San Antonio Visit

[wclavey]

My family had a small reunion in San Antonio this past weekend, to coincide with my sister-in-law's naturalization ceremony, and my wife and I had some free time to go see some places not on the arranged agenda.

There are many more pictures on my LUG gallery. Thanks for looking.

Japanese Tea Gardens


Mission San Jose


Mexican Cultural Institute


Brackenridge Park

[tml]

Nice series, Wes. I love the angle and composition of #2... I have to check out your other shots. Tri

[pcdeatherage]

very nice...very nice...#3 and the other statue shot on your site don't do anything but all the others are very nice...

[KJ Smith]

Wes,

I like the second one. Were the lips on the cheek red?

The last one is nice also. Kinda "out of the box" for you.

There were a couple on your site that caught my eye.

[wclavey]

Thanks for looking and the comments. Tri, I have so many pictures from the missions, and I continue to take more, that I am looking for new takes on old subjects. I thought that the door being ajar was a good idea. I'm glad you like it. Kevin, they did look like lip marks on the cheek, but they are just a blemish in the concrete, the conversion to B&W emphasized them more than in color, and I thought about editing them out, but I hate to make those kinds of changes to something I shoot.

Patrick, thanks - - I am trying to branch out beyond my usual subjects of old, decaying architecture... so some work and some don't.

[tjavery]

I love the first one. I like the placement of the palm and how the branches radiate out. The depth is great with the pond and distant foliage visible through the palm. Just to the left edge of the palm's "trunk" appears to be a band of lightness. At first it jumped out as a rough transition between a very dark area (the "trunk" where you probably dodged) and the bright backlit foliage next to it. Then again, maybe I've been staring at Photo'chop too much lately.

The second is great - the face kind of gives you a solemn greeting at the entrance. I didn't notice the "lip-marks" on the cheek until Kevin pointed it out. I guess he has that sort of stuff on the brain.

The third seems a tad bit too bright in the leg area but then that sort of thing is hard to tell with viewing a web-sized image on a monitor that may or may not be calibrated almost right. What I like is the depth - there's a tree beyond the statue and a light area through the tree.

I like how the white lilies stand out in the shadow area. I also like the patch of blue in the lower right (sky reflection). I wish there was a bit more of that in the photo to help add more blue.

[wclavey]

Wow, TJ - - thanks for the feedback!

No, the bright area on the left of the truck was actually a spot of really bright sun coming through the larger branches overhead - - it is a bit jarring, now that I look at it. The small web-sized pictures seem "contrastier" than the full size versions. I actually thnk that this was my surprise shot - - a surprise in that I wanted to do something different, I positioned myself to get the strong light coming from the sun, and it actually turned out as I envisioned it - - better, actually.

The statue at the entrance to the Mexican Cultural Center was in full bright sun... I took 4 different exposures and this one was the closest to not blown out on the legs... I'm not sure why the legs look so bright - - the whole statue is kind of pink-tan color. Again, the web size has a bit more brightness than the full size version.

I am way out of my element shooting plants and animals - - I liked the lilies and struggled with the composition for 2 reasons: I had the wrong lens with me and I was far from the car, and there were beer cans in the water that you could see if you didn't stand in just the right spot. But, hey, I'm trying to branch out... the folder with these pictures on my gallery are a lot more of my usual stuff...

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by tjavery

The second is great - the face kind of gives you a solemn greeting at the entrance. I didn't notice the "lip-marks" on the cheek until Kevin pointed it out. I guess he has that sort of stuff on the brain.

Nope, I just have a tendency to see things other people don't.


Irritates the crap out of Geof.

[TheRandomPhotographer]

Nice shots...that second Mission shot, do you have any other angles? a straight on perspective would look awesome

[wclavey]

Thanks for looking, Ryan... I don't think I have that from this trip... I would need to look back through my negatives to see about other visits.

[wclavey]

Ryan, I had the opportunity to look through some of my earlier trips to the same mission and here is one of the same figure on the opposite side of that door, shot straight on. This picture was taken on the Bronica S2A on Arista EDU 100 film & scanned.