And The Moon Shall Turn to Blood...

We had some fires back towards the start of August, they made the moon a funky color, not quite blood, as I put in the title, but not that far off either.

Taken with my Pentax DA 55-300 @ 300mm and cropped a bit. I continue to be amazed at how well this lens performs for the price.

Big Trip Day 1: Get outta here!!!!

Oh, the sweet savor of the start of a trip, nothing has yet gone wrong, and everything is beautiful and fresh! Or is that just because I was in Southern Utah? OK, so the next several posts are about a big family trip we took to Texas. Why am I posting these shots on my photo blog? Because I try to take some decent shots wherever I go, and besides I need somewhere to share them!!!

I was not on my usual photography first type of trip, but I tried to find a few things fun to shoot without taking too much time out of the drive. Salt Lake County to Albuquerque, NM is a LONG DAY! And despite a reasonably early start I really hated to delay much on the way.

I had to stop for this massive arch right by the side of the road heading south between Moab and Monticello. Perfectly Eye shaped it was a must stop!

The Monticello Temple was a fun stop, I have not been through Monticello since it has been built, and seeing that I am an semi famous Temple Photographer I just had to stop to scope it out. I don't know that I will be back to try for a really nice portfolio of shots, this is not the most photogenic temple around. could be a fun challenge though.

We also stopped at The Four Corners Monument, the place where 4 states meet. I will not include any shots from there, the price charged and the commercialization of the spot by the tribe that owns the land totally turned me off. NO cool shots were to be had. Done.

However the landscape was starkly beautiful, and I enjoyed driving through it.

Shiprock is a truly unusual formation that to me looks like a submarine sticking up out of the desert. I think that I would like to go back and really try to get some good shots. I missed some opportunities due to the need for speed!

I truly love this shot, LOVE! The clouds blessed me.

Big Trip Day 2: Traveling

Between Albuquerque, NM and Dallas, TX there is not a lot to stop and shoot. So I didn't, I did take a few shots of my Minions at a McDonald's though.

Big Trip Day 3: The Mall?

Well, it is Dallas and the summer, what else did you expect me to do with women in a town with so many malls? Yeah, I thought so! We used to live very close to this mall, called "The Galleria" in north Dallas. It is a pretty cool mall made better by Air Conditioning, how anybody lived in the south before that invention I have NO IDEA! Too hot and humid!

Honestly my strongest memory of this mall involves the glass ceiling. I always thought it was pretty cool.

Being a dad of three girls, we HAD to go to the American Girl Doll store. No way not to really.

Not going to show my travel snaps of my kids in the store. A) because I don't really post pics of them here, and B) because there is no photographic value to them beyond memories to me. Are they well exposed and in focus, yeah, I do have a reputation to maintain!

A side note, you will see many pictures of the Dallas Temple in subsequent posts, Temples are special places for Mormons, and a lot of my lens money comes from selling temple photos. So, of course I made several trips at different times of the day to get different looks.

These shots are basically the same except one is HDR and one is not. I like the sky in the non HDR shot better, but the shadow detail is much better in the HDR shot.

The late afternoon light was not the most flattering, but you shoot with what you got.

Big Trip Day 4: Just the Temple

Sunday, is always a special day, as a fairly religious dude I go to church even when I am on Vacation. On this trip I went twice. My wife had events for most of the day so I got up early, drove in to downtown Dallas and took her to an early sacrament meeting, then drove back to my sister and brother in-laws in Waxahachie and went to church with them and my kids. Lot of church time, but that is not a bad thing!

This shot was taken on the way to the freeway, I forgot how flat it was down there, makes it harder to shoot a sunrise without mountains to frame the shot.

Between dropping off my wife downtown and heading back south I headed to the Dallas Temple again to see what I could get in completely different light from Saturday. I was hoping for a sky with texture to give some oomph to the shots, I was NOT disappointed.

Both of these are panoramas with slightly different projection settings used in the software, both I love!

Liked everything I got from this day, the skies really made it!

Big Trip Day 5: Texas State Fair Park

 What to do with twin teenage girls and a 7 year old girl while their mom is at a Mary Kay convention? Ya got me, I took them where it was at least semi cheap. But unfortunately not well air conditioned. The Texas State Fair Park, in limited form before the actual state fair. The highlight was the aquarium, Shooting through glass and water was a pain. I got a couple of fun shots though, here are the rest...

I swear this guy was dead, not sure he moved once, and there was stuff GROWING on him!

Albino Alligator, who woulda thunk?

I could just hear the surfer dude tones of the turtles from "Finding Nemo" while watching these bad boys. Amazing how big they were!

Iguana be in pictures... Iguana be a star! Yeah, that really goes through my head when I see Iguanas.

There was lightning in the area so they would not run the Ferris Wheel, sadly, I really wanted to go and so did my youngest. Someday.

After a long day we went uptown to see my wife at her hotel and drive around. I took my opportunity to try some night shots of the Temple in Dallas. This was hard as I didn't have space for my tripod and had to pump the ISO up and brace my camera on the fence. Got some decent shots though, even sold one already!

Big Trip Day 6: The Dallas Zoo

I did something new this day. NO! Not go to the Zoo silly, I TOOK pictures at the Zoo with a decent camera and lens combo. Pentax K5 and DA 55-300. Consumer zoom? So what? Results count, see for yourself.

This guy I think had a bit of attitude, kind of a DeNiro "Hey! You looking at me?" vibe.

These monkeys were shy and hiding in the shade, cute little guys though!

I shot a LOT through thick glass, which caused some white balance problems that needed some serious fiddling with the RAW files, but I think I got it down pretty nicely, eventually.

I had never been in the presence of real live flamingos before, yes really! They were really pink, and awkward as heck too!

This friendly fellow followed us around the bird enclosure, lovely bird.

This shot just knocked my socks off, pumped up ISO, not stopped down much, maybe the head moved just a little bit, but the detail in the feathers is awesome. Couldn't be happier with it

Ugly but comfortable out of the sun. Why God made these boys so ugly I don't know, but there must be a purpose somewhere!

I LOVE giraffes, they are just so cool and.. well.. tall. The Dallas Zoo has an elevated platform around the enclosure so are just above eye level and can reach out and pet their heads. SO AWESOME!!!

HAD to get a Koala picture for my wife, have to admit they were cute little guys.

The Croc/Alligator family just has a stare that gives me shivers, this old boy was just staring right at me, probably pondering what I tasted like!

This may have been taken with my Sigma 17-70, I can't remember, LOVED the color though. My kids were dying for rubber snakes this color when we were done.

Beautiful fun, but SWEATY, just as an aside, NEVER go to Texas in the summer, NEVER! At least I now know why the invented "The Siesta" and A/C.

The end.