A White Christmas In Texas! – 2009

I love Christmas. What a GREAT time of year! I thought I would share my experience this year with all of you!

We spend Christmas with family in Dallas every year. Usually the weather is cold, and sometimes wet, but almost never white. In fact, in my 30 years of spending Christmas there, I do not remember a single, solid snow fall. Well, things changed this year.

We left Austin Thursday afternoon and set out for Dallas. There were small snow flurries almost the entire drive, sometimes even moderate amounts. By the time we got to Ennis, the snow had started falling quite a bit, and people on the roads were actually driving pretty calmly, which was unexpected.

Finally we got downtown, and were set to take the overpass onto 75N (Central Expressway), but someone took a small slide to the left at the top of the bridge, and decided to just stop, so we were forced onto 75S near MLK. For those that don’t know, this part of 75 is elevated for a few miles, so by the time we got through traffic, it was one huge sheet of ice. Not knowing how to drive on ice, people in the middle & right lanes would stop (horrible idea). This would cause us to stop, and thanks to the incline and bank of the highway, the car would just turn towards one of the embankments, slide to a stop, and be extremely hard to recover. It was a mess. People flipped around or turned sideway all over the place. It took us a LONG time to navigate back to surface streets, but once we did it was all good again.

I took a little video to show what it was like on the highway, and then some of the surface streets. Nothing too exciting, but I thought it was interesting since it is uncommon in Dallas. Here is the video, along with a few still images at the end:

It continued to snow through the evening on Christmas Eve, and as uncommon as it is in TX, the temp was low enough for it to not only stick, but also last through Christmas Day. This was my kid’s very first white Christmas, so of course, the first thing they did after opening presents was to go play in the snow. It was cold, so this only lasted about 10 minutes, but I got some decent shots for memories, and thought I would share a few from the batch:

Christmas night, while our son stayed his grandparents, my Wife, Daughter and I went to my Brother/Sister-in-law’s house for a few hours. As always, it was a LOT of fun, and this time I decided to pop off a few shots while we were there. My wife Sarah is in the purple’ish shirt, my sister-in-law Kristy is in green, and the only guy in the pics is my brother-in-law Craig. A great time was had by all, and I can’t wait to do it again. Here are a few of the pics from that night:

One From The Phone (G1)

I posted recently about “The Best Camera“, a project created by Chase Jarvis. It’s all about using your phone to take great pics, and that the best camera is the one that’s with you at any given time. Using a phone, it makes the shot more about you personal style and composition than the equipment used, which promotes true creativity. I have been participating, but haven’t posted any of the pics here, so I thought I would share a few.

The phone that I use for the project is an HTG G1 w/ Android, and as it was developed in part by Google, it is known as the “Google Phone”. I could go on for hours about it’s abilities, but I won’t, this is about the camera only. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, which sports a mechanical auto-focus (wow), and will close focus for semi/faux-macro type shots. Considering it’s home inside a phone, that’s pretty impressive. The rest is up to me though; composition, etc…

Here are 3 shots I have taken with this phone. I hope you like them…

This first one is my favorite, and I took it yesterday. It’s a shot of my Canon 40D + Pentax Super Takumar 50/1.4. I stopped the aperture all the way down to about F/16 so that the blades could be the focal point. This might be my favorite picture ever with this phone, and there have been thousands since I bought it, so that is saying a lot. lol

This is a pic I took a while back of our dog, Roxy. I uploaded it to “The Best Camera”, and of all my phone shots, this seems to be the favorite among the members there (not in a competitive way). I won’t mention how many votes it has, but it does have over 310 views in the last week or two.

And lastly, why not post a recent shot of myself. I took this about an hour after getting a hair cut, which I wasn’t sure I liked at the time, and applied a filter to it. I like the way it came out, and it’s one of the few pictures of myself that I will share…

The Birds: v.2

So, I came walking one of HEB Friday evening, and I saw the most crazy thing. The sky was black with an almost solid blanket of birds. Seriously, it was crazy. I wanted to take a quick video with my phone, but my hands were full with bags. Once I got them in the car, I managed a few clips and pics. Two downsides: First, it never got back to even CLOSE to what it was like when I walked out, which was nothing short of super creepy. Second, the vids are with my phone, and it was getting dark, so they suck. I REALLY need to invest in a Flip Video when I can!

I threw the clips together with a little music, and they were taken with my Android G1. The still pics are just a few quick snaps with the 40D and 85/1.8. I know they aren’t all that, but I thought I would share anyway, kind of on a “hey, this was cool” level, rather than sound photography… lol

And a few pics…..

The Best Camera

“The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You”

I want to tell everyone about this project that Chase Jarvis has put together. First, let me say, I am a huge fan of Chase and his work. One thing that really sets him apart from the pack, is the effort he puts into the photography community. He has put countless hours into giving siminars, making behind the scene’s video’s for us to see how he does his magic, and biggest of all (in my humble opinion), he has worked VERY hard to inspire both amatuer AND professional photographers to get out there and shoot. That is the most important thing we can all do, because if we don’t, where will all the great images of the world around us come from? No one can see this planet the same way *you* do, so without your shooting/sharing, we are all missing out…

As part of his philosophy, and effort to inspire, he has created a LARGE community of photographers, dubbed The Best Camera. Chase has based this whole project around the concept, “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You“. This is to say, what ever you have with you that will capture an image, is the best thing you can use, and you should make the best pictures you can with it. Stop focusing on the gear you wish you had, and use what’s right in front of you. Personally, I think this is an awesome concept, and really embodies the whole reason we (most of us) got into photography in the first place. Who cares what you shoot with, as long as the images tell the story you intended them too.

This community is based around an iPhone app, but is not limited to it. The app will let you shoot photo’s using the built in camera, edit them with multiple filters/options, then upload them to The Best Camera website for sharing. It will also let you upload to Twitter, Facebook, and email to any address you like, all at the same time as uploading to the site. There is even a community function built in, where you can view and vote for other people’s photos. The app is very, very thorough. Now, while the app is for the iPhone and iTouch, you can take the pics with any phone. For instance, I have an iTouch, which does not have a camera built in. How do I participate? I use my phone to take pics (a G1 w/ Android), email them to my ipod, edit (if needed) and upload. It’s well worth the tiny amount of extra effort.

I suggest that everyone go check out the website, the app, and all the possibilities!

Links:

Chase Jarvis – Website / Blog
The Best Camera Website
The iPhone/iTouch App
Direct To iTunes

Pentax Asahi Super-Takumar 50/1.4 – v.2

Just a few shots from last night (and sunrise this morning) with this lens. Nothing big, as I am still getting used to this manual focus, but I liked them…

Pentax Asahi Super-Takumar 50/1.4 on my Canon 40D…

Pentax Asahi Super-Takumar 50/1.4…

I would like to welcome myself to the “Old School All Manual” club. Yes, thank you, thank you…

We all know that the hardest method is usually the most fun method, and that goes for photography too! I have been wanting an old, fully manual lens for a while now, and I finally have it. I have worked my way into a 60’s Pentax Asahi Super-Takumar 50/1.4 with an EOS adapter. It mounts to my 40D just fine, and as is preferred, everything is completely manual (aperture, focus, exposure, etc). This is not only complex settings wise, but it is NOT easy to nail focus manually @ F/1.4. The focused area is so shallow wide open, it’s hit or miss and extremely hard to do, which makes it so much more fun. I. Am. In. Love…. So, on to the lens…

Pentax Asahi Super-Takumar 50/1.4 (pics taken w/ the 40D and 85/1.8)

And here are 2 quick shots with the new lens at my desk at work. The first is wide open @ F/1.4, and the second is stopped down a little to F/2.8 (if I remember correctly).

And just for fun, this is what it looks like mounted on the gripped 40D (taken w/ my phone). It’s so little!

*edit*

I couldn’t help but play with the lens some more. Here are two more, both wide open @ F/1.4. The desaturation was done on purpose (mainly on #2), kind of for a B&W w/ a splash of color feel. I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the performance wide open, especially for a lens made in the 60’s! Anyway, here ya go…