The first image was taken on a cold crisp December twilight when a cloud bank decided to collide with the sun that was still just below the horizon. The layers of the clouds, the tree line, the low thin fog bank, and the burning reflections in the shallow water on the foreground made for a striking image. I had both a full frame sensor camera with a wide angle lens and a crop-sensor camera with a telephoto lens with me and took a series of shots with both. In reviewing the series, the ones taken with the telephoto lens at 160mm effective focal length gave the most dramatic images. This one was my favorite.

The second image was taken in early January near Old Horseshoe Lake. Dense fog provided the mood for this setting. The arch of the tree and the suspended moss provided a natural frame for the three trees in the distance. I shot the arch of the tree at an angle so that it directed the viewer into the image rather than simply frame the subjects. Finishing the image in black and white increased the moodiness of the image by toning down the bright green grass in the bottom of the frame and allowing the contrasts to define the key elements in the photo.

Both images took first place in the color and black and white categories respectively in Houston Photographic Society’s January Print Competition.

.

I was in position to shoot other aspects of the banding process, but it turned out great for getting shots of this feisty male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. When not chasing the others, he was perched on a loose wire on an old windmill. The shots were taken hand held, and even using only the center focus point, the hummingbird was so small that the distant background and the structure of the windmill kept playing games with the camera’s (Canon EOS 50D with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens) autofocus. I switched to manual focus and set up so that his perch was in sharp focus and waited for him to return.

He was fully side lit from the morning sun. There was a row of trees several hundred feet behind him that were still in some heavy shade which provided a nice dark background. The lens compression of the telephoto lens completely blew out the background details even at F/8. The warm sidelight provided good contrast and helped define his tiny little breast feathers and the intricate barbules of the feathers around his neck. While the side lighting did a good job of highlighting his golden-green crown, the angle of light didn’t accentuate the fiery red of his throat that much.

Check back soon. I’ll have a blog post up with the details and photos of the hummingbird banding process.

I would add that as a photographer’s skills in the digital dark room improve, so too does his “performance of the score” making it possible to go back and reprint a negative with greater nuance and accomplishment. I took this photo in January and I liked it then but there were some things I didn’t quite like that I couldn’t put my finger on and I never did anything with it other than posting on Flickr.

But over the last seven months, I’ve learned a lot from judges at print competitions and study groups as well as from studying books and articles on black and white photography. I’ve spent more time learning my “instruments”, Adobe Lightroom and Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2, so I decided to rework the RAW file (the digital equivalent of the film negative) and enter the revised print into Houston Photographic Society’s July print competition. I burned down some distracting highlights and brightened other areas to draw in attention to the couple crossing the street. It worked enough to win first place in the bronze level black and white category.

The theme for the Houston Photographic Society’s special assignment for June was “Abandoned, Deserted, or Left Behind” so on a late afternoon, with lines of white puffy clouds in the sky, I made the trek to get set up to wait for the light. I was confident I had some great images. When I got home and began to work on processing them them, there was one I really liked. It wasn’t my original intent to show the image in black and white, it was always the warmth of the light that attracted me, but I hadn’t counted on the red prairie grasses figuring so strongly in the image. Applying a red filter, I was pleased with the overall tones of the image and the impact on the sky and clouds. I went on to burn some problem areas and increased the contrast to enhance the lines in the tin facing. I sharpened for print and was as sure as I had been of any of my images that I had captured the mood and story of my subject.

But confidence doesn’t always result in success in competitions. Sometimes it’s a matter of the tastes and styles of the the judges. Sometimes it’s the number and quality of the competing entries. In HPS’s June Print Competition it was both. The theme for the HPS special assignment assignment category is open to all skill levels in the membership and there were a larger than usual number of really great entries. My entry didn’t place this month.

The judge recognized and commented favorably on all the technical details I paid so much attention to, but in the end I spent so much time on the details, I overlooked some global compositional considerations. The judge felt the drama of the clouds distracted too much from the main subject, the barn. I don’t think the composition would convey my intent in the way I wanted had I made the changes the judge recommended, but I do recognize the points he was speaking to. I did try some of the framing suggestions in Lightroom, but while compositionally correct, it didn’t convey to me what I saw. When I go out in the future to photograph the barn again, I will try out some of the other suggestions to see how I like the results.

My entry in the Color category at the Bronze level took second place. It’s rare to catch one of these Lotus flowers about to bloom before the heat and wind beat them back. The strong back lighting from the late evening sunset really made it shine like a jewel against the darker blue water.

.

.

A short drive south of Houston near a major college campus, NASA, and Ellington Field, lays one of the largest urban wildlife refuges in the United States. The Armand Bayou Nature Center is a 2500 acre preserve composed of water, marsh, woodland, and prairie habitats.

Visitors can stroll along a boardwalk through a marsh and forest on their way to animal displays, an Education Center, Butterfly Gardens, and an 1800′s farm site.

There are four major trails that lead you through all the habitats that were once common place in southeast Texas before the urban growth and industrial development of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Martyn trail goes through a dense woodland forest with tall canopies, mid-level shrubs, and many flowering plants on it’s way to meeting up with Marsh and Karankawa trails that lead to a boathouse and several lookout points over the bayou and waterways.

The Prairie and Lady Bird trails explore the ecotone separating the forest from the open prairie with a prairie platform and boardwalk.

There are many educational activities and events and the sunrise and sunset pontoon boat rides are the best way to see the bayou and waterways with its wading birds, birds of prey, and even an alligator or two. If you are feeling a little more active, there are also guided canoeing and paddle tours.

I visited the center for the first time this month as a part of the March assignment for Assignment Houston. I look forward to going back many more times, especially during the bird migrations in the spring and fall.

.

Gallery: Armand Bayou Nature Center

.

.