survived the Summer

Another Summer spent in photographic aestivation. But again, Autumn is approaching. Temperatures are dipping under 100F at least before lunch time. I'm starting to feel guilty about this abandoned blog and wanting to write. I attended a really inspiring photography group this evening, that kicked off various ideas in my head. I've got a week off next week, to explore some of those ideas and I'm all fired up and ready to go. Next Friday the Texas Photographic Society international competition opens and I have an image on display, after a couple of years of trying to get in. Things are ticking along nicely. Time to start blogging again.

I've been trying to work out in my head what to do with all the triathlon pictures I've been taking. Finally started to edit them and try to select some and tell a story. Working on what that story might be. Thinking it will be more of a multimedia approach than I'd initially planned. Time to do some more audio work.

bad blogger

Yes, I haven't been posting a whole lot recently, and now the Olympics have started. I haven't watched much TV in the last few years, but now I'm traveling for several weeks for work. Not much to do in the evenings. I've found out that with careful planning you can watch a solid 5 hours of CSI every evening. After a couple of weeks of that I've just about gotten over the excitement of the moving picture box in the corner of the room and ready to rejoin life. this morning I hiked 12 miles around a park here in the middle of Cary, NC. Beautiful weather, sunny, not too hot and well covered forest. Beautiful. But now, I'm back on the couch watching beach volleyball, cycling and Michael Phelps kicking butt in the pool.

I really do plan to pick up my camera again soon. Honest. I took a few shots last weekend back in Austin and am going to head to the beach this coming weekend. Pictures to come!

SoFoBoMoFinito!

I'm finished! I suppose I have another week left if I wanted to use it, but it is done. The final edits have been reviewed and the PDF version (3.5Mb download) is available. I've also made it viewable here through Issuu in their flash viewer. I actually really like that presentation, particularly if you use the Fullscreen option in the menu bar of their browsing tool to remove all the stuff around the edges. Works well in Firefox, will be interested on feedback on that. I know some people dislike flash with a passion (please feel free to enjoy the pdf version!). I'm going to wait a few days and see if I get some feedback before starting the soft proofing process to make an actual book. Amanda was generous enough to read through it all and read it out loud to check how the text flowed. That was a fun experience. I've already had some feedback on potential issues with how some of the red on black text might not print successfully. Anyone have experience with that ? Any other feedback, comments or opinions are also very welcome on this, my first photography book! ETA: I've updated the two versions based on feedback from Holly Sisson. She was kind enough to look over the first version and find all of my typographical mistakes, giving me about three pages of corrections for the four pages of text that are in the book! I certainly appreciate her attention to detail and have adjusted the layout accordingly.

photography. book. now.

If your SoFoBoMo book happens to be better than just good enough, this might be an interesting home for it. Blurb just announced the PhotographyBookNow contest. Closing date is July 14th. Rules and FAQ didn't look like some sort of rights grab, at least at first glance. The photo ? It's another one from Death Valley. I've never seen it look like this before. A dramatic change from the rock and mud I found on the last trips. I feel lucky to have turned up at the right time, mostly by accident of birth.

Do you want fries with that ?

Here's something you aren't likely to see any time soon. This was an attempt at an image for a recent themed contest at dpchallenge. Tried to think up something as unlikely as I could to get some visual irony going and the juxtaposition of broccoli with McDonalds seemed to fit the bill. It seems to be a good technique for making interesting and arresting concept images - pick themes that don't normally work together and then make it work. electricity and water, McDonalds and healthy food. I also went with the broccoli to get a good green/red contrast with the McDonalds fries box. I wanted to pick a similarly contrasty background that would really highlight the fries box but wouldn't wash out the broccoli. That was going to be a bit trickier as an evenly light green background made everything seem flat. I tried to build some depth in to the shot by going with chiaroscuro lighting - where the background goes from light to dark in opposition to the lighting on the foreground. You can see this in how the background fades from bottom left to top right yet the foreground is lit opposite to this from top left to bottom right. I think this adds a lot of dimensionality to the shot - making it pop off the page much more than even lighting would. The lighting was with two remote strobes. An SB-28 to the upper left, fired through a 6 inch diffuser and just above/ in front of the broccoli. There was a small bounce panel infront and to the bottom right to throw some light back into the fries box - you can see the edge of that reflected through the M on the front of the packaging. The background was lit with a single strobe focused on the lower right corner of the background. This was at a quite low power and close to the background so that it would fall off across the frame, giving the darker corner. The final tricky part of this shot was getting the whole scene to float. I bought a 3 foot metal bolt from Home Depot (about $1.50) and some washers and bolts. This was attached to a tripod with ball bungee cords and poked through the background green paper. The fries packet had a hole punched in the back and was bolted to the rod, which was also pushed into the back of the broccoli to hold it all in place. A few additional pieces of broccoli were squeezed in to fill in any gaps. You can see more of the setup from a slightly crazy angle, on the right.

You can quit, and they won't care, but you'll always know.

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready

Right here, right now... Fatboy Slim boomed out across the water. 2,000 heads bobbed in the early morning sunlight, ready to get started. After months of training we are right here, right now. The canon fires and the water erupts into a foam of arms and legs. I'm right there in the middle of it; Tarzan swimming, kicking, punching, breathing and surviving. Ironman Arizona 2007 has started. It is going to be a long day.

The swim pretty quickly settled down. I'd heard all the stories of black eyes, goggles getting ripped off and kicks to the head but it didn't feel any worse than a typical age group wave start. The first few hundred meters were a crazy mess of bodies but then it calmed down for me and I settled into a comfortably easy rhythm. No reason to push it yet so I just warmed up slowly. Stroke. Roll. Breathe. Stroke. Roll. Breathe. My hip flexor had been starting to tweak over the last few days of taper and I could feel it when I kicked too hard - not a good sign so early on - but I just got on with it. The turn-around seemed a long way past the far bridge but soon enough I was coming back towards the Mill Avenue bridge and I'd finished the swim. I was pretty happy to have swam 1hr 12min for 2.4 miles - right around where I thought I'd be.

The wet suit strippers did their magic and I was off to transition, running through the throng of cheering supporters. I call out my number and someone hands me my bag. Quickly I find myself inside the frantic mess of the transition tent. I work my way to a quieter corner and find a chair to sit on, start going through my bag. Sunscreen, bike shorts, top, sunglasses, shoes and helmet on and I'm ready to go back out to the sunlight and noise. I step out of the tent and get more sunscreen applied and then run in my bike shoes to get my bike. Someone yells my number through a loud hailer and a volunteer gets my bike for me. This is a full service event! We have it easy - all we have to do is swim, bike & run for a while - someone else is always dealing with the logistics. I jump on my bike and ride out to the course. I hear Amy Ewert cheering for me right as I leave on the bike - so many people out here that I know, such great support.

Out on the bike course I settle in for the long haul. I'm expecting to take a bit over 6 hours but I want to start out easy and not push too hard. The temptation is certainly there. The bad thing about being a faster than average swimmer is that most of the fast bikers are behind you and spend the whole ride passing you. But that's just a case of keeping the ego in check and racing your own race. So people pass me and I spin along at 100 rpms, feeling okay, starting to eat, drinking a bit and feeling great. I get to the turn around point and I'm still feeling like I'm flying easily. Then I turn around and find out why. For some reason I never notice a strong breeze when it is helping me - but you sure notice it when it is right in your face! 20 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 35 mph had really helped me on the first half, but not on the way back! I just struggled along with everyone else, finishing the first loop and still feeling great. I'd trained for this, a bit of wind wasn't too much of a worry. At one point a helicopter appeared over a mesa, from out of nowhere. One minute I'm in a quiet desert, then there's the roar of the chopper. Flying low, following the leaders, it was just another indication that this wasn't just another triathlon - this was the big one and I was right in the middle of it.

I was playin in the beginnin, the mood all changed

About 3 hours into the ride I realised that I hadn't needed to pee at any point. My stomach was feeling bloated which for some reason I'd taken as meaning I was drinking too much - but the problem was exactly the opposite - I was getting way behind on my hydration. Luckily I realised that, along with how much slower I was suddenly going and I really started drinking a whole lot more. Nuun, electrolytes, 2 bottles of water every 10 miles. But the damage had been done by that point. I was getting slower and slower but feeling like I was trying harder and harder. Not much I could do about it but keep drinking. and drinking. and drinking. Soon I was stopping at every water stop to pee, but still drinking and trying to get back on top of things. The end of the second loop was windier again, dust clouds were starting to obscure the course and the tumbleweeds were on the march. I saw a few blow across the course, 4 feet wide and moving fast. Some poor guy blocked one for me and got knocked off his bike for his trouble. Somehow I made it back through town and headed on my third bike loop.

It only grows harder, only grows hotter

This time around it was getting really windy. Close to the start of the loop, 5 metal signs with sandbags slid across the course towards me, then crashed down a few feet away. Another gust pushed me sideways across an entire lane, before I could even react. Things were starting to get interesting! I rode with the wind at my back for the next 15 miles, letting it push me along, still trying to get on top of my hydration as the day got hotter. Just after the turn around I passed my friend Laurie Curry and said 'Can you believe it, we are doing an Ironman!' she grinned back at me and rode on. It was great to see people I'd trained with doing so well - all through the bike I saw training partners plugging away, moving through the field. We'd cheer for each other and it really helped keep the focus and motivation going on a tough day.

The ride back to transition didn't seem too bad, even though at one point I was struggling to go at 14 mph - downhill. But eventually I made it back, through the cheering crowds, off the bike at the dismount line without falling and my bike was whisked away. One hundred and twelve miles done, 6 hours and 53 minutes later I hobbled through transition (nothing so grand as running this time) and grabbed my next bag. I saw Chris Sellers helping out at the transition tent and he took charge and got me organised. Getting the gear out of my bag, setting me up to get running. Once again out of the tent and off to the run course - just a marathon to go.

So here I go is my shot. Feet fail me not cuz maybe the only opportunity that I got

Twenty six point two miles to go. I checked my watch and realised I had nine hours before the course was closed. I could walk. I could probably even crawl it in that time. I just had to hold it together and I would finish. I started trying to run. The hip flexor that had been sore was complaining more loudly now. I couldn't do much more than walk. So I decided not to push it, at least for the first mile. Keep walking, keep moving. I'd run a bit when it was flat, walk up the slopes, jog the downhills and just try and not hurt myself any more. I was taking iced water at every stop, still trying to get the hydration back on track but I was still feeling tired after the bike. About a mile in I set my watch to beep every minute. Run a minute. Walk a minute. Run a minute. Walk a minute. I'd keep making this deal with myself, keep it going. Your mind starts playing strange tricks on days like this. I'd be running along (slowly) thinking 'okay, nothing hurts, I feel good, I don't feel tired, I can keep running this pace, keep it going'. Then I'd realise I was walking. No good reason, but I couldn't make myself run. Obviously my body is more sane than my mind. But over time, my mind won out. I'd run more, walk less. I kept drinking, filling my bottle with Gatorade which perked me up some more. I'd brought 10 Gu shots with me for food. I tried one and almost threw it up - that wasn't going to work! So I switched to plan G (I'd already used up plan B on the swim, plan C, D, E & F on the bike. Ironman is about dealing with things as they happen - so have lots of plans and stick to them. Any of them) and started scavenging on the course. Cookies were okay. Grapes, not so good. Jolly ranchers were fantastic! Anything and everything I could keep down with calories in them. Nine Gu packs bounced along on my back for the rest of the race, unwanted and ignored.

I saw my brother at the end of the first loop on the run, 9 miles in to the marathon. He'd flown out from Scotland for work and decided to drop by to watch Amanda & I. He said later he didn't quite realise the scope of what I was trying to do, until he got there. It was great to see him and I picked it up and ran some more.

You get a couple of race numbers, one with your first name and one with your surname. I'd decided to wear my first name and it was great. People would call out your name and lie to you at any opportunity. 'Looking good, Gordon' 'Looking strong, Gordon' 'Looking fast, Gordon' all lies, but certainly appreciated! I saw Amanda as she came back from her second loop. We stopped and hugged and then she was off - looking good, looking strong, looking fast. Some time on the second loop the chicken broth appeared at the water stops and I tried it. Chicken soup has never tasted as good! I'm not sure it goes too well with Gatorade, but I drank them along side for the next 13 miles.

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment

Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Somehow, someway I made it back to the transition area and headed out on my last lap. Looking at my watch I realised that if I ran this loop I could finish just under 14 hours. It was possible, but it would require some work. The previous two loops had taken me more than 1 hour and 50 minutes per loop, but I needed to do this one in about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Certainly possible with fresh legs. But now ? So I started running. Really running. Well, shuffling faster than I had been. It was starting to get dark by this point, the sun had set on the lonely Western stretch of my second loop. The field had thinned out as many people had finished, though some hardy souls were still just heading out on their second loop, heading for 16+ hour finishes or DNFs. Each time I passed someone, I pushed a bit faster trying to get to the line under 14. I focused on that idea and picked it up. I remembered an answer Peter Reid had given when asked about the deep, insightful thoughts he has during his Ironman-winning marathon runs. He said all he does is count his steps. So I counted my steps. 1... One foot after the other, 2... focusing on my cadence, 3... tapping out a rhythm with my feet, 4... running through the falling light. I was handed a glow stick to light me up and I wrapped it around my arm. I kept counting my steps. Running now, feeling finally good. One hundred and thirty miles after that swim start, I felt I'd finally warmed up and was flying. I was going to finish! I kept passing people. People who looked lost, walking almost aimlessly. Sitting on the kerb, head in hands. I passed people throwing up. I passed people walking. I kept counting my steps. I passed Jim Opre, that I'd trained with, and traded some lies with him 'Looking strong, Gordon', 'Looking good, Jim'. Finally another competitor caught me and passed me on the windiest stretch of the course. I fell in step behind him and drafted for all I was worth. We went back and forth like that for the final 4 miles.

He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him

Close to the finish now, I saw a big hat that I recognised. Ralph Stanley was up ahead and we congratulated each other - only a mile to go. I was going to finish! I tried to pick it up a bit more and run through to the finish line. Just before the final hill I caught up with Jim Curry, about to start his final loop. He had a long way to go but plenty of time to get there. I ran up onto the bridge and across down to the finish line. One last time past the best support you could hope for, from Nancy & Karen. I could hear the announcer for the people finishing just in front of me, then suddenly I was out of the darkness and quiet and into the noise and light of the finish shoot. I high-fived some spectators and ran for the line. I could vaguely hear 'Gordon McGregor - You are an Ironman!' but somehow I can't remember much at all about finishing. Just a huge sense of relief! Chris Sellers was again at the finish and it was great to see a friendly face. He caught me and guided me through the finish, t-shirt, medal and bake-o-foil blanket on. I looked back over my shoulder and saw 13:53. I'd made it well under the 14 hours. My last loop was 1hr 42, 14 minutes faster than the previous loop. What sort of idiot negative splits the marathon in an Ironman ? Then I was out to see my brother and to congratulate all the other great T3 athletes that finished.

32 of us started. 32 of us finished. A huge achievement on a day when over 10% of those who started dropped out. 3000 people signed up for the race. Of those, 2461 were still registered by race week and issued with numbers. 2068 actually got into the water on the Sunday, to start. 2066 finished the swim. 1860 finished the whole race before the 17 hour cut-off. 13 of the 43 professionals in the race dropped out. I finished and everyone from T3 finished too. What a day!

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	POSITION
1:12:35	6:53:35	5:30:32	13:52:34	1224

So here I am writing this, almost exactly a week later. This time, seven days ago, I'd be enjoying the beautiful blue lake and lights of the bridge in the gathering dark. The water that had been so murky and brown in the morning was a deep, tranquil blue, reflecting the twilight sky. It was a peaceful moment in the middle of such a hectic day. Made it all worthwhile. With the lights strung across the bridge and the desert sky above, I counted my steps and realised how lucky I was to be out there, doing this race, finding out what I can achieve when I just put my mind to it. Ironman isn't so much about the physical achievement, it's about the commitment. Committing to a goal that's bigger than you. Doing the training. Riding in the rain and thunder for six hours to Shiner, Texas. Running the 3M half marathon from the finish to the start line, then back again from start to finish. Freezing on a long, wet, cold ride out Fitzhugh Rd but finishing it strong. Swimming when the deck had ice forming on it. Getting out of bed on those cold, wet days. 3 hour rides on the trainer, watching Indiana Jones to stop us going insane. Lap after lap of Barton Springs. Running the damn dam loop on Town Lake one more time, then once more again. 100 mile rides out in Manor, getting chased by dogs and almost throwing up for messing up the nutrition. Finishing 20 mile runs that I wasn't even sure I could start. Turning up, day after day, month after month. Being consistent and being out there with Amanda. I'd never have finished without her and without all the other T3'ers that got us through. You can read Amanda's view of the race. So what's next ? A half-ironman in St Croix in 2008, maybe Ironman New Zealand in 2009. Lots of options. The first one is the hardest!

You can do anything you set your mind to

- Lose Yourself. Eminem

Vineman Half-ironman 2005 race report

Three little answers

Answers to the three little questions, posed earlier this week. What do you want to do with photography ?

I always struggle with questions like this - perhaps more fundamentally I can start by saying why I do photography at all. I like that it makes me see things that many people overlook. It slows me down, makes time pass at a different speed and engages me with the place I'm in, not what I'm doing next week or what I've done in the past. It gives me the permission to stop, look around and relax. I get a huge thrill when the images appear, as good as or even better than I saw or thought I saw at the time of capture. I get a kick out of the interplay of light and colour or really capturing something that shows the essence of the person I'm photographing or the place I'm in. I want to shoot travel pictures that make you want to go there, or feel like you already have. I want to shoot portraits that make you already know this person you've never met. So I want to communicate with the viewer, how I feel things.

I feel though that I jump around between genres of photography, doing a bit of landscape photography, a bit of travel, cover a variety of sports, some natural light portraits, learn how to use lights, clichéd macros of flowers, some wedding images. Along the way I might produce the occasional stand out image, but no real cohesive set of images or anything that might be considered to have a style or recognisable part of me in them. I'm youngish at 34 and younger still as a photographer, having only picked up a camera in 2001, but I feel at the moment that I'm not focused enough to do anything significant. Maybe that is fine, but I'm starting to feel that I'd like to be able to point to a set or sets of images and see some sort of whole, rather than a series of disconnected greatest hits. My wife says I'm great at starting things but often get bored and move onto something else before finishing. Maybe that's all I need to do. Finish some things. Significant is a very lofty goal, maybe just finished is better.

What are your goals ?

This seems to be the big gaping hole in my answers right now. Not sure. I suppose when I work that out, I'll have more of a direction to go in. What I'm missing is how to get from where I am to even working out a set of goals, never mind working out how to achieve them. I think I'd like to do some cohesive images as part of a project or series, but I'm struggling to ever find a series or concept that I'd like to shoot. I'm technically inclined and I think reasonably accomplished in the craft side of photography but struggling to find my way towards some sort of artistic ideas that are my own, rather than repetition of images I see in other people's work. That mirrors my education and upbringing, that was almost entirely technically focused too. I'm concerned that I'll find I have nothing to say. But I still think I'd like to find out.

Why do you enter contests ?

As a way to share my images. Also, partly for validation but mainly for the increased audience that winning can bring. I've won a few photographic contests and the feedback I get from the viewers is very helpful. I doubt I'd have gotten so many people to look at my images, without winning. So I enter contests for the thrill I get from winning and the recognition it provides. Also, in a less secure way, it provides approval from my peers on what I'm doing - the validation that I can take a good photo. I'm not entirely sure why I care for that validation, but it always seems to be there. Friends & family are always so gushing with praise, but I tend to not value that opinion as highly as I do that of more accomplished photographers - who should at least have a wider and more refined view of what good actually means.

Three little questions

1. What do you want to do with photography? 2. What are your goals? 3. Why do you enter contests ? I was asked these three questions yesterday. I'm mostly stumped for a good answer or one that I'm happy with. I'll try to answer them over the next week.

Embrace the blur

Just submitted my first entry for publication in JPG magazine. The magazine looks pretty good, inspirational photography and plenty of it. The theme is for the submission is 'embrace the blur' and I've entered the picture above. I was shooting high school football and the light was terrible. Eventually I gave up on trying to get crisp stopped action and embraced the blur and started panning the action. I love this particular photo, for the way the quarterback is sharp, with his face, helmet and the ball in focus, with the chaos of the other players flying around him. I always seem to forget to use long exposures and motion in my photography, but every time I do try it, I'm really intrigued by the results. You can vote for my picture here. Go on. You know you want to. Please ? :) It will only take a few seconds. But you will have to sign up for an account for the vote to count. But I'll be really thankful. and it is thanksgiving, here in the US.

After the Storm, Death Valley National Park, California

This is the fifth and last image that I'm going to submit for the Texas Photographic Society Members only show. This particular image was shot right at the end of a workshop, in Death Valley National Park. I'd spent a productive morning shooting the sunrise on the dunes. We'd hiked out through a sand storm, battling the wind and stinging sand to get high into the dunes. Because of the sand and how it treats a camera, we'd left most of our gear behind, picking just one lens and a tripod. There wouldn't be any opportunity to change lenses out there, without getting sand inside the camera! The sunrise that morning was stunning - the sun would catch the blowing sand and make it glow in the most amazing way. Deep shadows and golden orange dunes combined to make an electrifying colour landscape to shoot. The illuminated sand storm was just an amazing piece of luck on top of that. Often these dunes are covered in footprints, but the blowing sand wiped the slate clean. But eventually the sun rose, the light turned flat and cyan and we started the hike back to our cars. This shot was taken just then, as we'd turned back, finished for the morning, weary and ready for breakfast. The wind had died down, everything was calm and the light was 'terrible' for colour landscape photography. But that sort of light can be ideal for black and white - with lots of contrast in texture still available Oh, those clouds! This is composed to balance the creosote bush shapes and the clouds. There's a rhythmic relationship between those elements and also the dark hills playing off the sunlit dunes, creates a lot of dynamic balance. Several people have commented that the lower cloud bank almost feels like a huge wave about to crash down on the sandy beach. It is one of my favourite images from that trip - shot right when I'd packed up and was finished. Got to keep your eyes open...

Washing day, Montalcino, Italy

Another favourite image from last year's trip to Italy and the third that I plan on entering for the TPS MOS. This was shot hand held, walking around the town of Montalcino. Washing hangs out of windows like this all over Tuscany. I'd taken a few shots of just washing lines and buildings, but it never seemed to come together. Lots of interesting sets, just waiting for the actors to come along. This time I got lucky. The woman was looking out of her balcony in the shadow and I quickly ran up the hillside to frame her against the much lighter wall behind, to throw her mostly into silhouette and stop her head merging with the tiles of the roof behind. In many ways this sums up how the hill top towns in Italy felt. Tourists swarm all over them every day, but people live there, watching the world go by, doing their washing and getting on with their lives.

Lost in the crowd, Siena, Italy

This is the second image I plan on submitting to the TPS MOS for 2006. This image was taken in Siena, Italy during a week long holiday to Tuscany. I'd been walking around the city of Siena taking fairly typical tourist shots. We'd been challenged to take some images from the perspective of children. The one thing I realised about this was the difference in eye level - particularly on a narrow crowded street. I crouched down in a doorway and was amazed at the number of legs I saw. Everything suddenly felt very claustrophobic and threatening. I started trying to take pictures that captured some of that emotion. Occasionally I'd see breaks in the sea of adult legs, catch a glimpse of another child in the distance - someone on the same scale as me. This image best expressed those feelings for me - the cut off adults that exist up there in a different world. The young girl appearing through the gap in the legs, her hand attaching her to some unknown adult. The other child's foot breaking into the foreground frame adds to that feeling I think - the only identifiable things in the scene are children or belong to children - yet it is clear that adults are all around. The processing makes this very dark. I've burned down a lot of the legs and the black and white treatment I've used further emphasises the brooding and enclosing feeling, but with the gap leading out to the girl. I find the very off centered crop of the girl's head, right at the very edge of the frame works because she is looking back into the frame. Her downward gaze brings your eyes back into the picture, holding my attention. This, coupled with the fact that she is the brightest part of the scene and the area of highest contrast keeps the attention squarely where I wanted it - with her.

Century Plant, Big Bend, Texas

This is the first image I'm entering in the TPS member's only show for 2006. It is an agave cactus, shot in Big Bend National Park, far out in West Texas. I'd spent the week out there at a workshop and we were shooting towards the Window in the Chisos Mountain Basin. I'd set up on another cactus and waited as the light changed. Plenty of planning and careful composition went into that first picture. I adjusted, fretted and played with a reflector to fill in the darker shadows on the cactus. Tweaked bits of dirt out of the way. It was all set up. The light got right, I shot it. Then what ? Well, I shot it again, just stood there. Moved a bit, tweaked a setting, shot it again. Then I realised - if this was all I'd shoot, that was the best shot I'd take all day. I had to start moving. The light was going - fast. I'd scouted out this one option and I'd shot it - so what next ? Well, frantic action, running around the desert trying to find the next shot. Set it up - quickly! Shoot it, move on - and so on. I eventually (after running around and shooting probably another 20 different compositions) ended up in front of this agave cactus. It was a subtly different colour to all the others - a deeper blue and the falling light made it almost glow. The Chisos mountains by that point were really starting to catch the last rays of the sun, glowing a bright, deep red. Perfect! The sky had been clear, blue and photographically boring all week - but I had it in most of the other compositions. I'd been trying to get a rhythmic relationship between the mountain ranges and the shapes around the tops of the cactus. Playing off each other, trying to create movement in the image. For this one, I got in tighter, cropped the distinctive tops off of the mountain ranges and shot the image above. There's still space around the sides to move through the image and the lighter patch of rocks above the cactus acts like a path through to the background. The warmer colours there tend to move me in that direction too. It turned out to be one of my favourite images from the whole trip - summing up how I see much of far West Texas, but not really being tied to any particular area - the mountains become generic, colour contrast to the cactus. The colours of the cactus cause it to pop and really jump out of the page, helped along by the depth of field I chose. Not a whole lot of post processing to this - bit of local contrast enhancement to help the cactus pop a bit more, some dodging & burning and I removed a few rocks in the scrub grass around the cactus to keep the flow moving around the cactus in the grass.

TexasPhoto Member's Only Show

I plan on entering the member's only show, for the Texas Photographic Society this year. I submitted images last year as well, but wasn't fortunate enough to get through the jury selection process for the show. Fingers crossed for this year. I get to submit 5 images for consideration and I'm going to post each of them to this site, along with some discussion on how they were made and what I like about them.