BWJones's Journal: San Antonio, Texas

New JonesBlog update. San Antonio, Texas

Check out the lightning!

Great photographs

[johndiii]

I've only gotten a few that were worth the effort from plane windows, particularly at night. Were you using film or digital?

San Antonio is a great place to visit; I've been there three or four times (not counting diving meets, because there was no time to see the city). My daughter's boyfriend's family lives there (or most of it, anyway), and his grandmother owns a big old house on the river, a little ways downstream from the downtown area. Nice people. I may end up spending more time down there, as boy

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[BWJones]

Hey there. I was absolutely shooting digital and some of the shots would have been a bit more crisp had the plane not been bouncing around the sky.

The kit is fairly high end to get decent night shots like that. A Canon 1D MkIII running at ISO 3200 with a Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens... I've not been able to get decent shots before at night with any other camera combination...

I love San Antonio and wish that I could have spent more time there, but it was a fast trip, down and back. Looking forward to more trips

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[nahdude812]

I agree, those are some amazing shots. I love bouncy plane rides, my wife loves to gouge deep chasms in my arm during them though =)

I've only ever flown at night once (actually early morning), and that was before I was really into photography. What a great opportunity that was =)

Is that you in the 4th and 5th photos?

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[BWJones]

Yeah, I kinda enjoy the bouncy plane rides as well, though I did have a woman throw up on me once during a particularly bumpy plane ride and that was so uncool. Though I gotta admit, there was one plane ride into Chicago once that was too bumpy for me. The flight attendants disappeared, the overhead luggage bins were popping open, people were praying and we'd drop 40-50 feet at a time where people would scream. A little disconcerting to say the least.

As for the photos, I am in the fifth photo on the righ

Night photos

[Raindance]

Gotta echo Johndiii-- fantastic aerial photos.

And thanks for the VisTrails link. Looks like a neat piece of software.

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[BWJones]

Thanks and yeah, VisTrails is very cool software that we are looking at a number of very cool future products with.

Lightning pics

[Alioth]

I've only once successfully taken pictures of lightning (from the ground). I was living in Texas at the time, and just as I was going to bed, I heard the rumble of a distant storm. Game on!

So I grabbed my camera (film SLR) and tripod, and raced out to Houston Gulf Airport which was the darkest place I could think of which would give me some shelter from the rain. I tried to set up by the lobby, but the rain was being blown in (and it was one of those intense downpours). Just as I was collecting everything t