While driving around for Featherfest we saw the Railroad Museum and decided to visit it. Debbie and I had visited it a couple years ago, but her friend’s husband was really interested in it.
These area couple of milk cans on an old cart. The contrast of the textures makes for an interesting image. The cornerstone of the museum is a restored diesel locomotive.
There is a “festival” in Galveston to celebrate the spring bird migration. A friend of Debbie’s from Wisconsin is into birds, and she and her husband came to Galveston for the weekend to attend the festival. On Saturday, we drove all over the island looking for birds. We went to one spot, and didn’t really find much, but I saw this rather cool cats that was in the process of setting buds of a blossom.
We did find birds in the place where I go to look for Sandhill Cranes. One of the things I have always wanted was a good picture of a bird flying. I finally got one. This is a white Ibis that had just taken off.
I was asked to do some senior pictures for my granddaughter Audrey. She lived in Denton, and the last time we were up there, I drove around looking for places to get good pictures. This was the first group of pictures. One of the places I thought might be cool was the old theater in downtown Denton. I though it would be great to get her picture and then photoshop her name in the marquis.
There was a small area hidden behind some buildings that apparently used to be a bar. We walked back there and got a couple really nice pictures there.
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One of the places in Galveston that I have wanted to get good pictures of is Star Drug Store. This is one of the oldest drug stores int he state of Texas, but, there are always cars parked in front of it making it a hard place to get good pictures of. I went downtown on a Monday morning, hoping there would not be cars parked in front of it, but I was wrong. So, I just worked around the cars.
Since I could not get a picture straight on, I decided to get one from each side.
And this was from the other side. While doing Art Walk the Saturday before, I noticed how cool the old windows on O’Malley’s Pub looked and I walked up Post office street to get a good picture of them. The glass looks like it was really old and it is impossible to count the number of coats of paint that must have been applied to those windows.
The AMCA Annual Meeting was in Savannah, GA. We got there late in the afternoon, and I had a feeling that the low sun might make a really nice pic on Bay St.
One afternoon, as the sun was setting, I was in a reception and looked out over the river and saw the colors were really strong.
While walking around the city, I was struck by the texture of the old buildings. This was on Congress St.
When coming back tot he ferry, I noticed the contrast between the color of this red ladder and the grey of the buildings.
As always, we went to Galveston for Mardi Gras weekend. I spent Saturday morning on the West Side looking for birds. Here is a group of Sandhill Canes I found.
Out there, I noticed a small creek and saw there was a skeleton in it. It looked to be too small to be a cow, so I think it might have been a coyote. You can see it on the bottom right of this picture.
We did go to Mardi Gras, and I kind of liked the way this picture of one of the participants on a float turned out.
We decided to take a cruise for New Years. We sailed on the Carnival Freedom out of Galveston and went to Falmouth, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel Mexico. This first image is a black and white version of Galveston from the deck of the ship.
Our first stop was Falmouth Jamaica. We had stopped there before, and decided this time we would just take a tour trolley that left from the cruise port. It took us around the town and eventually out to a small beach area. When I looked out, on the water, there was a man approaching in a small boat with a sail.
Next we stopped at Grand Cayman Island. We thought we would dock outside of Georgetown, but we docked well outside of town. We did a tour that went to San Pedro, Hell, and the beach. The third stop was Cozumel. As always, we just took a cab into town and walked around.
This was outside of Los Cinco Sols looking back towards the ships. That night, as we left, there was a pretty good sunset.
We went to San Antonio last week. We haven’t been there in many years, and not at Christmas in a very long time. The Riverwalk is always pretty, but they go all out for Christmas. As we were walking along in the late afternoon, I looked up to see the sun shining through the cedar trees and almost making them glow.
But, of course, the real show is in the evening. There are lights all over. They have a luminary every evening, and there are lights hanging from the trees. With the water reflecting them, they are really effective.
Last Weekend was Dickens on The Strand. As before, since we are members of the Galveston Historical Society, we were able to use the VIP room they have. This allowed us to view the parade from a balcony, and I could get some better pictures of the parade. The “Queen’s Parade” is always Saturday afternoon, and, of course, features “The Queen.” I am not sure who this woman really is, but she portray’s Queen Elizabeth every year.
They encourage people to come in costumes, and there are always lots of steampunk costumes and lots of pirates. This was a nice street image I got of one of the pirates meeting a small boy.
Last week I was contacted by a real estate broker to produce images of a couple of new buildings. One was a Sprint Phone store and the other is still vacant, but will be a Mattress One Store when finished.
