Yes. So 830 pictures later I put my camera away, left Jersey Village High School, and went home exhausted. A good four hours of taking picture in a darkened theater will do that to you. What was I doing you ask? I was taking pictures at the Mr. Falcon Contest, a boys beauty contest which is a major fund raiser for the senior class. This fund raiser is for their prom.
There were 26 contestants competing for the honor of being selected as Mr. Falcon. Only seniors are eligible for a nomination into the competition. I also took pictures for a calendar that was also part of the Mr Falcon contest.
Video 1 – Meet The Contestants
Video 2 – The Talent Competition
Video 3 – The Swim Suit Competition
Video 4 – The Formal Wear Competition
So there you have it. Four hours of taking picture wrapped up into less than 10 minutes. Aren’t you glad you waited for the video? Oh, if you were there and are interested in purchasing a picture from the event, click on over here to my online store for a review of the pictures and you can have some for your very own.
Did you like the videos? If so, drop me a comment below and share the love. Tell your friends at school so they can enjoy it too.
A couple of weeks ago, my friends (and customer), Gene & Sissy asked me to take some portraits for their annual holiday card. I previously did a holiday card session for their family. You can see a few pictures from that session here. Their family consist of two fun dogs, Hogan & Dreyfus. Well for anyone who has tried to take pictures of children, you know it can be challenging to get their attention. Their attention span is very short. For a pet, it is even shorter and triple the difficulty of getting their attention in the first place. You have to also have triple the fun factor because just like kids, you never know what they are going to do during the session.
Below are a few of the outtakes from our session. I snapped a few shots as I was setting up to reacquaint the dogs to the camera and flash. Mostly they were oblivious to camera equipment. Hogan, the Weimaraner, was skeptical of me and my equipment. He sniffed me but wasn’t convinced that I was OK. Dreyfus, a Labradoodle, was very calm throughout the session. In fact, at some point, he became bored wondering when he could return to his nap (I think).
Setting up.
Can you tell where the treat holder is standing?
Getting bored . . . need more treats!
The session went well although plenty of treats were used to gain the subject’s attention. Thanks for a wonderful session Gene, Sissy, Hogan & Dreyfus.
For a good holiday laugh, go and Elf Yourself. Here are the Falcons enjoying a good Hip Hop dance. The typical holiday dance, no? Look out Hollywood, who says we can’t dance!
Wow! What a day. Houston got snow and in a big way, sort of…
After threats of cold weather for a while now, Houston finally jumped in with both feet and dropped the temperature to a cool freezing and like a perfect storm brought some snow with it. Now you might say that this is pretty neat. And I wouldn’t disagree except that most of the drivers I have observed can barely drive when it starts to thunderstorm around here. Change that to snow and freezing weather and boy you’re asking a lot of people.
The office closed at noon to allow people to escape to the ‘burbs, gather the kids who were getting out of school early, and generally take a snow break. I was happy to get home early on Friday and was looking forward to seeing what our dogs would do in the snow. This was the first time they would experience snow. Luckily the wife was only about 45 minutes behind and so we watch the snow fall and waited for a break in the snow to take the dogs around the hood and see what reaction they would have in the snow. The pictures tell the story.
I think they were OK with it but they surely didn’t get what this white stuff was that was falling on the ground. It wasn’t edible (I think they thought it was bread) as I saw a few snaps at the snow. It was wet and being wet is NOT one of their favorite things. It was cold on their feet too and that is definitely not something they like. Heck, when it rains we practically have to drag them outside to go potty (that sounds so manly when I type that word).
Of course I had to bring the camera out to capture a few shots. My first attempt was to get under a tree to avoid the snow flakes on the camera. Not smart… the tree and ground was still melting the snow and so it as like I was under a leaky faucet. So I had to get out in the open and deal with the snow landing all on the camera and me and immediately melt. The house actually looks wintery which is odd since in the last week the temperature has been in the 70s.
No loss of equipment today but my ungloved fingers were quite stiff and cold from operating the camera. So please enjoy the Houston snow. It probably won’t be here in the morning. I think it will be above freezing by 10am.
Today be the day to speak like a pirate. Why ye ask? Because today is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So iffen ye interested, go and visit the official site and get yer pirate name, learn about pirates, and speak like a pirate. If ye want the short version, check out this video where a quick tip to tell ye how to speak like a pirate.
It’s the 4th of July, people! The birthday of our nation. Freedom isn’t free; it is secured for us by our brave men and women in uniform. Get out there and celebrate the liberties that this great nation affords us. I know that I am.
Having the family over for a traditional barbecue with hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and potato salad. You know the works. In addition to all this great food, Amy and I decided to celebrate the win of LSU in the baseball College World Series. Oops, you need to hear the back story on this.
For Father’s Day, a couple of weeks back, Amy found a LSU silicone cake mold. She decided she would make an LSU cake–purple, gold and white icing that would be a masterpiece–for Father’s Day and we would bring it to my dad. The College World Series was set. LSU vs. Texas. Good timing right? Uh huh. Well needless to say the cake flopped literally. Somewhere in the mix (pun intended), non stick spray did not make it to the party. The cake stuck to the mold and we had a shattered dream of showing off our cake baking skills for the LSU baseball game.
OK, back to today. Try number two. Non-stick spray made it to the mold, the cake baked flawlessly. Now for the icing. Since it was a 4th of July party, naturally red, white and blue were the theme colors. Base coat of white. Check. Red for the L. Check. Blue for the U. Check. And red and blue stars for the S. Check. OK, I need to explain before you see the final outcome. First, neither Amy or I have done this before. The real cake decorator in the family is Brandi. Anyway, we did our best and had fun doing it!
One thing I can say for sure. The tools make ALL the difference. We bought the grocery store decorating icing in a can with specialty tips. Should do the trick, right? Wrong. Very much like professional photography, the tools DO make the difference. We had the “point and shoot” cake icing tools when we needed the professional camera with lighting. You be the judge. I am sure it will taste good but you can tell that a professional did not decorate it! Have a great 4th of July!
