I mentioned in a post last week, that when hiking, you shouldn’t pass up the little things that often get passed by on your way to “the shot.” I’m not sure what it was about this group of leaves that stuck out to me, probably the blue sky reflection in the water and the multiple variations in color of the leaves themselves, but I couldn’t walk away from it. If you find yourself in that situation, just take the shot. Don’t fight worrying about it, whether you should take it or not. If anything, you come up with a nice study shot, like this one. There’s something pleasing about the above image, and it’s certainly not the composition. But it’s there. Somewhere.

How many national parks does Texas have? Four, not counting the other ten monuments, preserves, historical sites, etc. One of my particular favorite national parks in the state is the Guadalupe Mountains National Park near Dell City, Texas. It’s actually right on the New Mexico/Texas border, in between Carlsbad and El Paso. This park has a great variety of terrain, flora and wildlife to check out, as well as a heritage that is as big as the legend that surrounds the state, not to mention the multitude of hiking trails in the many canyons and mountainsides!

A while back I wrote a post with images from one of my trips to the park, and the post helped me land a story with a really great looking publication, Texas Magazine. Take a look at the article on their Web site, or click here for a look at the story in the online version of the magazine!

Texas Magazine is a new travel and culture pub for the state, and I visited the publisher, Kelley Glick, not too long ago. There are energetic plans in store for the magazine, and I hope to see many issues in the future.

For you photogs, if you have photographs of places of interest and travel, get them out there! Don’t hang on to them too long and miss opportunities. At the least, create a blog and showcase your work. You never know what will happen!