Zac Snaps

Please critique!!! :)

2011-09-10T18:51:00.000-05:00

So I would love to get you honest opinion on this image. I take nothing personal, so please you can be as harsh as you want. :)

Colorado Trip

2011-07-28T11:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of photos lately!! I have been super SUPER busy!!

Anyway I went to Colorado at the end of June and had a BLAST!!! I went for A worldview camp with Summit Ministries in Manitou, just north of Colorado Springs.

The drive!

Manitou, Colorado! It's just a nice super little hippie town. :P

This is the newest coke machine I saw in the whole town!!!!!

SPORTS TIME!!!!!!! Had a ton of fun playing speed volleyball with a lot of people.

Garden of the Gods!!!

Pikes Peak hike!! An 8 mile hike to the summit. It took me about 3 hours to do it!!!

The man hike up Red Mountain!!! Took about an 30 minutes.

Picnic at the park!

Some random pics.

My Little Nephews

2011-05-28T11:57:00.001-05:00

So my sister has been visiting for the past 2 months (I thing that's how long) from Alaska and she asked me to do my nephews 4 year old pictures.

This first one was just taken one day when we went to the park. but the rest were taken on the day of the actual photo shoot.

I think this black and white photo is on of my favorites. :)

This last one is of my youngest nephew. He is 18 months.

What do y'all think? I would love some critiques on these.

Oh My Goodness!!

2011-05-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since I have posted anything!!!! (well actually I can believe it but that is beside the point)

I have been so busy with school, track, graduation, choir, family, and other things that I haven't even been able to thing about posting. But alas things are beginning to slow down so I might get to post more often...... Yippee!!! I know I have a pretty good stock pile of images that I need to post, which might take me a little while to get through because in the chaos of the last month my file naming has been so great. Making it hard to find images.

2011-04-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it hasn't been because I don't have photos but because I just can't seem to find the time to post. Even now I should actually be doing something else.

So the above two images are the same just one is in color and one is in black and white. I generally don't like posting the same image more than once but I just couldn't decide which one I liked better. What do you think about them?

So please let me know what you think of the photos and what you may have done differently.

I do have an abundant amount of photos to post just I need to find the time. I will try to post at least once a week.

I don't want to leave!!!

2011-03-08T22:24:00.000-06:00

Well I don't really have a lot to say..... I know.... I am being such a cop-out..

Thanks Josh for being my model!!! :)

Track

2011-02-26T17:04:00.001-06:00

So I am finding out that I need some faster glass to shoot track with, but I am doing what I can. :)

Anyway, these are some pics from the middle school track meet, and a few from the high school meet. I wish I could have done more at the high school meet but it's hard when you are also running.

These first 2 are from the high school meet.

Now the middle school meet.

These last three I had to raise my ISO way up. All the way up to 5000 and I still couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed. I was really wishing I had a 70-200mm f2.8 lens.... :/ Someday I shall.

It was my first time to photograph a track meet so I didn't know what to expect, but now that I have gotten my feet wet I know what to do. :)

Hopefully the pictures will get better as the season progresses.

Tulips!

2011-02-16T15:49:00.000-06:00

Alright so last my dad got some tulips for my mother and when they opened up the were REALLY nice. So I thought it would make a great photo-op. Let me know what y'all thing.

Oh I just got my track shoes yesterday and the are like totally awesome. So there is definitely going to be a shoot with those. Also I have me first track meet this Thursday at St. Thomas high school in Houston so hopefully I can get some nice pictures. I also have a track meet this Saturday, again I hope to get some nice photos.

Bullets

2011-02-05T00:59:00.001-06:00

First off I would like to thank all of you guys that commented on my last post!! It's nice to see that people still stop by!!!

So I was playing around with my external flash some more!!! I didn't change my camera angle because I wanted to learn more about flash placement. What would happen if I put my flash here or there. Let me know what you think?

Oh! For those of you into guns. The ammo is 7.62x54r it's Russian ammo, for my 1931 Russian Mosin Nagant.... I ought to do a photo shoot with that. It's really cool with the bayonet and pretty wood finish. I ought to try and find some old WWII looking torn up or military cloths that look Russian and do something. Although I would need a model for that and the only thing I seem to be able to take pictures of lately are inanimate objects. :_(

Yea I have been really discouraged lately. It almost feels like people are afraid of me as a photographer because I am a guy. It's really discouraging... it seems God has given me a gift but people aren't letting me have the chance to use it.

Oh! I am sorry, I am sure your not interested in my problems. I hope you enjoy the photos.

My blog should be getting updated fairly regularly now that photography class has started.

Rain + Puddle + Off Camera Flash = This Shot!!

2011-02-01T18:26:00.000-06:00

Yea so Photography Class has started back up and I am so stoked about it. Anyway we got to photograph anything we wanted for our first assignment.

Well one of those days it rained and there was a puddle in out front flower bed (which doesn't have any flowers, so would it be a weed bed or dirt bed? Hmm must look into that.). There was also a kind of steady stream of water flowing down from out gutters into that puddle. So I figured what a great time to experiment with off camera flash.

So a little about the setup.

I had my SB-900 about 6 feet to my left and about 5 feet from the subject, no diffuser, with the little white bounce card pulled out, and last but not least I had the flash head angled at 90 degrees. Now I was about 4 to 5 feet away from the subject, and my camera was pretty much on the ground.

Let me know what you think!!

If Your Looking Into College

2011-01-20T11:46:00.002-06:00

If your next big step in life is college and you don't know what you want to do or where you want to go then I think you ought to check out College Plus. If you fill out the form they will send you a free packet telling you all about their program.

I just enrolled and plan on getting my Bachelors in General Management in just 2 years, and for a fraction of the cost compared to actually going to a college.

The way this works is by getting your first 90 college hours through CLEP exams. When you pass a CLEP you get the same college credit that you would get if you went to take the course. The difference is you're able to do it in less time and at a fraction of the cost of actually taking the class. It also provides flexibility in your schedule since you work at your own pace and during the times that are best for you!!

NOW, you might be thinking that it really isn't all that much cheaper. On average a student who goes to a private college will spend about $107,000 for their 4-year degree. If they go to a public college they would spend on average $41,000. Now doing it with College Plus a student will generally spend $10,000 to $15,000 and be able to get their degree in half the time.

So I would highly recommend that you at least check it out here.

If you do decide to enroll please use the tell a friend code 7639. It will give you a discount and also help me. :)

I will also be placing the link on my side bar.

Stars

2011-01-08T16:44:00.000-06:00

This is my first attempt at trying to get the movement of the stars. I am no sure how long this exposure is but long enough to get quite a bit of movement.

You will have to excuse the fake color of the sky and the lack of stars. Being in the city is not the greatest for these types of shot. (from what I have read anyway)

[untitled]

2011-01-07T11:37:00.000-06:00

So I couldn't really come up with a title for this post, but at least I am posting....... :)

Sound Board

2010-12-24T17:33:00.000-06:00

Rudolph the Play

2010-12-22T12:59:00.000-06:00

About 2 weeks ago I got to go see a friends play, and it was really good. Although I seem to always forget to bump up my ISO in situations like this, but I did shoot in RAW so I was able to bring them back

Dickens on the Strand

2010-12-20T12:59:00.001-06:00

Every year in December Galveston, Texas put's on an event called Dickens on the Strand.

The event is a reenactment of the Victorian era. So you have a lot of people in costume and there are some comedians and magicians, there's even a bed race.

Unfortunately we went on the second day of the even and only for the last few hours. So there wasn't as much going on.

Although I did catch the end of the parade they did.

This is one of the shows they had. She did juggling, magic and a a few other things.

This is actually a choir from the Christian school down the street from our house.

There were also these really cool lamp posts that use really fire instead of light bulbs.

I know my post are few and far between but that is partly because I have been really busy.

I am actually falling behind on things to post about.

So be expecting quite a few post soon.

Dance Recital

2010-12-08T20:42:00.001-06:00

So the other day I had the honor of going to see a friends dance recital, which also gave me a great opportunity.

I chose to use only my 35mm and Lensbaby at this event so I could get more familiar with them. I didn't really get to move around and change my angles, but I enjoyed watching the recital and who knows maybe I will be on the stage next year! xD

Sky

2010-12-06T22:43:00.000-06:00

The Hunting Trip

2010-12-04T23:45:00.000-06:00

Well I am back now, and I had a lot of fun. But I didn't really get to take a lot of pictures, especially of wildlife. We were so busy trying to put some meat in the freezer that I didn't get to take pictures from the stand.

But I did get some landscape photos. :)

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky until we were leaving, and I am really not a big fan of cloudless landscape pictures but I think these came out pretty well.

These last 4 were taken with my lensbaby. :) The more I use it the more I love it, it is an amazing little lens.

Please let me know what you think!

Exciting News!!!!!

2010-11-30T14:11:00.000-06:00

I have a couple of new editions to my gear now!!!!! Actually I have a whole now load out. :)

I am now officially Nikon user!! I own a Nikon D7000, with a Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VrII, Nikon 35mm f1.8, the Lensbaby composer with double glass optic, and the Nikon SB-900 flash.

Originally I was going to get just the D7000 and the Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens, but that didn't give me much of a range. I know the 18-200 isn't a pro lens and all that but it is one that I can just throw on the camera and go hiking or what not.

And what do I have to put all this in? I got the Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW. Right now I have a lot of extra space, but it gives me room to grow.

These first 2 shots are the best I have so far using the Lensbaby Composer.

The next photo was shot with the 35mm f1.8. Shot at 1.8

And last but not least is the 18-200mm lens.

I shot this at 18mm.

I haven't even read the manual for my camera yet but I wanted to post about it and take some pictures. I can't wait to really dive into all the cool features of my camera.

I am leaving tomorrow (Wednesday) to go on a hunting trip so I will be able to take some wildlife shot, I hope.

Using Flash in Outdoor Portraiture

2010-11-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

Yes! I did indeed use a flash for these shots, and no I did not photoshop the background into the picture.

I used the flash to light my subject but had my shutter speed slow enough that it was open longer then the flash, thus allowing the ambient light to fill in.

My first attempt at ghosting.

2010-10-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

Houston Fire Fest at the Fire Academy

2010-10-14T23:56:00.000-05:00

So here is the post I promised you! Last saturday was super fun. The only thing that could have made it better were clouds in the sky..... There wasn't a single cloud anywhere, well that is until the fire demonstrations started then there were black clouds.

Oh, I also shot this event in RAW without knowing. I forgot I had turned it to RAW the night before to experiment and didn't put it back on JPEG. I didn't find out until I put the pics on my computer.

There were a lot of old fire trucks and you could actually get in some of them!

And of course....... what's a festival with out turkey legs!!!

And the first demonstration was a diesel tanker fire. Which put out a super thick cloud of black smoke. It was so thick that you couldn't even see the sun through it.

After the demonstration some of the firefighter autographing stuff.

I don't know about you but I think this guy is the cutest fire chief in the world!!!!

The next demonstration was a flashover. That is when the firefights go in a room and the fire flashes over their heads.

Next was a bus fire and extraction. They used real people inside the bus, although those people were in the fire academy. So they had some training. :)

Then they did a Propane tanker fire demonstration, which smelled the worst.

O.K. I am starting to think they have a fire station for little boys now........ Again one of the cutest firemen I have seen. :P

Alright so in the bus on the way back to the car I had this idea of taking a picture of my sister (who was sitting in front of me) through the reflection of the window. I am not sure how well it worked out, but what do you think?

Inks Lake

2010-10-11T17:09:00.001-05:00

Alright!!! I know this post has been a long time coming. Anyway these pics are from our trip to Inks Lake up near Austin, Texas. It is a beautiful place.

So this was our first night at the state park and the view from out camping spot. These first 3 photos are long exposures, 20 to 30 seconds.

So the second day we woke up and did our morning devotions and then I tried to get a reflection photo of a camp site across the water from us. I wish the water was more calm but it is what it is. :)

Mom doing her devotions.

Then later that day we went over to the Devil's Waterhole and jumped of the cliff! It was a ton of fun!!!

This is the cliff that we jumped off of.

Then we went to one of the fishing piers so I could take some pictures.

Day 3 consisted of staying around camp for awhile then we went into Austin to se the Capitol!

This was just 2 guys walking up the stairs and the light was crazy cool with the old looking stair rail. I really like this one.

The view from the front steps of the capitol.

Then the next day we went back to the Devil's Waterhole and I did some hiking.

The our las day came and after we got all packed up and hit the road we stopped at a scenic spot near the top of a hill and I snapped even more pictures. :)

Now for some fun random pictures of our trip.
I know the quality of this video is not the greatest but that happened through the upload process and I can't fix it.... :(((

Also check back soon because I have a new post coming. We went to the Houston Fire Fest at the Firefighter Academy in Houston and I got some really cool picture. I will be posting them sometime Thursday. :)

OH NO!!!!!

2010-10-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

As I sit here listening to the stupid hold music on the Apple support line I thought I would give y'all a bit of an update as to why I haven't posted in a while.

1) I have been busy with school and we went camping. (which you will see pics of)

2) My computers hard drive crashed last thursday and I just got my computer back yesterday and have been busy reinstalling all my stuff.

So I am just now starting to catch up on stuff now and will hopefully get my camp photos up. :)

Sisters

2010-09-15T17:12:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of doing my first maternity shoot with these sisters who were* only two weeks apart in their pregnancy.

* I say were because Michelle (the one in the blue) had her little baby girl the day after this shoot.

The Upps, a family shoot

2010-09-14T10:13:00.000-05:00

Alright so a few weeks ago I did a family photo shoot with a family from our church. They have an adorable two year old boy and one on the way.

After this shoot I have found the nice thing about having an assistant, it is really hard to try and get the little one to look at you and smile while watching your edges and thinking about exposure. I wish I had an assistant. lol

I absolutely love the above two pictures.

In these last two the light was starting to get really bad so it was tough to get a clean image.

I had a lot of fun doing this shoot and learned a lot. Thank you Upp Family!

What do you think?

2010-09-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

So I am change my look up a little bit, and I would really like some input. What do you think of the header? Is it to much? Does the background color work well with my blog? Do you think I should add something? Should I go back to a white background color?

I would really like to hear what you have to say.

In the car at night

2010-09-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

Toyota

2010-09-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

Day 3 in Oklahoma - Western Museum - Drive Home

2010-09-03T16:16:00.004-05:00

So on our third day in Oklahoma we went to the Western Museum. It was a lot of fun. They had a TON of western stuff, and the museum was absolutely HUGE!

I couldn't take a lot of pictures because there were a lot of places where they didn't want allow flash, and the lighting was so dim that it was impossible to take pictures with out either a flash or a tripod.

So there aren't as many pics in this post as the other 2. :(

Western Museum

They have this big statue in the entry way, it is huge. I think it's kind of the Oklahoma City mascot. lol There's painting, rugs, coasters, and blankets of it there.

They had this big bronze statue of "The Duke" (that would be John Wayne for those of you who don't know), and being the big John Wayne fans we are, we HAD to get a picture with him.

left to right: Dad, John Wayne, Me, Moriah.

Ok! There is something horribly wrong with these next two pictures.

I still don't see how I got stuck with the super small saddle..... :\ The tallest guy gets the smallest saddle..

Left to right: Me, Miranda, Moriah, Jordan

Day 2 in Oklahoma -- The OSU campus

2010-09-01T18:50:00.003-05:00

So day 2 of our Oklahoma adventure was going to OSU, where my older sister goes to school. It was really cool, but we went at like noon so lighting wise it wasn't the greatest. What better way to get use to a new camera, heh?

Now before we went to the campus my sister took us to her favorite little nicknack shop. It was weird to be walking through there at the end of summer and seeing the nativity scene setup. Being my bored self in shops like this I decided to take some photos of the scene.

Alright so after the nicknack shop we went to the campus. Now the coolest building on the grounds that I saw was the 5 story library. It has that old building feel to it, well actually it is old. It still has wooden widow frames, and the doors are super heavy.

The Library

I think the one above and below are my favorite pictures of the library. What do you think?

The lighting inside the library is TERRIBLE so there wasn't a lot I could do but I did get one shot of some really old books.

So those are the library photos. What do ya think? Which ones are your favorite? Is there anything I should of tried to do differently?

I don't know what this building is for now, but it use to be the old fire station. It was being remodeled on the inside so we couldn't go inside. :(

Then there was the fountain. Of course we got there at like 2 o'clock and the light was super bright. There were a few times that my eyes were watering from seeing the bright light through the camera. Ugh! Well a couple of days ago I kind of thought the slanted angle was cool, but now that I am looking at it again I am not so sure. It kind of looks like an accident. What do you think?

Next stop the OSU Basketball court! Man that's a lot of orange!! The steps to get up to the top a definitely some calf killers. They are super steep and small, but as a photographer I will make sacrifice for the shot. ;P

Now last but not least I will end with the OSU mascot. Pistol Pete!

So that was day 2 in Oklahoma. What do you think about my photos?

Day 1 of Our Oklahoma Adventure

2010-08-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Mr. Sam Houston!! I would have like to do a better job with placement and such, but I was lucky to even get this one. I was in the back of the RV and my dad yelled "There's good old Sam."So I ran up grabbed the camera fell into the seat and snap this picture before we passed him.

The Oklahoma border. I think we had been on the road for around 6 or 7 hours by this time.

A little bit of HDR

The Oklahoma City Capital Building. Notice the indian on the top?

Ok. So since we were going to be in OKC we checked Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives (One of our favorite shows on food network). Well it just so happened that Guy had been at a German food restaurant. It was really cool and I love the lens flare I got in this picture.

So that concludes day one of our Oklahoma trip. There's another 2 days left so stay tuned. :)

WOOT!!!! I am getting.....

2010-08-27T18:00:00.001-05:00

LIGHTROOM 3 (henceforth referred to as LR3)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am totally stoked!!

I was debating between LR3 and Aperture 3 (henceforth referred to as A-3). I used the LR3 Beta and the A-3 30 day trail and found that LR3 is a lot faster at the edits and exports. While A-3 was really cool it was super slow and the exports took FOREVER. So after much deliberation I decided to go with LR3.

I just ordered it yesterday so I should be getting it either tomorrow or Monday.

I just want to thank Academic Super Store for the AWESOME prices they give for students. Also that they are home schooler friendly.

Repetition

2010-08-26T10:51:00.002-05:00

So these were taken on the OSU (Oklahoma State University), and naturally we were there at the worst time of day lighting-wise. But I did my best with the new camera I got.

The Campus was absolutely beautiful, lots of old buildings and pretty trees, a pond with fountains, orange EVERYWHERE. It was a cool trip. We got to see the football and basketball stadiums, the little museum about OSU, the 5 story library, and the pond. It was a lot of fun and y'all will be seeing more pictures later, so stay tuned for more picture on the way.

This photo below was taken out side the Education College on the OSU campus. Now you might be thinking, what does he mean by a college on the university campus? Isn't a university a college? Well at the big universities they separate the areas of study into colleges. So on the OSU camps you have the engineering college (for the engineering degrees), the education college (for the teacher degrees) etc. etc. etc. It was a little interesting to learn about.

So with these two I didn't know if I liked the color or black and white photo better so I decided to post both. Which one do you like best?

YeeHaw!!! We have a new camera!!!

2010-08-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Yes indeed. We got the 15.1 megapixel, 6.3 frames per second, digic 4 processor, Canon 50D!!!!!!!! And I am Mhmm Mhmmm Lovin' it.

So this is one of the first pictures I took with it. (before I read the manual)

Update on our camera

2010-08-11T10:22:00.001-05:00

So we got our camera back last week, hence the previous post, but it still wasn't working correctly. THERE WERE NEW PROBLEMS!!!!! :| The pop-up flash would get stuck sometimes and you never knew when it would happen. Also the rubber thumb pad thingy came off. UGH!!! But they did fix the previous problems. :/

Well we went back to Best Buy, walked to the Geek Squad counter and told them what is wrong. They said that it had to be sent off AGIAN but this time just so they can look at it and say we can get a replacement. Now the problem is. What we would get is actually a bit of a downgrade from the Xti we have had. SSSOOOOO we are going to upgrade to a Canon 50D. :) I am so happy, it actually does bracketing so I won't have to adjust the exposure manually when I want to do HDR, it's got 15 megapixels but that really doesn't mean anything. The only problem that I have found with the 50D is the High ISO noise is worst than the Xti. But I usually shoot at 400 ISO anyway so that not a big deal..... yet.

First attempt at HDR

2010-08-08T16:48:00.002-05:00

So this is my first attempt at HDR (High-Dynamic Range) Photography. Which is merging 3 or 5 images of the same scene but at different exposures together. Generally you would use the bracketing setting to capture the images at different exposure, but I don't have that setting so I had to manually adjust the exposure for each shot.

Please leave a comment letting my know what you think.

Two Dove's

2010-08-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

A digital painting

2010-08-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

Sad Sad News!!

2010-08-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

So the reason there hasn't been a lot of new photos lately is because our camera has been sent in for repair, not once but twice!!!!!!!!! :| First it was because of a few dead pixels on the sensor, dust in the viewfinder, and one of the lenses didn't work. Well we got it back the first time about 2 weeks ago. Then 2 days after we got it back the little button you push to get the memory card out broke and they didn't fix one of the issues. So we sent it back to the repair shop and I should be getting it back in a few day. If it's not fixed this time I am going to be pretty up set, well maybe not because if it's not fixed they replace it with a brand spankin new camera!!!!

Lil' Aiden

2010-07-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

So I was looking through some pictures I took when I actually found some picture of my youngest nephew. I took these in the airport before they left.

Lemonade

2010-07-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

At a Cemetery

2010-06-19T21:32:00.000-05:00

If you have time I would really suggest that you go to a cemetery and just stroll around. I went to one across the street from the laundry mat while my bedding was washing and snapped these pictures.

Sadly, when I was there the lighting was pretty bad but I did what I could.

My Nephew!!!!

2010-06-16T16:20:00.003-05:00

This past week we got to visit with my sister and her family because finally came down from California before they move to Alaska for 3 years. My brother-in-law is in the Coast Guard and got stationed in Kodiak, Alaska ( I am so looking forward to visiting them there :) So anyway, while they were here I setup a little studio in our kitchen.

So that is my little nephew, Anthony. He is a 3 year old ball of energy. It was so hard to pose him. He wanted to go play with the dog, eat cookies, play the piano, run around the house, and go upstairs all at the same time it seemed. I think it took me like an hour and a half to get these pictures. =\

Which ones do you like best?? Which ones don't you like?? Why don't you like them?
Criticism and comments are very appreciated!!!

I was going to do a shoot with his little brother but the day they came over he was too cranky.

Oh! By the way, the backdrop and bear are mine. xD

New Photos Coming Soon

2010-06-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

Yes! My sister, brother-in-law, and little nephew are in town and so I have done a little shoot with my oldest nephew (3 years old), and today I am doing one with my other nephew (6 months). So be on the look out for my two posts coming soon.

Old books and stuff [Photo]

2010-06-07T12:42:00.002-05:00

Makin Corn Meal [Photo]

2010-06-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

And another George Ranch picture.

My Sister at George Ranch [Photograph]

2010-06-02T11:54:00.002-05:00

It was SO hot that day, I had to beg her to pose. lol

Thought?? How could I have made this better? Anything I shouldn't of done in posing her??

Criticism is welcomed!!

A boys toy chest [Photograph]

2010-06-01T12:34:00.003-05:00

This was taken at George Ranch, in the Prairie Home. That was a terrible day for photography. The sun was SO bright and there were no clouds. But I tried to salvage some pics.

Now that I have been looking at, if I had laid down on the floor I think it would have had a better angle.... Why couldn't I have thought of that when I was taking the picture... :( Oh well.

Any other thoughts?

I have a few more from that day but they will be coming later. :)

Herald Cry Poster [Graphic Design]

2010-05-31T11:22:00.000-05:00

So this was my final project of class. I had to design a poster for either a band, movie, or event. So I did a poster for a fake band/event.

I would really like to hear what y'all think.

A Blue Jay [Photograph]

2010-05-28T23:33:00.000-05:00

Herald Cry CD cover

2010-05-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

So this is another project I had for class. I had to make a Cd Cover for a band (real or fake) and so this is what I did. This is not yet a real band but maybe it will be soon. :P This is also kind of for a friend, he has the music talent and I have the graphic know how. lol

What do y'all think???

DVD Cover and disc [Graphic Design]

2010-05-24T12:01:00.000-05:00

This was a project I had in my class. We had to design a DVD cover and disc. So I made an instructional DVD. The Pictures are of me and taken by me. I cut the background out of the photos in photoshop but made both of the files in Adobe Illustrator. :)

What do you think? This is not my best but I am just posting so there will be more to come?

Should I????

2010-05-22T16:41:00.000-05:00

So I was wondering if I should post some of my Graphic Design work along with my photography. I am worried about stuff getting stolen and all that, but I am pretty sure it would be safe to post them. Just wondering if y'all want to see them?

P.S. Please leave comments on stuff you like, because right now I hardly get comments So I don't know what y'all do and don't like. What I need to work one, what I need to stop doing and stuff like that.

The Fan

2010-05-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

The one above is unedited.

[Untitled]

2010-05-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

I like the texture of this picture. It was kind of a random picture. What do you think?

Spinnin around

2010-05-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

A Peep hole

2010-05-16T19:34:00.002-05:00

Lately I have been playing around with black and white editing and it's a lot of fun!!!!! What do y'all think???

Goats

2010-05-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

Girl

2010-05-11T20:39:00.001-05:00

A Little Squirrel Gnome

2010-05-06T12:29:00.000-05:00

2010-05-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

A Friends New Dog

2010-04-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side

2010-04-22T22:42:00.001-05:00

Even goats think so!

2010-04-22T10:51:00.000-05:00

Spring is.....eh here

2010-04-16T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well kind of. It's nice outside one day then it feels like summer the next day then it's like winter again. The joy of indecisive Texas weather. ):-/

Yes I know this post is like super late. :(

Delilah, the Evil Cat

2010-04-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Yes folks this is an evil cat, she will hiss/scratch at you for no reason at all. I have scars from her on my arms and hands, so point proven. :|

I have photographed the elusive Peeps

2010-04-07T16:59:00.002-05:00

Yes indeed!!! I went on a Peeps hunt the day after Easter and was able to find and follow a group of them. They were very VERY elusive and I spent a whole day tracking them down. Luckily I was able to photograph them in some of their special rituals.

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When I found them they were in some type of house, sheltered from the rain. My guess is that the Rare Yellow one is the tribe leader.

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Here they are outside after the rain, sun bathing. No one knows why they do it, for no one has been able to observe them this closely.

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Here they are hunting in the rocks for some type of food. No one know what they eat but my guess would be something very sugary.

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Oh no they have spotted me, and started to hide but luckily I was able to capture one more picture before they vanished.

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Some Texas Landscape

2010-04-02T16:27:00.002-05:00

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These were taken near Concan Texas on a friends deer lease.

Since we were turkey hunting I didn't get to take pictures when the light was good, so these are all pretty much from the tim frame of noon to like 4 pm. ( UGH the WORST time of day!!!!

The Frio River

2010-04-01T09:30:00.001-05:00

Houston

2010-03-30T19:13:00.003-05:00

Leeland Concert

2010-03-27T19:56:00.004-05:00

So last Wednesday I went to a Leeland concert with some friends, and it was AMAZING!!!!!!! I had SSSSOOO much fun. I got to know my friend better, got my t-shirt signed by the band, and had a GREAT time.

I took 739 picture at the concert and since the lighting was terrible most of them came out really blurry but here are some of the good ones I have gone through. I had to bump the ISO to 1600 so that's why they are "grainy", but I think in a few it kind of adds to the photo. More will probably come.

Which ones are you favorite??? Which ones don't you like?? Why don't you like them?

Soft Water

2010-03-17T22:16:00.002-05:00

All of these have a 30 second exposure and were taken around or after dark.

At the Drag Strip

2010-03-13T09:53:00.005-06:00

So yesterday a friend invited me to go to the drag strip with him on a public race night, he and some of his buddies where going to race their cars. So I most definitely took him up on that offer, 'twas great practice to do some panning shots (which are extremely hard). I took 347 pictures and these are some of the best, but I haven't gone through them all. So you will probably see some more pictures later.

A little bit about panning for those who don't know what it is. Panning is a picture where you are capturing motion. You use a fairly slow shutter speed focus on the subject and the spin around with the subject keeping it in focus as you trip the shutter. If done correctly you get a nice streaked back and foreground but the subject stays in focus. It is very hard because you have to move with the subject, if you move to slow or to fast you blur the subject. Like I said I took around 347 pictures, I will probably delete a whole lot of them because they are blurred out.

Now they are kind of "grainy" because I had to bump the ISO up to 1600 since it was so dark.

Most of them the shutter is around 1/25th of a second a few might be 1/60th of a second.

Hope y'all enjoyed these photos. I would love your feedback. :)

My Sunglasses

2010-03-12T08:35:00.001-06:00

This is like definitely one of my favorites!!!

The Sun

2010-03-11T22:52:00.003-06:00

This was my first time to capture the sun like this and it's really cool. I have always like pictures of a crisp sun and always wanted to try it. So here it is. What do y'all think?

A Vine

2010-03-06T21:40:00.002-06:00

Not exactly my best work, but I kind of like it. :)

Dandelions

2010-03-05T17:22:00.005-06:00

I love the way the background looks kind of painted.

Oh by the way I have post 101 times on this blog which is pretty cool but also kind of sad, since I started this blog after my other one and it only has 57 posts. :\

Old miscellaneous stuff

2010-02-27T22:40:00.005-06:00

Well I was going through some old photos and found these, then checked old post to make sure I hadn't posted them before. Then I screamed and gasped and just stared blankly as I couldn't believe I didn't post these, but alas here they are.

The middle picture is from California and the other 2 are from our old deer least.

Lately I have been experimenting with some watermarks on my photos so bare with me as I find ones I like.

Dice

2010-02-20T22:34:00.003-06:00

These are VERY hard to shoot.... especially since the lighting wasn't so great and so it was hard to get the dice to really stop.

Some stuff from the archives

2010-02-17T13:34:00.003-06:00

Yes these are from a while back. You may remember the other picture from this photo shoot here.

Yet Another Sky Picture

2010-02-16T14:01:00.004-06:00

I know it seems like I only take picture of the sky. Well that is partly because the sky is just so beautiful and always changing, and because I haven't had a lot of time to steal a model and go take pictures lately either. Maybe spring break I can get out and do some stuff.

Berries

2010-02-13T18:43:00.003-06:00

I took this picture back when Extreme Home Makeover came to Kemah a few weeks ago. Mom, Moriah, and I went to go see it and I saw this plant somewhere out there and loved the color contrast.

In the Garden

2010-02-11T18:41:00.002-06:00

It had rained so I went into the garden (or what is left of it) and tried to find some good shots.

These are what I came up with.

What do y'all think?

Emergency Lights

2010-02-11T13:09:00.002-06:00

These I took a couple of weeks ago. They were both taken from the same exact spot just different focus and Aperture.

Djembe

2010-02-10T16:20:00.002-06:00

Finally some pics!

2010-02-05T20:21:00.003-06:00

These were taken with the digital camera. I haven't gotten my film developed yet. :(

Going back in time

2010-02-03T22:51:00.006-06:00

Well I decided to pull out our old (very old) film camera and try my hand at it. So I got it out and made sure there was some film and went out to take some pic. Hopefully I will get them developed soon and they will come out good so I can scan them and have something to post. :)

So a little bit about the camera, it's a Canon AE - 1 Program. I have 2 lenses (a 50mm like seen above and a 150mm lens) both manual focus and no zooming capabilities. There are NO automatic thing on the camera, after taking a pic you have to flip a lever to spin the film to the next frame. You have to chose what aperture to use manually, there is no built in light meter. I am still figuring out the shutter speed stuff but I am sure it will come to me soon enough.

So stay tuned for some film pics in the next week or so. :D

No Pics lately.. :(

2010-02-01T12:50:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the delay in pictures recently. I haven't had a lot of time to pick up the camera and now the weather is bad so I guess I won't be picking it up for a couple of days still. :( We will have to see.

Amazing Clouds/Sunset

2010-01-26T00:54:00.007-06:00

Now I know some of y'all are thinking that these pictures have been EXTREMELY edited, but exactly the opposite. I barely edited these.

In the first pic (this one was also taken first) I bumped up the contrast a little and made the blue a little more vibrant.

In the second pic (which happens to be my favorite) all I did was bump up the contrast.

These pictures were taken about 30/45 minute apart. The first one was taken from the roof of our house and the second form the window of my room (yes the window was open).

2010-01-19T18:26:00.003-06:00

I am not really sure how to title this one.

Traveling on the Tracks

2010-01-19T11:02:00.001-06:00

A Wondering Mind

2010-01-17T22:34:00.005-06:00

Thinking of another place.

Lost

2010-01-14T17:18:00.003-06:00

Lost and searching for a way out.

Energy concept

2010-01-12T16:40:00.004-06:00

My photography class assignment was the concept of energy and so this is what I did!

On the Tracks

2010-01-11T17:30:00.001-06:00

Star Spangled Banner

2010-01-06T18:19:00.003-06:00

Photo taken by my loving mother!

Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Following the River

2010-01-06T12:28:00.003-06:00

When I was looking around for a real editing software I came across a free download for Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta. This is my first picture to edit in that program and I am totally wanting the real version when it comes out in April!!!!

This shot was taken at Brazos Bend State Park!

The Calm Before the Storm

2010-01-02T14:12:00.001-06:00