Fall Foliage: Part I

Yesterday,  my mom and I went on a little adventure. Rumor has it she was tempted to skip work on Friday just to go look at trees, so we had to get our fix yesterday. We love pretty trees. So, after lunch with the family, just the two of us headed out - me in the driver's seat.

First we hit a little trail by a neighborhood my mom keeps passing by and she wanted to check it out. It didn't look the same up close in person than when you're driving past. A tad disappointing, and it was HOT out. Like nearly 90 degrees. Why, Texas?!

Then we went to Willowbend Mall, where my mom thought there may be some good trees. There were a few, but there also weren't really any places to stop to take pictures. So.

Then we went to an office building area, which had some nice trees and plenty of space to get the right angle. We were just afraid some security officer would confront us. They did not.

Tomorrow I will share pictures from the final place we went...

- rl

(p.s. I'm aware these aren't the best pictures. Not sure anyone else will notice, but I definitely did once I got them on my computer. In my defense, it's so hard to really see the quality of a picture on an LCD screen in the afternoon sun. Sigh.)

What I've Been Up To This Week

Reading before I go into work. 

Not regretting having a ham and cheese croissant from Paradise Bakery every now and then.

Reading after work and while waiting to be picked up.

Trying to remember to eat more pears. 

Enjoying the environment at work. One of my managers/friend put random condiments in my bag when I went on break. 

Sacrificing the slippers I love so this boy can be happy.

What's up in your world?

- rl

(p.s. Getting my own laptop = finally getting pictures off my phone = finally having space on my phone for the first time in forever = finally taking pictures with my iPhone again = the first time I've had iPhone photos on my blog! All others are taken with my Canon Rebel T3i, and the rest will be, unless specified. All photos in this post were taken with my iPhone 4S.)

Photo Editing

I don't know why I feel the desire to share my opinion/process of editing photos. I actually don't edit my photos. I haven't, that is. The only edited photos on my blog were a couple days ago in this post. I thought I would share here how little I edited these photos. I also think it will be fun to have this list for future reference.

The top photos are the edited ones. All were edited using Adobe Photoshop Express, which I found free in the store on my Windows 8 laptop.

Picture 1:

Looking at these side by side, I can hardly tell the difference. I just tried to make it a little less washed out. 

Picture 2:

I cropped this photo. I think that's it. I took this picture while we were on a boat tour on the Riverwalk in San Antonio because of those two similar angles, but didn't like that the sky awkwardly got in there, so I cropped it out. It looks like I may have played with the shadows a teeny bit, but I can't even tell. 

Picture 3:

I only cropped this one, because I didn't like that those people happened to be in the picture. 

Picture 4:

The first thing I did to this photo was crop it, so it was endless balconies. Then I think I tried to lessen the yellow-ness of the lights, but that was obviously not fixed. Of course, I could try it in black and white, but half the fun is that that is how those balconies looked. (Also, I knew I liked this photo. I uploaded it to 500px.com, a website I'm starting to use to share some of my photography, and it's gotten a lot of comments/like/favorites tonight! You can view it here.)

Picture 5:

This photo is the one I edited the most. I didn't like the yellow look. I ended up just making it black and white. And playing around with some levels. 

Picture 6: 

The main thing I did with this one was straighten it. It really bothered me that the wall looks crooked on the left side, so I fixed it. I also edited it a tad. Maybe. I don't remember now, I did all these Saturday night in the hotel room.

So that's it. I guess my view on photo editing is simple: cropping, straightening, and making it black and white. While I love the coloring on all the hipster photos I reblog on tumblr, that's not my photography style. My style is natural. That's why I shoot in manual. That's why I don't delete any photos, even the ones that I will obviously never use because the settings were wrong. I like to look back on the process it takes to get one photo.

- rl

New Braunfels: Day 3

The hotel we stay at when we go to New Braunfels is next to some sort of dump and some donkeys. That's why I got out of bed Sunday morning - a donkey was making some sort of sound. We then proceeded to all stare out the window at the donkey as it paced back and forth. Right before we left for church, we saw another donkey on the other side of the fence. 

We went to church with our cousins. After the regular service, we went to the Bible study. So much fun to hear some more discussion on Ruth.

After church we went to Longhorn Cafe there in NB. The little sister and I split the things you see in the photo below. Definitely not healthy, but we ate everything & it was probably cheaper than us each getting a full burger + fries that we wouldn't be able to finish. 

After lunch we headed out to my oldest cousin's house by Lake McQueeney. 

This cute dog followed us as we walked from the house to the lake. Poor thing was limping. 

Ducks! They were very noisy.

My uncle has been doing some fishing down there, and while we were there he caught a catfish!

And that was our weekend! I drove the whole way home. Yes, really. Before we left town we stopped by Buc-ee's. I got a Monster, rice krispie treat, and some beef jerky. I think jerky was the most helpful thing to chow on when I was getting tired around dusk...except for when I would have to pass someone while keeping both hands on the wheel and trying to bite through jerky. Thank you to my dad for handing me the different things while I drove. He also remained very calm while I navigated merging onto Dallas North Tollway from 35. At night. With something going on at the American Airlines Center aka causing some traffic. Very interesting. That wasn't as bad as driving on DNT, though! Trying to go 65mph on those curves was terrifying. Aside from that, it wasn't too bad of a drive!

I really enjoyed this weekend. I liked that we weren't entirely sure what all we wanted to do, and therefore ended up just going with the flow. I can't wait to go back!

- rl 

New Braunfels: Day 2 (but actually all San Antonio)

Saturday. We woke up late - something my parents rarely get to do because of our dog that likes to get up early. That afternoon - after eating breakfast and getting dressed - we headed to San Antonio with my dad's sister - my aunt.

We knew we wanted to go to Rita's again, but, considering that it was still around 2pm, planned on just having appetizers then and going back last on to eat a full meal. But then we had to wait 20 minutes for a table, and figured it best to just eat then. Queso. Enchiladas. So good. Long after everyone else finished their food, we just sat there hanging out and people watching. A table next to us was having caricatures done of each couple, and the table next to that had just been to a wedding, because they were very dressed up for that time of day, and later on, sure enough, came a bride and groom.

Then we decided to take a boat ride. We had thought about going to Wurstfest (too expensive and mostly drinking), then a safari place between New Braunfels and San Antonio (WAY expensive), and of course I was hoping to go zip lining at a place connected to the safari, but there just aren't enough hours in the day for the rest of my family to sit there while I get an adrenaline rush, ya know?

So we settled for a boat ride, and I think it was the best decision. Cheap - less than $10/person for a 35 minute-or-so ride. Our ride started at just the right time that we had plenty of light to take pictures until the last few minutes of it. I took a good amount of pictures, and because this is my blog and it does not matter how many I post, I'm going to share some of my favorites! Looking back at some of them, I know they could be better if I was a bit more practiced with shooting in manual. I'm not sweating it, though, because I know I'll be rooting to go again soon! Also, I'm not even going to attempt to explain how cool some of the places in these pictures are. You'll just have to go for yourself. (:

Once we got done with that, we decided to make our way to the Alamo. We knew where we parked, and we knew where we were, so, with the help of iPhones, we made it to the Alamo. (This is where I'll try to avoid going on and on about how much I loved walking in the streets of a city - albeit one on the smaller side - for the first time in a while. That was something I was really looking forward to in moving to Chicago. One day...)

I was a little obsessed with this corner across from the Alamo. 

A slightly different angle on the corner a few pictures up because, seriously, look at those stairs!

I don't remember if it was my mom or my aunt who pointed out that ceiling, but I had to get a picture! 

I was so excited to see they had what looked like the public bikes like I've seen instagram posts about in cities like NYC and Chicago! Wish we had the time/energy to try them out!

Tomorrow: the third and final day!

- rl