't encourage me to work in the dirt.  This is quite a bit smaller than our original waystation, but since we no longer have the time to devote to a large habitat - this (& other smaller beds) will be our new efforts towards helping out the monarchs.  I plan to move these pics to a "page" on my blog & post updates there - look for "My Backyard" page soon.  I'll dig up some old pics of the waystation in it's glory - it was beautiful.

The Duranta bush survived!! It is probably very happy to have some breathing room.

Not replanted yet (the reason for the "in progress") - just the weeding was an ordeal - and found a few surprises among the weeds, a living duranta bush (also great butterfly attractor) - he'll get to stay & live among the new plants.  My plan for this bed is zinnias (easy to grow, no maintenance, butterflies LOVE them) and milkweed all mixed together.  Probably not what a lot of gardeners agree as the best plan, but it provides nectar plants (zinnia) and host plants (milkweed) all in one convenient space.  The trellis in the background (not in the final position) will hold up morning glories - just because I like them. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend & didn't over-do it like we did.  We will enjoy the flowers later, but wow I'm sore in places I didn't know could get sore.  If anyone has suggestions on texture plug-ins - I'd like to hear them.  Did you notice something missing from my post?? no horse activities!! - actually we did make a trip to the barn so my daughter could ride, but it was a low-key visit - just an easy ride to stretch & exercise the horse, wash tails - barn chores - didn't take an entire afternoon - we (I) needed a break.

Image details:  50mm & 105mm macro -- the only lenses I've carried lately - in my attempts to "travel light" most images SOOC except where specified.

My Sepia Phase

I feel like I'm going through a phase, a sepia-toned phase.  Every image that I have been taking/processing in the past week I have been putting through a bit of sepia toning (if that is even the correct term).  I'll be the first to admit that I'm still a learning beginner with the post processing. but I'm trying (I refused to even think of doing this 2 years ago).  Participating in a few photo challenges this year has me thinking more about the photos before I take them & slowed my usual amount of spitting out images in hopes of getitng 1 good/usable one.  I feel I am getting better control over the images coming into the camera. 

The above were taken on Galveston Island with the purpose of practicing some post processing.  I had taken similar pictures in the past, but saw a few things I wanted to do differently (angle, amount of main subject in frame, & where did that bush come from?).  For these images I used my 50mm f1.4 lens, adjusted the RAW file to create +2 & -2 exposure JPEG images to fuse with the out of the camera pic.  In the fusing software, I chose black & white (a previous phase that I will definitely return to), with a saturation of 30% or 50% (wanted just a hint of color back in).  Back to photoshop for a tad bit of straightening & the sepia filter tone at 50% or 80% (just a touch of to add texture to the fence), then maybe a tiny crop to balance it all out.  I have to laugh at myself - this process would take forever at first, but now I can go through these steps rather quickly which makes going through several images a lot less time consuming (thank goodness - my computer time was taking over my day). 

My last thought on these -- at least they aren't horse pictures!!!  But don't worry more horses are in my future... show season starting back up.  Do you also get stuck in a phase when learning a new processing trick?  Do you find it helps your overall photography or hinders you in that you only see how you can process a photo rather than appreciate the skill used to capture the original image?  Personally I'm hoping for a happy medium at some point.

For comparison - here are the original, straight out of the camera, no processing (other than to lower the resolution for web upload) images. 

Galveston Mardi Gras & Street Photography

After a week of off/on rainy, cloudy, and cool weather - but we decided to venture down to Galveston to check out a little of Mardi Gras.  Visiting during the day we hoped to see some interesting sights, but not the shocking/interesting sights that "might" be around at night.  This (I thought) would also be a great opportunity for me to really step outside of my comfort zone & attempt some street photography.  At least this post will be entertaining & include more pictures than usual (and these are all straight out of the camera - maybe straightened & cropped - but no crazy HDR or adjustments - just photos).

View looking down the Strand (street)

We drove to the Strand/Historic district & found out that admission to just walk on the streets was $17/person - so we ended up people watching from behind the fence - for free.  Luckily we caught a parade & they threw us beads too - even though we were behind the "designated" area.  We didn't find out if kids were free - the $17/adult was more than our budget would allow (we planned to eat out too - not to mention the $10 to pay for event parking). 

The parade was short, but we still caught enough beads.

Police horses were decked out in Mardi Gras beads too.

We were looking for interesting people as well (my entire family enjoys people watching), here's a few who caught our eye - there were some more elaborately dressed, but my introvert self just couldn't point the camera directly at them for a picture.  I cheated & used a longer lens for most of these, then cropped to get closer.  Street photography is such a giant step outside of my comfort zone - I easily took pictures of the people as they were walking away from me & sometimes that accidently worked for the best. 

Not sure where this guy got those huge beads - they didn't look very comfortable to wear.

Some parties were throwing beads from the balconies of historic buildings - some of the buildings now have loft apts.

Here's my comfort view for street photography - taking pictures of people as they walk away -- interesting head piece - sometimes what people have on the backside is more interesting than their frontside.

Beautiful Mardi Gras head piece

And one of my attempts at straight-on street photography (from my safe distance, using my long lens) - but I figure it is a step forward.  I still think the guy knew I was taking his picture.. not sure if he liked it or not (maybe he was just cold - it is February after all).

Unknown man walking away from the party - but he was still "inside" the fence.

And finally - my other attempt at real street photography & I used a 50mm for this one, so I was relatively close.  The guy's shoes were very interesting - they were platform, but with holes - like they were made for comfort.  This was outside of a Starbucks right outside of the Strand area, so not sure if he came from the party or was a Starbucks employee.  You can't see the shoes as well as I wanted to - but the anxiety this picture caused me was ridiculous. 

I put in B&W like I've seen other street pictures.

I really wanted to take a picture of an elderly man inside Starbucks - reading his book, listening to everyone's conversation (he would smile from time to time & look up), but he was too close to us & I just couldn't muster up that kind of courage (but I did think about it). My husband is so encouraging - he said "just do it" -- yeah easy for him to say - he would only wear 1 bead necklace -- so yeah he's really the show-off kind of guy (not).

I'm happy I at least tried to capture more of the street happenings, even if at a safe distance.  We had a good time on the Island; watching crazy people surf (had decent waves - for Galveston), people starting to really party, ate somewhere we've never been to before, and wrapped it by taking night pictures along the seawall - lighted fishing piers, seawall traffic, etc.  It was good to get out - even if the weather wasn't perfect.   What adventure have you taken lately - a spur of the moment one?  And how do you get the courage take strangers' pictures that close up?