Friday, December 20, 2013

Houston Parks continued, Cullinan Park in Sugarland

Over the past few years I have posted about several Houston parks that I walked while visiting Houston.  Houston has beautiful natural space and I love walking around them, meandering, taking photos.  Now, as a permanent resident, I have joined a couple walking / hiking groups locally, and after many delays, I’ve finally been able to join a couple of the long walks through our local parks.  I look forward to doing more of this walking – social – exercise and sharing them with you as the seasons in Houston change. 
DSCN2809The Houston metropolitan area is laced with waterways.  We are a drainage basin for two major rivers, Brazos River to the west of Houston (i.e. Brazos Bend State Park) and to the east the Trinity makes its ways down from the Texas / Oklahoma border.  These rivers are joined by many creeks, bayous, and smaller rivers as they make their way through the Houston area.  Because of them we have many State and Federal Parks, and nature / bird reserves and estuaries.  All of this lends itself well to nature trails and other hiking, biking, horseback riding, and fishing activities.  My activity of choice is hiking.  Hiking with the camera, of course. 
This time of year and on this particular day, it is rainy, brown and gray, and the sky washes out to a bright white.  I am sure there is a way to edit these white skies or filter them when taking the photo, but I don’t know how so you see what I saw on this day in mid December, close to the first day of winter.  The colors of a  pre-winter day; all fading out as winter gets here in earnest.  In an attempt to get the colors in the photos to be close to the colors I saw, I used an edit special effect of applying ‘oil painting’.  I was please with the results.
DSCN2811oil
DSCN2813oil
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DSCN2828  DSCN2833

15 comments:

  1. Beautiful Ginger. I like the white skies of winter.

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  2. That 2nd shot really caught my attention. I was not expecting all that color. Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you enjoy your new home. We will appreciate getting to see more of it.

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    1. Peggy, the actual photo was all greys and browns, but the actual scenery was closer to the EDITED photo - I applied oil paint special effects and liked the results. No all of them, but most of the landscapes.

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  3. Really enjoyed these Ginger.
    A beautiful place to walk and wander with the camera.
    I think I could spend hours there lol

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  4. I have never lived in the south and it seems very foreign to me to be without snow and cold in December. I love the image of the fallen leaves on the grass with the structure in the background. Very nice. I hope you enjoy your time in Houston.

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  5. What a beautiful place to get lost in and wander around and take photographs. Thank you for sharing with us.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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  6. Those lakes/ponds will be really glorious once the waterlilies start to bloom.

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  7. I like the duck picture so much.
    Thank you too much your efforts.
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  8. I love wandering reed thick waterways like this - you reminded me I need to go out soon.

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  10. This area looks quite similar to our fresh water lagoons. I love walking those wooden trails but have to combat the mosquitoes!

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  11. second last big photo, are the brown flowers or plants dying?

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    1. yes, we have had an unusually cold fall. several freezes. the tall grass along the edge of the water (actually growing in the water but I don't think they are considered reeds) is very green in the summer with a tall white, feathery like flower on top and in the water the lily pad dry to a cone shape above the water level. was beautiful in natures way.

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  12. You are right, you have seen those dancers, Your memory is amazing. I wanted to use these photos because for once, the dancers were old dancers rather than the young girls.

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