March of the Penguins

The Dallas Aquarium has a large number of penguins in their own little environment. We got to catch their feeding time which was pretty nifty. If they’re used to sub-arctic temperatures I don’t know how they were dealing with Texas heat.

These little guys were inside and it looked like the one was trying to show off in front of the others. He was staring down everyone else with his wings up.

Look at him trying to be all bad-ass…

…And being ignored

Aquarium time

My digital camera was still fairly new to me during the Texas trip last June, so I was getting used to playing with the settings and my zoom lens. Man, I love that zoom lens…and you’ll see why in some of these Aquarium shots.

The Dallas Aquarium is pretty impressive. The first thing you enter is a large rain forest setting where birds are flying overhead and you’re walking through this completely alien environment (or as near a facsimile as we can create indoors). Here’s a toucan perched overhead.

I couldn’t quite get the misty effect that the waterfall and humidity create.

This guy reminds me of that Jim Henson rain forest special from ages ago.

Flamingoes

I’ll finish up the Aquarium shots next time.

Lots of catching up to do...

So ages ago, I promised photos from my trip to Texas this past summer. I’m finally posting a select few.

Here’s a shot of the Austin power plant, which was next to this tiny art gallery, outside of which Amy and I randomly bumped into Shauna Bittle, one of my old roommates. And I thought Texas was supposed to be big…

One of the coolest places we visited in Texas was Hamilton Pool, a natural spring that serves as a local swimming area. It’s a rather amazing rock formation, where waterfalls cascade over a cliff overhang.

A truly interesting feature of Hamilton pool is the roof of the outcrop where dozens of birds have built nests into the rock surface.

Next up…the Dallas Aquarium!

Keeping in the holiday vein.

Here are some shots of the pumpkins Amy and I carved prior to Halloween. Poor Charles, Amy’s pumpkin got the rot and had to be tossed before the party. She carved a new one which is occasionally in the background of pictures from the party itself.

Amy fell asleep early, so I set up my tripod and was playing with the settings on my digital camera and the lighting.

One of the problems with the focus on my new camera is that it has a hard time getting a truly sharp shot in low lighting. I was trying to center on the candle, but couldn’t achieve the same quality I could see through the lens itself.

Some of these have the feel of a poster for a Michael Myers flick, which I like.

Still pining for a White Christmas

Hey everyone,

My inactivity in posting seems to have encouraged people not to visit. I’m working on fixing that. My good friend Matt Boggie is going to help me set up a proper web site to display my pictures. This blog will eventually shuffle over to that site and hopefully be a means up updating everyone when a bunch of photos are available to look at, not just the scattered handful I have here. We’ll see how that all goes.

In the meantime. I’m getting rather annoyed by this complete and utter lack of snow in our area. There have been no sledding opportunities whatsoever. I’m hoping that by posting some festive holiday shots, I can encourage the weather to be more in my favor.

These are pictures of Amy’s tree. The all-blue lighting was inspired by my dad who told us the story of how he convinced my mom to put up an all-blue tree their first year of marriage, but never since. You can see the train he provided racing around the track in some of these.