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Griffin Parc Frozen Fountain

Mother Nature’s record-setting streak of sub-freezing weather this Winter, makes for some interesting photo opportunities.  Beautiful? Yes.  Inconvenient?  You bet!  Especially after a pipe burst in the attic above our garage.  There’s nothing quite as disturbing as coming home to a fire truck in front of your home with water gushing out from under your garage door (and freezing solid almost instantly).  Anyway…

We have a lovely fountain in our development, which I have photographed on more than one occasion.  Knowing it would be nicely frozen, I made the pilgrimage up to the fountain on the coldest morning of the Arctic Blast (4 degrees or so) with camera in hand.  This yielded some dramatic photos and a frozen face (mine).

Additionally, I recently re-evaluated and re-processed a few photos from our project to light up the grain elevators in Old Town Frisco from a couple of years ago.  You can find the new moonlight photo of this unique structure on the Architecture Page.

OK, I don’t make a point of using this blog to promote other people’s work, but when I found this animation through a link on a Model Mayhem forum post (a modeling site where I maintain a large gallery of my fashion / glamour work) I was so amazed I just had to share it.

Check out this amazing piece of CG.  I don’t know about you, but I have a very hard time believing it’s not actually photographic in nature.  Produced by Alex Roman using 3dsmax, Vray, AfterEffects and Premiere on Vimeo.com – this is a Must-See!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

OK, if you’ve been around long enough to remember back before digital photography, you might have had an experience with film photography where you had scratches on your images.  This was not an uncommon problem, easily fixed in the darkroom if you knew the tricks (not gonna give away any trade secrets here, but it was a very easy fix).  Sometimes this was caused by burrs on the pressure plate, sometimes by dirt or a grain of sand getting into the camera, grinding a chunk out of the emulsion as the film was wound against it.

However the scratch got there, it ruined an otherwise perfectly good (sometimes great if you’re lucky – or a Pro) photograph.

Well…  I just, for the first time since I adopted digital photography, experienced the very same thing.  Impossible, you say?  I would have thought exactly the same thing right up until a week ago.

We were in Santa Fe for Christmas, our favorite destination for that particular holiday, and had the perfect White Christmas.  While at the Loretto Chapel, home of the staircase no one can explain, except to say it is a miracle, I shot some interesting images of the interior and staircase.  This particular image is of the top of this classically designed Gothic confessional with the light from a stained glass window highlighting it.  Notice the scratch running down the left side?  It is, indeed, a scratch-type aberration in the original RAW image, going through every element of the picture.  Exactly the same as a scratch.  Should be impossible.  I have completely and painstakingly removed it from the final image, but I certainly think it’s weird.

Ever see The Omen?

<insert creepy music here>

Loretto Chapel confessional with scratch

Since I don’t sleep much (Karen says I should open up a donut shop) I finally got busy and created the galleries associated with 3 shoots for The Girls and Cars of Texas from October and November 2009.  Simply click on the photos below to get to the individual galleries for Amy Fox, Tracie Fox and Ashley R.

Amy Fox in a 1951 Caddy

Amy Fox was one of the models who responded to a casting call I posted for a Girls and Cars shoot in Fredericksburg in October 2009.  We were headed down there to photograph an extensive private collection of amazing vehicles on a 1000 acre ranch just outside Fredericksburg, Texas.  The collection included a 1951 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn, a Ferrari Dino and a 1955 aqua Chevy Nomad among others.  Amy was great to work with and we got some nice shots with her.

Tracie Fox in the 1955 Chevy Nomad

Since we needed more than one model for this shoot, Amy recommended her sister-in-law Tracie, who was a joy to work with.  We had a great time shooting with her on this trip.  Some of the vehicles had been sitting for so long we simply could not get them to run.  Fortunately I had allowed for this as a possibility and we brought down around 150lbs of studio lighting and battery power for this project so we could light up the inside of the enormous barn where the collection was housed.  This turned out to be very useful and helped to create some dramatic effects.

Ashley and the 1964 Mercury Monterey

Last year. we were out to dinner at Mama Emilias in McKinney, Texas.  Parked outside were two amazing cars.  A bright yellow 1929 Ford and a Roger Rabbit-looking 1947 Ford Panel Truck painted in a silver and purple theme, complete with purple neon ground lighting.  What a cool vehicle!  I just had to have these for the book, and made arrangements with the owner to shoot them one night at a local airport where we could have a controlled environment.  Once again lugging out the full complement of studio lighting, cords and battery power – and a local fitness model / fitness instructor, Ashley Reese, we settled in for the evening to capture these gorgeous cars and this very nicely sculpted model in all their collective glory.  Ashley was a big hit (in her nurse and schoolgirl outfits) with the “locals” and a real treat to work with.  When you visit this gallery you will see why my preference is to shoot in the dark with my own lighting.  The results are very dramatic.