Must be my turn again eh ? Hey this is a weekly thread that spans two weeks (confused yet ) We all know the rules and the point is to post post and then post.

Thanks to Peter for hosting last week it can be Found : Here

Welcome to the picture of the week. Show us your best (and worst) stuff

Picture of the Week 91 : 29 Nov - 13 Dec 2009

This is by far my favorite thread as we get to see some shots from around the world so with the christmas season upon us time to up the shutter count and show us what your part of the world is doing.

Again same rules and really other than time frames there are no rules
1) No theme just your favorite stuff.
2) Let's keep it to about 4-6 images per post just so the thread doesn't get too big each week.
3) Any Pentax camera is fine, film, P&S, DSLR (or Samsung DSLR)
4) Date : Sunday Nov - 22 to Sunday - Sunday Dec - 6 2009. Enter anything you shot last week or during this current week until the thread closes.
Previous hosts: Each one is a hotlink to that POTW thread to look past at the previous 90 weeks.

1 Peter Zack, 2Eaglerapids 3 rmtagg, 4 Peter Zack, 5 daacon, 6 Bramela, 7 mtnbearhug, 8 dantuyhoa, 9 gawan,10 roentarre, 11 daacon, 12 Kris, 13 mtnbearhug, 14 SCGushue, 15 daacon, 16 maxwell1295, 17 dantuyhoa, 18 daacon, 19 maxwell1295 19(2) daacon, 20 Bramela, 21 Syb, 22 maxwell1295, 23 maxwell1295, 24 dantuyhoa, 25 Gawan, 26 Peter Zack, 27 borno, 28 daacon, 29 gawan, 30 Damn Brit, 31 maxwell1295 32 maxwell1295 , 33 dantuyhoa, 34 daacon, 35 Peter Zack, 36 Damn Brit, 37 Borno, 38 Kevint, 39 Peter Zack, 40 Timbo13, 41 daacon, 42 daacon, 43 gawan, 44 dantuyhoa, 45 daacon, 46 Rense, 47 daacon, 48 Rense, 49 borno, 50 Rense, 51 daacon, 52 Peter Zack, 53 Peter Zack, 54 dadipentax, 55 David Whiteley, 56 planedriver, 57 daacon,58 Bramela, 59 daacon, 60 gawan, 61 virgilr, 62 daacon, 63 RickL, 64 Peter Zack, 65 Peter Zack, 66 Causey 67 daacon, 68 Bramela, 69 georgeweb, 70 daacon, 71 seacapt, 72 daacon, 73 AOski, 74 Rense 75 eccs19, 76 daacon, 77 xs400, 78 daacon, 79 Bramela, 80 borno, 81 legacyb4, 82 daacon, 83 gawan, 84 Rense, 85 Peter Zack, 86 davef, 87 davef, 88 xjjohnno 89 Bramela 90 Peter Zack 91 daacon

Here are a couple to start us off ... Click on image for larger view

More tailgating action from the Texans football game



The old Houston Astrodrome once state of the art now relegated to a pratice field..



The New Reliant Statdium an impressive site for sure ....



The Texans score and this guys runs the field each time ....



Your turn now

[foster]

Thanks very much!

[stevebrot]

This might be the strangest photo I have ever taken...

Spider Shadow

Pentax K10D, Sigma 50/2.8 EX DG Macro

Apparently I swatted a spider on the inside of one of my windows several weeks ago. This last week I noticed a bright prismatic spot on the glass and was surprised to see a sparkling outline of a small spider. I don't know what the shadow is composed of, but it certainly was striking.

Steve

[daacon]

Great start eveyone wow already on Page 2 lets keep up the pace

Rense - beautiful flower those are long gone here .... great BW as well.

Plankton - I love the sense of motion on that second one well done.

jezza323 - thanks for the comments - very cool cricket series. I have never actually watched a game but it looks fasinating.

xjjohonno - great bird series as usual, and nice flower hope it's not too hot down there for ya.

Foster - great colors . Love that second one nice series.

Steve - wow that is strange haha hope it does not re-animate

A few more from the game .... click on image for larger view

Where's Waldo ?




Thirsty ?



And what the heck was the guy with honken big lens watching ???? Me my 'focus' would have been 'elsewere'

[ramseybuckeye]

ramesybuckeye - I think the last one is the best of the bunch. I would try a longer exposure , it's tough with the moon there it will overexpose.

Thanks, daacon, that one has the least accurate color, but the longer exposure must have made the ripple effect in the water. Too bad you couldn't have taken a little of that Texas weather back to Alberta!

ramseybuckeye - try shooting scenes like that as manual HDR. get a nice exposure for the moon (will be quite short) and then do a 2nd much much longer exposure for the foreground. then erase the moon from the long exposure, and blend them together will help get rid of the problem you have with an overexposed moon, and underexposed landscape.

Thanks jezza, I'll try that, and love the cricket scenes.

[tpeace]

Here's a pelican caught in mid-gulp:


And an egret who was a more cooperative poser:


regards,
-tom

[Rense]

Tom, that Egret is beautiful!

@ Dave: yes, flowers are gone here too, but this is one in our kitchen!

[Dale]

I was given a near mint PENTAX-A 1:3.5 35~105mm by a friend. It was about time I took it out to compare it against my Sigma 17-70. We headed down xjjohonno's way to visit the zoo on the weekend and both lenses came with me.

Anyway I grabbed a couple of shots with the Pentax, this would be one of the better ones. I must say that I'm quite impressed with it, to the point where I might keep using it over the Sigma.

[seacapt]

Well it's that time of year again.The small town Christmas parade was yesterday. I was hoping for some great pictures but about 10 minutes before it started the clouds rolled in. At least it didn't rain ! Happy hollidays to all!

From the bottom:
Dale- beautiful baby
Tom - cool pelican and exquisit egret
Dave- Uh you were shooting the photographer in that third picture right?
Steve-really cool unintentional abstract. I'm thinkin it was one of Ziggy Stardust's spiders from Mars.
Foster - exceptionally nice perspective in the first 2
Johnno- Great color from the Tair, Kinda cool seeing Spring pictures when it's late Fall here
Jezza - Great action shots especially like the last one
Plankton - cool drum shot
Rense - all I can say is beautiful
Iris- a lovely table and warm fire make for an ejoyable evening
Causey- Brrrrr!
Ramseybuckeye- well done night shots
Dave - you get to go to all the fun stuff!

[reeftool]

I haven't posted here in a couple of weeks because I had been busy and the camera sat idle somewhat but this weekend our village also had our annual Christmas parade/tree lighting ceremony complete with fireworks on the beach. It became quite a challenge as a heavy wet snow began falling right around parade time as it was getting dark. I had the camera on a monopod with an umbrella in one hand trying to keep the snow off the lens. I was shooting at ISO1600 and panning for the parade shots and managed a few keepers. The first 2 are a local fireman tossing candy to the kids and some kids getting it. The third is one of the floats. The last shot is some carolers and I use the pop up flash which really picked up the snow flakes and made for a nice scene. I didn't attempt any fireworks shots with the snow falling.

[seacapt]

Reeftool -Glad to see that you and all who were in the parade were willing to brave the elements! People spend time and money , go out in the cold and put a smile on their face to do something special for a community and for the kids. Folks from the cities might think these parades are about advertising but I think we know better.
A few more from me, and Mery Christmas to one and all!

[tpeace]

Made my annual visit to the Florida Everglades and was really surprised that the bird population seemed to be way down to my eye this year. Spoke with a couple of Park Rangers, one who agreed with me and another who didn't. So I don't know with certainty, but processing this along with the very low snow depths at the Colorado and Utah ski resorts and I think maybe the birds know something out weather forecasters don't.





Had fun trying to time these shots to capture some fish jumping. Took a while to get the timing down but finally dialed in after about 30 minutes. Don't know what was making them jump but it wasn't the gator who acted oblivious to them. Guess he wasn't hungry


Kinf of amazing they get out of the water without much splash. Pretty big splash on the re-entry though.


Regards,
-tom

[daacon]

Tom - that Pelican pose is something else - but the egret is outstanding well done.

Rense - ahh well then that explains that.

Dale - great shot and love the Baby blues a keeper for sure.

seacapt - was there a photgrapher in that shot ? Looks like quite a parade love the dog reindeer in the last one - Joyeux Noel to you as well.

Reeftool - those are some really good shots in difficult conditions. You did well.

seacapt - again nice series you have captured the spirit all you need is some snow ask reeftool or myself we can supply some

Tom - another great bird series and nice captures on the jumping fish. Maybe they were trying to catch some flies ? Well done.

[daacon]

We have been fortunate the last several weeks as far as the weather goes. We had big dump in early October (which melted in a week or so) and then more or less nothing until Friday. Friday old man winter arrived and as a result we got to Shovel three times on Friday and twice on Saturday. It has stopped snowing now but any hope of a brown christmas has long since passed.

Click on image for full view (and yeah the WB is off on some of these - hey it was early in the AM and I was cold and tired !)

Why we always switch to Snow Tires in November





The bank of the driveway once shovelled



The wife enjoying some of the action - hey somebody has to shovel while I am taking pictures !!



And if the driveway and walkway are not enough I have to shovel the deck and some of the backyard to allow our dog to go outside and do his 'bidness' haha

[tpeace]

Thanks Dave, So that's where all the snow is going this winter. I might have to shoot and post some beach shots tomorrow to balance things out!

Here's one of the throw-a-ways from my "fishing" trip ... I have a ton of these! lol!



re-t

[seacapt]

Hey Tom , Where in the everglades is that? Mullet and gators together , makes me think about Everglades National Park at Flamingo but I heard the buildings and boat ramps got wiped out a few years back in a storm.