I recently attended a photographer’s convention in Nashville and beyond the amazing education and great networking opportunities I did a bit of shooting. 

Yes, my friend Chuck Arlund scheduled a “shootout”.  Chuck out did himself with the locations and models and I had a blast shooting with some lighting help from a few other friends who held lights for me while I shot (I returned the favor for their own shots).

So, here are a few of my favorites:

This was GREAT.  Thanks “Chuckie”!

So, it had been well over a decade since I last set foot in New York City.  I did - back in November of last year!  Yep, you read that right - November.  It’s just been crazy busy and I had not gotten around to posting this. 

NYC is a much nicer city than it was when I was growing up - but it’s still the same!

There’s no place like it in the world - and I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to visit a lot of large cities, among them London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Beinjing, Shanghai, Taipei, Sydney, Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, and many others.  While they’re all unique and wonderful in their own way, nothing can compare to the “Capital of the World”:  NYC.

So, during the short visit, I shot some stuff.  I wanted to get an edgy and gritty street feel to these.  Enjoy.

Of course, one must visit the “Ground Zero” site - the place where the World Trade Center once stood.

And there’s no way you can go to NYC and not go to Times Square and walk the surrounding areas.

Now, remember, this was back in November - the stores had the Christmas stuff out.  I just loved this image.

…and the historic Empire State Building.

The day started out with some rain - just enough to get me to buy an umbrella which was used for about two blocks.  It then stopped raining and the sun came out - and I wound up walking around with just a t-shirt on as it warmed up nicely.

It’s a great city and part of a day is just not enough to do it justice.

Philladelphia - the city of brotherly love.  Even though I grew up in NJ, I had never actually visited Philly until 2001.  Yes, I was already living in Texas before I visited.  Unbelievable, but true.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time in Philladelphia back in November, so I took advantage of it and went out to do some street photography.

Whenever I travel, I enjoy going out and seeing what it’s like to be a “local”.  This varies so much by city - but yet there is so much consistency.  The tourist spots are nice, but to get a feel for the city, you have to go to the neighborhoods.  And so, I headed down to South Street and the Italian Market areas.

Here’s what I saw.

It was a great little side trip - with some great food (Philly Cheesesteaks really are pretty darn good!)  It was cool, but not cold.  It was overcast but it didn’t rain.  Overall, a great day for walking around and getting a feel for these neighborhoods.

I can’t believe I had not blogged about this.  I’ve been so busy I had totally forgotten about it.

Back in May, I had an amazing week attending the Texas School - the best little photography school in Texas!  I spent a week learning from Carl Caylor who I thought was AMAZING.  If you are a photographer and want to learn some great stuff when it comes to natural light, composition, posing, and all that stuff - RUSH to see him!

While the weather didn’t fully cooperate - it was overcast the entire time so the light was not very directional, nor harsh - it was a great experience and I took away quite a bit.

Of course, this is a photography blog, so here are some of the images I got during the class.  Oh, all the subjects are volunteers from the community - not professional models!  This gives us the ability to work with “normal people”!

My BIG thanks to Carl for sharing his knowledge.  My thanks also to Walter and Jill - the “Wranglers” for the class - and all my classmates.  I learned a lot from all of you!

See you all around sometime.

I had an opportunity to photograph guitar great Ottmar Liebert and his band Luna Negra at the Houston House of Blues for Live Nation.

I’ve been a fan of Ottmar Liebert for quite a while so when the opportunity came up, I was thrilled.  If you haven’t heard his music, go out there and find some (YouTube has some videos) and become a fan also!

This was also my first visit to House of Blues and let me tell you, it is a very nice venue.  The acoustics were great and the band sounded absolutely perfect.  The staff was very friendly (special thanks to Robert for chatting before the show!) and from what I hear, the food is pretty darn good.

So, here are some images from the show.  Let’s start with a panoramic view of the stage - six images stiched together.

That’s it.  It was a fantastic show and thanks to Live Nation once again for the opportunity to shoot one of their shows.