Audrey Senior Pictures 1

I was asked to do some senior pictures for my granddaughter Audrey.  She lived in Denton, and the last time we were up there, I drove around looking for places to get good pictures.  This was the first group of pictures.  One of the places I thought might be cool was the old theater in downtown Denton. I though it would be great to get her picture and then photoshop her name in the marquis.

Audrey 3

There was a small area hidden behind some buildings that apparently used to be a bar. We walked back there and got a couple really nice pictures there.

Audrey 5

and

Audrey 9

Food Photography – Bacon and Eggs

I decided to spend a weekend concentrating on food photography.  Over the course of the weekend, I prepared two breakfasts of Bacon and eggs.  The first one is a rather classic preparation and photograph.

Bacon and Eggs

For the second and third ones,  I added Pico de Gallo to the scrambled eggs.

Bacon and Eggs with Pico

Bacon and Eggs with Pico

Beauty Lighting and Head Shots

Saturday, I watched a video of Peter Hurley doing head shots of various people. He took some amazing shots, but the video was really about his “process.” Debbie was doing a bunch of things and heard it more than watched it. She hated Hurley. He was loud and abrasive and even somewhat abusive with these people. He would say things like “You’re eyes aren’t the same size. Turn your head so the beady one is closer to the camera.” but, he did do something quite interesting.
He had a chart called “How Does Your Inner Child Feel Today?”. It is a bunch of faces that correspond to emotions. He would look at it and randomly choose one of the emotions. He would say, “Show me innocent.” He explained that the expression he got might or might not be something interesting that he could photograph, but he said that the person would always realize they made a silly face and break out with a huge smile.
OK so, today I decided to try some beauty lighting. I powered my beauty dish with the Polaroid PL135 as the key light with a reflector underneath in a clam shell orientation. I added a Qflash T4d as a hair light. I had to power both down as low as they would go to shoot at iso 100 and 1/100, f/2.8 with my 85mm lens.

So, I told Helen to give me Joy.

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Then, I asked for wistful

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OK. Rather plastic.  So, I sat down.

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Serious.

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Apprehensive

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Anticipation

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Relief that this is over.

 

Hico

I had a free afternoon, and I had been told that there were lots of really interesting places in Hico.  Hico is a small town on Hwy 6.  It is apparently the home of Billy the Kid because there is a statue of him in the middle of town, and apparently a museum as well.  I drove around the town and saw lots of interesting locations.

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There were alleys behind buildings that had back doors like this.  It was really cool.

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I can imagine these as great places for a bridal shoot.

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This shell of an old building had tons of character.

Vision

I just came back upon Don Giannatti’s “Project 52” web site.  I had seen the site several months ago, but it slipped from my memory.  I have been a member of the flickr group for a long time, but, I can’t remember the last time I actually visited the group page.  On this site, there is a weekly photography assignment. The assignments for this year start on February 1.  So, I looked at the 2012 assignments.

The first assignment is to create a Vision Statement.  This is basically a statement describing why it is that I take pictures.  As described on the web site, “Tell us with a single paragraph what you want to be able to do with your images. Tell us what you do without telling us you are a photographer. Accompany that message with a single image taken around your home.”

To me, the reason I enjoy photography is it differs from other modes of expression, and there is something that is transcendently stimulating when I see a really great image I have taken. In 2012, my Aperture Library has over 7700 images.  Every once in a while, as the image would come up on the screen, there was a moment of awe.  Kind of, “Oh boy.  That is good!”

It is becoming easier to take technically perfect images – those with proper exposure, composition, lighting, whatever.  I can look at those and think, “That’s a good image.”  But there is the added, intangible element that is included in an image that is really great.  I take photographs because I enjoy that feeling of producing a picture that is really great.

Now, what kind of image around the house can I make that illustrates that?

Best of 2012

I have gone through the over 7000 images from this year and chosen five that I think are the best.  I am not going to rank them.  Rather, I will present them chronologically.

The first one is from Galveston.  Earlier this Spring, Debbie was walking on the beach and saw that someone had started to pile rocks on each other.  As other people came along, they created their own piles of rocks to the point where eventually, there were hundreds of piles of rocks.  I took this picture of one of the piles.  I used a strobe and softbox to help me make the sky a little darker and to help define the surfaces of the rocks.

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Earlier this Summer, Pat Jones asked me to serve as a second shooter at a wedding.  I enjoyed the process.  The wedding was at an interesting outdoor area in Roundrock.  As the sun was going down, we got the couple to walk with us. There was a place in the woods where the setting sun was coming through a break in the leaves of a tree.  I positioned them in the spot where the sun hit their faces and got this picture.

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For the Waco Wild West 100 Bike Ride, last year, I stood at the end of the Washington St, Bridge and tried to get pictures of the cyclists with the suspension bridge and the Hilton in the background. I got some similar shots this year, but noticed that the river was absolutely still.  So, I went down along the river and shot up at the cyclists on the bridge, with the reflection in the still water.

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Ashley Henager wanted to get some pics at an old house in Speegleville.  A couple days before, she contacted me and asked it we could change and shoot with her husband and son.  I loved the idea.  We shot at Midway Park.  Noah was as cute as could be, but he really wanted to get in the water. He kept trying to get away and get in the water, and at one point, the tug between them resulted in this picture.

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Finally, the last shoot with a model I did was with Heather Lynn Johnson.  I have already discussed the lighting issues, but this shot was really great.

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Fashion Photography

A model posted on FB that she wanted to shoot Friday afternoon.  I was free, and agreed to do the shoot.  Another model wanted to join us.  The chatted back and forth about what they wanted to do, and since I don’t have a studio, decided on just a general fashion type shoot.  The other model was relying upon a ride from someone who was not able to get away.  So, it ended up it was just the one model.  She asked it it was OK if she brought her daughter, and I agreed.

We met at a park-like area next to the Hippodrome Theater.  It has some sculptures and some covers overhead.  Plus, the side of the Hippodrome had some nice fire escapes.  So, I spent an hour or so shooting the two of them.

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This turned out to be a really good photograph.  It started out terrible.  When I snapped it, the exposure was way off.  It was really overexposed.  But, in Aperture, I was able to bring it back to the point where, I think it is an effective image.

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She wanted a picture in her hoodie.  So, I basically did a head shot, and that came out really nice as well.

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I liked the fire escape.  So, we got a couple of her on it.  Several of them weren’t too good, as she had her face behind the bars.  But this one turned out nicely.

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I also got several nice photos of her daughter.  So, it turned out to be a really great experience.