The Good And The Bad, Round Two…

A while back I made a post on some really great photography that I found and some not-so-great photography. I figured I would do a second installment, hoping the not-so-great photographer doesn’t mind a little criticism…

First up is Garden and Gun Magazine, a publication that seems to always hit the mark. I chose the cover to represent the “winner”, otherwise I’d have to scan nearly every single page of this issue to show you all the amazing photo work they run! Seriously, their work always seems to be perfect!
Oh, and don’t let the shotgun photo on the cover fool you. The publication is filled with lifestyle features about fine food and wine, clothing and fashion accessories, healthy living, traveling, and a million other topics besides firearms. And the firearms that do take up the modest percentage of the magazine are all handcrafted, beautiful works of art – not your average Academy Sports $300 special. And speaking of Academy…

Unfortunately, Academy and New Balance have to be our losers in this round. I know that photography is very subjective. I know this style/look is very hot right now. I know many of you may disagree with me. However, I feel like this one just misses the mark completely.
This Urban Outfitters “trying to look like a snapshot” look works on certain subjects. I just don’t see it working on a pair of athletic shoes. I want an advertisement that looks like what I wish I could do in my running shoes – run through the park as I win a 5K. I don’t think the “I took this photo with my iPhone and then used the Hipstamatic App to make it look retro” style of photography conveys that feeling at all. Maybe I’m just too old-fashioned.

The Converse Crew…

There’s not a ton of Photography work that happens during Thanksgiving week. I have a couple things booked, but today was dead. So, what did I do? I took the boys to get a haircut. I wish I would’ve taken my camera. There were a lot of great missed shots at the old-fashioned barber shop. When we got home, I had us take a shoe portrait… The four boys, all in Converse!

Weatherford, TX…

I was shooting in Weatherford, TX on Saturday. Kind of a neat little town, not too far away from Fort Worth. I’d like to check it out a little more. There seemed to be a lot of old buildings, signs and odd things worth shooting.

Some Pics That Caught My Eye…

I have been pretty busy shooting this week, and the weekend will be just as busy. I didn’t want to neglect the blog, so I decided to quickly glance through an old photo folder from 2009 and grab a few shots that caught my eye. I’ll post a “real” story soon… maybe something about a recent shoot or a good photo tip? Hopefully, these will tide you over until then:





Shooting Dallas Skyscrapers…

There are a lot of new skyscrapers in Dallas, and the skyline has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. It’s pretty easy to find interesting buildings to shoot, if you’re into architectural photography. I thought Cirque, one of the high rise buildings in Victory Park was nice. They have an amazing pool that overlooks downtown. I have pics of it somewhere… I should post those sometime.

Austin City Limits Fest, 2010…

Finally, I get to share some more 2010 ACL Festival pictures! Because my contract with certain publications states that certain shots are exclusive to them for the first month, the only way I was able to share those images was by posting a tear sheet or link to the magazine’s website. For other shots, I had to keep them under wraps from the general public, while I shopped them to certain music magazines that might want to buy them.
Well, the “exclusive rights” time has since expired and the window for selling any more images has closed (nobody will be starting an Austin City Limits story over a month and a half later), so I can finally post some shots I liked from the three day Austin, TX music festival. Enjoy…

Black Keys
Sonic Youth

The Strokes

Silverspun Pickups

Midlake

Monsters of Folk

M.I.A.

Flaming Lips

The wild ACL Fest crowd

An Old Video…

I ran across an old video I did from Easter of 2009. Considering how much I’ve learned about documentary video since then (and the fact that I’ve upgraded to much better video gear since then), this video isn’t half bad. It’s a short feature about an annual charity Easter egg hunt. There are also some pics of mine attached below the story. The first six or seven are mine, the rest are reader/contributor submissions (in case you’re wondering why the style and quality of the pics suddenly changes around the seventh or eighth image)…

Shooting children…

I volunteered to do some portraits of the Sunday School children at our church. Nothing big, just some close-up shots of them on a red background for some Christmas projects the church makes for members every year. While I was up there, I noticed this little, naked baby doll. I decided she needed a portrait of her own…

Finding Locations To Shoot…

Dallas has some nice architecture, but very little of it is old. There are a lot of good places to use for shoots, though. I’ll often scout areas around town, and one place I like to use for photo shoots is the SMU campus. I took some shots around the campus today, and I’ll file these for reference, in case I’m looking for a specific location to use in the future. I think SMU has some good variety and some of the buildings have nearly 100 years of age on them… that’s about as old as anything gets in Dallas!




In Honor of Willie Nelson…

I’m headed to Austin in eight hours to go shoot Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel for a feature story in a magazine I occasionally shoot for. In honor of my chance to meet Willie Nelson, I have posted some pictures I’ve shot of him over the years…