G'night, Dallas.

In contrast to the creepy ladies in the previous post, I love evening city scapes. Something very majestic about them. This isn't the best view point of downtown Dallas by any stretch, and the tall building in the middle actually has crazy green lights, but sometimes ya just gotta work with what ya got (thank you Photoshop), and what I had was a camera and 5 minutes of light left.

Anyway, just a quick image to end the day. G'night.

Strange Images for a Strange Day

So, it's February 29th... a bonus day. After a long day down town, I had a bit of time to walk around this evening, and lemme tell ya, there's not a lot going on in downtown Dallas at night. It's no Boston or Chicago or New York... but they're working on it. Lots of construction going on trying to make it a social hub and a place more people will want to live. In the meantime, I was being stalked by a few of the cool (and kinda creepy) retail window residents at every turn.

Jai & Rishi {slideshow!}

Here's a quick follow-up slideshow from my recent slideshow with brothers Jai & Rishi. Enjoy these two good-lookin' guys.

Aadhi & Sibi {brothers!}

Saturday I got too meet two of the coolest (and cutest) boys in town. Big brother Aadhi (who's name appropriately means 'beginning') and 8 month old Sibi (the name of an Indian king known for his philanthropy) belong to Sabari & Pasu. I've known Sabari for several years through my work at TI, and lemme tell ya, she's as sweet and friendly as they come. So it was no surprise that her boys were the same.

Sabari told me that Aadhi is typically very shy around people he doesn't know, so she kept telling him all week leading up to our session that "uncle Matt" was coming over to play and take some pictures. Too funny. She said Friday that he woke up and asked, "Is uncle Matt coming today?" Sure enough, when we showed up he was pretty withdrawn and quiet, so we were a little nervous. Ummm... no need to worry. Within 20 minutes, we were throwing stuffed animals at each other, having reflector fights (we didn't have swords, so Aadhi improvised), running after each other just laughing and having a blast.

Little Sibi... this guy's a charmer. Have you ever seen such big, penetrating eyes?? He was sleeping when we got there, and the first thing he did when we woke up and saw me and the my big scary camera pointing at him was cry? I can't blame him... I'd be a bit unnerved, too, if I woke from a deep, peaceful sleep to see someone I'd never seen before standing two feet away. Scary stuff. As soon as he got his bearings, though... he was as happy and inquisitive as he could be.

Dad was a trooper, too. We all worked pretty hard chasing these two dynamos around for a couple hours, but by the end of the session he was helping to hold reflectors and wrangling the kiddos at the same time.

We had a great day Saturday, and here's a few sneak peek images. I can't wait for Sabari & Pasu to see the rest of them. I'll post a slideshow of all their fab images after mom and dad have had a chance to see them.

D 3 L I S C I O U S !

I love getting boxed packages in the mail. And if those boxes say B&H Photo on the outside... well, I just can't open them fast enough. Yesterday was one of those occasions.

If you're a photographer, unless you've been living in the woods with no connection to the outside world the last 6 months, you've heard about the new Nikon D3. It is the newest technological innovation and flagship digital SLR camera from Nikon, and arguably the finest camera in this class of any brand. (Sorry, Canon users... you have a legitimate beef with that statement, but let's face it, Canon's been a step ahead of Nikon for the last couple years until now, so let us Nikon folks have our moment in the sun please). I've been reading tons about this camera and getting more and more excited with each article I read and each test image I saw, so I finally made the decision to invest in this little dream machine. The demand for them has been overwhelming, so they're back-ordered just about everywhere here in the US, but somehow I was blessed enough to place my order at B&H Photo a couple days ago where I was told they didn't yet have any in stock and didn't know when they would be getting them in, and yet mine showed up yesterday. Unbelievable!

I'm excited about the new possibilities the D3 gives me when I'm photographing my awesome clients... I truly believe it will change the way I photograph... for the better! I can't wait to give it a full test-drive over the next couple days, but here's a few images out of the box of her (yes, I have designated her a... well, her. Some guys name their cars, I'm choosing to personify my cameras. I'm taking name suggestions if you've got one).

Isn't she a beauty?

Every Day Scenes { Wednesday }

Just a quick image from a stop on my way home yesterday. I'm a sucker for all things nostalgic, and this reminds me of HS football days many, many moons ago.

Jai & Rishi { brothers! }

Recently I had the chance to visit and play with Jai & Rishi. To borrow [read: blatantly plagarize] a phrase from all the grandmas out there, these two have "grown like weeds" since the last time I photographed them back in June. Big brother Jai has got GQ looks already, and he's got such a fun personality to boot. And this time around, he was ready and excited for the camera from the moment I walked in the door... no warm-up required!

Little Rishi is such a happy guy. He loves hanging out with his brother and just being part of the fun. And the eyes! I said this back in June & now it's even more evvident...both Jai and Rishi have some of the most amazing eyes you'll ever see! I'm a little jealous.

Here's a sneak peek of a few images from our session together. I'll post a slideshow with all the images a little later.

Winter Morning View

Here's a view from my bedroom window this morning. It's cold, wet & dreary today, but I love this view, even in the dead of winter. Very peaceful.

Dinner Night { Asian! }

My friends Jerry & Tina love to entertain, and every once in a while we get together at their house for a themed dinner night where Tina puts together a menu and each person is responsible for making a dish. Last night was Asian night, and so my friends Kandis, Sarah, the hosts and myself gathered for Potstickers with Spicy Dipping Sauce, Egg Drop Soup, Sesame Green Beans, Szechuan Shrimp with Chili Sauce, and Pork Chow Mein.

Par for the course with these events, we started around 7pm and ate at 10. My underwhelming kitchen skills put us behind early as the potistickers had a list prep time of 20 minutes... I had 'em ready in 2 hours. I think I shoulda been given rice duty, It's all good, though, as the best part of these dinners is the socializing while cooking. And as you can see, after dinner we did a little Kung Fu fighting. Here's a few images from this episode of dinner night.

They like me! They really, really like me!

I was excited to find out yesterday that an image I submitted to Open Photo Contest won first place for the "travel" category. It was a photo of a barn a took when I was seriously lost on the back country roads of my old hometown in Ohio a while back. I know, I know... who gets lost in their hometown? [insert image of me sheepishly raising my hand here] Hey, I was looking for barn photo opps so I was boldly going where no man - or at least only a few - had ever gone before and got a little turned around. That's not the point here.

The best thing about this contest is that photographers from all over the country and even the world can submit photos, and the judging is done by those same photographers. So I was stoked that one of my images was chosen. That's pretty freakin' cool just by itself, but to top it off I am featured on the site and I think I also won a new Lens Baby 3G! So, if you've got a second, go to the site and check it out. BTW, if you get there and see Jasmine Star featured, by all means stay there and read her bio first - she does amazing wedding photography out in California. THEN, hit your browser refresh button and yours truly should be featured... I think the site randomly cycles through the contest winners.

Also I submitted this image for the "engaging" contest and got 3rd place! Sweet.

More Personal Photography Party Images

Here's a few more of the images from my little self-guided play-time down in the Deep Ellum district this past Saturday.

I love silhouettes. They're so easy to photograph and even easier to add a little drama to in post-shoot editing.



Ha, was peeking in a window at a little gallery and saw my reflection in the glass and couldn't pass this shot up. Without looking through the viewfinder, it took about 7 tries to get an image where I actually got my face in the frame and in focus. Ridiculous.



Nothing particularly special about this run-down building when you pass it on the street, but with a little texture and vintage love, it's got a little character.



Funny thing about this next image is that just outside the frame is a sign saying graffiti is illegal in Deep Ellum. So, someone went through the effort to spray paint a message on this wall saying it wasn't a free wall to advertise on.







I met little "Bruiser" while walking down a back alley. Such a playful guy - it took everything I had just to get these 2 images because he kept running up to me where he was too close for me to ge tthe lens to focus on him.









Guess who? Who hasn't photographed their own shadow?... more than once.



Dusted off the old Lens Baby 2.0 for a couple images. Man, I need to upgrade to 3.0 where you can set your tilt shift. Holding the lens on a tilt with my fingers (req'd for v2.0) is something I'm pathetically unskilled at.



Umm... not sure why I took this next image other than because it was there and I had a camera in my hand. Hey, it was my photo party so I photographed whatever and whenever I wanted.





This kinda of thing drives non-photographers crazy when they're with me. "For cryin' out loud, Matt... it's a freakin' parking meter! C'mon, let's go!" I love simple everyday things, though. These are the kinda things we live with everyday and never notice.



Ditto the caption of the above image.