Around the college...

We are putting together the class schedule at work and myself and the other photog in the office trolled the campus in search of interesting angles of well know places. The past three schedules used three points of interest on campus so we didn't shoot those and therefore they're lacking from my examples. I shot with the D80 with the 18-135mm lens, proving that even with the more simple equipment and great lighting you can still get decent shots. Enjoy...

Created with flickr slideshow.

Bonding @ Work

Well May 10 is approaching fast and you can feel the excitement building around the college. The San Jac board of trustees called for a $295 million bond measure which is to be chosen, or not, by the citizens in our district on May 10. As far as all the excitement, I can't tell if it's weether or not the bond will pass or just the fact that no matter what the bond measure wll be over on Sat. Personlly it's a little of both since a good amount of pressure has been placed on our office concerning the sucess of the bond. (sent from blackjack)

Region XIV East conference champions fall to San Jacinto College, 3-2

For those sports people out there here's the latest release I wrote for the Region XIV softball tournament...

BRENHAM, Texas – The San Jacinto College women’s softball team defeated the Texarkana College Bulldogs 3-2 in the second round of the 2008 Region XIV softball tournament, Friday.

With another solid day of pitching from freshman Kelsey McClain (Pasadena, Texas / Memorial High School), and some late rallying on the sticks, San Jac (35-15) was able come out on top of their nail biting second round game. For the first three innings, the scoreboard remained blank for both sides until San Jac drove in the first run of the game early in the fourth.

The Bulldogs quickly answered in the bottom of the fifth driving in two runs putting them up 2-1. Knowing what needed to be done, Alex Naschke (League City, Texas / Clear Creek High School) literally “stepped up to the plate”, driving in Sierra Gale (Regina SK, Canada) to tie it up two all.

Going into the final inning, San Jac came out swinging. Tasha Rotramel (Lake Jackson, Texas / Brazoswood High School) hit a double to center field bringing home Krystal Plummer (Angleton, Texas / Angleton High School), who scored the winning run for San Jac.

McClain earned her second win in as many days, after pitching San Jac to an 8-2 win in opening round action on Thursday. “Kelsey pitched another great game today,” said fifth-year head coach Kelly Saenz. “It was a battle today and the ladies played one heck of a game.”

With this win, San Jac moves one step closer to the Region XIV championship game and now advances to the third round where they will face tournament host Blinn College at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 3, 2008, at Hohlt Park in Brenham, Texas. The winner of the Region XIV tournament advances to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national tournament May 15-17, 2008, in Plant City, Florida.

For a complete Region XIV softball tournament bracket and updates, please visit http://www.blinn.edu/Buccaneer/region14_softball.htm.

For more information about the San Jacinto College softball program, visit http://www.sanjac.edu/athletics.

March forth into the future...

Well, it's that time of the year again where I get older. They (well actually Amanda) decorated my desk at work. It was great! I knew it had to be her because the decorations were so festive and over the top, and there's really only one person in our office to take it to that caliber.

Today is also election day so VOTE!! It's actually quite fitting for it to fall on such a commanding day, March 4th.

So vote today and help our country "March Forth," on March 4th, into the future...

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 D

Houston Mayor Bill White spoke at San Jacinto College's South campus this past week and I took some photos only using available light. I shot at f/2.0; ISO1000; 1/50 to 1/80. Enjoy...

Kinda Kinky...

Wedding Photography. Cheers...

For the past few years I've moonlighted as a freelance wedding photographer. It's been pretty fun but now that I don't have as much free time it has become a chore. There's just too much extra time and travel required. Some have suggested to simply raise my prices to make up the difference, but when you raise prices people expect a certain standard of quality. Now I'm not saying that I try and produce garbage for my current clients, but if I screw something up they can't complain as much as they could if I charged the going rate.

So with all that said, I will no longer be doing weddings. I have three clients left for the year and then I'm done, for now at least. I might still take on the occasional family portrait or baby portraits, but no more wedding ceremonies, receptions or events for that matter. They're so exhausting and then when you're done you have 1200+ photos to sift through.

Now that Jackson is here, I just don't want to spend anymore time away from him than I already have to. Now I'll just turn all of my photographic urges towards him, making him the most photographed kid in the world.

It's been real, it's been fun; but it hasn't been real fun...

Good art is in the wallet of the beholder...

Last night I covered an event at the Art Alliance Center of Clear Lake. It was pretty fun, the show was a nationally juried show titled “Opposites Attract”. It showcased artwork that was high in contrast either by color, content, or whatever other bs those artsy people come up with. I somewhat enjoyed the show, mainly the photography. I still just cannot grasp how some squiggles on canvas is art. Some are aesthetically pleasing but that’s kinda where it stops for me.

And honestly the photography was a bit disappointing as well. There was a photograph of a car with a reflection of clouds on it, now I get the opposing factors (pollution and nature) but the photograph just looked amateur. And then there were some photographs of origami, now they were nice b&w prints but they were priced at $7,000. SERIOUSLY?!?!? I’m in the wrong business.

I think the highlight of the night was the conversation I had with the South campus president. After the initial welcome presentation and a brief staged reading from “The Taming of the Shrew” by Café 21 Theatre, I walked over to the South campus prez. and asked her if she knew of any other presentations for the night and this is how the covo went from there:

“Didn’t you just have a baby?” asked Mrs. President “Yes, I did,” I responded. “Well then why are you even here?” asked Mrs. President. “Well, you guys requested a photographer tonight and I’m the South campus photographer,” I responded. “Well I say you should go home,” declared Mrs. President. “Are you sure?” I questioned. “Absolutely, go home and enjoy your Valentine’s day,” stated Mrs. President. Then I said, “Well if anyone asks I’m telling them you told me to leave.” Mrs. President responded, “Bring it.” And so I left.

I don’t know about you, but she’s quiet a rare find when it comes to upper administration in higher education. At least I know she’s got my back.

Here are some photos from the night. Not trying to boast, but I did manage to get some nice shots with a shutter speed of .3 seconds hand held (not all these are @ .3 seconds, they range from .3 to 1/50 all @ 1600ISO (the first two are @ 2500ISO) and different f-stops to compensate the shutter speed)...

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst...

On Tuesday I photographed Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's visit to San Jacinto College. The first time I was introduced to our Lt. Gov. was back in 1999 when he weasled his way into the race for the Texas Land Commissioner. Of course it's fairly common knowledge that it takes money, and lots of it, to get into politics, but he took it to the limits. To my best knowledge, this is pretty much how it went down:

"Hey everyone who's running for Land Commissioner, if I give you tons of money will you step out of the race," declared Dewhurst. "Sounds great, money will always take precedence over morals, after all I'm a politician," replied everyone running (Except Jerry Patterson).

"Forget that, I'm in this to represent my state," said Patterson. "Well, you're gonna pay for that. I'm gonna run a nasty campaign against you now," Dewhurst responded. "Fine, but I have morals and even if I lose at least I know I'm not a sell out," said Patterson. After a nasty campaign and many republican's having to cross lines they never wanted to, Dewhurst got his way and became the Texas Land Commissioner in 1999.

So that's pretty much how I've viewed him ever since. Until this past Tuesday. Of course, any politician is going to preach to their audience and not rock the boat, so I've kept that in mind. But with all that said, I'm very impressed with him. I agree that we need to do away with standardized testing and start implementing end-of-course exams. Imagine teachers being able to teach their curriculum!!! And I agree, we do need to do something about the boarders. I don't think a wall is the answer because just like Dewhurst said, "If they want to come over, a wall is not going to stop them." And concerning the boarders, it's not a hateful act against Mexico, it's an attempt to hinder everything coming into this country illegally from drugs to people. And like Dewhurst, I'm fine with people being here that are undocumented, but just get a Visa and pay taxes. And if you want to become a citizen, then get in line like everyone else and do it the right way.

Of course there were other issues discussed but the main thing that really stood out to me was that he was for education (of course he was at a college so who knows if it's 100% accurate). But he was part of the process for the "B" On Time Loan, he was part of the process of getting our health benefits reinstated after Gov. Perry recklessly vetoed them all to smithereens, he's working towards end-of-course exams as opposed to TAAS or TAKS, and last but not least, he has a concealed hand gun license (haha, that's really not a selling point but I just thought I'd throw that in there).

So Lt. Gov Dewhurst, I'm glad you spoke at San Jac, you now have an avid supporter...

Nikon Creative Lighting System...

We're in the process of combining all of our program brochures into career cluster brochures to correspond with the AchieveTexas Career Clusters. Part of this process is to obtain images to accompany each brochure. Like any other type of photo shoot, lighting is critical (especially if your shooting indoors with those nasty florescent lights). So what myself and the other writer/photographer (Rob) decided to do was to take full advantage of the Nikon creative lighting system. We have a decent Novatron system but it's so bulky to take out every time we need some stock photos.
Our set-up consists of a Nikon D80 set to commander mode, a SB-800 set to remote on a tripod, a SB-600 set to remote being held by either myself or Rob (depends on who's doing the shooting). We will typically use the SB-600 as a hair light and the SB-800 as a fill light. The nice part about the D80 is when you're in commander mode you can set the on-camera flash to fire but not effect the lighting (it sends out the signal to the remote units and then they fire along with the shutter). We're still perfecting this method but here's what we've done the past two days for the Physical Therapy Assistant and Respiratory Care programs... (the last image I left the SB-600 w/ softbox in the image)...