Junction Day 4

Today was a very relaxing day.

We woke up and got ready in time for lunch at La Familia, a Mexican food restaurant. The food was great. I had chicken enchiladas and a salad, but the salad looked more like a pile of chopped lettuce that you garnish your taco with than an actual salad. Pretty disappointing. Enchiladas were great though.

We got our first roll of film in today, which was awesome! I shot two rolls. The first one I started looking at really confused me though. The first couple of images looked like mine, but after that, the film was definitely not mine. I started asking people in the class if they had any film that wasn't theirs, nobody answered. Brent came in and looked at the film and said it looked like stuff that was shot from last year. I was totally confused and then it hit me. Lynsey. I was borrowing Lynsey's film camera for this trip and she had a roll still in the camera with 7 exposures left. Duh, Alison! So, Lynsey your film looks good and I'll give it to you when I give you back your camera and tripod. <3

Afterward we all went and did laundry. Mason Mountain got us all pretty dirty. Wild Dave and I shared a washer and dryer to save time and money. I got some good book reading in then.

One thing I've been having trouble out here is finding time to spend alone. I love everyone out here, and they are great people, but after work and then finals and then packing and getting everything ready and going straight to Junction for 15 days is a little hard on my mental health. Escaping into the world of my book was beautiful, but it's not enough. I need a bit more and I feel myself growing crazy as the days tick by. It's so hard, but I push the feeling away. I'm just scared of snapping while I'm out here.

Dinner was served on campus - Enchiladas. Most of us, sick and tired of Mexican food, opted for salads.

We ran up to Tye Church again tonight because the weather was so much better. Didn't rain a drop! Wyman painted the church again and I shot both digital and film again, different angles this time. The sky was gorgeous too!

After the sun went down, we all had a bit of fun with headlamps and glowsticks. This shot is one of Brent and Jason. Their personalities are just so fitting....


Just as an FYI to those of you who are actually reading my blog, tomorrow I am headed up to Dolan Falls and Independence Creek for a 5 day trip. For those 5 days I'll be without internet and phone service. But do not worry! I'll keep word documents and as soon as I get back I'll bombard blogger with posts and photos.

Also, I have no editing software right now, so you are seeing the unedited versions of these images. I hate it, yet at the same time, I think it shows you that I really am a good photographer and don't rely completely on Photoshop to "fix" my photos. =P (That is a rant for a later date!)

See you all in 5 days.

Junction Day 3

We left for Llano Ranch at 7:00 a.m. The energy level of the class wasn't high, but it wasn't dragging either. You could feel the anticipation in the air for what we were about to shoot. Wyman got a call from his friend Jesse out at Llano Ranch and was informed they were going to be doing their calf branding Saturday morning. Well, of course, Wyman couldn't pass that up and wouldn't pass it up either. Nobody objected.

So we head out there. All the rain we had made the roads real muddy, but Erin was a trooper driving through that mud with the 15 person van. We didn't get stuck once, but we did have a few exciting moments of sliding, off-roading, and deer chasing.

When we got to the location we had some time to walk around and do some more flower photography. Silly flowers.... and I got a few portraits of Tim, the caterpillar. Tim is a fuzzy little one and also, according to Jerod, a three time Academy Award winner.


When the cows finally got herded into the pin and the calves were sorted out, the real excitement began. Each heifer was branded the ranch brand on its hind and the year they were born on their shoulder, along with getting vaccinated. The bulls were castrated and given the ranch brand, as well as vaccinated. It was busy and intense. At first I watched to get an idea of what was going on, and after that I had no problem shooting the action.

We ate at Lums BBQ for lunch, and oh boy was their brisket good! I had a full tummy after that.

At 4pm we headed out to go grab some "drinks" and then up to Mason Mountain. As we drove there, two storm cells merged and it seriously felt like we were in the movie Twister. It was wild. The wind coming off the front of the storm rocked the car and broken branches and leaves littered the road. We decided to haul ass up the mountain to shoot the storm as it rolled in. Awesome. Now, I've hiked mountains before, did all the time when I lived in Vegas so I felt pretty ready for this. But hiking up a granite mountain with photo gear was entirely new to me. I was ready to sacrifice my body before my camera! Thankfully, no falls, only minor slips that caused my heart to race a bit.

After we ran up the mountain, we all probably got in 4 good shots of the storm and then it began to rain on us. So we ran down the mountain and jumped into the vans, that's when it became torrential and began to hail. We were definitely in the movie Twister sans the tornado. The chaos only lasted 15 or so minutes and we were able to get out after that and run around freely to shoot photos. I shot film for the most of it and then switched to digital. Mason Mountain was gorgeous and I got in a good bit of exploring while I was there.


We had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant, I don't know where since my mind was swimming in a bottle of Shiner and a cup of Cabernet. I ordered a side of onion rings and nothing else and boy were those deep fried rings delicious!

Off to bed now. We'll go out and shoot in the morning if there is fog, but if not, I'll get to sleep in, then after lunch it's off to 377 Falls.

Junction Day 2

Sometimes I feel more like I am at summer camp than taking an actual class. I have been having so much fun!

We all crawled out of bed at 6:30am this morning to load up in the car and leave at 7:00am. Not 7:01 or 6:59, but 7:00 and Wyman is not against leaving someone behind. We drove out down Highway 377 and pulled off to shoot more wildflowers. Every time I look at a flower now, my 7th grade Wildflower science project comes to mind and I'm able to recall the names of the majority of the flowers in the field.


The flowers are gorgeous though. With all the rain, there are blossoms everywhere! Some fields look like they are on fire they have so much red and orange in them.

We had cereal on the side of the highway, each of us perched on a rock to avoid the prickly pear cactus. The weather got cold before it heated up. We stopped by Mason Mountain (where we will shoot tomorrow night) and while Wyman was doing some awesome PR work, all the photogs were either sleeping in the van or out shooting with their digital. I got some cool shots from there. I've always been a fan of wildlife photography.

The video class has been tagging along with us on these trips and shooting beside us, and shooting us! I can't wait to see what they put together in their class. Jerod Foster is teaching that class.

After getting back for lunch (pizza, salad and brownies) all the girls decided since it was so nice outside (yes, the weather finally cleared up!) we were going to go float the river. It was just gorgeous. The first couple of steps into the water and you were screaming "NO WAY, JOSE!" but after jumping on the tube and hitting a rapid all was fine. We floated for an entire hour, running into trees, rocks, shallow water, and each other and laughing the entire time. Wyman picked us up at the bridge and drove us back to campus. I sat on the tail of his pickup truck with Erin, wishing we had our cameras to get this as a shot. Oh well. I'm glad I've got a base tan and slight burn to build on now. By the end of this trip I'm going to be a little Mexican child.

At 7:00pm we all headed out to paint the Roosevelt Church. Tonight was so much better. Rain didn't hit us until after the light was gone from the sky. We took 3 shots total, 2 four-minute and 1 nine-minute exposure. I'm shooting both digital and film and I have only one cable release. So, I put the cable release on my film and hold down the shutter with my finger on the digital. 9 minutes is a really long time. I think I lost feeling in my finger during that exposure.

It did rain and Wild Dave and I ran out to grab a cup of coffee. Delicious and yummy, hot coffee.

Walking back to the cabin I had a good chat with the campus police officer. Very nice guy. He was trying to bike in the dark - being a champ at it too. But now it is time for bed. Gotta wake up early tomorrow. We're photographing cattle branding!

Junction Day 1

Mention "Junction" to any Texas Tech photog and they'll instantly know what you're talking about and why you have that big goofy grin on your face. Junction,Tx is where the photography intersession course is held that is taught by Wyman Meinzer, state photographer of Texas. Wyman is a great guy. This is the third course I've taken with him, the first one allowing me to shoot right next to him and get one-on-one advice and experience.

So far the day has been real laid back. Some have referred it to "Photo Boot Camp" but we have yet to begin the training. It has been real overcast skies lately. This morning we went out to shoot flowers and bugs. After an hour of doing that I was tired of shooting flowers and bugs in the field we were in. I wanted to shoot Bigger flowers and Bigger bugs! (After an adventure walk with Nick and John we found out where they were growing/hiding. I'll be sure to hit that spot up later.)

Nick and I modeled a bit for a small lesson in portrait photography. We are shooting Velvia ISO 100 film and the color it picks up is incredible! I love how the transparency looks when we get it back from being processed. I'll be spending a lot of time scanning slides after this class, I know. Wyman likes to pick on people. Especially those he knows a bit and knows he can kid around with. Just for kicks we all got tested on how slow we could shoot a 200mm lens hand-held. Now, this baby is big, and much heavier than a 35mm lens. My slowest hand-held speed was at 1/250. I felt pretty good about it. It was a challenge and there was only 2 people who could shoot faster than 1/125.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was wonderful. Cheese omelets. Burgers. Lasagna. Yum Yum Yum!

This evening we went out to paint a church. We got out there after our beer run and got all set up. The light was perfect and pink on the horizon, we all had our cameras and tripods in a line, beer in one hand, shutter release in the other and then it began to rain on us. We grabbed our cameras and dashed under the porch of the church. It stopped raining. The light was bluer but still had a tint of orange glow so we set up our tripods and cameras again, refocus our lenses, sip our beer in one hand and hold our shutter release in the other and then it starts to rain again. We finish our first beer and it stops raining...again. We run back out there, set up again, and Wyman starts painting the church before it rains on us for a third time. We get five 60 second exposures in before we have to call it a night because it began to rain AGAIN! We'll head out and redo the shoot, but it was fun regardless. All of us were laughing throughout the night. Here is one of the shots I got with my digital. I was shooting my film high and my digital low at the same time.


I have had a great first day. I know tomorrow will be a hundred times better.

Goodnight for now, I've got to wake up early tomorrow!

Portrait Session: Rachel Robinson

Rachel is an incredible lady and a good friend of mine. She works at Westminster where Justin and I teach swing dancing every Monday night, and we have tried to teach her, but she's always "too busy" and then complains when she's so behind in the class. I love her though. She's easy to laugh with.

My special problems topic was portraiture. I feel like the "Big Name" people get all the attention and they rightfully should, their name is on peoples lips for a reason, but I wanted to show everybody else. I wanted to capture the "Little Name People" who are shining among their peers, among their family, among their community. Rachel is this person.

Swing Dancers of Lubbock

Every Monday night from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Justin and I teach swing dancing. The group has evolved quite a bit, moving from the Rec Center at Texas Tech to a church on 33rd and Indiana. We LOVE Lindy Hop. That's our favorite kind of dance and the one we love to teach the most. Along with Lindy, we also teach East Coast, Jitterbug, Charleston, Balboa, and Blues.

These are a few photos I snapped after teaching a lesson a few weeks ago. The one photo of Justin and I dancing together we taken by Eloralee or Lauren, whoever thought they could better handle my camera. =)

We just finished our Spring Semester teaching and we will start back up lessons in the Fall when school starts back up. If anyone is interested in private lessons during the summer, feel free to contact either Justin Mann or myself and we can work something out. (We do not teach country swing dance / two-step).

Senior Portraits : Mylie Wilde

Mylie is an incredible woman. We've been friends since freshman year at Tech when we both started working at the CMLL (Classical and Modern Languages and Literature's). Mylie is studying to be a Special Education Teacher. I'm so proud of her. That is one of the toughest jobs I can think of anyone pursuing. One must have a ton of patience and also a ton of love. Mylie definitely has that and more.

You're one of my favorite models, Mylie. I love you. Good luck after graduation!