School of fish above San Antonio Riverwalk

This shot was taken on the northern part of the Riverwalk at a point where IH-35 passes over the San Antonio River. I took this shot on the Saturday after Thanksgiving when I went to take photos of the Christmas lights that were displayed downtown. At the recommendation of a friend from work, I parked at the Pearl Brewery and walked down the "newer" portion of the Riverwalk to get downtown. The Riverwalk along the Pearl Brewery, San Antonio Museum of Art, even up to the locks and dam, is incredible. The river itself is quite wide, all of the sidewalks in the area are very wide and handicapped/stroller accesible, magnificently landscaped, and is just such a nice area to visit. I want to go back and visit this area in the future for some more shots.

Back to this photo, I had no idea this was here until I came across it on the walk to downtown. I took several shots from several angles but decided on processing this one, due to the being able to see the reflection of the fish in the Riverwalk. The multi-colored lights along the Riverwalk are a nice added bonus, as is being able to see the rainbow colored lights between the San Antonio Museum of Art. If you want to visit this area I highly recommend parking at the Pearl Brewery and walking toward downtown. The area is a much nicer place to visit than any portion of the Riverwalk that is located "downtown".

Fish above the Riverwalk

Ducks in a tree

This shot was taken after I got the shot of the Brackenridge Eagle crossing the bridge over the San Antonio River. There were plenty of ducks in the river swimming around, swimming close to people on the bank especially when they would throw pieces of bread and other food into the river for the ducks to eat.

I took this shot because, frankly, I don't recall ever seeing ducks in a tree before. I know that ducks are birds and can fly, but seeing them ducks standing in a tree was new to me. We had a few ducks as pets when I was young and I saw them do some pretty interesting things, but standing in a tree like other birds was not one of them.

I like this shot because the trees in the background are multi-colored and not in focus at all, which I think compliments the feel of the shot very nicely. The triangle that was formed by the ducks is pretty neat as well, I would have preferred for all of them to look at me during the picture, but after about 20 shots it just was not in the cards. I hope you enjoy the photo!

Ducks in a tree on the San Antonio River

Tomistoma at the San Antonio Zoo

(One quick note before today's post. I changed the pricing for the digital downloads in my smugmug gallery. If you really like a photo and would like to purchase it the best bet would be to contact me so I can make sure you get exactly what you are looking for, but if you just want a photo for your desktop wallpaper or something like that the digital download through smugmug is probably the best way to go. Now on to the post!)

This photograph is of a Tomistoma (or "False Gharial") that is on display in the San Antonio Zoo in San Antonio, Texas. Based off the long snout I originally thought this was some sort of juvenile crocodile (see what I did there!?) but was very surprised in researching the picture to found out it was a very distant relative to the crocodile and in all likelihood is not related to the crocodile at all.

An adult Tomistoma can be between 15 and 18 feet in length. It is an endangered species and currently only found in the wild in six waterways in Sumatra and Malaysia (taken from wikipedia).

I thought this shot was pretty neat how it was just sitting there on the log partially submerged in the water. I didn't even notice the reflection of it's mouth in the water until I started processing. I originally took this shot a few weeks ago so I cannot remember for sure, but I think there was another Tomistoma on display with this one as well.

Tomistoma at the San Antonio Zoo

Matador and bull in Snowman Village

Today's photo is another photo taken at Sea World San Antonio on Thanksgiving in the "Snowman Village" attraction. This shot is of a matador. who does not look too happy, and a bull ready to "charge". There are several other displays at Snowman Village that I have to go back and re-shoot, I am thinking of putting them all in one blog post similar to the Bill FitzGibbons "Light Channels" series that I did a few weeks ago.

On this photo I mainly focused on the lighting and detail and very little else. Once again I did my normal method of de-saturating the background while keeping the subjects that I wanted to be more pronounced (the bull, matador, and cape) relatively untouched. The more that I use this technique the more that I really like it, it seems to almost make the subject pop off the photo a little bit more and I really like how it looks. I had to clean up the snow a little bit as well, to erase some of the "dirty" look but overall am very happy with how the photo turned out.

I'm curious, what style do you like better? The "surreal" look of the snowmen playing football or the more "realistic" look of this shot?

Matador and bull at Snowman Village

Snowmen playing football at Snowman Village

RiverCenter Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree is located in the center of the RiverCenter plaza, just outside of the RiverCenter Mall. This is, in my opinion, the nicest scene located on the entire Riverwalk. The view is not saturated with an excessive amount of (mainly red) lights and honestly there were not a whole lot of people taking in the scene, but it was the only spot that actually felt like Christmas. Maybe it is because I associate anything Christmas and a mall automatically with the Santa Claus scene from the movie "A Christmas Story", but I cannot say for sure.

I took this photo from just off the walkway around the plaza actually standing among some small plants so I wouldn't block the path for other people to walk by. Most of them were considerate and ducked slightly as they walked by (although they didn't have to) which I thought was a nice touch. Once again the "L" lens shines in this photo, the amout of detail that is captured is stunning. You can notice a girl looking out the third floor window (just to the right of the glare next to the flag that was waving and looks ghosted), and you can see a "Vina Sandals" store and "Watches" display inside the 2nd floor of the mall, among other things. I am still impressed by how much of a difference the "L" lens makes in my photos, I definitely think that it was worth the money (and of course I am slightly greedy and want a wide variety of "L" lenses now!

I hope you enjoy the photo!

RiverCenter Courtyard Christmas Tree