HOTPPG Image Competition

We had our last regular meeting of the HOTPPG two weeks ago.  As always we had our image competitions.  The challenge for this month was Low Light images. It was a black and white print competition.  While we were on our cruise in August, I took photographs during the entertainment in the evening.  In looking at them, there was one that struck me as a good candidate for conversion to black and white.  So, I used Nik Silver Effects Pro and converted it to black and white, and then cropped it square. It ended up coming in second, but that was enough to guaranty that I would win the Black and White Artist competition for the year.

Spotlight

Marlin and Riesel

We were headed to Galveston the other day and I happened to notice just south of Marlin there was a windmill and a tree on the side of the road.  I made not of it and went back the other day to get some pictures. I had been thinking about black and white images, and thought this would make a good one.

Falls County Windmill

Driving there, I noticed along the side of the road in Riesel there was an old barn and a field in which there were several bales of hay.  So, I stopped there on the way home and got that as well.

Reisel Hay

Rowing on the River

The Waco Wild West 100 Bike ride was last weekend.  As always I was heavily involved with the rest stops, But I also took a lot of pictures at the Start/Finish line. As with last year’s I was setting things up, I noticed there was a rowing competition on the river and I took some pictures of them from the Washington Avenue Bridge.Eagle Eye View

There was some rather strong manipulation involved in this image.  I took it into Nik Color Effects Pro 4 and added the Indian Summer effect.  That increased the yellows in the foliage on the bank of the river.  I also added a subtle texture to the image, but it still was missing something.  So, I decided to add it the image of the Great Blue Heron flying over the top of them.

Five-Day Mexico Cruise

We decided before Fall classes began we would go on a short cruise.  We hadn’t been to Progresso Mexico in many years, and we found a cheap price on a five day cruise to Cozumel and Progresso.

In Cozumel we did basically the same old thing.  We took a cab into San Miguel and started at Los Cinco Soles.  This time we tried to find a different place to eat.  There was a restaurant I read about called “Los Oatates.” We looked it up on the map and walked there.  When we got there, it was not open for lunch, and, I kind of think, if it had been open we probably would not have eaten there.  So, we went back to Palmeras and had lunch there.  These are a couple of boats pulled upon the beach in San Miguel.

La Nina

The second stop was Progresso. We stopped there about ten years ago on a similar short cruise but neither of us remembered much of it.  We took an excursion called “The White City and The Golden City of the Yucatan.” We drove through Merida on the bus and saw several attractions, but were not allowed out of the bus.  Then we drove to Ixamal which was the Golden City.  It is a small village deep in the jungle.  We went to an old convent and toured it and then, after a carriage ride, had lunch a local restaurant. 

Ixamal

Hot Springs Visitor Center

The whole city of Hot Springs is actually a National Park. The park Visitor Center is one of the old bath houses.

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Inside, all of the old bath works are preserved as a museum.

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In the lobby, this old fountain was preserved.

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And in the window was a row of whicker rocking chairs.  It didn’t take much to imagine people sitting in them waiting to go into the baths.

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Hot Springs, AR

I was asked to go to Little Rock for a day, and I took the opportunity to visit Hot Springs.  We had been here many years ago, and I had only vague recollections of the area, but I remembered that it was really photogenic.  These are some scenes from the main street in Hot Springs

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Fourth Port – Grand Turk

Our last stop was Grand Turk.  We visited there a year ago and took a tour of the island.  We really could not find anything different listed this time. So, we got off the boat and spent the day in the port area.

Welcome to Grand Turk

Grand Turk Island

This is our ship from the shore.

Carnival Conquest