keely and patrick-egagements

...finally, the rest of the story. Keely and Patrick's full engagement post!

keely and patrick-teaser

It was a dark and stormy morning, frigid winds blew out of the North and while the rest of North Texas were inside their houses, huddling underneath blankets and scratching their heads why it was 40 degrees in Texas in May...Keely, her fiance' Patrick and I were out in the midst of it all taking photographs! Melodrama aside, this past Sunday I spent the morning with a wonderful couple traipsing through Trinity Park and photographing an awesome couple. It was cold, but they were troopers throughout. Below is a sneak peak, more are soon to follow.

windblown

Now that the image-taking process has come to a close on the Louisiana project, is it time yet to begin a series focused on Texas? As I shift my focus from the great parish I was born in and now begin the process of organizing my images and stalking publishers the actual capture part of that project has ended. A photographer's got to shoot though, right? A while back I began thinking of a photography series set in and around Fort Worth, more of a city to me than where I grew up, and having the two books published back to back: one about Livingston Parish, Louisiana. The other about Fort Worth, Texas, and then marketing the two books as a county/city series. The idea still resonates with me and one never knows how these things will turn out. But, as I go through daily life, there are images of Texas that may not be iconic to Texans, but they are iconic to me and what I love about the this area. This photo, taken on the side of the interstate struck me in it's simplicity but notice the grass all laying violently to one side as if they were collectively laying down in the shade, like a day worker on a lunch break. Tell-tale to the high winds that make Fort Worth a permanant home during the spring. This image speaks to me, and reminds me of a Texas I've come to call home. Hopefully it does the same for you.

morning light

This shot was taken the same morning as the previous post, it's also of the same thing: my parents' driveway, but this shot is a more intimate portrait of the morning and the beauty one can find in it. My buddy Jared says he'd rather see this shot in color, but he's wrong. It's perfect as it is, it doesn't exist in color anyway so if you side with him you're still out of luck.

the view

When I visit my parents in Greensburg, Louisiana my room is on the second floor. The house sits atop a hill and when you are two stories up the sun really lights up the room even though it's only six in the morning. You look outside the window and you can see over the entire property. It's really a pretty sight. On Saturday morning, I awoke like this and figured I couldn't fight the sun and got my camera instead to capture the early morning sunrise. The photo below didn't come from the second story window, but my parents' front porch instead. The clouds overhead were on the move and even though the exposure is only about 2/10ths of a second, the clouds were crossing the sky so fast that they still created a bit of blur. I took several exposures then just set my camera and tripod aside, poured myself a cup of coffee, then just sat and enjoyed the view with my naked eye. An experience that even a great photographer has trouble capturing.

i heart louisiana

In just an hour or so, the family and I will be headed to Louisiana to celebrate Easter with our extended families. This trip also marks the last trip intended to be a part of my personal photography project focused on Livingston Parish. Tracing back some of the photos, I believe the project began itself the weekend of fourth of July, 2005. I took some fine art shots that weekend, came home to edit them and before I knew it I had made it a personal mission to continue doing so, every trip, capturing as much of the landscape, and way of life, as possible. The photos are half auto-biography and half documentary, the motivation behind the images always being to show a side of Louisiana one may never see unless you've lived there. Below is the road map I've used to trace out and keep track of the highways, back roads, and pathways I've been down during the project, hopefully not leaving too much undiscovered. It's the best tribute I can think of to a parish, and a state, that for all it's faults, I hold in pretty high esteem.

kayla and dustin-wedding part II

So I finally got the film back from Kayla and Dustin's wedding, here's a few of my favorites from the ones I took. I love, love, love the pony, as well as the shoe shot coupled with Dustin in uniform. The colors are awesome. Ah...my love of film prevails.

kayla and dustin-wedding sneak peak

Somewhere in Burleson, Texas down a winding road you drive through woods and bush and pass an old gas station and then come upon this little patch of land. The front yard is covered in blue bonnets while the back yard looks like a gazebo fashioned out of the imagination of J.R. Tolkien with curiously swirling wrought iron designs set against exotic trees that snake their way to a never ending Texas sky. Thus sets the scene for the wedding of Kayla and Dustin. Here's just a sneak peak at the lovely bride and groom, but save room for a second post, because there's a few more surprises still yet to come. I promise I won't keep you hanging...too long.

at the five and dime-buying nickels

Now this is more of what I had in mind. What inspired these portraits of change, is that one day I just happened to look down at this old dime and all of its discoloration, its nicks and scratches, its dents and tears, and I thought a macro shot showing up close all the imperfections that this dime has would be an interesting fine art piece. The dime, not knowing where it's been, and not knowing where it'll go from here, wears its journey on its face. It may just be a photograph of a ten cent piece, but like a lot of us, you can tell how hard of a life we've lived just by looking at the lines on our face. After toying with this image for a while, I know what I want to change about the penny. So, Honest Abe, here goes nothing...

back to the blog...

Getting back to blogging is something of a challenge for me. I've got my fingers in so many pies these days that it gets a bit overwhelming at times. I just wrapped up an art show last weekend, am currently attending classes online, spend the weeknights working on various art works, and am still very current shooting weddings, and even a few children coming up in the next few weeks. I mean, boredom isn't a word we know in my home, tired is more like it! But, I've had this idea brewing in my brain for a few weeks now, and although it is a work in progress (the end product I'm showing here isn't quite what I had in mind, it's very close though) I decided to put it out there anyway and at least give my blog fans something to look at. Feel free to let me know if it's cool or not, I always enjoy your two cents.