The Oak

My neighbors have the most awesome oak tree in their front yard. Legend has it that this oak tree was blown over during the hurricane of 1900 that hit Galveston Island. The tree is now mature and everyone in my hometown knows it. I guess for a tree, it's famous in my neck of the woods. If I ever need to give someone directions to my house all I have to do is mention this tree.

Every year I get to watch families climb onto the branches for family Christmas pictures and prom time is a sight to behold. I get a front row seat to all the beautiful formal gowns that will be worn that night. Although I have never had any pictures taken under or in the tree, I can only imagine what wonderful pictures come from under these branches.

The day this photo was taken was a typical southeast Texas winter day. Chilly and raining. I have been trying to learn how to use some of the manual features of my camera and my lesson for this week had to do with shutter speed. I was actually sitting on the tailgate of my husband's truck hoping to get a few photos of birds feeding at my small feeder but had no luck. Instead I snapped a few of the oak tree. Although this small photo does not show the detail, if you click on it to see the larger version you can actually see the raindrops stopped in mid air. It's by no means a photo to awe over, but I was pleased that what I had learned in my self-paced camera class I was actually able to achieve. Now if I can just get some sunny days to try this out with my daughters playing. I am so hoping that I can actually get some action shots that are not blurry.