The San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site is not very far out of the way when going to/from Houston Hobby airport. I've decided to try to swing by as often as I can in hopes of catching the monument in interesting light and sky. On my most recent trip, I tried at sunrise (mostly a grey blanket of clouds with brief moments of sun on the monument) and in late afternoon (a bit too early to get really interesting light). This is certainly a case of being at the right place at the right time, so I will keep trying. I'm looking forward to future attempts during colder weather - fewer mosquitos!

There is a really impressive DeepZoom display produced by Microsoft Switzerland including 8 images, each consisting of Gigapixels of information. You can zoom very far into the top of the Matterhorn and see climbers. The largest of the 8 pictures was created from 440 individual shots taken from a Canon 5D MkII - each individual shot is 21 Mpixels.

I went to the Seattle area last week a few days on a business trip. On my last evening, I drove up to photograph scenic spots along the Skykomish River on the way to Stevens Pass. One of my last stops was in the historic area of the town of Skykomish. I stepped out into the river (very low water flow) below the steel bridge that leads from Hightway 2. There was just a small bit of light in the sky. I took this long exposure shot of the rocks in the river, appearing to be floating in space.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has launched a new web site showcasing the work of the Civillian Conservation Core in Texas State Parks. The web site is a virtual museum with photos and descriptions and a few videos.

There is a profile of each state park that contains structures built by the CCC. The profile includes the park location, the dates of the CCC activities, the CCC Company number(s), and it identifies each structure.

I frequently seek out the CCC structures in Texas State Parks (and other destinations). Some of my "current" flickr photos of CCC work include:

• Indian Lodge in the Davis Mountains State Park
• The huge swimming pool at Balmorhea State Park
• One of the rim cabins at Palo Duro State Park
• Longhorn Cavern State Park
• Other CCC structures in Arkansas
• Other CCC structures in Oklahoma

Not your usual view of Lake Texoma and Eisenhower State Park, the rain storm that stalled all weekend over north central Texas created an ocean-like experience. This view is from one of the rocky points that define the swimming area near the Elm Point campsite.

Two trips over two weekends up into Oklahoma to check out the Blue River. First trip was at evening light, second for morning light. I was really happy with the evening shots. On the second trip for early morning light, I found out I needed a non-hunting/non-fishing permit to go where I wanted. I spent too much time in line to get the permit and missed the good early morning light, but made the best of hiking along the river and taking a few shots of some low falls. This picture is from the first trip - follow the link to the entire set on flickr.

I look at these photographers for inspiration for exploring this part of the country. Both Laurence Parent and Tim Ernst have authored multiple hiking books that I use for planning trips.

• Texas : Laurence Parent
• Okahoma : Kim Baker
• Arkansas: Tim Ernst

I posted a trip report for the photos I took at Lake Mineral Wells State Park last Saturday morning. Look for the "Hiking/Photography Trip Reports" link on the right side under the "Pages" heading.

I'm preparing to apply a few recently acquired tools to create detailed descriptions of my landscape photography trips. The tools include a photo geotagger and a GPS mapping software package. The geotagger will allow me to pin point the location of each photo and I'll use the software to create annotated maps of the drives and hikes to get to each location.

GPS Data Logger/Photo Tracker

I purchased the AGL3080 GPS  device from AMOD last month and used it on a number of hikes during our vacation in Colorado in August. So far, I've used the device to embed coordinates in the EXIF headers for photos that I've uploaded to my flickr site. The photos that have the embedded latitude and longitude can be viewed through a map interface. This is especially effective when viewing a related set of photos on a map. See this map of photos from a hike on Spruce Creek Trail  near Breckenridge, Colorado.

Topographic Mapping Software

While the flickr map interface is useful, I want to create more information around a trip including timing, what went well (with regard to location, timing, light) and suggestions for repeat visits. For this I want to create maps (topographic and/or aerial) of the hikes to use in detailed trip reports. I checked into a number of options and decided yesterday to purchase a copy of TopoFusion. With this package, I can import the GPS tracks from the AGL3080 and create my own maps, elevation profiles, speed and distance profiles, and a bunch of things that I don't even know about yet.

Upcoming Reports

The first reports that I'm working on are for the two short trips last weekend. The first was an early Saturday morning trip to Lake Mineral Wells State Park. The second was a Sunday evening trip to the Blue River WMA in Oklahoma. I've already posted some of the photos from these trips on flickr: LMWSP and BRWMA.