Sunday, March 15, 2009

Playing with the camera...

It's been cold and rainy the past few days in south Texas. But we've desperately needed the rain, so I'm not complaining. I haven't felt much like taking pictures lately but took my camera to the park for my walk. I've already done a post on Landa Park, but I wanted to see if I could get something different today. So these are just some "fooling around" shots.

This is the top of one of the old posts that sits on the edge of the park. I think they used to be connecting posts for a fence that used to run along the side.

These are of an abandoned rail car. I thought they looked neater in black and white.


This is actually bad photography. I was trying to focus on the duck and got the leaves in front instead. I kind of like the effect, though.

Here's what the duck really looks like. I'm sorry, but I think these ducks are weird looking. Those red things on their beaks looks like some kind of tumerous growth.

Mr. Squirrel...

Water-foliage shot...

This one almost looks like an inverse black and white shot, but it's not.

Some more bad photography. I was trying to get a "scene of the water through the tree branches" shot, but everything ended up being blurry. I kind of like how it turned out, though...sort of a whispy look.

And in black and white...

I stopped by a strip mall on my way home and as I was going back to my car, I noticed a splash of color. Good thing I had my camera with me. I've read a couple Mexico blog posts recently on the Jacaranda trees blooming down there now and how hard it is to capture the color. I agree. After the gray gloomy days we've had this past week, this color literally jumped out at me so I had to get some shots.

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but it sure was pretty. Too bad it's in a strip mall and not in my yard.

Not only that, it was right next to a bush with an equally gorgeous orange flower. Bad photography #3: I tried to get a shot showing both with the contrast in color, but got this weird blur instead. It's like a ghost of the flower.

This one's at least in focus, but it doesn't capture the vibrant orange color in the background.

The close-ups do it better justice.


Now that I think about it, I just should have said that those "bad" photographs were exactly what I was going for rather than admitting they weren't. Ha! I'm too honest.

On a final, totally different note, I just finished a little project which I thought I'd share. A couple years ago, I bought this little table at a re-sell-it shop for five bucks. It was all painted in that vibrant blue that you see on the top. Originally, I had painted it all white and put some ceramic tiles on the top, but the tiles got damaged, so I decided to re-do it.

Here's the result with some left-over shards of glass I had from stained glass projects. Now that it's done, I'm kind of sorry I didn't use a different color ceramic tile for the inset. I think black would have been better, but they didn't have them at Home Depot, so I settled for white. Too much contrast. Oh, well...the whole project cost me about ten bucks, so I'm not going to feel too bad about it.

5 comments:

Life's a Beach! said...

Deb, that's really a cool effect on that table! And I love all the photos! I really like the blurry duck and the black and white blurry branches. And the old rail cars! Very cool! And Mr. Squirrel looks quite fat and happy!

Nancy said...

Those photos are all very, very cool! I tried to pick a favorite but I can't. I do love the first one, and the orange leaf floating on the water. But the rest are absolutely just as good!

Love the table too.

Ann said...

I agree you shouldn't have said they were bad--just the efects you were going for! The table is great!

Isla Deb said...

Thanks, Beck. Yes, the squirrels in the park are very well taken care of and are very tame.

Nancy - I kind of like the leaf one, too. Thanks for commenting!

Thanks, Ann...next time I'll keep my honesty to myself. lol

Anonymous said...

Isla Deb: By chance are you going to be on Isla April 11 through the 18th? If yes, I'd like to suprise my wife with some family portraits of us and our 3 boys. No, I'm not a weirdo....well other than a democrat living in Salt Lake City :)

Please let me know and of course I'm sure we could work out a payment. thanks, Paul
email: natenickjake@yahoo.com