On a trip back from Germany in September of 2017 I took my camera for a walk during the early afternoon into a cool part of Houston known as the Centennial Gardens at Hermann Park (Link to Page). Houston is a true urban jungle with not much green space so to have something this close to the house where I can walk to it is something I try to appreciate and take advantage of when I can.

When you enter the gardens the first thing you see are a set of these chairs. They sit outside in the sun most of the day and are typically so hot you can’t hardly sit on them.

35 mm f/13, ISO 100, 1/100 sec

These were flowers that I noticed while sitting on a bench in the shade across the sidewalk from them. I couldn’t help but notice how deep the red was in contrast to background.

35 mm f/13, ISO 100, 1/80 sec

This was the first experiment with a wide angle lens. It was a huge shift for me because I had really only shot 35mm prime and 50mm prime before this. For the record, I think 35mm prime is an amazing lens and it’s typically my go to (as it is for countless others). Having a zoom lens of any kind though is nice since you don’t have to quite move around quite as much.

10 mm f/4.5, ISO 100, 1/4000 sec w/ polarization filter

I really liked this photo for some reason – the combination of the really beautiful garden with this concrete jungle all around it. As strange as it sounds when I saw this shot later it looked like the building was “looking in the window” to the park trying to get in.

35 mm f/13, ISO 100, 1/80 sec

This is a fountain on one end of the gardens that just looked cool that I shot with a wide angle lens.

20 mm f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec