A Memorable Memorial Day

So last week I decided that I wanted to do something historical this Memorial Day, while at the same time honoring those that have served our country and given the ultimate sacrifice. I had heard about a photography exhibit at the San Jacinto Museum and thought, what better way to spend this holiday than touring the site of one of the most famous battles in the War for Texas Independence and a World War I and World War II battleship, Battleship Texas; not to mention getting to see some great photography too.

The San Jacinto Monument stands 570 feet tall, which is 15 feet taller
than the Washington Monument in D.C. In fact, the San Jacinto Monument
is the tallest war memorial in the world. Wouldn’t you know that it
can be found in Texas. It’s located just east of Houston in the town of La Porte.

I wanted to get there early because I knew that it would get crowded later in the day... oh yeah, and much hotter! But I wanted to take some pictures of the site while I was learning about the battle and the brave men who fought on this sacred ground. Arriving at the park at around 9:30 a.m., I was able to get quite a few good shots of the monument and the surrounding areas without a lot of other people in the image. Of course, having one or two people in your image, even if you don’t know them can be a good thing when you are photographing something like a tall monument. That is because it helps to give the tall subject in your image a sense of proportion.

Anyway, I started my educational experience by touring the battle ground. There were several markers around that described various parts of the battle. It was very interesting to follow how the battle progressed on the actual ground as opposed to just reading about it or watching it at the little movie theater inside the main building.

After that, I took some time looking at and reading about Cecil Thompson’s historical photographs of Houston. This was, after all, the original reason I started thinking about going to the San Jacinto Museum in the first place. The exhibit was extremely interesting. Being a photographer myself, I admire the early pioneers and marvel at the images they were able to produce with such primitive equipment.

Finally, I concluded the day with a tour of the Battleship Texas. This was a wonderful reminder of how our Navy sailors and Marines live, work, and fight every day. It takes a special person to do that for any period of time, let alone an entire career. I served in the Army for four years, but was never deployed overseas. I am truly thankful that there are brave men and women that are willing to put themselves in harm’s way for the rest of us so that we can continue to live in comfort.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you are ever in the Houston area and want something fun and interesting to do, definitely consider visiting the San Jacinto Museum. I don’ think you will be disappointed.

Finally... Some Time to Relax

Well, I’ve been a little quiet lately as you may have noticed. I have a good excuse though. I am one semester from obtaining my MBA and for two of the last three weeks I have been studying for finals and completing all my required assignments. This, along with work, kept me extremely busy as you might imagine. And this past week, my wife took a short trip to Florida. It was nice to finally get some time to relax for a few days.

Siesta Key Beach (near Sarasota) has some of the whitest sand of any U.S. beach.

This photo was not altered. The sand is very fine, which makes it super soft.

Also, because it is so white, the sand is not hot, which makes it much nicer

for walking around in your bare feet.

We actually stayed at the Hilton on Longboat Key, which is just a few islands north of Siesta Key Beach, but it is one of the only major name hotels on the islands and we had HiltonHonors points to use anyway, so that is why we chose to stay there. It was right on the beach and only 10 minutes from St. Armands Circle, where we spent every evening eating, shopping, enjoying ice cream, and people watching. If you are ever in the area, make it a point to stop by Lido Key and walk around the circle. If you are hungry, you have to eat at the Columbia Restaurant and get ice cream at Kilwin’s. They are both excellent!

What I actually want to talk about in this blog post though is packing photography gear for a trip like this. Since this was intended to be a fun and relaxing vacation, I decided not to bring a lot of my professional gear. Instead I simply brought my Nikon D50 with my all-purpose Nikon 18-200 mm VR lens. I also brought my Nikon 10.5 mm Fisheye lens and my SB-400 flash, just in case, as well as a bean bag for resting my camera for long exposure shots. Other than that, I brought six 1 GB memory cards and my 12-inch PowerBook for storing my images.

That was the extent of my gear and I was able to get a lot of good shots. Sometimes photographers can go overboard when packing for trips. They tend to bring more gear than they need and end up lugging it around all over the place, without ever pulling it out of the bag. When I am packing, I make a promise to myself that if I put a piece of gear in my bag, I will use it. For this trip I did pretty good. I used everything except the SB-400, but that was a “just in case” item anyway.

So, the next time you go on a trip, pack only what you will use. Remember, it isn’t the gear that makes the photograph, it’s the photographer. If you want to see the photographs I took while on vacation, you can check out my flickr photostream. Enjoy!