lake michigan | Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller

After posting those scenics photographs in my blog yesterday, I decieded to show you some more of my non-nature photography. I love to shoot anything and everything that appeals to my eye. I love color, I love action. All of that besides my wildlife photography. So I hope you enjoy the folowing images that shows my diversity.

Ths first is one of what I call one of my “artsy” photos. I was at a balloon festival a few years back. It was a very windy day, with winds too strong for balloon flying. I was trying to salvage some images, not wanting to go home without something. The balloon were anchored to the ground for static showing. I saw these three swaying to and fro in the wind, and I was taken by the similarities in the stitched panels. I just aimed right into the middle of the grouping and got this result.

"Balloons"

For the following shot I was at an air show at Midland, Texas. It was the annual Confederate Air Force show. (for political reasons, it is now called Commemmorative Air Force). Anyway, the Air Force Thunderbirds were the headliners. I shot seven 36-exposure rolls of film and this was one of the better results.

U. S. Air Force Thunderbirds

Here’s another one of my “artsy” photos, and it is one of my best sellers. It is another one from my film shooting days. As a matter of fact, it goes way back to 1962. I was near Istanbul, Turkey at the time, and I and my wife were walking along the water front. We spotted this old fishing boat sitting near an old dock. I call it simply “Abana”. I have no idea what it means except it may be the boat owners wife or girl friend. Photographed on the old Kodachrome ASA 10 (would you believe it?) slide film. Oh, the camera was a Kodak Retina 3s.

"Abana"

We were vacationing in Michigan a couple of years ago and ventured out near the seashore. Actually, the lake shore, but it is mis-leading. Those Great Lakes are actually inland seas. You need to be there when the violent storms are splashing waves to the top of the light house in the following picture.

Lake Michigan Seascape

Another photo from Northern Michigan. This is Fishtown. An actual name for this old fishing village. In the old days it was very active with commercial fishing boats. Now, it is more of a tourist attraction. But those old buildings captivated me, and I loved the green row boat. I facetiously named the photo “Yacht Club”.

"Yacht Club"

Back home in San Angelo. Some of the big happenings around here are the rodeo events. In February we have one of the largest rodeos in the United States. Enough entrants that it takes nine days to complete the competion. However, we also occassionly have one of the Professional Bull Riders events held here and that was here I shot this photo.

"HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I hope you have enjoyed these photos. If so leave a comment. When you do, if you click on the little box at the bottom, my posts will be automatically sent to you e-mail. Click on any image for an enlargement.

The subject of this blog is supposed to be birding, photography, and utter nonsense. Well, you’ve seen a lot of my birding photographs, and hopefully got a laugh out my utter nonsense, but I’ve never got into talking about my scenic photography.

Actually, landscape and flower photography was my major effort before somebody got me hooked on birding. This afternoon I ordered from B&H Photo a Canon 10-22mm, f3.5-4.5 super wide angle lens. I have decided that I need to get back to some scenic landscape and flower photography.

Now that doesn’t mean that I am abandoning my birds and wildlife. Absolutely not! However, this does give me an excuse to show off a few of my older landscape photos here. See how smooth I got that all in?? 🙂

First up is one of my favorite shots of Santa Elena Canyon. I had waded across Terlingua Creek so I could take the trail up to an observation point inside the entrance to the canyon. After reaching that OP, I continued a little further on the trail. I decided to get a vertical shot of the canyon, but I needed to show something that would give the photo some perspective. I stood on this 4-foot wide trail, about 75 feet above the Rio Grande River and waited for that tiny speck of a hiker that you can see down in the lower left of the picture. Then I was able to get a very nice exposure, showing the sheer 1500 foot vertical cliffs. That large rock you see along the shore around the bend is probably about four stories tall. How’s that for perspective?

Hiker in Santa Elena Canyon

This next picture I have entitled “Beachcombers”. We were vacationing in Michigan visiting relatives. We were at the beach on Lake Michigan and my wife and her mother decided to search the shoreline for driftwood, etc. The patterns of their footprints and the eroded pilings in the water caught my eye.

Beachcombers

The photo of the mission ruins was taken down at Menard, Texas. The mission, as you can see, is mostly fallen down. As a matter of fact, as we speak, it is really in pieces, as a conservationist group is in the act of completely restoring it. However, when I took the photo I liked the way that I could get the two arches to interact. I sold the one-time rights to Wild West Magazine two years ago for an article they were doing about the Presidio De San Saba mission.

Presidio de San Saba

There is a movie set on the Rio Grande river just a little west of the resort of Lajitas. Several movies including “Dead Man’s Walk”, and a Brooks and Dunne music video were made there. When I first discovered the place it was really on private property. I just wandered on to it, thinking I had run across and old Mexican village. But then I noticed that some of the “buildings” were just imitations. Of course, it is now part of Big Bend Ranch State Park and open to the public.