Cooler Weather

The temperature is cool, the humidity is low, and the weather is close to perfect right now. It was wet during the week as the front blew in. Fall has arrived in coastal Texas.

Nutria on the Loose

It is time to do some urban wildlife and flower photography again. This nutria was enjoying himself at Hermann Park. You can't see it in this photo, but he had one big ugly orange buck tooth, and one white one. I would run the cowboy effect on him, but he is grizzly enough already.

Koi

A koi in the Japanese Garden at Hermann Park near the Medical Center in Houston.

Autumn Seed Head 2

This grass has gone to seed and is set against the blurred background of a Japanese Tea House out of focus.

Autumn Seed Head 1

This seed head is set against a background of grass.

Cowboy Lou

I was sent this picture of Lou "Shorty" the Cat with a statement that he was more cowboy than Ozzy. While very professional looking, something just didn't seem right about this photograph. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something reminded me of the "GBPD Blue" crime scene shot that had everyone scratching their heads a while back.

I have recently developed powerful software to search the internet for similar pixels in pictures to stop people from stealing my valuable copyrighted shots and using them in an illegal manner. After turning on the software and feeding in Shorty I discovered the shot below of a "Cowboy Duckling" who was photographed in a Houston park.

Cowboy Duckling

Sure enough, if you look at the hat on Duckling's head you will see that it looks like someone has rotated it, colored it white, and repositioned it for a very professional retouch of Shorty - or should I say fabrication?

But that is not what I really want to convey to you. My point is this: none of these cute animals are really cowboys. Come on people, a duck or a cat can't herd cattle. Maybe a dog, but not a duck or a cat. What is next, Cowboy Humming Bird or Cowboy Potted Plant?

And another thing - the "cowboy look" is not something out of Zoolander that a model can turn on and off. I invented and trademarked the cowboy look. The model is but putty in my hands and that gritty and direct look that everyone wants is my secret. It takes a sense of fashion and style combined with technical mastery of camera and light that only I possess. I am the one and only true artiste.

Cowboy Ozzy

Stu asked if I could give the cowboy look to Ozzy after seeing the posting below. Here he is. Does he look better or worse?

p.s. I thought there was too much red color in the original Cowboy Ozzy shot I posted and desaturated it a bit more.

Reading Oprah

I don't know why my children don't like me taking candid shots of them...

Reset the Map

They reset my map and took all my red dots away. They do that every year whether you want them to or not. Anyway, the map at left is a copy from just before the reset. Click on it to blow it up and see the location of people who looked at my blog over the last year.

V = 12288

It is Not the Camera

On occasion, people have remarked that they liked a photograph I took and that I must have a "really good camera". I do, but I like to think the reason that they are appealing is that I took a good photograph, not because of the camera.


It is true that the new cameras are amazing, some of the new lenses have their own computers, and in automatic mode the camera can get a decent exposure out of almost anything. But really this just means you can get a technically OK photograph much more easily today. And this is significant - The advances I appreciate most are: 1) immediate digital feedback, 2) fast autofocus, 3) low light performance, and 4) digital post-processing. But in truth it is not necessary to own a camera that costs thousands of dollars to get these advantages. Even the $200 digitals today capture most of these advantages.

And you can use film to get great digital pictures. I spent this week cleaning and repairing my old film cameras. The photograph above was taken with a camera that was the cheapest SLR made at the time I bought it 30 years ago. A roll of 35mm film cost me $7 to process, scan, and print at Walgreens. I thought the scans weren't that good though and I am going to look for another place to develop my film. To continue my experiment, I have my "good" 35mm loaded up now and am running a roll throgh it.

If it isn't the camera then what is it? Well, it helps a lot to have some technical proficiency, but it is the ability to see appealing subjects and capture them in an artistic manner that is what really makes a difference. I don't claim anything special about the photograph above but I like it. It was taken on a walk in the neighborhood while testing the camera to see if it was working OK. I shot it laying on the ground looking up and let the camera set the exposure. Being an old camera I had to advance the film and focus it, but with a new one I could have just pushed the button. To the degree it has interest, it is because of the way I saw it and framed it in the camera - it's the photographer, not the camera :-)

Ozzy

This is Ozzy the cat photographed on his front driveway. This has been a relatively slow week for photographs other than playing with my film cameras, so thanks to Ozzy for providing some interest.

I did observe some things this week that were interesting to me...

At the Exxon station they were playing Jimi Hendrix over the speaker system out at the pumps! Admittedly it was Foxy Lady and not some of his wilder stuff, but how can it be that Hendrix is now muzak?

I took last week off and mostly did nothing. Have you ever noticed how many people are out driving around in the middle of the day or just sitting and having coffee? How can this be? Don't they have jobs?

I got my hair cut by an old geezer who said he wasn't eligible for social security (it had to be he didn't pay into it and not his age) so he was planning a trip to Vegas with a goal to win half a million dollars. He had done a lot of internet "research" and basically his scheme involved buying a computer program that charted lucky periods and then being at the craps table when his luck was pegged out high. He needed $2,000 to go out and win his retirement. He showed me the program printout and it had red or green bars wherever he was especially lucky or unlucky. I am thinking our government might try out this program for bailing us out of the mortgage mess.

Forbidden Gardens

This is a photo of one of the models in the Forbidden Gardens. This exhibit is part of a private museum built by Mr. Ira P. H. Poon of Seattle. He wanted people of Asian descent to know more about Chinese culture. The museum covers 40 acres in what was a rice field in Katy, Texas.

Chinese Regiment Spotted near Katy, Texas

Here is a photo of the 6,000 one-third scale reproductions of Emperor Qin's terra-cotta army baking in the Texas sun. The originals were first unearthed in 1974 and each figure is thought to be have the individual features and adornment of an original member of the army.

Qin became the first emperor of China when he conquered what were then 6 warring factions over 2,000 years ago and forged them together with iron rule. The army was built for his tomb and accompanied him into the afterlife as protection against his many enemies.

These are full size figures, about 6 feet tall, the same as the originals. In the background right you can see the smaller scale replicas.