Light Walk » Portrait

Family in the Blue

wblj — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:02:21 +0000

Hannah and I were able to work with a wonderful family recently at one of our favorite places in the Austin area: Mayfield Park. The family was from all over, with one group coming from as far away as Denmark. It was great getting to work with them. We had a fun time trying to keep up with the little girl in the bunch; she was fascinated with everything except the photography… So we worked fast and moved around a bunch to try and keep her interested. Here are a couple of our favorite images:

Family in the Park

Girl in the Park

Winner!

wblj — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:06:50 +0000

Well, I really enjoy photographing things of and about Texas, as it turns out. Earlier this year I was driving around downtown Austin and came across a wonderful spot to capture the whole Austin skyline at dusk with a beautiful sunset and so I took the opportunity to photograph there for a while. I love the photograph! I actually have a larger version of this photograph hanging on display at the Lakeline Barnes & Noble (which is a wonderful place with beautiful art hanging in the coffee shop.)

But, the story gets interesting here; at least for me… I am a member of the Professional Photographer’s Association of America (PPA) and the local Austin Professional Photographers Association (APPA) as well and at the monthly APPA meetings we have photographic print contests. For the month of August we were allowed to enter a panoramic photograph that could be a maximum of 24″ wide (which is kinda small for a really wide panorama like this particular photograph) and I wanted to do some things a little differently from the original, large print. I ended up creating the following smaller print, squaring it up with a more traditional size (24×12) and creating an arching sky overhead heading out to space. The group of photographers voted and judged this print to be 2nd, so I was very pleased! The 1st place winner was of course a stunning photograph as well; you should be able to see that on the APPA website sometime in the next few days. All in all, I was gratified to be able to produce the kind of work that is recognized by my peers as having the qualities needed to be a “winner”!

The Space Above Austin

Did it Really Look Like That?

wblj — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:59:33 +0000

Sometimes when people see a photograph they ask the artist something along the lines of “did it really look like that?”. I get that question a fair bit, generally when the image is enhanced. I recently heard the best answer and it goes something like this: “Well, no, but that’s how I felt when I took the photograph!”. It is interesting that vision is a perception rather than an exact process; it’s different for everyone. We all perceive colors, light and shadow differently. So, I’ve taken to just saying something like “Yes! It looked just like that for me!”

Here’s one of my favorite examples of this kind of image; it has a very “cartoony” kind of look:

imageclectic Engagement Portrait in Downtown Austin

Family Reunion at the Golf Course

wblj — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:41:16 +0000

Recently we had the opportunity to photograph an extended family on the Crystal Falls Golf Course. It was a little warm, but we had a great time! The kids enjoyed themselves and we took advantage it that to capture so many great portraits. Here are a couple of my favorites of the group:

A Course of Fun

Family in the Park

Aggie at Heart

wblj — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:05:15 +0000

I admit it; I was born in Austin and I’ve lived here now for the past 28 years. However, I’m really an Aggie and sometimes I just have to express that. Unfortunately for Hannah, she is a graduate of UT… But, here’s one of my favorite photographs she has ever taken – well, not really, but still, it is ironic don’t you think?

Gig-Em

Charlotte

wblj — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:05:21 +0000

Just before things got really hectic a couple of weeks ago, Hannah and I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful baby girl. She is precious! She pretty much slept the whole session, well, after a couple of blow-outs from each end… It was great fun and we came away with some wonderful portraits. Here is one of my favorites:

A Precious Baby Girl

Family Fun

wblj — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:32:11 +0000

Graduation season is here and Hannah and I participated by photographing a family with two university seniors. They graduated from two area universities so we were able to capture several different locations and groupings of mom, dad and the two graduates. This is one of my favorites; they’re just goofing off enjoying the moment on a bridge. No one is concerned about the cameras or how to pose or where to look – just life together in the moment. I love these opportunities to be a part of a family and their journey through life! Congratulations and best wishes to you both!

A double-graduation moment

True Grit Senior

wblj — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:02:07 +0000

Turns out there was a cool window of time where the old downtown area in the town of Granger Tx. was converted into an old west movie set. I didn’t know about it much ahead of time, but right after they finished using the area for filming, we took a graduating High School senior down there for some portrait fun and it was awesome. We did have to put up with a lot of dust in our faces; cars driving by on the street kicked up the dirt that was covering the streets to make it look like a real old-time town, but that was just part of the experience. No one wore contacts in The Good Old Days… The sidewalks were covered with a real board walk and this spot had one of the few still in place when we arrived to shoot. I think it’s mostly been removed by now – sure makes me wish some old town would set itself up like this all the time!

I fell in love with a particular red door and the texture of that spot, so here is one of my favorites from the session.

imageclectic.com photography - High school senior portrait in front of an old red door.

Urban Graduate

wblj — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:15:55 +0000

As a follow-on to our earlier senior / graduate session with James, we went to downtown Austin to capture some urban images. This is one of my favorite locations for people photography; there is an alley and a parking lot across the street from the Old Spaghetti Warehouse on 4th that has fun textures. I decided it would be cool to do some multiple-exposure photographs to show movement and life, so there are a few of those here.

Senior in the Alley, Times Three

Senior at the Wall, Times Two

Senior Wall

Chef James

wblj — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:24:19 +0000

Hannah and I photographed James for his senior portraits a little while back in two sessions; the first was done at a nearby industrial kitchen. James is thinking about going to culinary school so we thought this would be great fun and would show him in a real-life scene that has meaning to his family. So, with permission from the kitchen, we set up and captured some wonderful portraits. For a few, we applied a little HDR magic to add some grit to the scene.

Chef James at the Grill

High School Senior Baking Fresh Bread

High School Graduate: Captain of the Kitchen

High School Graduate Senior in a Kitchen