Cattails

Lots o' pictures

Spent the weekend playing, really... Shot a criterium on Saturday and a mountain bike race Sunday. Was supposed to race on Sunday, but got a tad overserved Saturday night.... but that's another story.

Here's a shot from the Pro race at the Denton crit:


And here's a shot from the mountain bike race:


You know the drill, the rest of the sets can be found here and here.

Quiet Time

I was out doing some work on the local mountain bike trail tonight and fortunately, following my rule #1 of photography, had my camera with me.


With the cold fronts pushing through the last few days, the sunsets have been particularly nice. To see the rest of what I've caught, check 'em out here.

Well...

Not a bad sunset for being in the middle of the metromess.

View from the porch

Got home from running around yesterday and caught another great sunset, right outside my front door. Love this photo, it's untouched - had the saturation cranked up on my 50D, and that's about it!!

Happiness

There's lots of folks out there who don't shoot or practice enough to really, really use a gun. My buddy Mikey sure doesn't fall into that category, just take a look at that magwell!

Texas Tough, Part II

Got the rest of the pictures uploaded tonight, I got more decent pics than I thought....

You can go here for the stuff that I think is OK and then here for what I think is the best of the bunch.

As a teaser, here's Floyd Landis putting the hammer down.

Texas Tough

Professional bike racing came to town tonight. Hardest shooting I've done to date, a huge challenge between light, contrast and guys zipping along at 40 miles an hour or so.


I've got some more pics to work through and will post the rest later.... fun stuff, tho!!

Sphinx

Neat lookin' moth I ran across today. I first thought it was a leaf caught in a spider web; took another look and went to get the camera off my desk. Did a quick online search (isn't the internets fun?!) and discovered this is a sphinx. Perhaps he'll be there again tomorrow as he didn't move a bit all day today...

Light

I'm learning a lot about light.... I think one of the most important quotes I've read yet was "to become a student of light."

Well, with that thought in mind, I really like how the light is reflected from the bottle onto the ashtray in this picture - the color version of an earlier post.

A walk in the woods

Determined not to let another rainy day ruin my day off, I hit the trails today up at the Johnson Branch State Park.

It was a bit rainy, and muddy in spots, but all said and done it was a very pleasant day in the woods.

There's something special about a walk in the woods while it's raining. It's both very quiet as there's no one else moving around in the woods and very loud at times with the rain and wind in the trees. And the added benefit for you is that thanks to all the rain, you are able to ghost along without disturbing a thing.

Making lemonaide

Hard rain ruined the shooting and biking activity for the day, so I headed on down to the local smoke shop, hooked up with my friends, and had a pretty good day after all.

Into each life

a little rain must pour.... Snapped this shot last night, right before the rain rolled in.

Clouds fascinate me.

View from the porch

Well, not the porch exactly, but the driveway.

Got home from work, stepped out of the truck and viola. Not violating my rule #1 of photography which is always have your camera handy - I was able to grab the camera, walk out to the middle of the street and snap a few pics.



You know the drill by now, the rest of the pics can be found here.

Silver lining, indeed!

Silber Studios

I stumbled upon Silber's wonderful site through a Ken Rockwell article and I've spent a good portion of the Labor Day weekend watching "how to" videos and reading articles.

Fantastic resource!

Time Trial

The Corinth Cycling Club is hosting a 3 part Time Trail XC (mountain bike) series and the first race was today. I was able to snap a few pics before it was my turn at the line and some of them didn't come out too bad at all.

The rising sun was giving off some perfect light for the first few shots and then I was back in the shade for the rest.... I need to get off the auto sports setting to give me some more control in less than perfect lighting!






If you want to see more, go here.

Some more butterflies

Was lucky - had some more good light today and was able to snap some more butterfly action...



And thanks to the rain last night, the water droplets looked pretty nice as well....



If you like 'em, you can find more here.

The first

The first picture that I ever took that really "hit" me was this one, taken overlooking the Gila River in New Mexico in 2004. I took the picture first in full color, looked at the screen on my little HP Photosmart camera and didn't like it and switched to B/W and snapped it again. And really loved it.



I'm still very, very much in the learning how to phase. I doubt I'll ever get out of it! And Lord knows that I realize just having a nice camera or two doesn't make me a "photographer", just someone who has a coupla nice cameras.

Reading through some Ansel Adams' quotes tonight, I came across this one that I really liked:

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silent.