Ah the burden of social media. Between personal facebook, fan page facebook, Google+ and twitter, the old blog sometimes slips through the cracks. Which is a shame because I don't really keep this blog going for it's massive readership (sarcasm alert). I've kept it going all these years as more of a public diary of sorts. It's fun to look back at where life has taken me, what I've learned and who I've met. I've documented places I've traveled to, exciting events in my life and boring days at work. It makes me sad to look back and see a block of months where I posted nothing. So time to get things up to date. Might as well use this post as a recap, right?
Rather than go in depth about every photo shoot I've done, I'm just going to skim the highlights and give a few words about each image. As I recall, my last post was in November (geeze..) after an awesome camp out in Beavers Bend Oklahoma. About a week after returning from camping, I had a really cool session with the very photogenic Rosie. We had been trying to arrange a shoot for over a year and our schedules finally aligned. Rosie is a very talented roller derby skater. But unfortunately tore her ACL at the start of this season, putting her out for the year. I wish her a full and speedy recovery!
As fall set in and things cooled off closer to Halloween, Denton held its annual Day of the Dead Festival. At this festival they hold a downhill coffin kart race. Which is nothing short of hilarious With the street lined with hay bales and people, karts are pushed off two at a time in a race to the bottom! Some karts fall apart on the way down, many crash... a few hold together for the win. Overall, it's a hilarious event!
October also means it's time to participate in the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk Event! Groups of photographers around the world gather in their local town and cities to host photo walks on the same day. We then submit our photos to the Kelby website for voting. Even if our photos don't win any awards, it's a great time getting out with other photogs, going for a walk with our camera's and capturing the sights of the day. As usual, the Denton Camera Club held our walk here in Denton where we had a decent turn out despite a sudden rain storm. I felt it just made photos all the better!
Winter is usually a slow season for me photographically speaking. There just isn't much to shoot during the winter in North Texas. Everything is brown and cloudy. Blah! One of the few things I get to shoot are team portraits and head shots for the local womens roller derby league! These are always one of my favorite types of shoots. Below are the Hickory Street Hooligans of the North Texas Derby Revolution. I was really happy with how this team photo came out. It took a bit of photoshop creativity, as their original location was a little on the bland side. I think they enjoyed it as well!
As things warmed up into March, so do the photo shoots. I had the chance to work with the talented Shelby to practice some lighting and posing ideas. It was a fun shoot and gave us both some portfolio work.
Near the end of March the days began to get longer. Fellow photographer Stephen Masker and I decided to get out early and shoot the sunrise over Denton. We captured some nice images of the Corn Kits building and the Courthouse on the square. It was a great morning to be up shooting, but it was very windy and cold at our shoot location. By the time I left, I couldn't feel my hands or face.
I had the chance to shoot two more local roller derby teams in March. Below are the Elm St. Nightmares and the Main St. Mafia. Both came up with great locations for their shoots. The Nightmares gained access to a boiler room, similar to the one in the Freddy Krueger movies. And the Mafia got the use of a turn of the century old style bar. I was really happy with how these came out!
In April I ventured out again with Stephen Masker to the downtown Dallas area. We wanted to capture some nice evening images of Victory Plaza and the American Airlines Center. We shot through dusk and I was most happy with this image from the night.
In May I had the awesome opportunity to shoot from the sidelines of the FC Dallas vs NY Red Bulls match at Toyota Stadium in Plano Texas. It was a great match and even though the Red Bulls won 1-0, I had a fun time and came away with some nice shots.
Continuing with a sports theme, in late May I headed out to the Oakhill MotoX park in Alvord Texas to shoot some race action. This was a lot of fun because I used to race motoX myself (on quads) and had not been around that scene in many years. I'll be headed back out there again to shoot for sure!
In May I went with the Denton Camera Club to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville Texas. Id been to this zoo a few times over the years, but because we were a camera club we were able to secure a behind the scenes tour. This was great because it gave us chance photograph some of the animals from perspectives the normal zoo visitors cannot. It was a fun morning at the zoo.
April 5th was the opening bout (game) of the Dallas Derby Devils, another league I shoot for. This is guaranteed action and I always come back with some good derby photos. This particular photo is actually more of a creative edit. I added some motion blur behind the skater to highlight her.
Spring in Texas is the idea time for camping, which is one of my favorite things to do! You have to go in the spring, unless you're ready to handle the 100+ temps of summer a month or two later. So, some friends and I headed up north into Oklahoma to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. This place is full of great hiking trails, camping spots and free roaming Bison. Like this big fella.
And... that pretty much gets me caught up with my photography work the past few months. I'll try not to let the blog go for five months again! Geeze. That's bad. With it being Spring/Summer now, I should be shooting a lot more. And with that, I'll update things here as well.
Thanks for stopping by for a read!
