San Antonio, San Marcos, Seguin-- TEXAS!

Yes, something new and different here for quite a long series of updates. I took many photos, and many of these photos will be on-the-road type photos. I snapped pics while someone else handled the driving. In this series you will see me attempting "nature" photos and "scenic" photos. I do not ordinarily do that. But I was using my best camera with a very versatile new lens, and it was my intention to give it a good workout. The first photos in this series document what we encountered driving from New Braunfels to San Antonio.

Heavy Traffic!

It has been many years since the last time I traveled this way.

I did all the on-the-road pictures sitting in the back seat! It was very relaxing. I don't like to drive in conditions like these. I would have been very unhappy.

A lot of these photos were taken at maximum zoom, and most had to be cropped. I used a NIKON D200 for all of this, every photo I took on this trip was taken with that camera, and the one lens.

As usual, everything has been re-sized downward so that uploads will not take too long. A lot of resolution and detail is lost, but it must be done. Of course, all of my thousands of original pics are stored on external drives, well archived. These archive drives are not connected to my computer, as a rule. And I never have an external drive connected while my computer is connected to any modem.

We are going to end up on the Austin Highway...

... eventually. 






 

This Is Our Lubbock Eclipse Story

I was ready with a camera. It was cloudy. It remained cloudy. I gave up. We drove to the gym, wanting to get our exercise session out of the way. In the parking lot of the gym, near totality, I looked up and the clouds thinned just enough to act as a perfect filter. With no strain at all we very clearly saw the partial eclipse. We watched it for perhaps one second, and then it was obscured by clouds again, and gone. We had that very brief glimpse. With all the clouds, it did get rather dark for a time. And in the early evening there was rain, heavy in some parts of town, but not in the area where we live. Nothing in the rain gauge.

An Old House In Southeast Lubbock

We believe that it was finally abandoned in the last few months. We have reason to believe that a small colony of artists may have lived there, or perhaps a family of artists.

This house is in need of some repair. But note the satellite dish!

They, whoever they were, left a nice pile of junk.

What was it like, to live there?

We found some other abandoned homes, not far away.

The lights are not on.



 

Northeast Lubbock, Near Airport

Yes we were not far from the world-renowned Preston Smith "International" Airport. I have not used that airport in many years and I truly hope I will never have to. The Lubbock airport, I have heard, is bad, and air travel in general is a rotten experience. You can thank the airlines and you can thank TSA. 
These photos were taken with my wife's iphone, a device we both hate, but sometimes it is useful. I scoped out locations for future work with the NIKON. 

Interesting isn't it?

Nice vistas!! I've got to go back with a better camera!

Out in the country, where you can pretend to be free...

Just stay away from the airport. Don't book any flights anywhere. 

Ah! The inevitable mattress!

It's the WILD life!

Out here, the natural man lives close to nature.

Ah. Wilderness.