Vintage Me, Vintage You - Sanctus Real in Austin, TX

A few years ago I had the opportunity to photograph Sanctus Real in Austin, TX.  We started out with a live performance at a radio station, then to a concert that night.  This was the second time I got to photograph them.  They're super laid back, cool to hang out with and just all around good guys.

We went to eat together.

Sound check.

Got to pray with them.

Guitar acrobatics.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Bryony's Portrait

While I was at Brooks we would be given assignments that were somewhat generic.  Like make a natural light portrait.  Well I would always try and push that thought as far as I could.  Here I had taken a water hose and clamped it to a carport and let it spray onto the umbrella that Bryony was holding.  It was shot with available light I just modified the environment as much as I could.  Tried to make something interesting out of a simple assignment.  And look how beautiful my wife was.  She was probably 22 here. I'm headed back to Ventura for my birthday, maybe I'll try and recreate this shot while I'm there.  How's that for nostalgia?

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Thanksgiving 2008

In 2008 we spent our Thanksgiving in Lake Tahoe with my wife's family.  It was great we had a blast.  Here are some of my favorites from that trip.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Las Vegas Aerial Photography

I've previously talked about my brief stint as an aerial photographer in Las Vegas and that I had some additional images to show.  Well tonight is that night.  Here is my very direct approach to aerial photographs of Las Vegas.  You probably wouldn't recognize that this was the desert surrounding LV unless I told you...so I did.  I have a pretty direct approach to everything I shoot, but this is even more direct than normal and I love it.

You may be asking what I mean when I say "direct", by that I mean that I don't use strange angles and I don't ever ever ever tilt the horizon in a frame to try and make the photograph interesting.  I shoot almost in a grid, very square, and I let the subject matter stand on its own.  It actually bothers me to see tilted horizons in photographs or even really low perspective shots unless they have a good reason for being so.

Enough of my soap box, here are the images.

On take off (or landing) in the helicopter.  I particularly like how the left side of the frame looks like it is in motion but the right side looks still.

Washed out and abandoned road.

Fences and culverts.

The next two frames were actually the exact same location on separate trips up.  I photographed them without realizing I had shot it before.  Similar but very different frames.

Tire patterns in the desert floor.

Trench, fence and aerial survey location.

I have been wanting to go back up and shoot some more, but the cost to do so without actually doing business in the air is very high.  Maybe someday I'll get the opportunity to again.  So these will have to do for now, they keep the memories and the feeling fresh.  Thanks for reading, God bless.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - San Francisco 2002

The following photographs were made on a trip to San Francisco in early 2002.  I know this because that's what my wife told me!  I'm not that old but my memory isn't that good either.  Bryony and I had just let everyone know we were in a relationship, something Brandon wasn't too open to.  But he learned to deal with it.  Brandon and I were friends for quite a while before I started dating his sister.  You may not know this, but there is somewhat of an unspoken rule between friends, that states you do not date your friends sister.  I ignored this rule and married one of my best friends sister.  Classic example of rules are just a loose guideline to life!  And Brandon and I are still best friends.  Having your best friend as your brother-in-law is pretty cool too.

Anyways, about the photographs.

I shot this at the top of the world (the highest point in Frisco).  The light is just broad daylight but it looks so beautiful.  Brandon is pretty much a natural in front of the camera too.  He makes it look easy.

The photo on the left is Brandon and I.  I really like the look of the photo on the right.  The light again is awesome.  Very bright but it seems to be shadowless when it lands on people.

My beautiful bride to be in the middle of the left photo.

Brother and sister in the top.  Best friends in the bottom.

I'm not sure if Brandon and Amy were technically even dating yet here.  They weren't quite as gung-ho about sharing there affection as Bry and I were.  That's me on the right.  My hair was a little longer then.

Love this image.  It seems very voyeur-esque.

Two beautiful girls on the left and a cute couple on the right.

The image of Brandon on the left is pretty timeless for me.  I love the American flag.  I love the way he's sitting, the diner feel, the on-camera flash, and again the voyeur look to the image.  On the right, its kind of hard to tell, but Brandon talked his way into a ride in a Lamborghini.  Yeah.  Not fair.  The funny thing is he left me waiting at the top of the world for almost an hour.  Happy for him but mad at him.

I shot all of these images with a Canon Sure Shot TELEmax.  It was a great point and shoot 35mm.  No thinking just shooting.  There's something special about that.  I'm often tempted to set my camera to full auto now and not even think about anything but composition.  But I know too much now, at times I feel smarter than the camera.  Probably not true but I do know what light in an image I want to expose for, that's one thing a camera cant do.

Glad I got to capture some of Brandon and Amy's earliest moments.  Glad they got married.  Love them to death.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Leroy Verdin

A few years ago I spent the summer in Louisiana working construction.  My brother and I would drive to Houma, Louisiana early on a Monday morning and stay anywhere from 10 to 16 days.  Doing nothing but working.  Like 12 hour days hanging sheet rock in the swamp.  It was horrible.  But a beautiful church did come out of it.  You can check it out here, The Life Church.  The upside to that is I made a good friend, Leroy Verdin.  Leroy is an aspiring actor working out of New Orleans and we wanted to do a shoot before the summer was up.  So one hot muggy muggy night we went out and shot.  Shooting at night has some serious challenges, but you get to create your own light.  So you can completely construct a look to an image out of nothing.  There is something very cool about that.  Here are some of the photos from that session.

Good luck in your acting career Leroy.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Dartmouth Street Boys

I grew up in a pretty large sister city to Houston, TX, called Pasadena, TX.  I grew up on a street named Dartmouth.  I grew up with all of these guys.  I'm 31 and I'm still in contact with every one of them.  Maybe not as often as I'd like but I still call them my friends.  I think that's rare.  We were incredibly close growing up, we had to be.  We've all scattered across America but on  rare occasion we make an effort to get together.  Here is one of those occasions.  It was a few years ago, I'm the one with the long blond hair.

Adrian Moss

Chris Sowers

Shane Moss

Shane again.

And again...

OK stop Shane.

Jesse Bales

Miss you guys.