Wyman's Roadrunner Friend

This afternoon Sylinda, Wyman and I loaded up into the truck, grabbed a pizza and some drinks and headed out to he ranch Wyman grew up on. There was a roadrunner family who had made their nest in one of the pieces of machinery and the Daddy was quite comfortable with letting Wyman get close to him - so close Wyman could tickle his tummy if he moved easy enough.

It was a wonderful opportunity to take part in. I chose to expose for the nest and the roadrunner, so I left the rest of the image to chance in exposure. Luckily for me they didn't turn out too bad. I'm happy with how this storyline of images turned out.

Here is Daddy Roadrunner sitting on his five chicks.


Wyman slowly approaching the nest with a grasshopper he shot with a BB Gun.


Wyman showing Daddy Roadrunner the grasshopper and offering it to him.


Daddy Roadrunner gobbling up the grasshopper Wyman handed to him.

Hot Rhythm Nights at Sons of Herman Hall

Every Thursday night in Dallas at the Sons of Hermann Hall you can find a good group of people who like to call themselves swing dancers having fun on the dance floor. One of the Bal Bugs asked me to photograph the dance to help advertise the weekly dances. As a swing dancer, it gave me an edge because I was able to predict where the swing outs would be, the direction of travel and turns. I also knew a good handful of the dancers and occasionally put my camera down to share a song with a lead or two. I really enjoyed my evening at Sons. They had a beginning Balboa lesson and afterward a dance that lasted until people felt like leaving. I got out of there around midnight but some nights you can expect the party to continue well into the next morning.

If you love Balboa and are in the Dallas area, you can find their Facebook group HERE or search Bal Bugs.
You can find their Facebook group for the dances HERE.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the lesson and the dance.

Couple Portraits: Kim & Pete

As I said in my Sneak Peek at Kim&Pete, these two are so much fun to be around. Now what was supposed to be a fun adventure in the park riding bikes ended up becoming a fun adventure at Joyland. I honestly had a blast. It was my last night in Lubbock and what better way to spend it than doing what I love?

I teased you with a sneak peak. Here's the read deal - my favorites from the shoot. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek at Kim & Pete!

These two are so much fun to be around. When you are with them, whatever you had planned, just toss out the window cause they're going to reinvent your afternoon. This is exactly what happened for our shoot. We were supposed to go to a park and I was going to chase them around with my camera while they prettily rode on their bikes and made lovey-dovey faces at one another. "Meet me in front of Joyland" turned into "Let's go to Joyland."

The only other time I have ever brought a camera onto a roller coaster was two years ago when I went to the South Plains Fair. Yes, should have learned my lesson there, right? Wrong. Even after the epic bruises across my thighs and forearms I made from pressing myself as hard as I could against the restraints of the ride for fear of losing my camera, I just had to say, yes, let's do this again. (For the record, the bruises are totally worth it, as long as you keep that death-grip on your camera, you'll be good.)

Here's a sneak peek at what I managed to capture of the incredible Kim and Pete.

Levelland Rain

Lubbock has received quite a bit of rain and of course, the city floods and people suddenly forget how to drive. Being one of the more cautious drivers on the road, I wait for all the cars to pass before I drive circles on the highway to get the perfect angle on the shot. ;)

Tonight I was in the back of Justin's car to keep out of the rain with the window rolled down and shooting out into the night. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the storm as it broke before sundown, so I was stuck shooting in the storm. Joy.

Sun Spider

So the other day as I was getting ready to start studying for my Poetry class I came face-to-face with the ugliest, weirdest looking spider I had ever seen. I had no idea what to call it because from what I could see, it had 10 legs.

I later learned, after extensive Google-ing that it was a Sun spider. Harmless to man, these things can get up to 2 inches long. The one I found was only half an inch. Apparently the Sun spider has no poison to catch its prey, but they do have some of the strongest set of pincher of the arachnid family.

Upon catching the spider in a glass, I observed him race the edges with furious speed! He was so cool to look at! My first thought - "I have to photograph him." There was no way I was going to be able to with him running around like Speedy Gonzales though and he definitely wouldn't sit still and pretty on his own with my camera right in his face for me to photograph him. What was my solution? Death. I put the glass he was running circles in into the freezer, where he quickly fell asleep in a position that would be perfect for me to shoot.

And I did, a few days later I was in the mood, set up my camera and posed my little arachnid friend on top of his glass chamber. After 20 minutes he began to get soft and glisten so it was time to call it quits then. Good thing I managed to get some really great shots of him before he retired to the trashcan.

Enjoy.

Junction Final Thoughts

Junction was an absolutely incredible experience. I feel incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity to see so much of Texas that I would not be able to see without being a part of the Junction Group. Towards the end of the trip, as excited as I was to see the next place we were to photograph, I was ready to sleep in my own bed, spend time by myself, and spend a day doing whatever I wanted.

Finishing the Junction experience, I was overwhelmed from the amount and level of photography that was expected of me. Now that more that a week has passed since the class ended, I can objectively look at my experience and say yes, I learned so much about photography.

On Friday I went up to Armadillo Camera to pick up 13 rolls of film. I sat down at the light table, peered through a loop at about 500 slides. I threw away about half of those. Looking at the slides, I saw the progress through my trip, I saw what I need to still work on, and I saw again the beauty and magic of the trip.

1. My first day at Junction, I was terrified to screw up my film. While I shot digital and film the entire trip, the first couple of days I was so reliant on getting the exposure correct first with my digital and then shoot with my film. By the end of the class, I was shooting confidently with my film without the assistance of my digital. Going through the photos, the exposure was spot on and there was less bracketing in the slides as well from the beginning to the end.

2. My biggest issue was camera/subject movement. Granted, we didn't have many wind-free days, but one aspect of my photography that I still need to work on is patience. I know that will only come with time. In Junction I was just so excited, so anxious to get that shot, I wouldn't wait for the wind to slow, or my tripod wouldn't be as stable as I could have put it. Bugs are also hard to shoot. I shot a lot of pointless images of beetles on petals that I should have ignored altogether because beetles don't stay still. Butterflies and caterpillars and spiders do, but not beetles, especially ladybugs.

3. When I took Wyman's Special Problems class in the Fall of 2009, I threw away so many slides. In a 36 exposure roll, I probably had 2 really good images. I thought that was a great ratio. After Junction, and after looking at all of my film, I can see how much I have grown. In a roll of 36 I kept probably 15-20 shots and of those, 5 were great images.

4. I learned how to identify a good subject to photograph, and it truly showed in my film. I have so many subjects and points of interest. I moved around so much, constantly looking. Once I knew I had my shot, I moved on, I didn't linger. I found a new subject and once I got my shot, I moved on, again and again and again.

5. Velvia Film. In the Special Problems class I don't think I truly appreciated the film as I do now. Then again, I was shooting "Contrast of the Llano Esticado" in Lubbock, not the entire southwest of Texas. I can't get the color from Mason Mountain out of my head, how right after the storm the sky just opened up and the ground was rich with water and color. The color... I just can't get over it. I don't think I will ever find something so beautiful again in my life, but I won't give up the search to prove that statement wrong.

6. I learned exactly what it takes to get that perfect shot. I was on my hands and knees, my belly, chest deep in water, straddling cactus, and so many more, but after looking at the shots I got from the positions I put myself in - it was worth it. It was completely worth it.

I learned a ton about photography and if you are in any way interested in photography, Junction is definitely the class to take.