Galveston - shipyard

A friend told me about the nice shots he took in Galveston. I decided to go for sunset photos. Sunset photos are always a bit of a gamble, especially when the location is 1,5 hour drive from home. The weather forecast indicated that there would be a bit of cloud cover, so I drove to Galveston. The location was better than I could wish for, a rock solid pier (no blurry photos) and a band (The Tomz Katz Band) was playing at Joe's Crab Shack at Pier 19. I would almost forget that the photos came out quite nice.

The shipyard is ‘Gulf Copper Dry Dock & Offshore Rig Repair’. During Ike, the water level in Galveston was about 6-9 feet. It took quite a while to rebuild the economy. Luckily the damage to the shipyard was minor and was able to reopen a week after Ike made landfall.

Independence Day

On July 2nd 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved the resolution of independence which separated the 13 colonies from Great Britain. On July 4th, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

Each year, Independence Day is celebrated with parades, barbeques and fireworks. Within the city limits of Houston, fireworks is banned except for professionals.This year, I went to a shopping mall called CityCentre.

DockDogs

DockDogs is a US organisation that holds weekly dog jumping events. Last Saturday, they had set up a pool in Discovery Green Houston.
My plan was to shoot panning photos. It turned out that was nearly impossible because of the variable speed of dogs. For example a motorcycle has a much more constant speed which gives a much higher success rate for panning shots. At least I got one relatively good shot. It looks like a blurry shot, but take a look at the dog....

5th Ward

The Houston summer is to warm to walk around town. Therefore I decided to drive around town. About a year ago, I visited Saint Arnold’s Brewery that is located north of I10. Today’s photo-road-trip started from there.

The 5th Ward dates back to the late 19th century. After the Civil War (1861-1865) the freed slaves started settling in the sparsely populated area North of Houston, which is known today as the 5th Ward. In 2000, the median income was $8,900.

During the 70s and 80s of the 20th century, the 5th Ward was notorious for its high crime rate. When I checked the number at the Houston Police Department website, I couldn't find that much of a difference with other areas in Houston. My colleagues were surprised when they learned where I went for the weekend, but I guess they still remembered the stories from the last century. I didn’t feel unsafe in the 5th Ward.



From a distance it looked like this lady was drying her laundry, until I got closer and realized ‘no one has this much laundry’.


Unlike other cities around the world, Houston doesn’t know zoning laws.


All these houses seem to be abandoned.


These houses seem to be constructed later in the 20th century. Unfortunately the battery in my gps logger ran out of power, therefore these photos don’t have a geotag.


Houston and Galveston were an important stop for many railroad companies. Most of these companies had their own tracks which resulted in many rail intersections and rail tracks in parallel. Especially the north side of Houston has many railway tracks. Today, many freight trains use the tracks.




This photo shows three level crossings in a row.


The 5th Ward is about a few decades older than construction of railroad. Looking at the map, it can be observed that the railway tracks followed the street pattern, where in other neighborhoods the street pattern is laid out around the railway tracks. I wouldn’t be surprised when the stop sign at the railroad crossing below dates back to the years when verhicles and train made use of the same road. Today the stop sign has no function anymore.