The Annular Solar Eclipse

The western United States enjoyed an Annular Solar Eclipse on May 20th. I didn't even know there was going to be an eclipse until four days before it was to occur. After learning what an Annular Solar Eclipse was I started making plans. The Dallas area where I live was not going to be able to see the full eclipse because the sun would set before it reached its maximum. The news was saying that the full eclipse could be seen as far east as Lubbock, Texas but the maps actually showed that limit to be southeast of Lubbock about 100 miles. My wish was to photograph the peak of the eclipse as the sun set and include some interesting landscape with it. I decided that the wind farm near Roscoe, Texas may fit the bill.

I sent an email to several friends to see if they were interested in shooting the eclipse. Dan was stuck at home babysitting the neighbors bulldog but Gary wanted to go. We left Gary's house around 1:30 to make the four hour drive to Roscoe. I had used a computer program, The Photographer's Ephemeris, to map out a couple of likely locations and we should have plenty of time to scout them out. TPE  uses Google Earth to show the time and direction of sunrises and sunsets from any location and we ended up shooting very near a spot I had scouted with the software. The eclipse started about 7:45pm.  Even after the moon had covered up a large percentage of the sun, it was still hard to notice it. The sun remained very bright during the whole event and didn't seem to dim much at all until it was setting.

When I took the top image it was still so bright that a very short exposure was needed in order to show the detail of the moon and sun. It also stopped the turning blades on the wind turbines and turned them into silhouettes. That was nice! The next two images are very similar except for the sun. I knew the timing of the full eclipse would be close to sunset but I didn't really know just how close. The above image shows the sun just above the horizon and the full "Ring of Fire" is not yet visible. The bottom image was shot 44 seconds after the first and the full "Ring of Fire" would be visible if part of the sun had not already dropped below the horizon. Part of me is disappointed that we didn't get to see and photograph the full "Ring of Fire", but then again it was pretty cool!

Texas Wildflowers in 2012

"Field of Dreams-Ennis, Texas"

Last year Texas was in the middle of one of its worst droughts in history. Rains during the fall and winter changed that and the countryside has become green again. This spring has been a banner year for wildflowers. The top photo is from an area about 25 miles south of Dallas. Ennis has an annual Bluebonnet Festival and this field is located along one of the roads that is part of its Bluebonnet Trail. I noticed today that they are encouraging people on their web site to "Hurry, Hurry! There are still blooms that are up for great viewing." The bluebonnets peaked about a week or 10 days ago. The Festival is not until April 21&22. That is normally when the flowers peak but the warm winter has caused the bloom to run 2 to 3 weeks early this year. I have driven through the area twice and it is as good as I have ever seen it.

"Trail at Enchanted Rock"

I also spent several days photographing in the Texas Hill Country. My favorite area is around Llano. I especially like to do some hiking on the trails at Inks Lake State Park and Enchanted Rock State Park. Over the years I have learned the trails which have the best flowers. Photographing this way is much more rewarding than stopping along the roadsides and taking pictures. 

"Enchanted Rock and Bluebonnets"

Bluebonnets at Lake Buchanan"

Inks Lake has never let me down when it has been a good year for wildflowers. So many fields in other areas seem to be good one year and not so good the next. The areas of the best flowers at Inks Lake State Park have been very consistent from year to year. The mixture of granite rock, cactus, and wildflowers can't be beat. I also have a favorite area which contains mostly Indian Paintbrush. The two photos below were taken there.

"Group of Paintbrush at Inks Lake State Park"

"Paintbrush and Rocks-Inks Lake State Park"

This last image was taken right near the sign to Inks Lake State Park. It is almost like a menu of what is ahead of you during your trip through the park.

"Wildflower Mix-Inks lake State Park"

The Flooded Trinity River!

MHH Bridge Reflected in the Trinity River

My wife thinks I am obsessed with photographing the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. I do have a desire to photograph it under a variety of conditions. There is about a million different ways to shoot the bridge and I am only about half way there. I also have a separate gallery of photos of it now on my web site.
Monday night and Tuesday morning we had well over 4 inches of rain. I knew this would flood the Trinity River and provide an opportunity to photograph the bridge reflected in its swollen waters. Tuesday and Wednesday evening found me doing just that. I was more pleased with the second nights efforts. I liked the compositions better and the sky also seemed to put on a better show.
 The top image was shot first. The bottom image was shot about 6 minutes later and is a good example of why I sit in one spot and shoot different compositions as the light changes. The Bank One Tower (green building) had just turned its lights on. That is the main reason it wasn't included in the previous shot. The scene had also become darker and I needed 4 bracketed exposures to create the second version. The most interesting change was the color of the clouds. It was now 25 minutes after sunset and there was heavy cloud cover to the west, which is behind me. Within 3 minutes the clouds picked up a dull pinkish look which wasn't there just a few minutes earlier. I might be inclined to think it was some very late sunset color but I really think it was the lights of the city starting to reflect off the clouds. Thirty minutes later when it was completely dark, the clouds still had some of that color in them.

Flooded River Reflections

The last image was shot after all the deep blue had left the sky.  This was from a spot I had not shot from before. I think it made a nice addition to my collection.

MHH Bridge Arch and Cables at Night

Celebrating the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge!

I spent Saturday evening at the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge celebration. It probably is the last time I will get to shoot on the bridge without dodging cars or being hassled by the law so I was definitely wanting to take advantage of that chance. Conditions were good, giving me some warm light on the arch right before sunset. There was also a small moon which is visible in the first image. They had extra spotlights on the bridge so it became very brightly lit as soon as the sun had set. It made quite a contrast with the deep blue sky at dusk, which can be seen in the second image.

The city was going to put on a fireworks display at 9 pm. I had a rough idea where they would be shooting them from but wasn't exactly sure where I should set up in order to include the bridge and fireworks. As you can see, I guessed correctly. I actually have four or five that I really like which show different colored fireworks and different lighting on the bridge.

This last image is cropped from one of the shots that included fireworks. I wish I had a second camera shooting full frame images of just the arch of the bridge during the ten minutes of the show. The lighting and the smoke were constantly changing making for a cool variety of looks to the bridge. 

The Opening of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge...Nearly!

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

This weekend the City of Dallas will celebrate the opening of this Santiago Calatrava designed suspension bridge. http://www.mhhbridgecelebration.com This event was planned many months ago and I am sure they were committed to having the festivities even though the official opening of the bridge has been delayed until the end of March. I didn't think they would finish the roads around the bridge in time. Saturday is a free day to explore the bridge. I will be there with my camera. They have not been allowing people on the bridge and I am one of the many photographers that have been itching to get some images taken from the bridge. There is no sidewalk on the bridge and I don't think it will be a very safe place to shoot once the bridge does open for traffic.

I shot this image back in December of 2011. It was the first time I had seen the bridge with the lights on.

The Dallas Farmers Market

Dallas Farmers Market

In the last few days I have made several trips to downtown Dallas around sunset. Sometimes I feel the Weather Gods see me coming with my camera. I don't know how many times conditions are looking quite promising only to have the light and the clouds fizzle out instead of offering a glorious pink sky. That's OK though! I'm getting to where I like shooting the night lights long after that pink sky would have faded anyway. I've heard it called "The Blue Hour" but it sure doesn't last for an hour. I might call it "The Blue 30 Minutes" at best. That rich blue sky is hard to get until it starts getting fairly dark but then you seem to lose it after it gets too dark. 

Downtown Dallas From Ruibal's

It's surprising how quiet it is down by the Dallas Farmers Market in the evening, even during a weekday. You are so close to so much rush hour traffic but most of it bypasses this area. It makes it a pleasant experience for me as a photographer, especially when I need to run across a street to get a different view of something.

Chase Tower

The top two images were shot on my first trip to the Farmers Market last week. The timing and the light were fairly close on both. It was amazing to me that I could get a shot of the flowers at Ruibal's and keep it free of poles and wires that are so hard to keep out of other views of the skyline from this area. The "Chase Tower" was shot on a different night on the other side of downtown from the Farmers Market.  The electric blue accent lighting on the building is fairly new. It sure adds a nice touch to photographs of the building.

Reflections of the Mercantile Tower

This last image was made yesterday evening. While looking at some of the images from my first visit to the Farmers Market last week, I noticed that the Mercantile Tower would reflect on the side of the Comerica Bank Tower. I had taken that image with a much wider angle but yesterday I put on my 180 mm macro. It is made to do its best at close range but it also does a great job on farther away subjects. I am quickly becoming convinced that it will give me a sharper image than my 100-400 mm would have if zoomed out to the same focal length.

Watch Where You Step!

House Full of Jars

Saturday night I was watching TV and came across "Billy the Exterminator". In this episode his job was to remove a 5' rattlesnake from a storage shed. This shed was full of old carpet and a lot of other junk. Billy almost got bit by the snake! Sunday, while driving home from Midland, Texas, I stopped at this old house to get some photos. To reach this room in the photo, I had to climb through a room that must have had 5 or 6 deteriorated mattresses piled up on the floor. Guess what I was thinking about? I did keep telling myself that it was 34 degrees and the snakes won't be out. Warm weather would have had me as jumpy as a grasshopper. This house is about 15 miles from Sweetwater, Texas, home of the world's largest "Rattlesnake Roundup" each year.