Did I ever tell you how I got started doing photography? (You are you, in this case, and I ask all of you this because I know the collective answer is no.)

The story goes, in high school I shot video (poorly) in band all the time. In 1996 or 97 my Aunt Nancy gave me an older SLR for some reason. I think she had let me borrow her new digital camera (we’re talking one of the first compact digicams) I really enjoyed taking tons of crappy 640×480 photos with it. So I think she figured I would have an interest in the film camera. I did not.

I went to college for music, and after a year I realized I couldn’t do it for a living. Burnout. So I switched to graphic design because I had been working with web sites since 1996. Turns out I was kind of a lousy designer… at least by good designer standards. But I remember always scouring the web for images for use in projects and never being able to find anything free that was any good. I didn’t know where else to look.

My mom had Sony Mavica that recorded straight to floppy disk at the time. Huge display, but the photos were 1.3 megapixels. I started shooting all the time. These photos were really lame and boring, but it was a start. I probably shot more in those days than I ever have.

One of the things that intrigued me was when I used the macro setting to shoot things up close, I would get this really shallow depth of field. That looked “professional” to my untrained eye. I had no idea how it worked.

Then, probably Fall of 2001 or so, I took a beginning photography class as part of the graphic design major. Black and White Darkroom, SLR camera required. I pulled out Aunt Nancy’s camera and shot with it until it fell apart a year later. Changed majors, and I haven’t looked back since.

circa 1999
Back row (l to r): Daniel Bagwell, Ryan Morris, Colby Stevens, Casey Steenport, Bryan Stephenson, Odis Welch
Front row: Walker Pickering, Justin Walters

Thanksgiving day in Greenville, SC on the back porch.

After Hurricane Rita

It was pretty wild to see these massive transmission line towers crumpled up like coke cans across the water. This was by far the worst one, but most of them were just bent over about halfway up.

Sorry about the general crappiness of the photos here lately. As you can probably tell, I wasn’t really trying to make art when I went home last. I’m glad I took the cameras, but I won’t be exhibiting these photos anywhere.

After Hurricane Rita

I had no idea this Jack in the Box sign was so massive. Of course, it was clear that the pole was big enough to crush a Jeep, but the sign itself was unreal. I actually saw a photo of this image online before I headed to Southeast Texas, and I intended on taking this shot from that moment.

After Hurricane Rita

Another image of Orange post-Rita. This one was taken in my mother’s bedroom. The eerie thing was that their house was completely the same inside, with the mere exception of no air conditioning and a lack of all basic utilities. You could walk throughout the house and only by passing a window would you be reminded of the destruction that remained outside.

The print of this image shows more detail in the shadow areas than my monitor allows, but you might experience different results. The information is certainly in the negative.

After Hurricane Rita

I shot a good number of images with my Digital Rebel, but really only prefer those shot on film for display here and on my “professional” site.

This is my mom’s backyard after my brother and I did some major cleaning. I’ll give the credit to Ryan, though… he worked for 2 days before I even began helping on the third and final (for me) day. I used a chainsaw for the first time and we chopped up 2 of the roughly 7 or so giant trees in the yard and on the house. The most impressive thing (to me) about this shot is that you can actually see grass. That’s a lot of raking, friends.

In other news, my last day as a photographer for the Texas House of Representatives was Friday, September 30. So I’m looking for work, preferably as a photographer (or related) or even as a web designer. It’s not my first choice, but I have experience and need a paycheck. And it’s a heck of a lot better than working at Old Navy. I hope to have photos from my work at the House online before long, but it’ll take some time. I believe I’ll be able to post them through an open-records request. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to reproduce or sell them. Sorry for the long text.

Shot while waiting for the ferry to go to Galveston Island. I’m sure this kind of snapshot is the stuff people really want to see, so enjoy.

I shot this during summer 2004 with some Fuji brand color negative film (can’t remember which kind) and then had it cross processed. You’ll usually get better results when you shoot slides and process them as negatives, but this was an experiment. Most of the images were too dark, but a few came out fine.

And in case you didn’t notice, I’m going to be posting larger images from this point on. I’ve done it a few times before, but most of the time I stuck with a maximum width of 500 pixels. I’ve bumped that up to 700 pixels, so hopefully you’ll agree that it’s a good move.

Part of the “If I ever got into shooting stock photography” series.

Very rarely do those snapshots taken from inside the car work (and I’m not saying this one necessarily does), but I like how this one looks. I almost want to post a significantly larger version so the “Beach Exit 828″ sign was clearer.

Normally I wouldn’t like this image because of the huge black clump that has formed in the center. But for some reason it works (for me).

This wasn’t the original shot I stopped the car for. I was driving to Orange from Austin and I saw this on the side of Hwy 71. It was actually the cactus that caught my eye, and I set up the shot with my Pentacon Six TL. I had b&w film in that camera, and I metered the shot with my Canon Elan 7E, which had slide film in it. Of course, I didn’t realize this when I snapped this shot, and then the roll was cross processed. And here’s the result.

This podium used to be a platform on metal legs. It was much simpler and didn’t seem nearly as sturdy. I believe it’s the same structure underneath, but now has space to store marching band equipment (though I doubt they leave anything in there during the off season).

I spent four years marching in this stadium. Sure seemed a lot more glorious at the time. It’s kind of like how everything shrinks when you return to the town you were born.

I attempted to photograph some birds flying around me and the shutter just happened to trip right as I was facing the sun. Sometimes autofocus ain’t that great.

Shot while walking on a bridge over the Chicago River.

Ruthann and Stacy beneath the giant sculpture in Millenium Park called Cloud Gate. The view of the outside is much cooler, but it’s easy to find pictures of that online.

I saw the light.

A couple waiting for the train down the street from the Aquarium.