Pump Jacks

 Energy

Yesterday I arrived back home from my trip to New Mexico to participate in the Ruidoso Art Festival. Anytime I travel out that way I am on the look out for images to add to my oil industry collection. These type of images sell very well at the Frame-it Gallery in Midland, Texas where I have some of my work. During my drive to New Mexico, I came upon an area of thunderstorms near Brownfield, Texas around sunset. I decided to see what kind of lightning display these storms would produce and found a large pump jack that would make a perfect subject to go with the lightning. The pump jack was also slightly illuminated from the lights of a drill rig in the area. For about an hour the storms put on quite a show. "Energy" was the best capture from my stop.

Pump Jack and Big Dipper

I drove part of the way home on Sunday night after the show ended. The sky was clear and a very large moon was out. This combination made for images that almost look like they were shot during daylight except for the dark sky and all the stars. If you look just above the left side of the Pump Jack you should be able to make out the Big Dipper.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Photo Book!

I just finished a book of my photographs of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. It contains 40 pages of images I have taken of this new icon in the Dallas skyline. I have shot the bridge under a variety of conditions, from a flooded Trinity River to the fireworks during the opening weekend celebration. You can preview all of the book here. http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3409682?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=140x240

Hope you like it!

The Cats of Vernazza

Do You Miss Your Pets?
Yesterday I was going through some old digital files that I shot in Italy back in 2005 with my 6MP Digital Rebel. One morning while shooting in Vernazza, I couldn't help but notice that cats were everywhere. All of the boats had been pulled out of the water and covered. Cats were sleeping and playing on top of most of the boat covers. We used to have three cats. One was a big Siamese and the other two looked very much like this one. "Sugar Bear" and "Shoe Shoe" were very similar except "Shoe Shoe" had white paws. One by one they grew old, had kidney problems and had to be put to sleep. This made me miss them.

Cinque Terre's Vernazza, Italy

My wife and I went to Italy in 2005. I shot this in Vernazza with my new 6mp Digital Rebel but also with my Pentax 6x7 film camera. Since I was selling large images (32x48) at outdoor art shows, the Pentax images were the ones that were scanned and printed. The images sold like hotcakes but I have always felt there was a slight bluish color cast from the long exposure that was necessary with 50 ISO film. Today I came across the Rebel files and processed this one. My skills and tools are much better today than in 2005. I would love to do this again with my 5D Markll and bracket some exposures for a little HDR processing.

The Traveling Man at the Deep Ellum Dart Station

Across the street from the Dart Station in Deep Ellum is the 38 foot tall sculpture of "The Traveling Man". I did several things a little different for this image. A 10 second exposure was made possible by adding a polarizing filter and a 9 stop Nuetral Density filter to the camera lens. This was also shot during the middle of the day. What appears to be a very long train behind the sculpture is actually the Dart Train as it went by during the exposure.

The Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas

Last night I attended an artist reception for a friend of mine who had some photographs on display at the gallery of the Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie. It was also a good opportunity to shoot the theater at dusk, something I have done several times in the past. This is the first time to have a great sky to work with instead of the cloudy nothing that I have had on previous occasions. The top image was made from three bracketed exposures that were combined in Photomatix Pro 4. I also have recently purchased Nik Silver Efex Pro2. I am really liking it! It seems that no matter how much I like an image in color I can still turn it into a cool black and white. It really works well when you are converting a color HDR.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with Fireworks!

Happy Fourth of July!

I actually shot this last March but the colors of the fireworks were just too good not to show it on the Fourth of July! Have a great day everyone!