Hill Country Drought

Somewhere along state highway 16 between Fredricksburg and Llano, Texas.  as you can see the grass is very dry from the serious drought that is currently affecting the majority of the state of Texas.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Magnolia At Last

One of my favorite flowers is the magnolia, maybe because it is the state flower of my home state of Louisiana or possibly because they remind me of  growing up in south Louisiana where these trees are plentiful.  But all my life I can't ever recall having a magnolia tree on the property where I lived.

Well, I do now.  The home we purchased last year has a small magnolia tree in the front yard and it is filled with flowers.  This is the first magnolia bloom I picked from that tree, but I'm sure it will not be the last.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Minh Hai

I've always been drawn to the sea, well the Gulf of Mexico to be more specific.  There is just something about the call of the seagulls and the smell of salt water that takes me back to my youth in far southwest Louisiana.  I spent many days on my grandfathers shrimp boat in the lakes and rivers of Calcasieu and Cameron parishes Louisiana.

This past weekend I was in Kemah, Texas and captured this image of a fleet of shrimp boats docked along the Clear Lake channel that leads out to Galveston Bay.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Destruction and Amusement

The Kemah (Texas) boardwalk seen from the north side of the Clear Lake channel. The building in the foreground was destroyed by hurricane Ike in September 2008.  The boardwalk, restaurants and amusement park were also badly damaged in the hurricane but have since been repaired.

Equipment: Canon EOS 40D | Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Lens | Tripod Mounted
EXIF Info: ISO 100 | 50mm | F/11 | 8.0 sec

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

What's Your Second Most Important Tool?

Other than your camera and lenses what is the second most important tool when it comes to producing great looking digital images?  In my opinion it is your computer's video display monitor.

I'm currently using an HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor as my primary display for using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for post processing images.  When I first installed the HP ZR24w I noticed that the images looked very different than they did with my previous monitor, a ViewSonic VX2240W 22" wide screen LCD.

After running just the HP ZR24w for a few weeks I decided to reconnect the ViewSonic VX2240W as my secondary display.  After getting both monitors connected I used a Spyder2Express color calibrator and calibrated each monitor. 

After calibrating both monitors and displaying the same image on each monitor the difference in the display quality between these two monitors is absolutely astonishing. The more expensive HP monitor has a much clearer and brighter display that allows me to see the details in images that can't be seen on the much cheaper Viewsonic monitor. 

I'm so impressed with the HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor that I've ordered a second one to replace the ViewSonic VX2240W which will find a new home on my wife's or children's PC.