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Guitar
Picks
My Studio
August 25, 2004 - Wednesday
Well keeping with the Rock N Roll theme that this gallery
page has adopted I figured it would only be proper to keep it going.
Here's a group of guitar picks that I have had for about a year now.
I bought a Takamine acoustic guitar many years ago with the intention
of taking a couple of classes and actually learn how to play it.
Well lets just say that I still have the guitar... in its case up in
the closet somewhere. Hehee.
Right now, my main interest is photography so I don't see myself
having the extra time to sit and study guitar. With that being said,
it seems that my first solo release album and Grammy nominations
will have to be put on hold.
Website Traffic Note: It's
official, today's
site totals have beat out the previous record of 121 visitors and
487 page views from July 8, 2004. Today's total stats clocked in at
151 visitors with 536 page views! Thanks guys!
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Boyd
Tinsley
Selma, Texas
August 24, 2004 - Tuesday
Here is a photo of Boyd Tinsley, member of the Dave
Matthews Band. Now that I have a new computer at home I can edit
these large RAW image files without problems. I am almost certain
the 1gig or RAM has a little to do with that! I can edit about 8
images in the same amount of time that it took me to do a single
image before on my old P3 450mhz computer.
I plan to
sort through all of my images from the concert and from New
Orleans and create individual galleries for those shots. I
know I have been meaning to do that with all of my vacation
photos but that old computer was keeping me down! Now I have
no excuse, well none as of yet anyways. :o)
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White
Tigers
Audubon Zoo
August 23, 2004 - Monday
Well lets just say I am going to cheat for the next couple
of days. This is a photo I took while on our trip to New Orleans so
I figured I would use it for today's entry. The Tigers in the
Audubon Zoo were much more active than the Tigers here in Houston.
The main reason is because they had a ton more shade there in their
habitat and didn't mind moving around.
Hopefully one day I can get back to the Houston Zoo when it is very
cloudy and hopefully catch the animals while they are out and about.
Well today and tomorrow will have photos from this past weekend so
hopefully on Wednesday I can get back in the groove of things and
get back on track with my gallery.
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Lazy
Tourists
The French Quarter
August 22, 2004 - Sunday
Today is our last day here in the French Quarter so we
decided to walk around a bit near Market Square which is the tourist
trap portion of the area. Hehee. As we walked around we noticed
these people taking a walking tour on Segways. Go figure. It seemed
to be more of a hassle being on those things than it was worth. They
kept having to maneuver in and out of groups of people that were
actually using the sidewalks for walking so it did seem like a major
pain.
There was a
lot of walking involved in our trip to New Orleans but a
little exercise never hurt anyone. We enjoyed not really
having to rely on a car and having to try to find a parking
spot for a change. Here in the French Quarter, we just
walked out of our hotel and just kept on going until we
ended up someplace worth stopping at.
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A
Trip To The Zoo
Audubon Zoo
August 21, 2004 - Saturday
Today Lisa and I took a 30 minute street car ride down to
the Audubon Zoo. Their street cars are like trolleys and are sued
for public transportation. The ride was very interesting and
relaxing so we really enjoyed the experience. When we left the hotel
the weather was very overcast and cloudy so I figured today would be
a good day to go to the Zoo. Wrong! Once we got there the sun came
back out which made the temperatures soar!
All in all
their Zoo is much nicer than the Houston Zoo because the
habitats are more shaded which in turn allows for more
animal movement. I used my 70-200mm f2.8 lens mounted to my
Bogen monopod for these two shots. That camera and lens gets
a bit heavy so a monopod is a must to help keep camera shake
down to a minimum.
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Unfortunately it got very hot which ended our stay here at the Zoo prematurely.
I would have liked to have seen all of the exhibits throughout the Zoo but it
was just way too hard on Lisa and I. What I could not understand was how people
did not see a problem with having infants out for hours in that kind of heat.
While we were leaving we saw an Ambulance exiting the Zoo which was
transporting someone probably suffering from Heat Exhaustion to the hospital.
It was just way too hot to be out today so we made the trip back to the hotel
to cool off.
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Jackson
Square
New Orleans, Louisiana
August 20, 2004 - Friday
This is the very often photographed Jackson Square with
the St. Louis Cathedral sitting in the background. The cathedral
dates back to the 1700s and the area that is now referred to as
Jackson Square was a large sand covered field where public
executions were to be held. If you had not guessed by now, this area
of town has a lot of good and bad history associated with it.
Although it does make for great photographs.
It took a couple of minutes of patiently waiting for this shot
because of an ongoing trail of cars driving down the street in front
of the carriages. I figured waiting for the perfect break in the
traffic would be worth it and I was right.
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Viva New Orleans!
Mini Vacation
August 19, 2004 - Thursday
Lisa and I are off to New Orleans, Louisiana today for a weekend
filled with fun and excitement. We got in very late but I still
managed to snap a few pictures while we were out and about on
Bourbon Street. We are in town to attend a friend's wedding and we
are looking forward to weekend long reception party. The French
Quarter here in New Orleans has a very historic eerie feel to it
because many of the buildings and such date way back to the early
1800s and some even in the late 1700s.
This is a shot I took out of our airplane window. The flight was
only 45 minutes so that was definitely better then a 6 hour drive!
Not too bad considering I shot it with my little S400 thru a dirty
old airplane plastic window.
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My
Birthday Present
Verizon Wireless
Amphitheater - Selma, Texas
August 18, 2004 - Wednesday
First off, Happy Birthday to me. Okay, now that is out of
the way. Tonight is the night I have been waiting for since I first
got the call back in July that I had won the Photo Contest. It was
about 5pm or so when I got to the venue and as I walked up to Will
Call to claim my tickets and my Photographer's Pass my hands were
shaking and my heart was racing. The concert was still more than 3
hours away but my nerves were going crazy.
I got my tickets and my pass and was told to wait in the front
office until the venue's media guy escorted me and about 3 other
real press photographers to the media pit right before the show. It
was about 8pm and that call finally came. As we walked through the
venue with my camera in hand I felt extremely privileged to have
this incredible opportunity. I joked with the other photogs saying
that I hope they don't get upset if for some reason I threw up on
them while we shot the concert.
The lights
go out in the venue and the crowd goes crazy! Dave and the
rest of the band members quietly walk onto the stage and
take their positions. My heart feels like it is about to
jump out of my chest and have its own performance but
luckily that did not happen. I knew I only had 3 songs to
photograph the band so as soon as the lights came back on I
started to fire away.
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Here's a
nice photo of Stefan. My images of the rest of the band
members seemed to have came out better than the shots of
Dave. I guess a lot has to do with the fact there was not as
much light on them plus there wasn't a microphone stand
sitting right in front of them. |
The 3 songs did seem to go by pretty quick but about half way through the first
song, my nerves calmed down and I felt very comfortable in that environment. It
was a great learning experience for me and I was very surprised as to how much
light was available. I only shot with my 50mm f1.4 lens thinking that I will
stick around f2.0 or f2.5 but found myself often shooting at f4.5 or f5.6. With
that said either my 70-200mm f2.8 or even the 17-40mm f4 lens would have served
me well but I think it would have been a real hassle to swap out lenses during
the set. I plan to add a whole gallery on the website of most of the shots I
took so check back soon.
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The
River Walk
San Antonio, Texas
August 17, 2004 - Tuesday
I made the 2 1/2 hour trip to San Antonio today to venture
around the city a little bit before going to the Dave Matthews Band
concert tomorrow. I got in late in the afternoon and decided to take
a ride on the river tour. San Antonio's River Walk is the second
most popular tourists destination in the state of Texas. The Alamo
is the first and it is only a couple of blocks from the river.
It was a peaceful ride down the river but the temperature was pretty
high. Lisa and I will have to make plans to come back here and visit
sometime in the Fall when it's nice and cool.
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Birthday
Dinner
My Parents House
August 16, 2004 - Monday
Lisa and I were invited over to my parents house tonight
to have dinner in celebration of my birthday on Wednesday. The Dave
Matthews Concert is the same night so my parents wanted to celebrate
a little early. My father cooked some steaks out on the grill which
turned out great. The evening was just immediate family only, my
folks, brother, sister, Lisa and I. Nothing too fancy which is just
fine by me.
Some say as you grow a year older, you also get a year wiser. I have
to completely agree because I have learned so much this past year
about life in general and I know that there is still more to come.
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The
Cure In Concert
The Woodlands Pavilion
August 15, 2004 - Sunday
Tonight marks our second concert in as many days. We drove
out to the Woodlands Pavilion tonight so that we can see The Cure in
concert. I can say that I will probably need some kind of
professional psychiatric counseling after that 2 hour show since
most of their music is pretty dim and depressing. Hehee. Just
kidding. Lisa and I had a great time.
I did not even attempt to sneak my little Canon S400 camera in the
venue but I did manage to take this photo on the way out. I had
never noticed this cool archway that sits over one of the bridges
nearby so I stuck my camera out the window and snapped a few photos.
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First
Legit Press Credential
Verizon Wireless
Amphitheater
August 14, 2004 - Saturday
As you may remember, last week I emailed the publicist for
Ozomatli since I noticed they were performing here this week. They
were very kind enough to issue me photographer's pass even though I
am not affiliated with any magazine or newspaper. Lisa and I got to
the venue early to pick up my credentials and as it turned out there
was a big mix-up and I thought for a second that I would not be able
to get my equipment inside. After about 20 minutes or so I finally
got my pass in hand. The Clear Channel representative that gave it
to me gave me all of my instructions of what I can and can not
photograph during the concert. Oh yeah, and then there's the fact
that I could only shoot for the first song of each band. Ouch.
The first band I shot was Kinky which is a Spanish based alternative
rock band. I jumped in the photo pit and started firing away. I
never knew how fast a song went by until tonight. It seemed like it
was only a minute but I managed to rattle off about 40 photos of the
band.
After I
photographed Kinky, Lisa and I went to find a spot to sit
down so that I could review the images and see if there was
anything I should tweak or do differently for the next set.
I was pretty pleased with the product so I pretty much left
my settings and such the same. Finally Ozomatli came out on
stage and I had my camera in hand as I jumped into the photo
pit. This band is made up of 10 members, yes I said 10 so it
was kind of difficult to get a good angle on any one
particular member. This is Raul, he was definitely the most
animated of the group so he made for a great subject.
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Here's Uli and Shef providing some backup vocals. I pretty much just got in
there and ran of multiple amounts of shots adjusting settings here and there
since I knew the first song would be ending very quickly.
Then one last shot of Raul at the end of the song. Honestly, I don't even
remember hearing any music the entire time I was photographing, I must have
been completely zoned out concentrating on making sure I do everything right.
All in all
tonight was a great success. I learned a ton and I know that
will definitely help me out when it comes to photographing
Dave Matthews Band later this week. I feel much more
confident in my camera, my lens and my ability so I should
be able to produce some really nice photos for Dave
Matthews.
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