Photo 04-01-2008

No april fools day for me today! After the last couple of days that were pretty hard and I wished that I was back in the Netherlands (I think the medical care is really the only area where I rather be in the Netherlands than over here!) I had a great experience tonight. We went to redbox to rent a dvd and a lady comes over and says: "Are you renting a DVD... if so I have a promocode to get it for free! Would you like to use it?" This is a stranger who takes the time to get out of the car, give us the code... granted it would only have been a dollar to rent the dvd, but it was so considerate and so nice.... I was really pleasantly surprised! So thank you, lady! It really made my day! I guess there are things that are bigger and better in Texas..... and that takes us to my pictures..... I thought we had some pretty big thistles in our garden in the Netherlands, I reconsidered! These thistles were huge!!! And okay they are not the prettiest things, but they are extreme and spring like, at least to this Dutch woman!

The last picture is of a beautiful flower of which I don't know the name.

Photo 03-31-2008

Spring in Texas: Just a few of the flowers that are blooming right now!

The last two are flowers I see at the roadsides! There are patches of white and pink in the grass pretty much everywhere. I really love this season!

Photo 03-30-2008

Well not exactly from today.... but pictures that I had saved for this week... since we are a little bit earlier in spring mood here in Texas!

Photo 03-28-2008 and 03-29-2008

Yesterday (03-28-2008) started out great with an opportunity for more bird pictures. Then off to work, which went well until about 10 o'clock. Then a big migraine attack happened and I had a lot of pain and numbness in my arm. An emergency visit that was hell. Finally left the emergency room without being helped and are still worried. So only a few pictures that I looked at today. I rested a lot today and I'm much better, but still worried, but refuse to go to the emergency room again. I will go to the doctor next week, hopefully everything will go better.

Photo 03-27-2008

Not much time for photos today, I had only a brief moment in the morning before I went to work to take a quick shot of the rising sun and the empty chairs on the beach. What a difference with last week when around this time a lot of spring breakers were enjoying the beach. I think I like the quiet and serene beach a lot better than the busy and crowded beach from last week.

Also another picture from last sunday: a snake. Not the greatest picture but for us it was a first to see such a reptile (not in a zoo!LOL). I believe this is called a cottonmouth and it's poisenous. But please correct me if I'm wrong!

The last two are from friday and are my attempt on macro photography.

Thanks for looking!

Photo 03-26-2008

The accident that I mentioned yesterday had one serious injured victim. The driver of a car who had made a 180 degree turn on this causeway and went northbound on the southbound lanes. She had already avoided a couple of cars before she hit the truck that collapsed with her. The driver of the truck was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and the paper did not tell what kind of injuries he had. The driver of the car is in critical condition at the hospital.

The amazing thing is that I could have been the one driving there.... I was late because I lost my ID batch and looked at my house for about 10 minutes. If this had not happened, who knew what I would have encountered! I guess somebody is watching over me!

Todays picture is of white lillies that we got at the grocery store yesterday for free..... amazing, I have never had a store give a away something, but apparently these had not sold and everybody could take them for free!

Thanks for looking!

Photo 03-25-2008

Well this did not start out as a great day for some people. On my way to work there had been a big accident and at least one victim was transported via lifeline helicopter. The whole causeway had been locked down for quite some time. Let's just have faith and hope the victim(s) will survive. I will probably read more about this in the newspaper tomorrow.

The other two pictures are from the white church I posted winter pictures of. I have decided to revisit some of the parks and places I have been in januari to get a "four season" picture of them.

Photo 03-24-2008

I know we're suppose to switch themes today, but......... I have shot a couple more "greens"!

Actually the last shot is yellow, oh well!

Photo 03-23-2008

Today was a busy day for me: I had to study, lunch appointment and doing things around the house. Not much time to take pictures.... although I did squeeze in a couple of them. I got up early and caught the early fog. The second picture is taken from my apartment. The bird did not move when I ran for my camera!

Thanks for looking.

Photo 03-22-2008

F/5.6 Exposure time 1/1000 sec ISO 100
F/5.6 Exposure time 1/250 sec ISO 100
F/5.6 Exposure time 1/400 sec ISO 100
F/4.5 Exposure time 1/160 sec ISO 100
F/5.6 Exposure time 1/400 sec ISO 100

I left work early today and went to some of the parks that I had visited earlier this year to see if there was some more spring to photograph........ and I was not dissappointed! Lots of blossoms, animals, birds and flowers.

Photo 03-21-2008

F/4.5 Exposure time 1/250 sec ISO 80
F/4 Exposure time 1/250 sec ISO 80
F/5 Exposure time 1/250 sec ISO 80

Nothing exciting today... I didn't have time to take pictures, but I decided to post some pictures from end of februari when I didn't have time to blog!

And actually two of them have a green object in them. These are all taken in a park that was really boring to be photographed (at least in winter time). I had to try extra hard and ended up with maybe 1-2 exciting pictures (which by the way are not the green ones!).

Thanks for looking

Photo 03-20-2008

Let me tell you a story about the Texas weather...... I went to work early this morning and thought it would be a bad sunrise... as you can see in the above picture!When I turned around and saw the clouds on the other side I decided to stay a little longer....

Then I saw something orange peep at the horizon.....

Maybe there would be a great sunrise after all.....

So you see, it really is true: If you don't like the Texas weather, just wait 10 minutes!!
Thanks for looking!

Photo 03-19-2008

F/3.5 exposure time 1/1600 sec ISO800
F/8 exposure time 1/40 sec ISO 80
F/3.2 Exposure time 1/60 sec ISO 100

Today was going to be a bad, rainy and stormy (with hail and tornados) day.... at least that was what they predicted, but besides some wind during the day and 10 minutes of rain it was just a normal day. Little bit gray but who's complaining! So no pictures of the heavy rain and hail, but pictures of the fountainwater that's flowing in the wind. And to practice what I learned, I took one with short shutterspeed and one with a little bit longer shutterspeed. (not too long, because it was hand held and with this wind it was not easy!). And because the theme is green, another botanical picture.

Photo 03-18-2008

Another sign of spring.... birds flying around, gathering materials for their nests.

Photo 03-17-2008

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

I don't have pictures of the celebration of this day, since I don't know if it's even celebrated here in Houston. But I do have some pictures with green..... kind of spring inspired!

Photo 03-16-2008

Did not have time to take pictures today, so another set of animals from the Houston zoo.