Spring Break- Lake Texana

Let's begin.

In preparation for my trip to Alaska, I want to accomplish 2 things. First, I am working my feeble photographic skills by only using my 20 mm lens for month, so I can better share with family and friends about our experiences while travelling. Second and lastly, I want to write about our trip, so I am using this blog in coming days just for that. My writing skills are not that good, but that's because I hate to write. The words don't flow for me. I have to hack away at it like I'm trying to cut a tree down with an ax. It ain't pretty, but eventually the tree falls down. 

If you are reading this, then you are my guinea pigs. Yep, if this were an English class, and I was writing an essay, this would be a pretty poor opening paragraph. But since it is not,  I will take the luxury of taking perfectly good thoughts and rearranging them into disjointed ramblings. I heard someone use the word"efforting" last week. I'm not sure that word was used in the proper manner or not, but maybe my writing could be called "efforting."

During spring break we spent a couple of days camping at Lake Texana at the campground located there. It's a pretty camping spot with live oaks, yaupon, and scrub oaks, located about 8 miles east of Edna Texas. Wildlife can be seen in abundance. You can see deer every morning and evening grazing away without a care in the world. A pretty place to drink a cup of coffee and ponder God's creation.

Some friends of ours from church went with us camping. They like to tent camping, we prefer our little trailer.

Here is our little 14ft trailer. This will be our home away from home on our trip to Alaska

The weather was overcast most of the time, with temperatures in the high 40's at night and mid 60's during the day.
 Perfect camping weather.

Janet had discovered this huge oak tree on our last trip at Lake Texana.
I think it spreads over 60 feet.

Janet is hiding in the tree. Can you sport her?

Me, I'm just admiring the view, wishing I was a kid again.

The next morning we traveled to Yoakum to explore and wander around and take in that quaint town of 5900 people.

Outside one the shops was this unusual table made from spare parts.
3 table legs, a cabinet drawer, an old level, and some old wood.

I am a hardware store freak. I love to go into old hardware stores
 and look around at the odds and ends you can find.

Some real metal funnels, hard to find these days in the big box stores.

Morrow Hardware, Yoakum TX

What a great way to end the day. Moonlight falling across the lake, a crisp coolness in the air, and food cooking on the grill

Honing the skills

It's been awhile since I have added anything lately to my blog. I guess a person has to be in the mood to pursue their hobby. Since I am not very disciplined when it comes to doing things with my leisure time, like writing or photography, these things kind of come and go. When it gets difficult or I am not pleased with the result, I lay it aside for awhile. I am beginning to understand the only way I am going to get any better at these pursuits is to be more focused and methodical about them.

This has been spurred on because my wife and I are planning our bucket list trip to Alaska this summer. Our plans are to drive from Houston, through Canada, all the way to Anchorage and back, staying in our travel trailer. We have set aside a month for our trip. We started planning almost a year ago, and now it is only a few months away. Naturally, I will taking photos of every place we go, documenting our adventure. 

One of my trip preparations is sharpening my photographic eye and skills. With that in mind, I am taking up a personal challenge of using only one lens for a month. The one I have chosen is a Panasonic 20mm 1.7 on a Panasonic G5. I am want to accomplish three things. One, to reignite my passion for photography. I am feeling “eh” about it. Two, take pictures in such a way that no adjustments have to made after the leave the camera. Right the first time in other words. I genially do not like fixing photos on the computer. Lazy maybe, I don’t know. Three, I have never used only one lens for any length of time. It will be good discipline. I think it might really help me to see.


P.S. and BTW, Janet and I are open to any trip suggestion you might have.

Here are some photos to gander, comment, criticize, and ponder on, or about, you get my drift.

1/60 F1.7 ISO 320

Home in the evening after a busy day.
It's not much, but for some reason I like it.

                                                      1/250 F2.8 ISO 160

I saw the wind chimes hanging perfectly still. My thought- they are frozen in time.

 1/320 F3.2 ISO 320

It's not really a good picture at all. Not quite sharp enough, the colors don't really pop, but it reminded me that life is like that sometimes. You get what you get, and work with what you have.

                                               
                           1/500  F4  ISO160

An imprint in time.

1/125  F1.8  ISO160

A cross
It hangs there silently as a reminder.

                       1/160  F2.2 ISO 160

It's in color. Why? I don't know. But I thought exposure was just right.                                

1/125  F2  ISO 160

Summer will be here soon.
I like the image of Mr. Sun