Working under pressure...

For a smaller market photojournalist, there are often several assignments to complete each day. On average, I shoot 2-3 assignments on a weekday and anywhere between 4-8 on a Saturday. Let me say right now I am usually up there in the upper end of that estimate on the weekend. The past two Saturdays I have shot 7 seven assignments, often one right after another in three and four hour blocks. Needless to say I have some busy days. The challenge of the job, then, is to still bring back something good, whether I have 15 minutes or and hour and a half to shoot an assignment. A good example of this was last Saturday when I had to shoot a noon soccer game, get to a boy scouts event where they were retiring American and Texas flags at 12:45 and then get back to the stadium to shoot another game at 2:00. When you factor drive time in there things can get pretty hairy. Once I got to the boy scout event I was ready to shoot them burning the flag remnants, but as will often happen to a photojournalist, they were running behind cutting the flags up. For those of you wondering why they do this, it is to make them easier to burn and to speed up the process which can take awhile. Myself and a photographer from another nearby paper were both shooting the boys cutting the flags and looking at our watches. We both had somewhere to be and had not budgeted too long for the assignment. I ended up staying longer since I could stay until around 1:45 and still make it to the soccer game shortly after it began. Of course there was a ceremony and some speeches so I was really wondering if I would even see some flames. Just before I was going to leave they began burning the flag pieces and I was able to shoot for about seven or eight minutes before running to the truck. Despite the event moving along slowly I made several images I was happy with. I have found that I need to shoot very quickly at events like this, especially when they don't stay on schedule, but I must still be thorough, getting names and such for caption info. Often, I feel like someone should be playing "flight of the valkyries" every time I jump into my truck and take off to the next assignment. I have have plenty of assignments where I don't have an 45 minutes to wait around for the action to happen and must get the best photo possible while I am there. I would have had to turn something in still even if I had only had five minutes to shoot. I find that sometimes I thrive in these assignments, but that some of my biggest mistakes come from these assignments as well. Photos © Midland Reporter-Telegram.



The stars of Old Glory burn as pieces of a flag are set afire during a retirement ceremony put on by area boy scout troops at Veterans Park.



Joey Aceves of Weblo Scout troop 129 in Andrews tears pieces of an old flag during a flag retirement ceremony at Veteran's Park Saturday afternoon. Boy Scout officials said the flags are torn into pieces to make them easier to burn.



Boyscout's Jordan Homefeld (front) and Joey Aceves (background) cut up old and worn-out American flags to make them easier to burn as part of a flag retirement ceremony at Veteran's Park Saturday.



A piece of American Flag is thrown into the fire as area boy scouts gather around to watch the flag remnants burn at a flag retiring ceremony at Veteran's Park Saturday.



George Friday, Unit Commissioner with the Buffalo Trail Council, moves around pieces of American and Texas flags to help the pile burn faster during a flag retirement ceremony Saturday afternoon.

Simple is often best

When I get a portrait assignment, one of the first things that usually comes to mind is that I need to check my bag o' flashes and make sure I have everything I need to complete the assignment. Yet, not all portraits require the use of flash, sometimes the light available on site is good enough or even better than hooking up the strobes and pocket wizards. The portrait below was taken of a local businessman, in the restaurant he has run for twenty-something years. The whole front wall was practically one big window, letting plenty of beautiful sunlight in so I decided to go with that instead of something fancy. Mr. Brooks seemed like a straightforward and simple man, so I hope the choice to go available light here adds to the photo and says something about the subject too.



Julius Brooks in his restaurant Mr. Brooks Barbecue, which he will have owned for 29 years in August. Photo © Midland Reporter-Telegram

For the baseball players below, I used just one light at camera right to light up their faces and to even out the exposure. Unfortunately, the sky wasn't blue and cloudy so it's mostly blown out. I include this here because six months ago I probably would have been too scared to even try a one light portrait as I felt I didn't have a good grasp of lighting basics. I have been a strobist reader (www.strobist.com) for over a year now, but I still felt nervous shooting with small strobes on assignment. Thankfully my job has pushed me to not only do so, but to begin experimenting more and more with simple setups that can easily turn a dull portrait into something better. I'm not saying the photo below is great by any means, but it is certainly made better by using a simple flash setup. As I grow better in my lighting skills expect to see some more complex portraits here on this blog.

The daily grind and trying new things

So I have never been too good at going out in search of wild art of feature photos. It's not that I don't like stand-alone photos, it's just that unless I have a plan of attack, I feel like I it's just a shot in the dark. When I get into my truck I want to know where I am headed and what I plan to shoot. Unfortunately, this viewpoint is not always compatible with the life of a smaller market photojournalist. I often have to go out in search of these photos, mostly for our local section where we don't use art from any of the wire services. Many times, our reporters will give us ideas for assignments where there is a good photo opportunity but not much of a story, often, though, I am just on my own. There can be a lot of pressure here, especially for a young photographer like myself. You are expected to pull the rabbit out of the hat on a regular basis. With that in mind, here are a couple of stand-alone photos I have taken in the past few weeks. Photos © Midland Reporter-Telegram and myself.


The reflections of several downtown buildings, including the Wilco and Bank of America towers, are combined in the rounded windows of the Summit Building II on Illinois Tuesday evening.


A worker with Butts Plastering works on the wall of the Stonegate Fellowship Church Children's Building Thursday afternoon.

The next shot was taken from the rafters at the local college athletic center where most of our local basketball teams host heir home games. I am scared of heights and this photo required me to stand on a chair and lean over a rail so I really went out of my comfort zone for the shot. I think it works, although it could certainly be better (and safer to obtain). I think I might try a remote camera setup sometime in the future for these types of shots and will post about it here if I do.


Lee's Dave Morris attempts a shot from under the basket friday night agianst the Cooper Cougars.

I just liked this one because the shooter's eye is framed by the fingers of the defender's hand. It's one of those times when I didn't see anything special about a photo until I was back at the office looking at my take for the evening in detail.



Jesus Morales gets off a jump shot despite the attempts of Cooper's Darius Robinson Friday evening at the Midland College Chaparral Center.

Catching up

So obviously I have failed miserably at keeping this blog updated lately. It's not that I haven't meant to, but you know things can get a little busy when you are constantly traveling between two cities and getting used to a new job. I figured I would start again however and post some of my most recent work, and perhaps keep it up enough to do a week-in-review type post every week. This week I have a couple from Thanksgiving when it snowed heavily here and then my favorites from last week.
All images copyright The Midland Reporter-Telegram.


This one is of the statue of Lady Liberty on the front lawn of the county courthouse downtown. Like any trained dog or photojournalist I know that when I wake up and it is snowing in West Texas, I will need a weather photo. In fact I will probably need two weather photos just to be sure. I went out early on Thanksgiving to get these since I figured someone from the paper would be calling me wanting a snow photo eventually and if I already had one that would make my life just that much easier. Plus I could shoot what I wanted and take my time without the rush of a deadline.


This is a Turkey Day photo as well. We knew that two of our larger teams in the playoffs would be practicing that morning. I was excited to shoot football practice in the snow since that doesn't happen to often around here.

Here are a few from this past week:


This first one is a portrait of two brothers who play football on the same team, which also happens to be the team their father is an assistant coach for. I included it because I am trying to better both my portrait and my lighting skills and I feel this one was a step in the right direction. I used one off camera strobe at camera right hooked to a pocket wizard (that's a brand/type of radio trigger used to shoot with your flash on a stand, hanging from a tree, tied to a lama, etc. etc. for the uninitiated). This light was mainly used as a fill light since I had some nice sunlight coming in from behind me that was perfect for my main light (as sunlight often is).


This photo is of a championship ring presentation ceremony for the local junior college basketball team. It's pretty cool shooting photos of a team that included several members of last years national championship team. With quality athletes come opportunities for quality photos if you ask me.


This is one of my favorite basketball photos I have ever taken. The intensity on the faces and the little details like the players tattoos just make this one of my favorites. It helps that we have some awesome strobes up in the ceiling to illuminate the player and throw the background into darkness. This has got to be one of my favorite parts of the job so far. I have always loved shooting basketball, and wanted to light the floor like this but was on too much of a students budget to afford to do it. My newspapers setup is really great. Shooting with the big lights does have it's downsides though. You have to get to the location early and climb up to the catwalks to manually turn the strobes and radio triggers on, and you can't exactly motor drive your way through a ton of frames as the lights need to recharge every few shots. My camera syncs with the flash at 1/250th of a second also, which is a little slow for sports, although this is a problem for most pro digital camera's nowadays. The good things is that the flash helps to stop the action, and I can shoot at f/4 or f/5.6 to get a little better depth of field and not worry about the crowd being in focus since they are underexposed from the 7th or 8th row on up.

Yeah, I really like to shoot basketball at my new job.

Dusting off the blogger account

So it's been awhile since I posted, and I don't really know why I quit. I think maybe it had to do with feeling that I didn't really have much going on at the time, but when I look back at it now I realize I did. I have been searching for a job for some time and and finally that search is ended. I am now working for the Midland Reporter Telegram, the daily paper for Midland, TX. I have already worked there most of a week and am currently back home in Abilene with the family.

Maria and the kids aren't moving up there with me until she gives birth to our third child the first week of November, so the next couple of months will be a little difficult. Those that have followed this blog for awhile now (insert silence and chirping crickets sound effect here) will know that my family has had to do this once before, when I interned at the daily paper in Odessa, TX. Coincidentally, Odessa and Midland are only 20 miles apart. Tough times are ahead but Mary and I have a strong relationship and our kids are young so they adapt pretty well. I won't be able to make it every weekend though and that's when things will get challenging.

On a purely blog related note, if I do start keeping this thing updated more I may check with the online editor so they can link to it from their local blogs page.

Inspiration from different places...

I'm not really a fan of rap music, but I do listen to some on occasion and I recently found a Jay Z song that has actually been some inspiration to me. The song is the last track on the "Black Album" and it's entitled "my 1st song". It begins with a clip from an interview by the Notorious B.I.G. where he is quoted as saying:

I'm just, tryin to stay above water y'know
Just stay busy, stay workin
Puff told me like, the key to this joint
The key to staying, on top of things
is treat everything like it's your first project, knahmsayin?
Like it's your first day like back when you was an intern
Like, that's how you try to treat things like, just stay hungry.

The chorus of the song is sung by Jay Z and it reads:

It's my life - it's my pain and my struggle
The song that I sing to you it's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I came
It's my joy and my tears and the laughter it brings to me
It's my ev-ery-thing.

(song lyrics copied from lyrics.com)

To be honest, the lyrics lose some of their effect when they are only read and not heard. The point is though, that every song (or for a photographer, every assignment) should be treated like it's the most important, like it's the first one. Even more than that, it's a reminder to keep up a good work ethic, and to push yourself everyday. Regardless of my opinion of the majority of Jay Z's music (and the genre in general), this song has been on alot of playlists on my iPod lately. I have let myself get into a rut in regards to my shooting; I just don't find the time to do as much personal work as I should. I am also getting a little to used to shooting 'grip and grins' for the university and I feel like I am getting complacent. Maybe this week will be the week when I break out of this rut, and when I can reminde myself to treat every assignment as if it were the first time I picked up a camera and had so much enthusiasm and saw the whole world through a new perspective.

The other point this song brings up is to remind me to ask myself this question: Am I hungry enough? Am I hungry enough for these jobs I am looking at, for the process of storytelling? How badly do I want to do this for a living? If at any point the answer is "not enough" then I think I will have to reevaluate where I am. Right now, I am hungry. A professor was suggesting to our class the other day that an interviewer was likely to ask the question, "Why should I hire you?...." and that we should have an answer ready. I think my answer will be that I am hungry. Hungry for this job, but also hungry to get to know a new community and tell the stories I find there. That I desire so much to work as a photojournalist on a daily basis, and to find a way to impact people's lives through my photography.

Coffee with an old friend

Today I had the chance to visit with an old friend, Brady Lane. I didn't even know Brady was in town until another friend told me he had come to speak to her class. Brady has been working at the Marshfield News Herald for the past several years. He and I were able to talk for about an hour, and I have to say that our conversation really helped me put my current situation in perspective. Brady told me that he was out of school for 9 months before he found his current job, and that he had been feeling some of the very things I have been as he searched for employment. I have been so focused on finding a job or deciding what to do after graduation that I have even considered doing types of work that I know wouldn't make me very happy but bring in some extra income such as portrait work or wedding photojournalism. I guess I thought that if I couldn't find a job at a paper by May then it was all over for me, I would have to sell out. I know this probably sounds stupid, but that's how I have been looking at things. I walked away from our conversation with a sense of relief, a burden had just been lifted off of my shoulders. I still do want to have a job lined up by May, but on the chance that I don't my life isn't over. So often we focus on one goal so hard that we get our perspective out of whack, and forget that there is a larger picture to look at.

We also talked about finding small papers that still put our good work, since I will most likely be starting at a smaller publication. It's good to hear from someone who has found one and encouraging to think that I can do the same. I felt that my photo editor from my internship, Mark, was one of those editors who pushed his photographers to keep a high standard and I hope that I can work for someone like that again. Overall, it was good just to hear from an old friend and catch up.

Some high school basketball

Last night I shot a game between Odessa High and Mansfield Summit High for the Odessa American last night at Moody Colliseum on campus. I really hadn't every shot any high school b-ball, but since the game was in a familiar venue I was used to the lighting and such. Here are a couple of the photos from the game:













Overall, I think I did ok, but I know that I can shoot much better photos at a basketball game. I had the same problem this past weekend when I shot two games for the university, I feel like my work was just good enough, but not excellent. I really need to step it up next time. I don't want to keep feeling this way after assignments. I'll see if I can post some from another assignment I shot this weekend for the university.

Expanding my mind...

Lately I have been feeling the urge to learn about graphic design (and design in general). I have also been experimenting with Adobe Illustrator for designing my new business cards and letterhead and such, which would probably explain my newfound desire. I have always admired graphic designers and other digital artists so this recent interest in learning more is not surprising to me. I bought a few books on Amazon to help spark my creativity and to educate myself about color and type. One of the books, the one I am currently reading, is really causing me to think. It's titled Thinking with Type , and it's really interesting material.

Like most ACU journalism students I thought Dr. Marler was a little crazy when he spent 3 weeks talking about typography during the Publication Design class, but now that I have a few years more life experience and a much different outlook on life I think the topic is fascinating. Not only is typography interesting but how the designer places the text and positions it, sizes and colors it all go into creating a great layout. Coming from a school newspaper background I know that the body, or text, on a page is an element much as the art or photographs are and not just linear text, but somehow the author of the book presents this idea in way that is new and refreshing to me. I'm not saying I am going to switch to page design or try to become a graphic designer, but I do feel that dabbling in these fields is beneficial to me, the same way learning to record audio or shooting and editing video are skills that improve my creativity and story telling skills. As I write this I am reminded of a time when I heard David Leeson tell a group of photographers that he wanted to live an artful life, and I can understand that. It's more than just being a good photographer, in fact if I only do that with my life I will be a failure in my own eyes. I would like to understand and appreciate the art that is all around me, from subtle beauty of nature and God's design for it, to the buildings I work, live and play in and even the objects/devices/tools I use in my everday life, everything around me has been designed to fulfill a purpose or to elicit an emotion or feeling. Realizing this, and tapping into it, might just be the greatest thing I can do as an artist.

Time flies

It's been awhile since I posted here, mainly because I haven't made much time for it. Another reason I have stayed away from the blog is that I feel like I might have gotten off track with it. In the beginning, this was supposed to be a photo blog where I showcased some of my more recent photos and blogged about them or the circumstances behind them. This was for a class. Then I started the internship in Odessa, TX and this blog became a way for me to share my experiences and work but ever since I came back from that experience I seem to have quit posting photos almost altogether, with the few exceptions being photos of my family. Part of the reason is that at times I was busy shooting events and such that payed the bills but did not always produce work I deemed original enough to post here. Lately, however I have not been shooting much at all, I seem to have hit a dry spot in my personal creativity as well as my freelance opportunities. While I have no doubt that I will overcome both of these problems (this isn't going to be another whining post) I just haven't had much to put here. I have had about a billion thoughts in my head that I could of posted, but I am still unsure of where I want to take this blog.

The thing about it is that I find blogging my thoughts to be helpful and enjoyable. Often while I type out a question or describe a problem I begin to realize the answer before I am finished. So I guess the whole point of this post is to let anyone who actually reads this know that there will be more photos in the future, but there will be more "photo-less" posts as well (and probably some more whining for good measure).

My Exploding brain!!

I am having one of those moments right now when I really want to create something or express myself in some way but I have not focus, and and unsure of what to do. So I thought I would write a little bit of the blog to help me out. I get this way every once in awhile and usually it happens in the middle of the night and I just lay there staring at my ceiling thinking of all the great things I could be doing if I would just get out of bed. I feel like my brain will explode if I don't do something. But when I get out of bed things just don't seem to work out like they did in my mind. I start to wonder if taking photos of all the doorknobs in my house was really a good idea and wonder how I came up with the idea. But sometimes, and only on rare occaisions I produce something worth keeping. Such as the time I found myself sitting in a dark room with my camera's shutter open for 30 seconds using a flashlight to "paint" the light onto some flowers I had bought Maria that day. The photos were really good, and if I hadn't lost them when my laptop hard drive crashed last year I would post them online. I guess the whole point of this has been to let someone else know that sometimes my idiotic creative urges aren't so idiotic. Maybe sometimes I just need to reach out, regardless of whether anyone else is reaching out. It's that act of trying to find a way to communicate satisfies my creative soul I guess. Does anyone else ever have these moments of cretive need? I can't be the only one.

Things have been rough lately

Lately, I have been struggling to figure out who I am and my place in the world of photojournalism. I look in the mirror and just don't know who I am or who I am supposed to be. I was talking about this with my photojournalism advisor Cade White and I think he pointed out one of my big worries: I have a family that is affected by my every decision. If I were a 22-year-old PJ student about to graduate, I would probably sell everything I own and travel south to Mexico or South America and photograph the lives of the people there and focus on the issues that concern them. If I failed, and couldn't get anyone to publish my photographs I would come home with a lot of experience and start working at a paper. But I am not a 22-year-old wonder boy or girl without any commitments. I am a 25-year-old husband and father who has to make sure I can shelter, cloth and feed three other people. I have so much more to think about, and sometimes it is overwhelming. I don't regret any of the decisions that go me to this point in my life and I enjoy my family and love them very much, they are what motivates me to keep going every day. Despite that fact, I often feel it is hard to figure out who I want to be and what type of photographer I want to become when I have others depending on me. The truth is, that I really do know who I need to become, someone they can depend on, a man who they can all lean upon and who will care for them. I guess the real struggle I face is, how do I do that and fulfill my own goals and desires at the same time.
This morning I had coffee with Cade, and he pointed out that I need to look at things with the perspective that I can find happiness wherever I am working. Even if that means I end up working in Abilene or a city near hear for a few years. As he was talking to me I keep thinking of this little plaque that my grandmother had in her house that said "Bloom where you are planted". I know I can do great work anywhere, that I can capture meaningful moments that tell people's stories in any town, in any state, or in any country. One of the things Cade mentioned to me when we had spoken yesterday was how freelancing gave me some freedom that I wouldn't really have at any other job. Right now I do have more freedom as a freelancer than I would as a staff photographer somewhere. And my work does have meaning to others, even the "grip and grin" posed shots I shoot all the time for the university have meaning to someone. They are probably on people's wall and sitting in frames on end tables, work desks and on fireplace mantles. I know this, yet I can't help but want for more. Maybe it is selfish of me, what I feel like I have the potential for more. As much as I like working for the university and occasionally doing an assignment for the local paper, I feel like I should be doing more with my work. Many mornings, as I look in the mirror I feel like selling off most of my gear except for one camera and a few essential lenses (the primes, of course!) and throwing myself into a project, without knowing that I will be published. I feel like finding a story to tell, whether it is here in Abilene or a thousand miles away, and telling it through my eyes and the eye of my camera. I find the camera to be an amazing tool and photography to be an almost intoxicating act, a way for me to transfer what I see around me to a sensor or a piece of film that can be printed or displayed on the web for others to see. Often just the act of photographing something or someone, of thinking and looking through the viewfinder is satisfying in and of itself regardless of the outcome. I enjoy the basic thrill of this, it still has the capacity to excite me and I hope over the years it always will. The problem arises when I feel that so often I get used to shooting for others, trying to see things how they want to see it that I lose sight of my own vision.
This past weekend I really tried to combine the two on a couple of assignments for the university. I tried to include my own style more into the photographs that I turned in, yet I kept in mind the goals and needs of my employer at the time. I think the photos worked out much better, I even received a compliment on my work and how I shot those two events from my employer. On the one hand the photos aren't drastically different than any other events I have shot, but on the other I tried to include (or exclude) little details that intrigued me and to frame things the way I felt they should be framed a little more. In this way I felt like I was finding my own vision again. I konw I have a way of seeing that I can share with others and that I can share things that will enlighten people and help those in need. Regardless of where my life takes my family and I, I hope I can remain true to myself and my vision, whatever that is.

A few photos

I haven't been very good at posting photos lately, probably because I haven't actually been shooting much the past two weeks. I did shoot some photos of my family at the park, feeding the ducks. My daughter loved it, she kept screaming at the ducks "Duckies, come see me!". I skipped a class to go with them, and it was probably the best day I had last week. I really enjoy when I can get some time with my family outside the house, it's different than just spending time around the house. I know these aren't professional work, but these are my favorite photos from the past week.

Sunday, November 12

I went over my slideshow with a good friend of mine, Eyakem Gulilat , who has really jumped on the multimedia bandwagon. Eyakem has his own ideas and perspective that make him an interesting artist. He gave me some good advice and went over the slideshow with me and helped me to tighten it up. I am going to post an updated version in the next couple of days. I don't want to get too tied up in this project though, as I feel like I need to move onto something else now. I can still work on the gym project, but I need to work on something newer as well to keep myself sharp.
On another note, I posted my portfolio in an online gallery. Some of you may remember that I had done this a while back on photoshelter, but I cancelled my account because I wasn't really using it for anything else. I used adobe lightroom (a neat little app that is free right now while it is still in beta) to create a web gallery that I copied to my server space at the school. There are a few newer images, so take a look and let me know what you think. My Portfolio

Slideshow video

Here's the slideshow I have been working on. I used iMovie, so the photos aren't as high resolution as I'd like. I wanted to use Soundslides (a program many photogs are using to create flash slideshows) but it cost $40 and I want to check it out more before I go and make a decision about it. If I would have the demo version for this the video would have been watermarked. I would appreciate any feedback, especially on how I can make it better. I want to improve my storytelling skills, so anything you can suggest will help.


Abilene Old School Boxing

What I'm working on today

I'm trying to produce an audio slideshow of photos from the boxing gym that I have been shooting at on and off for the past 6 or 7 months now. It's the audio recording that is holding me up right now, I pretty much have the photos down, but recording audio is something that takes a new set of skills. I know I can have those skills, but I need to develop them. I've already gotten an interview with Geno, the man who runs the gym but it's the natural audio that is killing me. I think I didn't do enough research on the mic I borrowed from my advisor, Cade White . I honestly ran out and just jumped into trying to record audio without much thought to it.
I'll probably be going back tonight to get more and hopefully I will be better prepared. I will post the slideshow here whenever I finally get it done.

NPPA Flying Short Course

I am in Little Rock, Arkansas this weekend for the National Press Photographers Association's regional Flying Short Course workshop. It's a good opportunity to hear some excellent photojournalists speak and to have your portfolio critiqued as well as have your gear checked over by technicians from the manufacturer. On a side note, I love the Canon people. Really, I do. They not only cleaned my camera but they replaced the hot shoe and the rubber piece that covers the pc cord port without me asking them too (like the unpaired socks in the dryer, I'll never know what happened to that cover). On the other hand now my camera looks newer so I need to go out and shoot with it, scrape it against some more walls and bang it around while I have my flash on it to loosen the hot shoe and make it look used again.

After the presentations were over today, the group went to the Clinton Presidential Library downtown for a reception. The library was an impressive structure and chronicled the accomplishments of the former president. I realize that this building was probably built with money donated by Clinton's supporters, but I hate to see so much money being poured into a project that does not serve much of a purpose to the general populace, only one man and a few of his supporters. A far greater legacy than a building, in my opinion, would have been to use the money for something that benefited others.
Despite my thoughts on the buildings usefulness, it is impressive. I took a few photos while I was there and selected a couple to post here. One is of the exterior and one is of a workshop participant looking at one of the displays.

An update!

So things have been pretty busy around here. I have neglected the blog for awhile but I am hoping to get back in the habit of posting here often. Tonight I went to a local hot air balloon festival. I haven't been shooting much for my own lately, so it was fun to get out and use my camera without the pressure of absolutely having to bring something back. The funny thing is that I will probably end up using some of the images for one of my classes, so there was a little more to it than just having fun. I guess I can't shoot for the pure love of photography anymore. Also, when you shoot for fun you don't get paid, which kind of sucks.

Lately I have been getting paid nearly every time shoot, so that is a great improvement from where I stood this time last year. I feel like I am finally moving forward at more than just a snail's pace. Maybe there is something good career-wise in my future. But enough ranting, here are the photos from tonight:












The bottom four shots were taken around the RE/MAX balloon which is piloted by Wayne Standefer out of Dallas, TX area. Standefer is the guy with the striped shirt in the basket. He need quite a few people to weigh down the balloon after he got it filled up as the wind was to strong to actually take off. The pilots will light up there balloons for the crowd, whether or not they can actually take off. This part of the evening is called "the Glow" and, as expected, is one of the most popular parts of the evening.

My work does get used

Yesterday I was shooting the second century convocation for my school, Abilene Christian University, along with the primary shooter for most of their events Gerald Ewing. They had a slideshow of the centennial celebration over this last year that was being shown on two huge screens hung from the ceiling. I saw a lot of Gerald's work and was going to congratulate him when I saw some of my photos that I had shot for the university being shown in the slideshow as well. I felt proud to have a few of my photos make it into the slideshow and to have been part of something as large as a schools year-long birthday celebration. Seeing the three or four photos of mine that made it to the slideshow was much like watching the paper being printed during my internship. I felt like I was a part of a team effort, and although I was only a small part of the team, I still felt proud to see that my work was included in the wrap-up of the year.

Portfolio Review

Yesterday I went to the local paper, The Abilene Reporter News, and had my portfolio reviewed by their photo editor, Robin Larson. I enjoyed the review and talking with a professional in the business. I was really impressed by Larson, especially when I found out that she went to a pretty prestigous Photo J school and had some incredible instructors. As for my portfolio, it fared pretty well. She wasn't the harshest critique I have ever had, but she flat out cut several photos pretty quickly and discussed with me why some of them were borderline. It was nice to hear some positive critiques as well. I can remember about three or four years ago (yes I have been in school that long already) when I had my work reviewed by another Reporter News editor, Matthew Minard, and left with maybe one keeper. So for me, to walk out of the paper with most of my portfolio intact was a good feeling.
Portfolio reviews can be rough, especially when the reviewer pretty much rejects everything you have and you feel like you are starting over. Yet that is necessary, and sometimes those are the best critiques.
For me the challenge will be twofold: To replace the weaker photos in my portfolio and to not feel too confident in the ones I am keeping. I personaly strive to be humble about my work, I don't want to get overconfident as that makes for a weak photographer (and a weak person as well in my book). I should walk away from a mostly positive review the same way I do from a negative one, with renewed vigor for my work and a sincere desire to better myself and my craft. I am unsure of what the future holds for my family and I right now, but I know that I will keep shaping myself into a better and better photographer and hopefully will find steady work as a result.