Tejas Studio

We took a Whale Watching tour  on a Catamaran out of Bar Harbor, Maine.   Frankly the boat alone was worth the price of admission–a fast jet powered catamaran.   We lucked out and saw a number of humpback whales–the most famous was Spoon the Humpback Whale;  Spoon’s one of the largest humpback’s in the Gulf of Maine.   You can identify whale’s by the unique marking’s on the fluke.   The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Main maintains the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalogue.  By the way, I had a GPS unit on the camera while taking pictures so I can plot the track our catamaran took as well as the exact spots of the whale pictures.  Cool technology.

Fall is my favorite season.  I spent seven years in South Bend, Indiana (Go Clay Colonials!  Go Irish) and the trees in South Bend were on fire in the fall.  Living in Austin, Texas, we don’t get much of a fall.  This trip to Maine, we just missed the colors turning (story of my travel life).   At this lake you see just a few trees turning.   Perhaps one day we’ll get to see fall in all it’s glory again.

To be honest, before the golden hour this scene did not look very pretty.  As the sun started setting, the water calmed, the water took on a beautiful hue and this peaceful scene emerged.    The trip to Maine was rich in great photographs.

This picture was taken with a Canon G5 on my sister-in-law’s ranch near Blue, Texas.  It is a very high resolution picture since I took three shots and stitched them together.   The high resolution is useful since I printed it on a large canvas.   It now hangs in MicroAssist’s Training Center.

City of Austin Seaholm Power Plant–a retired power plant on Cesar Chavez.   My friend Robert Paulsen has one of the my favorite daytime picture of the Seaholm Plant.

A bit of street photography for a Leica Print Group I belong to

This was the second image that made it into the Town Lake Trail Foundation Calendar.  I suspect this one made it because it was a project done by the Foundation.

My friend Kelley Burrus asked me to enter a photo contest for the Town Lake Trail Foundation calendar.   I knew the competition would be stiff–there was a National Geographic photographer entering as well as several professional photographers.  I walked the Town Lake Trail at least five times looking for great photos. 

At the end of a night of walking around Town Lake with fellow photographer Robert Paulsen, we  saw this reflection of the Town Lake Gazebo.   Oh man, do I really need to drag the tripod out.  Guess it was worth it.  This photograph was one of two selected for the annual calendar.  

A bit about the gazebo.

Presented to the City of Austin “for the enjoyment of all the people of Austin,” the gazebo at Town Lake represents a four and half year commitment by the Austin Chapter of Women in Construction. The project, begun in 1967 and dedicated in 1970, was intended to serve as a “lasting tribute to the construction industry” and to spawn other beautification projects along Town Lake. The structure was designed by Sterry Nill, Jr., to match the architecture of the nearby Municipal Auditorium and to blend with the beauty of Town Lake.

Walking around Town Lake (ok Lady Bird Lake, still can’t get used to it).   This canoe appeared under the bridge.  Snap.

Graffiti on Town Lake.  Please