Austin - Home Sweet Home

I love this town. It has character. It becomes more obvious every time I am away from this interesting city. I feel comfortable here. I feel good here. I am becoming even more aware of its beauty as I take more and more photographs around town. People like to be photographed with iconic scenes of their hometown. There are so many here. I find them one by one. Some of them are commonly seen in photos, like the 360 bridge or the Capital building...and some of them are rarely seen in any photos like the one I have here of my boys in front of the Gingerman. They are all parts of Austin and they all provoke different thoughts and memories for each person.

Photo Tip: Get a new perspective on an old subject. Create a twist to an otherwise ordinary scene. You can do this a lot of times with changing your position as compared to your subject. For example get really low or even put the camera on the ground and shoot what you see. Photograph a building from a different angle than most people view it. You might find your way more interesting.

Oceans, Mountains, and Fun

It's been a long time since the last post. The summer has kept me busy. Photography has been good and family life has been full of adventure. Our travels took us to Colorado and the Pacific Northwest. It allowed me to try my hand at some serious landscape photography. Sometimes it seemed I got so overwhelemed by the beauty of it all that I couldn't pick a good scene to photograph. In those times I had to take a deep breath and focus....and then just follow my insticts as a photographer. Light is everything. It makes or breaks a photograph. It gives it life. So with that in mind I have a few photos of our trip that I will share with you.

Photo Tip: The hour before Sunset is the "golden hour". That is when you should photograph outside. In our great state of Texas most of the day is brightly lit. So keep in mind the quality of light. One thing you can do to fill in the shadows on a face in a bright day is to use your on camera "fill in" flash. It will give your subject's face a little less contrast and more of the eyes can be seen.