Day twenty with some changing light!

It was quite cloudy and sprinkling a little as I prepared to head out for my evening shoot. The weatherman had said we had a chance of evening storms. My wife was home and said she heard were under a tornado watch. She also said she had to go to Baker's Furniture in downtown Garland to pick up some leather samples and maybe we could eat dinner at the Italian Restaurant just off the square. Considering the way the weather was looking I decided that plan sounded like a good idea. I would take my camera gear and shoot some things while she was in the furniture store. I started out taking some pictures at the Hubbard's Cafe that I had shot on the first day of this project. The Christmas lights were down and maybe I can get a different feel to a picture of the place. Turns out I may like it with the Christmas lights better, but the weather sure changed after I got there. The sun had already been down for 15 minutes or so when the clouds started clearing. Off to the east I could see the tops of some thunderheads which had turned very pink after the setting sun. Cool... but why can't I be out shooting landscapes when it does this. It would have also looked great behind the Dallas Skyline. I did get a nice shot of the front of Vetoni on Main which is in an old building located a block off the square. Nice place with good food and reasonable prices.

Vetoni on Main

An interesting side note about Hubbard"s Cafe. Do a Google search for Hubbard's Cafe. The second thing in the list is my image of it I put on Flickr. I wonder how long it will take my image of Vetoni on Main to reach the first page of a search?

Sometimes you just have to keep going back!

Entry to the Corner Pocket

I got together with my friend Mike Pittenger to go photograph in the rain last night. The afternoon had been gray and drizzly and I felt we could get some good reflections in the streets after dark. We drove through nearby Wylie,Texas looking for some interesting things to shoot. A few pixels were used up but nothing terribly exciting came of it. I decided we might try the Square in Garland. I know I keep going there to shoot but when conditions change like this you can create images not possible when it is dry. Good subject matter can be shot in a variety of ways. I also knew Mike had not seen the theater and it would give him a chance photographed it. When we got to the square the streets were dryer than I would have liked. It had only drizzled a little in the last two hours. Mike had some fun shooting the theater and I got a nice one of the entry to The Corner Pocket. We called it a night and we headed back to his place to get my truck.
 I stopped to get something to eat on the way home. I noticed it was raining quite hard outside now. Eat fast.  Bring me the check. Rain has let up. I need to get back to the square. The streets were much wetter when I returned and much stronger reflections. Below is one of numerous compositions that I took from an assortment of puddles that I was able to work with.

Plaza Theater in the Rain #3

I thought I would included this last image. It is the darkest of the four exposures which were combined to make the final image above. If I was still shooting film this is probably close to what I would have had to use as my image of the reflections. It is dark enough to retain some detail in the bright marquee but it leaves everything else much darker than what my eyes could see. Some people seem to think digital is sooooo easy. The truth is that you need to have quite a bit of software skills in order to get the above version instead of what is below. Just thought I would throw that out there.

I decided to go hit some golf balls yesterday afternoon since the temperature finally got back up in the 60's. I also threw my camera gear in the truck because I had spotted this old house behind the practice range. Once again I hoped for some great sunset light and didn't get any. I did use some long exposures which gave me the chance to run inside the old house and pop off my flash. I did this several times in several exposures which were combined. Still not satisfied I said to myself  " why don't you just over process this image like so many other photographers are doing. Some people seem to really like that look." I show two stages of this process below. I really tweaked the second one. What bugs me about both is the glow or halo where the sky meets the trees and house. I have toned it down in these examples but the affect is usually much worse in some of the work I see on the internet.

After shooting the old house I headed back towards home and drove through the square in Downtown Garland. The coffee shop was open and I decided to take a few shots. The second one shows a good reflection of the Plaza Theater in the window.

I've Given Myself a Project for the New Year!

First, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope 2010 brings great things for all of you. For myself I have started a new project. I call it Twenty Nights in Twenty Days. My goal is to go out and find something cool to photograph every evening for twenty days. I'm not taking a trip to Europe, Mexico, or the Desert Southwest...just driving from my house and searching for photos. My primary goal will be to photograph after dark but I may not completely stick to that rule. You might think I already photograph everyday, but that is just not the case. I spend a great deal of my time out of town at shows. In between the shows I spend a lot of time printing inventory or editing images from previous photo excursions. Since it is eight weeks until my first show, I have time to focus on a project like this. I also plan to put some of the previous evenings images on the blog each day. Be sure and follow my progress!

On New Years Day I drove out to Rockwall, Texas to begin my search for photos. I did find a park with an old windmill but nothing I was really excited about. On the way back I stopped and photographed sunset at an area of Lake Ray Hubbard that I had spotted while driving to Rockwall. The wind was calm and there was some good reflections, but still no winners. I decided to stop by the Square in Garland before heading home. The top image was taken at Paw Paw's, a small cafe just of the square that I had never noticed before. The second image was taken through one of the cafe's windows. The last shot was another cafe several blocks away called Hubbard's. I have had lunch there before but not sure if I had ever driven by at night and noticed the lighting. Speaking of food, this is when I headed back home for some dinner.