Snow in San Antonio

22 February 2021

Last week, Texas was hit by a winter storm that brought the state to a stand still. While rolling blackouts and water outages were common place, I decided to go out and get my creative juices flowing by photographing the snow in downtown San Antonio.

30 Day Self Portrait Challenge

22 March 2020

Over the last month I challenged myself to create 30 self portraits.

Day 1: balanced flash/ambient light (outside)

This is one of my favorite lighting techniques.

Day 2: balanced flash/ambient light (inside)

This is my least favorite photo out of the bunch. I've gotta learn how to balance flash and indoor light better.

Day 3: natural light

This is another photo I really dislike, but mostly because I hate the saturation in the edit.

Day 4: full body

I can't describe how hard it was to push the shutter and on top of this wobbly log pile before the self-timer went off.

Day 5: extreme close up

This is one of my favorites. I love the balance between my skin tone and the background..

Day 6: ƒ/2.8

This was the first portrait I captured using the remote shutter release I bought. Still a difficult portrait to capture at such a low aperture, but still easier with a shutter release.

Day 7: ƒ/5.6

This is another one of my favorites.

Day 8: ƒ/8

Went back to the log pile for this one.

Day 9: ƒ/16

This is one I hated taking, but I got lots of postive reviews for. :)

Day 10: high keyy

Not strong emotions, but loving my hair!

Day 11: simple background

A slight shame, but my first time voting in a primary election. It was so exciting!

Day 12: low key

Don't come for me, but low key is much better than high key....

Day 13: prop

I've gotta get back to play the viola daily.

Day 14: red

Inspired by Miss Tierra Whack.

Day 15: green

Another image I hated that other people were all about.

Day 16: blue

A staple of a texas photographer.

Day 17: yellow

Recreated my 7th birthday photo.

Day 18: orange

Elementary school soccer team vibes.

Day 19: black and white

Not my vibe ... I love colour.

Day 20: reflection

This is when the CoVid19 virus started to cause panic in the States.

Day 21: shadows

Another photo that isn't my favorite.

Day 22: mask

This inspired my next 30 day challenge for graphic design. My teacher in 6th grade wanted us to draw a portrait in this style, but I couldn’t visually understand what she wanted. Realizing it now makes me excited to become a teacher in the fall and better explain to student what my teachers failed to explain to me.

Day 23: lens

This is an other fun recreation of a previous photo.

Day 24: book

Day 25: St. Paddy's Day

This was the beginning of me starting to run out ideas.

This was the 4th photo on the same background, and the next would be on the same background.:/

Day 26: ???

This is where I started to lose faith in finishing this project, but everyone came through with ideas fors portraits I could do around my house.

Day 27: quarantine couch

This was my 'fun' giving up photo.

Day 28: Silhouette

My lovely sister gave me the idea for this photo.

Day 29: water

I love the rain, and I'd been waiting to take this photo (at this time of day) for ages.

Day 30: 30

I honestly can't believe that I finished this30 day challenge. I can't count the number of things I quit, but it feels great to have finished one. I know all the pictures I took weren't amazing, but it was still great to learn about lighting and portraiture with every image I took.

The 45th Texas Renaissance Festival

22 November 2019

Finally got time to edit some video i took at the 45th Texas Renaissance Festival last weekend.

The 45th Texas Renaissance Festival

18 November 2019

I got to go to the 45th Texas Renaissance Festival yesterday. It's the largest Renaissance Festival in the United States. On this day trip, I wanted to focus on one of my favorite types of photography: candid portraiture.

The largest area of the festival grounds is the Arena where they hold jousting competitions, fire dancing shows and the Royal Fireworks.

One of the most interesting and educational shows was Birds of Prey. In this show handlers showcase different birds from all over the world and education the audience about them.

Another fun set of shows to watch were the Cirque Olympus and Gypsy Dance Theatre.

The fair grounds also have different themed wedding halls.

There were plenty of interesting characters, shows and classes all over the fair grounds.

Each night they close out the festival with a fire dancing performance and the Royal Fireworks.

Look for my video about the fest later this week!

Salado Scottish Gathering and Highland Games

12 November 2019

This past weekend I was able to take a day trip up to Salado, Texas, and photograph the 58th Scottish Gather and Highland Games.

The first game I watched was 'tossing the sheaf'. Basically the competitors have to toss a 16-pound burlap sack full of hay over a horizontal bar. They each get three changes to throw it over, and after each round the bar is lifted 6 inches. This continues until there is a winner. (This is one of my favorites to watch).

One of the most famous highland games is 'tossing the caber'. This is one of the oldest highland games and it goes back to the 16th century. The athletes need to toss a caber (a long wooden log), which weighs between 100 to 200 pounds. The goal is to make the smaller end that the athletes hold onto point away from the start point in a straight line. The distance and height of the throw in this game doesn't matter, it's all about accuracy. Just like with 'tossing the sheaf', competitors get three chances to get the caber in a straight line.

The last game I got to watch was ‘putting the stone’ or ‘the stone toss’. In Gaelic this I called Clachneart. This game is as old as Scotland itself. This game is similar to the modern day shot put. It is played with a 16-pound stone that is thrown. Just like the other games, the competitors get three chances to throw it the farthest.

The last event that I was able to watch was the piping and drumming competition.

Here is a short video of the events I was able to capture at the Salado Scottish Gather and Highland Games.

Happy 60th Birthday!

16 October 2019

I've a busy season of working at the photo studio I'm excited to be getting back into event photography.

Here are some of the photographs I capture while at a 60th birthday party on my trip up to Canada.

SamGwangSa Temple

2 November 2018

I'm finally getting around to editing the backlog of videos that I've shot over the last year and a half.

I'm slightly embarrassed that it's taken me so long to finish this video, but with only five months left in Korea there is no time like the present.

Here is the storyboard that I made over a year ago!

I'm so happy that I finally got around to editing this video.

Now I realize how much work I need to do before moving back to the States in March.

I've gotta get better at getting enough shots and angles, work on my camera techniques, work on getting better audio, and most importantly- get better at editing and uploading more frequently.

This was such a beuatiful temple to visit. I hope you enjoyed the first video I've shot and edited in over eight years.

Windy days

20 May 2018

Late on Saturday night I got a random text from one of my oldest friends in Korea, Gina. She was planning on bringing her son down for a day trip to Busan to see the Sandcastle Festival in Haeundae. We don’t get to see each often, so I was really excited to see her.

To make a long story short, windy weather plus a sandcastle festival spells out disaster. We abandoned the festival before we could even take photos.

So, our second stop in Haeundae was a clam bbq restaurant- MePoKKeutJim (미포끝짐). The food and scenery were amazing.

After finishing lunch, we climbed up the side of the hill to escape from the wind and found ourselves on an abandoned train track.

After walking for about an hour we found ourselves at the ocean again. After hanging out in a coffee shop for a few hours, we decided to head to Busan Station so Gina and her son could get a KTX back to Daegu.

Of course, two unplanned adventures weren’t enough, so Gina took us to Chinatown, which was a bit too shady for my taste. But we got to have some delicious food before they took the train back.