Hump Day Harmonics

Real quick before it's tomorrow...

Todays edition of HDH is Weezer, and their new Red Album which just so happens to be out TODAY!



Great song being played right now is Pork and Beans and this video cracks me up...

My day at the Cotton Bowl

A while back I was asked to help out fellow photographer Ron St. Angelo (whom you may remember from his book signing that I covered) with a shoot at the Cotton Bowl with a few familiar faces. I'll refer to them in nicknames, but you should be able to tell from the photos who they were. For all the photographers out there, assisting, second shooting, changing backs, rolling spools and even just watching other photographers work will help your photography. You can never know everything and if you pick up on something while helping out, then it was all worth it, not to mention sometimes you get to play catch with legends. The background of the shoot was getting some older football players to do some retro, vintage shots in the Cotton Bowl and even had the guy that supplied the equipment for the movie Leatherheads bring all the helmets, balls, shoes and the works.

Here's Ron getting the Blad setup


and another on the field with my Quantum T5DR


We started up in the corner of the Cotton Bowl with this guy nicknamed "Roger the Dodger" or "Captain Comeback", I'll just try and call him Captain Comeback as this might be a long story, but one I had typed up that night while it was all still fresh.


As you can see it was a little bit of a production with Fox 4 and Time Warner both filming while shooting.


We started doing some throwing motions and started throwing the ball to me about 5 feet away. On the 4th pass, I said, I oughta start counting these and keep a running total. Ron told him I had been waiting all week to catch a pass from him...


We then went down on the field and got the lights set up and he was talking with Nita from Fox 4 and I went over to get him if he was through with her questions, while talking with her, he raised the ball and waved me "to go deep" and I took off across the field. Now the shots we were doing were with old leather helmets, so the ball he was throwing was a replica 1930 football, with no little nubbins for grip and about as fat as a watermelon. As I am running, I thought to myself, you can't let a single ball he throws touch the ground because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. First throw down on the field is led perfectly as I have to reach as far as possible to get both hands on it and just sandwich it together. With my head, hands (holding a ball just thrown from Captain Comeback) way out in front of my body, I finally regain my step to some cheers from Captain Comeback, Nita and the other camera crew. As I am running towards Captain Comeback to throw the ball, cuz I don't want to embarrass myself trying to throw a watermelon 30 yards, I hear Captain Comeback tell Nita, "that was a nice catch", ok surely he's blowing smoke but I could care less. I threw it back and he waved me on again, same deal perfect spiral and I squeeze it in. Then again, and again, and again and again till the 17th ball while sprinting down the field sails over my leaping outstretched arm by a few feet do I hang my head and shame and tell him "I had to have at least one TO moment". We continued shooting the pics and on of the shots, he told Ron, "He's got some good hands!"

I'm freaking floating, Captain Comeback just told me I have good hands! Sure again, he's probably blowing smoke, but I don't freaking care... I just caught 23 of 24 balls from Roger the Dodger, the Dodger just threw me passes so hard it left my ring finger red and swollen and I could care less, even if it's broken. The only thing I wish, is that I could somehow hold a camera while catching passes, but I did get a pic with him afterwards.


A quick snap as he was leaving


I headed up to the dressing room to see if Moose had made it yet and Captain Comeback was out signing hard hats from all the guys working on the Cotton Bowl, I admire the guys that do that instead of the not now, I'm busy types.



Moose came next and I didn't dare let him block me, he squeezed into some old timie shoes that were about a size to small. He grinned and beared it for the shot and ended up getting some really cool stuff like below and in a Heisman like pose.




As soon as that shoot finished, I was helping Moose rip off the size to small leather shoes so he could get a little more camera time in comfort with Nita and Cody.


All in all, a cool shoot and even more cooler day that I will never forget.

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Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
via FoxyTunes

Kyle & Katie's Wedding at St. Gabriels in McKinney

Kyle & Katie had a great wedding a while back now and I am finally getting around to getting some blogs up on the site... St. Gabriels is an awesome church with some pretty sweet light inside, I can't wait to shoot there again. Andree Baca is the coordinator up there and was great to work with, so I hope to see her soon as well. They had their wedding reception at the lovely Bingham House, a very popular spot that I frequent at least a few times a year. If you don't remember Kyle & Katie's E-Session, she is the Starbucks Diva that even hooked me up with a Starbucks gift card at the wedding (how sweet is that) as a thanks. So here's some pics, and I am trying something a little new on the layout, let me know what you think...

It's all about the details...


Some getting ready shots (love, love the one when she sees her self in the mirror)


The guys


The church (gotta love Kyle, lifting one leg on the kiss)


From the Reception


Cake, bling and bubbles and it's happily ever after!


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Now playing: The Bravery - An Honest Mistake
via FoxyTunes

Hump Day Harmonics

Todays music isn't actually out yet, but I have pre-ordered my copy and the first song released is Grrreeeaaattt-ness! Coldplay's newest album Viva La Vida is set to be released June 17th as of today and I can't wait. The Delacroix cover is pretty awesome too, I would love to go to the Louvre to see that painting.



Something else that's pretty cool is the iTunes commercial for this album:



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Now playing: Coldplay - Viva la Vida
via FoxyTunes

Wedding Biz, Has This Happened To You?

Now for some humor and a great article talking about photography.

Man Stroke Woman - Flowers


Man Stroke Woman - Cake


There's been a good article floating around a lot of photographers blogs and forums, I don't know the original creator but I figured I would share.

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Hump Day Harmonics

Todays edition of HDH is not a new album but a little known band pulled from my playlist. It's none other than the Brooklyn based band called Home Video. I love Radiohead and the solo project from their lead singer Thom Yorke, and Home Video sounds very similar if not a little better... Great lyrics that are well written and the natural timbre of Colin Ruffinos voice is eerily close to Thom Yorke's so it automatically climbs my list of faves. As usual, don't take my word for it, go have a listen at ilike.



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Now playing: Home Video - Penguin
via FoxyTunes

Little Bro Has Grademuwated!

Two weekends ago, we made the long and boring trek to Lubbock for my brothers graduation, so I thought I would share a few pics.

Little Bro


This one took a little setup (I sent him a text and said look here for me)


Doesn't he look happy to be out in the real world...


The night before we swung by his Fraternity Lodge after some Moe's Burritos!


And Abby got in a little hoop action


And then she got a little help from Uncle Steve


Even Emily was all smiles at the graduation


Then I have to share a little of Abs personality... taken a split second apart in our hotel room.



Then another of Ems, since Abs had more... Just chillaxin and waitin on some dinner!



Congrats on your Graduation, Hoss!

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Now playing: Thom Yorke - The Clock
via FoxyTunes

Hump Day Harmonics - Narrow Stairs

Todays edition of Hump Day Harmonics is the sixth and brand new album out yesterday from Death cab for Cutie called Narrow Stairs. As most know, I am a big fan of the Indie music scene and Death Cab for Cutie has been a longtime staple of my iPod pleasure. If you don't know who they are, you've more than likely heard them on "The Wedding Crashers", "The O.C.", "Six Feet Under" and I'm sure more. Ben Gibbard has one of those petite soothing voices that is almost a whisper and perfect mellow music, and the latest song (which they played the other night on Letterman) "I Will Possess Your Heart" is no different. The next bonus of this song... it's not the typical 3:30 - 4:00 minute industry standard song, oh no sir, you get your moneys worth with over 8 minutes of some very catchy lyrics. I guarantee you'll be singing it the rest of the day! Give the instrumental start a chance it takes a while, but well worth it. A couple of my other favorites so far are "Your New Twin Sized Bed" and the wow of "Bixby Canyon Bridge". If you feel like checking out some older stuff, a few other faves are "The Sound of Settling" and "Soul Meets Body" off some older albums.

Ok, Now Go Stars!

Casey & Brandy's Wedding at Fossil Creek Golf Course

Casey & Brandy had a great wedding at the Fossil Creek Golf Course a little while back so I had to share some photos.

The wedding date


The Guys


The guys again


Brandy and Mom getting ready


admiring the necklace


The Harpist


Some after formal shots








Reception time and time for some favor details


The Rings


The outside of Fossil Creek


The Flower Girl and Ring Bearer


The Toast


and another congatulatory toast to you two, enjoy the pics and thanks!



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Now playing: Home Video - Penguin
via FoxyTunes

Happy Mothers Day

Just a quick Happy Mothers Day to my Mom and of course my lovely wife.

My Mom
(When she's not smiling for the camera)


and Mom (with camera smile)


Then of course my lovely wife (actually all my girls minus the dog)