The AMCA met in New Orleans. As always, a good time was had by all. We took the train out of Houston. Next to the AMTRAK station in Houston is the Jefferson David Hospital. This is an old historic hospital dating back to the end of the Civil War. I am not sure what it is used for today, but there was activity in it and cars in the lot. I kind of liked the concept of posing the anatomical model in the window.
This is the skyline of Houston from behind the AMTRAK Station.
While in Galveston for Mardi Gras, I took a morning out to look for Sandhill Cranes. I drove out West of town to my usual spots and got this pic of one.
I also got a Nice pic of this Yellow Crowned Hight Heron.
The Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild holds monthly image competitions. The members submit any image they choose in either the Professional or Associate Category. There is also a monthly “Challenge” competition where members create an image with a specified theme or technique. In February, the theme was a “Domestic Animal.” I decided to try an do something with cattle in a field.
I took an afternoon and drove out Highway 6. My plan was to photograph some cattle and try and get something interesting. I came upon a field in which a rather substantial steer was standing on the rim of a tank. I started taking pictures of it. As things progressed I started thinking more and more about the idea of isolating that one steer in the frame. I decided converting it to Black and White would add a little more emphasis to it, but that left a rather large area of sky to the left. I decided I could reduce that by cropping the scene into more of a panorama. That helped somewhat, but that sky was still too distracting. So, as I considered it, I began to think about cattle and the old Chisholm Trail and the Waco suspension bridge. That made me decide to add an image of the cowboy statue at the suspension bridge. So, the final image is
As always, we were in Galveston for Mardi Gras. The parades out on Seawall do not have the character the ones on the Strand had. But, they were still fun.
Can’t get more decked out than that.
Always pirates, even with beads.
The bead truck.
In the previous post, I displayed two pictures of the rear of the Water Works. These are from the front.
I was taken by the combination of cement work and wood at the entrance.
When we moved to Waco, The Water Works was a really cool restaurant. Originally, as the name might imply, the building housed pumps and machinery to provide water to central Waco. The restaurant was good but did not last very long. It closed and reopened several times, but it has not been functional in many years. These are pics of things in the back of the building.
Kim’s is another landmark that I could never get good pictures of because of cars. For a while, it was run down, and the pics would have been cool, but there were always cars blocking it. Then they closed it, and started to tear it down before I could get pics. Now it is restored and looking like new.
Another place I have had trouble photographing is George’s. It seems every time I go there, the parking lot is full. Also, many angles are impacted by power lines. So, Christmas Day was the time to try and finally get a usable picture.
Next to The Health Camp is The Elite Cafe – about as iconic as Waco gets. Again, here are two versions of one image and another one.
And the impressionist version.
There are some Waco Landmarks that I wanted to get pictures of, but I have always had problems because of cars parked in front and around them. Christmas Day was the perfect time to deal with that because there would be no cars to block my shots. The first of those places was The Health Camp. Here are to versions of it.
And an impressionist version.
