Tony Goes Black and White

A friend of mine, Tony, came over to see the studio and talk about old times. I hired him years ago as a photographer/editor. He now is an assignment editor (nice promotion) and doing a heckuva job.

Tony produced a series on a young man who went to Iraq and left that war as a double amputee. The young man whose name is Adrian had been a star basketball player in high school. What Tony and viewers quickly learned about Adrian was that this young man's spirit refuses to allow his misfortune in Iraq, to poison his life. Adrian, besides loving hoops, is a huge admirer of comedian George Lopez. That tid bit will come into play later on.

Anyway, after producing the series, Tony came to befriend Adrian. It was quite something to see the level in which Tony dedicated his time and affections to Adrian. Eventually, news of Tony and Adrian and the story behind their relationship somehow caught the ear of George Lopez. The comedian flew the two to a concert in Los Angeles where he was performing, and soon also found himself wanting to connect in this infectious affair. Two years later we now have an authentic rendition of the 3 amigos, who are constantly in each others company and enjoying friendship at it's truest core.

Alright to wrap this up, as I said Tony came over to see the setup. We really didn't do a shoot, but he wanted to see how strobes work as opposed to hot lights. I fired off 4 or 5 shots and later converted this one to a black and white. I like it because he is also my friend.

Some Of My Favorite People

I'd like for you to check out this really cool slideshow. These are some of my clients from past shoots.

A Trip To The Earth's Core

This past 4th of July we took some family to Carlsbad Caverns. If you've never been there, this is an amazing Cavern system. The cave has over 300 entrances, I believe is 200 miles long and is still a living cave. Water along with other materials continue to grow stalactites and stalagmites. These pics are from the public entrance in the NPS. The cave here drops to 750 ft below the caverns entrance. Fortunately, hydraulic elevators carry you back to the top after you traverse to the bottom.

The first picture is looking back at the caves opening. Just below you can see a trail of people combing down. On the bottom of the pic is more people and another group in the foreground. This depth alone must be several hundred feet. The mouth looks very small, but I would guess it to be about 150' wide by 50' high??? Anyway, if you've never been there, you really should consider a trip, its like going to another planet.







This is my nephew Cameron, his wife Brittaney and their daughter Leahnay. They were down from Albuquerque to visit us. The picture almost looks like a composite. That's because the flash was probably about .5 seconds, but the exposure was probably closer to 3 seconds.



A tripod is almost a waste of time, especially on a holiday. The trail was packed and there is little to no light on the trails. From time to time there are areas to pull off of the trail, but again it is so dark and was so crowded I decided to forgo the use of sticks. I ended up propping my camera on the round trail rails... nearly impossible to stabilize, a frumpy diaper bag or went hand held. There are occasions where you should use a flash, but overall, most of the pics should be natural light. Either way, you end up with 2 to 3 second or longer exposures. It was quite challenging, but even the pics where there is some motion blur I was happy with.





The one room I wasn't able to photograph is the King's Palace. You can only see it with a Ranger guided tour. If you go, book it. This is the most amazing room at the Caverns. It is now closed due to the constant vandalism that people would do, by breaking off pieces of stalactites or other cave material. How very sad. This is the Big Room which is still pretty impressive, but is dwarfed by the King's Palace and doesn't have nearly the displays -- still, it's quite beautiful.

Pooch Modeling

Some good friends took a trip to Disneyland and asked if we would keep an eye on their dog. She is very high strung...a furniture climber, urrrggh, but also very loveable. She doesn't know any strangers and is always looking to spend time with you.

Anyway, I decided to dognapp her and took her into the studio for a shoot... a very brief shoot. I think bright lights and shutters clicking is not her idea of fun. Anyway, how often can you do a shoot without needing a model release form? Here's a pic of this terrific little dog.

Some friends of mine and I went out last night to get some lightning shots. It really was a poor night, as there was lots of cloud cover and strikes that were often hidden behind the mountain or in the clouds. The weather though was one of those spectacular West Texas evenings. Cooling down to probably the 70's with a light wind. These mountains are at a Texas state park. They are known as the Hueco's (HWay-cohs) and are known for their hieroglyphics and great rock climbing. They really are more like hills than mountains, but must be challenging, because rock climbers from all over the world come to give them a workout. A shout out to Jeff, Ginger, George, Jean and the boys -- I had a great time gang.

Moonlight Shoot Folo-Up

This is the folo up to yesterdays blog about a late night shoot...

We had a great moon last night. Almost like a harvest. Anyway, was out for about 2 hrs and only snapped 19 pics total... most as repeats. I couldn't drop the exposure on the moon for the life of me. I've not had this problem, but then again the shots are usually much tighter. I'm also wondering if a harvest kind of moon produces greater illuminance?

I almost popped on a couple of ND filters, but in the first locale was in the middle of the desert with no light other than a flashlight and with a very quick rising moon. This shot was about a :20 exposure at f/11 or 16 if I remember. Even though I didn't touch the shutter, I still had to clone out some ghosting where the movement of the moon occured... it was that fast!!



For those of you who have heard but not seen of the Rio Grande River, pic 2 is a shot of it going by a small peak called Cristo Rey. The location I'm in is Sunland Park, NM, directly ahead with lights in the background is El Paso, Texas and the backside of Cristo Rey is Anapra, Mexico. Here on the borderlands we say we live where 3 states and 2 nations come together. The river for the most part of its 1400 mile run (3rd longest in the U.S.) is pretty narrow and not to daunting. Much of the riverbed in El Paso dries out in the Winter. However, down in Big Bend National Park the Rio becomes quite an amazing tributary with rapids that formed the Canyon walls of Santa Elena.

Moonlight Shoot

I belong to a photography group here in El Paso called Megapixels. We decided at last minute to do a late night shoot tonight. We have been having a large spectacular summer moon this week. Our hope is that we can do some slow exposure shooting to get cloud drifts and some good detail of our local mountains with the moonlight reflecting light. If anything pics are worth posting, I'll get some up tomorrow. The mountains we are looking at are the Hueco's and the Franklin's. The Franklin mountain range is the southernmost tip of the Rocky Mountains, located here in El Paso. It is also the oldest formations of that chain.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Pictures

Well here goes, my first official blog post. I guess I should start with maybe a brief bio.

My name is Brent and I'm a photographer. I spent nearly 25 years in Broadcasting and had an amazing time doing so. For all that is wrong with this profession, there is also all that is right. I got a front row seat on witnessing life like few others ever will. I also worked with some amazingly talented and terrific folks.

I've always had a passion for photography, which I got to do a lot of when in college. I was fortunate to take some of that formal instruction and apply it during the first 12 yrs of my career as a News Photographer. Now I get a chance to do it for a living, which means meeting new and interesting people and spending time with them. This is what was best in journalism and I'm excited about doing it on my own.

This past weekend was a little slow, so I took the opportunity to go to the El Paso (My Hometown) Rose Garden to shoot some flowers. I'm working on several projects and needed the material. Unfortunately, the roses were not at their best. It may be due to the recent heat wave we've had... our temps have been in triple digits for nearly 3 weeks now.

Anyway, here are several shots that I did save. If you get a chance, leave a comment and please visit my website too. I'd love to have your visit.

http://highnoonphoto.smugmug.com