Karnes County San Antonio River Bridge formerly Old Choate Bridge

What a glorious day it was on 01/14/12, went out to explore the surrounding areas and found the Old Choate Bridge in Karnes County. I took off at 8:15am and found it about 9:15am….people have no idea how blessed Bee County is, probably 99% of our county roads are paved. Well, I found out today that Karnes County hasn’t paved their county roads. What an interesting drive that was, my Nissan Versa wants to be a PU when it grows up, I needed one today….but I live for days like today. I followed the signs and saw the bridge before I got to it. I found that this is a “morning” shoot, sun was to my left and it made for better photos of the bridge….problem was, I thought I was gonna be shot being in the area, had to jump a fence to go down and photograph the bridge and I heard gun fire up river…….eek!!!

After photographing that area, I drove back to Bee County and drove up to FM 798 from Tulsita Texas towards Pawnee & stopped at the intersection of FM798 & 2985 to look for the Pullin-Livingston Cemetery that was supposed to be in the brush there. I looked around finding a “game trail” into the brush, but couldn’t find any headstones or markers spending 15-20 minutes in the brush, but nada!!

I drove up to Pawnee & back down to Mineral, taking photos along the way and found the Arrisola Cemetery on CR 104. My Mom show us this cemetery many years ago when the area was harder to get into, there were only a couple of headstones then, but now a few more have been added.

I continued my drive down to Orangedale stopping at the old road that led to the old

Old Orangedale Bridge in Bee County

Orangedale Bridge. I got out and hiked towards the bridge, finding a fence between me and the bridge. I decided to drive over to Henry Lane at Orangedale, but couldn’t get to the bridge that way. I finally stopped at a ranch on FM 673 and spoke to a gentleman there, he gave me permission to “jump” a fence to walk back to the bridge and take photos….wow, it was better than I thought, what an awesome old bridge the Orangedale Bridge is, I went crazy and got several photos of it from all angles, I had such a great time!! I wanted to keep photographing, but I figured I got enough….I was just awed by what’s left of the bridge, finally made it home at 1:45pm and was so thankful to God for the glorious day God blessed me with. Enjoy the photos!!!  sylvia

Click on the link for more photos:
http://www.sylviagarcia-smith.com/gallery/v/011412_Bridges_OL/

I’ve officially “closed” my wedding photography business out as of 12/31/11, but I will still be around and available to help folks that need instruction on using the new cameras they got for Christmas and for whatever else comes up. Have a wonderful 2012, I believe in thinking positive and that our Heavenly Father guides us to where He wants us to be, we’ve just gotta sit back, quiet our thoughts and listen for His voice…..May His blessings be “showered” on everyone that views this site, enjoy the gifts that He has blessed me with to share with you. You are welcome to contact me for any info you might need on photography or if you’d like to buy a print of my work…just go to the Contact Us page for info….. sylvia

Santa vists Beeville, The Christmas Tree Forest at the McClanahan House and visits from First Baptist Church and St Philips Schools, what fun times in Beeville during Christmas….enjoy and have a very merry and blessed Christmas…….

http://www.sylviagarcia-smith.com/gallery/v/Christmas+in+Beeville/

sylvia

If you have an interest in having me photograph your event, please contact me for pricing. I will no longer be publishing my prices. Please look over the photos I have taken in the past by viewing my Photo Gallery, I believe you will be pleased with my work. Thank you so very much for having visited my site….Merry Christmas to all!! And have a very happy new year. sylvia

Had an awesome Quinceañera “shoot” on 11/19/11….Katelynn Pena was an extremely gorgeous young lady to photograph. No church was involved, just the reception at the Live Oak County Coliseum. Everyone had a great time and we all enjoyed the fun involved during the whole “shoot”. Stand by for photos…I will be uploading them to the Zenfolio site so folks can buy if they wish…here’s the link:

http://sylviagarciasmith.zenfolio.com/

Be blessed during this awesome holiday season 2011 and continue to give thanks to our Father for all He has given us!!!…sylvia

I’m so thankful for another beautiful day God gave us today on 11/05/11, unfortunately I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped for during the contest. Out of 4000 photos judged, I was blessed with a 4th place in the Night Photography division, I just wish I had done better. This win is classified as an Honorable Mention, so it may not even make the book, but maybe next time I will do better. I competed against several big name photographers, so I was blessed to get what I got….BUT, congratulations go to Jimmy Jackson’s Dobie Ranch/Poesta Place of Beeville for their win in the Buntings/Grosbeaks-1st place, Arachnids-2nd place and Butterflies/Moths-5th place, awesome job!!!!…Another winner was Robert Benson of Beeville at San Domingo Ranch with a 5th place in Birds of Prey I….

Congratulations to all the ranches that won, you have all been blessed with beautiful sites and animals….Blessings to all, keep “shooting” out there, God gives us many beautiful blessings for free, I’m glad I’ve been allowed to share them with you all!! ☺ sgs

CBWPC - 4th Place - Night Division

Well, things have slowed down a bit lately and am ready to start doing some “people” photography. I’m hoping you might decide to use me someday soon. I did make some price changes to the list, so book early before other prices go up in 2012.

I was blessed with a very awesome family photo shoot on 10/15/11. We’d had this planned since March, we were waiting for the right time  and it finally came up. The family was gorgeous, patient and fun to “shoot”. They had a blast going through all the homes that are set up at the Oakville Museum in Live Oak County. By the way, this is a Bed & Breakfast style location and is constantly staying booked at the moment with dove hunters and oil field workers.

My story on: “So you want to be a Wildlife Photographer” was published in the Bee Picayune’s (My South Texas) Fall Visitors guide, along with several “reject” photos from the contest. Hope you all were able to pick it up and read it. Some parts were funny, but all were true!!

NOTE: I received a letter from the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest office on 10/21/11, stating that at least one of my photos won a prize. I won’t know which photo won until 11/05/11, so I am very excited to see which one placed. It was an experience I will never forget. God blessed me with many beautiful animals and landscapes to photograph. You can view these photos in my Photo Gallery right here, just click the tab above that says Photo Gallery. If you’d like to buy any photos, they are available thru my Zenfolio site. A link is to your “right” -> here on this page.

Thank you all for viewing this site. Please feel free to make comments. I hope you’ve enjoyed the blogs on my adventures. I will try to keep posting interesting things as they occur. Right now, I’m going to college attempting to get an AAS so we will have to see where God take me now.

God bless you all and remember me for your next wedding or event.  sylvia

Yay!!! I can show you the photos I submitted to the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest, but they are loaded to the Zenfolio site so if anyone is interesting in buying any, they can be ordered thru here. They have also been posted on this site, but have been © copyright stamped in the middle of the photo. The ones on Zenfolio have a copyright stamp on the side. All the photos have been judged, I can only hope one or two may have placed, but I won’t know anything until November the 5th. If something did place, I’ll get a letter in the mail, so I will be waiting for something, I hope. All these photos have been formatted for 8×12 prints, but you can get 4×6, 8×12, 16×20 or 20×30 without having to crop them. If you want a close up of something, you will have the option to crop it in, but it will not have the “copyright” stamp with who took the photo if you’d like that on there. Please don’t hesitate to leave comments on the site, I would tremendously appreciate them. It will let me know if you like what God gave me to photograph. Thanks to all my fans and supporters for the encouragement you gave me. It was a tough competition, but very rewarding in the end. Blessings to all….sylvia

http://sylviagarciasmith.zenfo​lio.com/p260957098

Please see the “side” bar for a link to the Zenfolio site….thanks!

I have been really busy the last few weeks since completing the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest. I’ve been going to school, hosting an Australian friend, Claire I. Hutchinson and just keeping plain busy.

Earlier in the year, I was asked by the Beeville Art Museum if I would teach a basic photography class to anyone interested sometime in the Fall. I said, sure sounds like fun. A date was picked and info was sent out via radio, the local paper and Facebook. The class was scheduled for October 01, 2011.

I arrived early and already had 5 students waiting in the museum. By the time I started, I had more than 20 people. Folks were suppose to register and the cut off was going to be at 15, but I couldn’t turn folks away. We all had a blast and I truly believe everyone had fun and learned something during the class.

I’m hoping to have the Coastal Bend Continuing Education program sponser another class this month. So if you have any questions, please contact Mary Perez at 361-362-2633 for dates.

God is awesome for the folks He places in my path, I have learned from them as much as they have learned from me. Blessings to all and I’ll keep you posted on upcoming classes.

sylvia

Day 60 ** 07/31/11

Common White Tail

What an awesome day! But unfortunately, I didn’t get what “I” wanted in the field. The weather was decent, the humidity was still bad, but with the small breeze blowing, it was nice. I even smelled the mustiness of the forest undergrowth as I got to the creek, it reminded me of Fall being around the corner.

I had set up by 7:15am waiting for my Great Blue Heron. The sun, coming up on my right, was shining so pretty along the creek banks. Just simply beautiful and hard to describe. You had to be there. There were a couple of Green Heron in the creek when I got there and they took off as I walked down to the site.

The birds were waking up and making sounds about 8am, I heard a Great Kiskadee up in the trees. About 9am, I noticed movement down the creek, it kept coming up towards me and I saw it, the Great Blue Heron taking slow steps along the creek bank in the water, fishing. I had to clean off the lens because it had fogged up from the humidity. Dratz! But the bird kept coming. He stopped about halfway and was still looking for fish. Then all of a sudden, it shook itself off and just took off towards me, I wasn’t ready, dratz! I missed it a final time, I didn’t get the shot I wanted, I teared up knowing I wouldn’t get another chance. Bummer!!

Eastern Pondhawk

I sat there a bit longer hoping it would come back. I could hear the Green Heron behind me somewhere. The Green Kingfisher didn’t show today. The creek is drying up bad and the fish are getting scarce. No telling where the Kingfisher was. As I was waiting, I looked behind me and noticed something big out of the corner of my eye. I turned around proper only to see a cow eating from a tree, scared the begeevers out of me….ish.

Then I noticed movement up the creek towards the swing-gate. Fur, and I couldn’t photograph it, too far and too many trees, another dratz!! It was a family of coyote, about 5 or 6, I could see the pups, oh, not a good day for me at all! I quickly got up and got my rig extended and hurried up the slope hoping to get a glimpse of one. Nothing! I hiked towards the swing-gate and notice cows in the area on the west side of the creek, then I noticed all the dragonflies and another Green Heron that saw me and took off flying to the north.

I started messing with the dragonflies and just had a blast with them. I finally went and got my gear together and headed back to the Toy. As I packed up the stuff, I teared up again, I’m going to miss being out here. It was so peaceful and just down-right gorgeous. I kneeled down and thanked our Heavenly Father for having shown me so many beautiful things and for keeping me safe out in the wild. It was an awesome experience and it was all through His Hands that I was able to experience it.

La Lechuza

As I was driving up the ranch road, I stopped to take photos of an old oak tree the landowner calls “La Lechuza”….it’s a grand old oak tree and I hadn’t taken the time to catalogue it. I took 5 photos and later merged them in Photoshop to create a panorama, beautiful.

Enjoy God’s gifts and blessings folks. They are free for all to see and experience. Let’s keep our environment safe for many generations to come. Thank you for having shared in my adventures in the field…sylvia garcia-smith