By David Morefield

My friends and I agreed to go down to Galveston Island to shoot some pictures. The evening started off with a brilliant plan, but as soon as we arrived at our first location to get sunset photos, we had to call an audible. Apparently, the site that we had chosen is a whole lot different that we remembered, so we had to come up with an alternate plan. We ended up heading over to Moody Gardens thinking that we might get some cool shots of the pyramids, but that too was asking a little much. The sun had already fallen lower than the pyramids, so we drove around Moody Gardens and shot near Offatts Bayou.

We found a Paddlewheel docked that Tim and Wayne took particular interest in shooting, but for some reason, I just wasn’t that into a ship that is made to look old. I ended up walking through some marshland and finding some interesting concrete address markers. I am not sure what they are, but they do have some age on them. While I was shooting the sunset and these old concrete address markers, I became the center of attention for the local inhabitants of the marsh – Mosquitoes. Yes, I was dumb enough to go in shorts, so let that be a lesson to me in the future. Although, I will say, long pants have never discouraged a mosquito that I know of, so at least I remained cool.

When we left Moody Gardens, we went to the Seawall to get some pictures of the new Pleasure Pier. I say new, because it has been a while since I have been down to Galveston Island, so it was new to me. I have to say that the Pleasure Pier took an eyesore (the Flagship Hotel) and turned into quite an attraction. The Flagship Hotel was a rundown building that was starting to really hurt the image of Galveston Island. Some developers came along and removed the Hotel from the Pier and built an amusement park. What a cool idea.

From the Seawall, we left to go to the Strand. If you have never been to the Strand, it is what I consider the most attractive part of town. There are rows of shops housed in older buildings and the whole area has an old world feel to it. In the evenings, you will find people gathering around enjoying each other’s company and live music. The Strand is also the center of the attention around Christmas with Dickens on the Strand.

After a late night of cruising around taking pictures I took them home and headed to house for a long night of post-processing. What is funny is that I am not really to the point where I can just come home and go to bed, I typically load my pictures on my computer the minute I come home so I can at least see what I have. It’s kind of funny, but it reminds me of what it felt like trying to go to bed on Christmas Eve as a kid; now that I am an adult, I unwrap my gifts and then go to bed. LOL