Walking through the the Long Room in the Old Library at Temple College has to rank in my top 10 experiences. The library is known for housing ‘The Book of Kells’ that dates back to around the 8th Century, but is also contains about 200,000 other ancient books. I am so very thankful to have been given the privilege to be able to actually photograph this magical place. Typically no photographs are allowed. I did have to sign a release that states that I may not sell any of the images. So this is the only one of my thousands of photographs that I can show you, but you cannot purchase. I am just glad that I have this photograph to transport me back to this wonderful place. For those that are interested, this is actually a 5 exposure HDR.

I love my job. I spend my days (and many evenings) working to make beautiful people, places & things look their very best.
One of my recent clients specializes in kitchen & bath remodeling so I have spent quite a few hours this past month photographing inside peoples homes. I have had the opportunity to meet some great people in my attempt to capture images of some wonderful craftsmanship. The owner of this particular home shares her kitchen with a couple of dogs and fine looking cat. You can see where they are served their dinner next to the stools at the pass through bar.

Awhile back I posted a few images from a portrait photography session I did in downtown Austin of Denise and promised to post a few images of her friend Hollyn at a future date. Well, the future is now. It was a ton of fun spending some time photographing these two beautiful women. While I love my landscape & archetectural photography, photographing portraits & head shots is a bit more social. We always end up doing a lot of laughing & having a lot of fun during my portrait sessions. I’ve found that buildings, while beautiful, don’t laugh much.
Speaking of portraits, It’s that time of year when seniors are (or should be) thinking about your senior portraits. During the month of September I am offering a substantial discount off my session fees. Check out my Fee Schedule page for more information.

Against the Wall

Those Beautiful Eyes

Waiting…

…Behind the Scenes…

This ‘purple hour’ photo of the Texas Capitol Annex is another image I shot during the recent Trey Ratcliff photowalk. (You can see another image I shot during the photo walk here.) This is a side of the Capitol that relatively few tourist see. This is on the north site of the capitol looking south. Most visitors walk up Congress avenue from the business & music district on the south side and enter the building from the south, never seeing this view.

I was shooting a portrait session recently in downtown Austin when I looked up & liked the way the clouds & light were framing the Frost Bank Building. It’s quite an interesting looking building. (You can also see it’s reflection in one of my HOG Rally photos & it’s in the background of another.)

Parked in front of an Austin icon “The Broken Spoke” dance hall sits this old tour bus for “The Texas Top Hands Western Swing Band“. I have no idea how old this bus is. (Perhaps one of my readers that is an expert in bus history can help me out there.) But since the band started in 1946 & lasted over 50 years you can almost feel the the miles of memories that must have happened in and around the travels of this old bus.

For those that are interested in the technical side of my photography, I lit the bus by “light painting” it with a small LED flashlight during the 30 second exposure. (The white LED has a very blue color temperature compared to the ambient light giving the nice blue highlights.) I then did a single image HDR conversion of the raw file and then applied a Topaz filter to the resulting image.

Trey Ratcliff of www.stuckincustoms.com hosted a photo walk recently here in Austin TX to the Texas Capitol. Needless to say, a great time was had by all. This is the first (of many) shots I took that evening. This photo was actually taken at 6th & Congress of one of the Guitars that were created as part of the GuitarTown Austin Art project in the fall of 2006. Gee, do you think Austin is a music town?…

My wife & I spent last night at the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin Texas. When Beverly & I married six years ago we spent our wedding night in one of theDriskill’s wonderful balcony rooms so I decided it would be a great way to spend our anniversary. I love old historic hotels. Those that have been following my blog may remember my post about the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder Colorado. Walking down the halls I easily transport myself  into the lives of those that have walked those same hallways for so many decades. The Driskill is like walking into a giant old time machine. Every where you look the craftmanship & service have the polish & detail you rairly find these days. I need to make our reservation for next August.