Goodbye, old (two-wheeled) friend

We had a garage sale yesterday, a chore we do infrequently because of the hassle. By all accounts, it was a success. We took in about $400, astounding on several fronts because there are few things we will miss or even remember selling in a few weeks.

One of the things I will remember is my old orange Schwinn. It was a hand-me-down from my dad, who is 6 feet tall. So it didn't ever really fit me. Still, as my second 10-speed, it represented the first real freedoms I had as a kid. I rode it all over the countryside, on back roads, along highways, up hills, down hills, chased by dogs. I'd ride 20 miles to a friend's house. I rode a little further to hang out with a girlfriend (worth the trip, I might say!). At one time it had a little odometer turned by a pin attached to a spoke. When I was 14, I rode more than 1,000 miles according to the odometer.

But then I started working part-time a year later. And soon enough I had a car, so the Schwinn was relegated to dust-collecting duties while I was too cool to ride it. Before heading off to college, I bought a cheap mountain bike and rode the heck out of it. Then I replaced that one with a nicer model and continue to ride it, swapping out the knobby tires for smooth ones.

After having a bike that fit me, it was hard to get back onto the Schwinn. Built in 1979, cycling ergonomics have advanced. The narrow handlebar, heavy steel frame and crossbar dangerously high when stopping convinced me it was time to let go. Hard to do, but it's just a bike.

But it was the bike I really learned to love bicycling upon. And I owe it, as much as a person can owe metal, rubber and plastic, a debt of gratitude for carrying me so far and keeping me going.

Batman to the rescue!

Sometimes a good model is hard to find, but thankfully Batman was able and willing to stand in for a few recent portrait ideas I wanted to try out. For children's portraits, it's sure to be a little more challenging as kids tend to wiggle, bore easily and sometimes not want their photos taken at all.

These photos are just a few from our, uh, "session." The top one was the basis for the photo of my son that serves as this site's title. I think the blurry effect works better with one car, but I'll have to wait until my boy's in the mood to try again for that shot.

The first day of school

Today was the first day of school for our oldest son.


It's always harder on the parents, even though he had his moments this morning. He had been really excited about starting a new school and meeting new friends. But I think the new place was a little overwhelming.


Sometimes, like many other kids, it takes some time for him to adjust.


But once inside his new classroom (which he had visited before), he was good to go.


This is him leaving after his school day was done. He said it was great.

After dropping him off, my wife stopped for some coffee before heading to her office. She told the employees there that she was having trouble ordering because she was a little emotional about the kindergarten thing. A gentleman behind her said he knew exactly how she felt because he'd sent his daughter off to college this past weekend.

As parents, this is what we work toward ... little ones leaving the nest. It's just that when it really starts to happen, it's not as easy as you thought it would be. But it's awesome to see him begin on his journey to learn how to fly.

Maybe I should stick to portraits of just the little kids!

At least one of the kids in this photo had no interest in having his photo taken. Can you guess which one?


His younger brother (above) wasn't all that keen on the idea, either, but he cooperated somewhat.


And their younger sister is quite the aspiring model. She doesn't mind having cameras pointed at her at all.



Finally, something resembling a happy little family on the tire swing! Better luck next time with these characters, I guess!

They got the beat

If you watched the opening ceremonies at the Olympics in China, then you may remember the massive contingent of drummers. The Drum Cafe, a global performance and team-building company, helped coordinate the effort. Today, I got to see a (much smaller) group of Drum Cafe performers at the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD convocation and got to take photos. The above shots are just a sampling. At least three other photogs were there gathering images, but the most fun was being had by participants, who all had drums.

Good stuff!

Let it rain!

When life hands you lemons, such as a gray and rainy day, carry around a lemonade-colored umbrella!

Papa-razzi

My boys, ages 5 and 20 months, are used to being photographed. So much so that the little one, upon seeing me with a camera pointed at him, rushes over to look at the image on the digital preview screen. I was likewise spoiled as a child. My parents took photos all the time, and my dad favored his Polaroid, which was about as instant as gratification would come in the '70s.

Digital photography can pile up the images faster than old film photos collected in a shoe box years ago. Taking pictures is painless and cheap once you've got your camera, memory card and batteries taken care of. This is a simple solution, but I recommend carefully editing out the "bad" photos, having them printed somewhere cheap and slip them into albums either by date or event. Put them on a handy shelf and look at them often. Otherwise, you'll never catch up on all those CDs of images you've burned over the years, they can get scratched or lost and over time may no longer be compatible with the device you try to retrieve them on later.

And by all means, at important milestones or on important occasions, hire a professional (even someone other than me!). It's not only the equipment pros use to capture images, it is the study, practice and expertise in setting up the images. And legitimate professionals will offer top-quality prints you can't find at the discount stores. It takes even more skill, in my opinion, to get a decent candid, spur-of-the-moment photo because of varying light conditions, motion and being in the right place at the right time. High-volume studios offer low prices, but your photos will look like everyone else's. For a unique experience, find a professional who will listen to what you want rather than tell you what you will get.

100 reasons to get married in August

I had the pleasure of assisting a Houston-area photographer as she covered a wedding for a friend a few weeks ago in Denton. There were three professional photographers there, and it was a good thing. While the wedding wasn't huge, even a medium-sized event has several things happening at once. That's why when I photograph a wedding, I have at least one other photographer with me to capture what I cannot be present to capture.

Anyhow, the couple was very cute together. I took the above image after they had eaten the cake, and I have one a split minute before of the groom wiping cake off the bride's face. They didn't do the cut-and-smash, which I always think is a tacky thing to do. It's also rare. Among the recent weddings I've shot, it's more a matter of the couple making "You'd better not" faces at each other, grinning, then gingerly feeding cake to each other. That's love, people.

One of my pre-ceremony duties was hanging out with the guys. I had the chance to ask the groom whose idea it was to have an Aug. 2 wedding. He said it was a matter of timing, and they wanted to get married as soon as they could. He is a teacher and coach, she just completed graduate school. This weekend was the only one they could squeeze in the ceremony before he had to get back to work.



For anyone keeping score, or if you yourself were in north Texas that weekend, you know that the temperature was hovering between 107 and 109 degrees that afternoon. That's the bride with her new husband and the two groomsmen, sipping out of a water bottle (we made sure she had lots of water, but I didn't drink enough). It was extremely hot. Some say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." I say once it gets over 100, it doesn't really matter.

But the beauty of the ceremony, the awesome couple and their wonderful families more than made up for the discomfort.

For the record, I got married in April.

Hungry!

There are opportunities to photograph the people, places and things that make up our world every minute of the day. With digital cameras, trial and error is painless and instant, so that we can grow more quickly. This isn't to say that the pleasures of exposing film, developing it and printing photos isn't a thrill. There are few things photographically satisfying as seeing an image come to life as you gently rock the print in Dektol. But let's face it, fewer people are taking that time and effort. The chemicals alone are reason to stick to electronic imaging. Not to mention the many pairs of jeans I ruined after accidentally splashing them with developer.

Not every photo has to be a fine art piece. Sometimes a moment in time is worth a snapshot, even if it falls short technically. But when the moments count, hire a trustworthy professional to get the job done. Photography is more than simply pushing a button. It's years of study and practice, an artistic eye, and yes, a boatload of expensive equipment.

You can tell I wasn't thinking high art when I took the above shots of dinner. I fired up the grill to char some meat for our meals the rest of the week. The first is of mozzarella-stuffed grilled chicken and hot dogs. The second is bacon-wrapped grilled mini steaks. The last, uh, is when I got a little lazy and combined the "side dishes" that will go along with our tasty treats. Food photography is a science, one that I am not skilled in at this point. But I can eat!

Being hungry isn't just about food. It's about finding a passion and chasing it with excitement and enthusiasm. That's where my photography comes in. It's not only about taking pictures, it's about meeting new people and telling their stories through images. Here, I'll share some words with those images, whether of the wonderful people who are my clients or just a few takes of my active kids. I hope you will be able to savor the images as much as I do.

The photo that currently serves as the blog heading (it will change frequently) is of my oldest son with a few of his favorite toys. After capturing it, I used Photoshop to add some motion effects to the cars. It's an effect I'm still tweaking, and I hope to use it, along with classic posing, for clients in the near future. What do you think?

Thank you for stopping by!