I was surfing OneEighteen’s Flickr stream last night, especially one fantastic set of photos taken from his “office window.” That might sound boring, expect his office happens to be the pilot’s seat of the huge freighters that travel along the Houston Ship Channel. He’s a harbor pilot who takes ships along the 6-hour trip that stretches from inside the I-610 bridge, down the channel, through Galveston Bay, and past the jetties in Galveston.
Many of his shots feature amazing skies — clouds, sun, lightning, fog, etc. In the descriptions for a couple of them that featured big, puffy white clouds, he referred to them as being “in season.” It made me smile, because it’s such a great way to describe it. The best thing about summertime in Houston is the sky. It changes rapidly, but it always goes from one interesting thing to another. The old “everything’s bigger in Texas” really rings true, and the fact that the landscape is so flat in this area means you get huge, 360-degree views of whatever happens to be going on.
The four photos above were all taken within a 30-minute span yesterday morning on my way to work. There was sun, and big puffy white thunderheads, and ominous gray skies — all in the same sky. If it’s going to be a zillion degrees outside, at least there’s something cool to see!
