Nike+ Human Race

I went out and shot a couple of quick photos of the Nike+ Human Race 10k in downtown Austin tonight. It was pretty amazing with all of the people running. Nearly 15,000 people in red shirts (except Lance Armstrong, who kept his trademark yellow going) flowing down the street.

(click for a larger view)

I finally got a Photoshelter account the other day too. Now if I can just get my website updated...The photos on there are so old...yikes.

And a special thanks to Jay Janner and Larry Kolvoord for showing me the ropes at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday. I never would have found where to eat without them. :p

Sunday Debut...

So I wasn't totally up to par with my best shooting abilities last night for the UT game, but I got one shot that I liked. You can see the whole take over on the Austin American Statesman website...

I did, however, nab two front sections on todays (Sunday) paper. A 1A (above the fold) shot of Vince Young and another shot (6 damn columns!) on the Life and Arts section of the band Sounds Under Radio. Not to mention a few shots inside the Sports section and more inside the Life & Arts section as well...and a few in the Metro & State section of a new principal in Bastrop.

Normally I would never post something like this, but it is my first 1A cover for them. Pretty excited.
I've got one portrait this afternoon at 4:00 and a very large event at 6. Should be pretty exciting.

I'll post some photos in a few days....but in the meantime, here is a photo of Dusty at Ramp Ranch just outside of Austin.

Dusty, turndown over the box at RR skatepark in Liberty Hill

PM

Relaxing...

I whipped up a burger on the new grill outside......mmmmmmmmm

(Click for a bigger view)

A wild salmon burger complete with organic baby spinach, organic tomatoes, pepper jack and garlic cheese and topped with mayo and lemon pepper on a toasted bun. Washed it down with one of Amelia's LandShark beers...Which is surprisingly good.

I didn't set out to take a photo of my lunch, but it is good to take some photos of my own for a second. Speaking of, I was trying to catch this little butterfly gathering some nectar on these tiny little flowers but I scared him off. So here is a photo of the flower. The entire group is less than an inch wide...

(Click for a larger view)

I'm going to head out of here around 3 p.m. to shoot some pre-game stuff and to give myself an hour for traffic. I am listening to the radio and they are saying downtown is impossible to get around in right now. ouch. I can't wait...

Holy crap

So I spent this morning taking Amelia to ABIA (before 7a.m.) so she could catch a flight to Flordia, just in time for the hurricane.
I went to Taco Deli but they weren't open. It is seriously the best place to get tacos in Austin. Hands down. I've pitched the idea to do a feature on the place so we'll see if we can get the ball rolling. Sooooo good.

After I took the dogs to the dog park, I came home and collected all the rolls of undeveloped film that I have sitting around. 11 rolls. Not much compared to a lot of people, but I don't remember what are on some of the rolls....

I spent all last night shooting high school football in Leander. It was pretty awesome. I only got to shoot one quarter because of a rain delay and my deadline, but it was fun to be on the field again.
The D300 coupled with the Nikon 300mm AFS 2.8 is a dream. ISO 3200 is a breeze. No noise reduction needed. awesome. I'll post a couple in a few days. You can see them @ www.statesman.com under the sports section. The Leander vs. Pflugerville series. wooooooo

I should have a couple football photos in todays paper, along with a front page feature of a band that I shot the other day in the Driskell Hotel in downtown Austin. what fun.

University of Texas football tonight! I'm very, very stoked on shooting this. I picked up my credentials yesterday along with my parking pass. Sweet!

want to piss a photographer off?

When someone is taking photos please do your best to be a jackass.

• Look directly into the camera in every frame, especially if you aren't the one being photographed.
• Wave your arms in the air in the background while looking into the camera
• Make stupid faces when you see a camera

Not that I would have used this photo anyway, but this guy has single handedly ruined more than 10 photos out of the 50-60 I took last night as part of the Nike Human Race event here in Austin. It looks like he followed me around....I bet he is that guy who you see at the bar that hits on you....Then when you get up the next day and upload your photos to your computer he is in the background of nearly every shot, looking like he is either A) going to kill you B) having the best night of his life pretending he is your friend.

Keep up the good work johnny smith

9th Street Trails...

Jamie called me up halfway early this morning wanting to ride. I couldn't pass that up. Dug out the bmx and headed down to 9th street. I tried to get through the left line (I realized I never really rode trails before?) and wrecked doing a fakie, of all things.
Met a mountain biker that said he was looking for someone to take photos of him for his sponsor. So we'll see how that goes...

Jamie with a table @ 9th Street Trails. (click for a larger view)


Jamie with a fakie wallride @ 9th Street Trails

These photos were taken with a series of 3 nikon SB speedlights. Click on the bottom photo for lighting information.

Can't wait...Shooting high school football tomorrow and the Texas Longhorns on Saturday. yes!
PM

Nikon announces the D90

Nikon did it again.

Just announced this morning, Nikon rolled out with the D90, a 12.3-megapixel DX camera WITH a 24fps video mode built in. Holy shit. All under $1,000. That is incredible. The future of cameras was announced today. I can't wait until February to see what else they have up their sleeve. Rumors abound about a 20+ megapixel FX D3X camera.

Click here for a video about the new camera from Chase Jarvis, a pro photog who got to try the camera out a few months before the release.

I'm going to pass on getting the D90, but the next FF camera they announce I might pounce on it....
In the meantime, my trusty D300 is working just fine. :)

Team San Jose and some other ATT Crit photos...

A few photos of the San Jose team during the 2008 ATT Downtown Crit in Austin, TX....With a few others mixed in.

Click on a photo to see a bigger view/view the photo on flickr

oh no

toothpastefordinner.com

A couple quick photos...

Amelia and I ran into a fire last night just a couple blocks from where we live.

A three alarm fire broke out in these huge duplexes...Almost 60 firemen showed up to battle the blaze. We got there after they had put out the big flames. Blogger is seriously irritating when it comes to photo layout.



I've got to run...Two photo assignments today with a large scale event this evening. Should be fun. Now to go get a 24mm 1.8 ......
PM

An oldie...

Like Lewsi and Clark, baby
Originally uploaded by pbnjamelia

Some men were meant to rule over all of the space around them. This may be one of those men. '07 trip to Colorado on top of some very large mountain in the middle of nowhere.

I'm shooting friday night lights this year and covering the University of Texas football as well. I'm pretty stoked. You should be stoked as well. Get stoked. More to come....

And a link to tie you over...
www.dayswithmyfather.com

OK two more....

Well, two more before bed.

I had the assignment to shoot a gentleman in Williamson County that was at one time the only veterinarian in the county.

One of these days I'll get around to scanning the layout in the paper, but this photo ran six columns in color in 1B (alongside a few others from the same series).

Nikon D2H with a 17-35mm.



Another photo from the archives of photos I have yet to
go through. I guess this was a couple of months ago really. The leaves are just starting to come in....

Here is Hanson Little busting a little move at 9th Street
in Austin.

I wish I could shoot this guy all day.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 80-200mm 2.8 AFS
SB80dx / SB80dx subject left and right on 1/2 bare
Fired via PocketWizards.

Cory Branan in Austin

If you know me then you have probably heard me talk about Cory Branan before. And if you really know me, you know I never pimp bands coming into town. If you haven't heard him before, you should come on out. He is worth every second of your time...Simply one of the best in the business.
He is finally making a return to Austin and is playing a show on September 4 at the Cactus Cafe.

Thursday, September 4^th

Cory Branan w/ Special Guest Graham Weber

Cactus Café – Austin, TX

Doors @ 8pm / Graham @ 8:30pm / Cory to Close

$7 / ALL AGES

Check out some of his music here and here.

One new photo

I've wanted to do something like this for some time now. Check out the flickr page for lighting info.


pm

MacGyver!

We've been talking about doing a little bike trip for a long time and we finally got off our asses and did a small jog to New Braunfels, TX from Austin.
We rode over 50 miles in the Texas heat on what seemed to be uphill most of the time.
I can attest that from Buda to New Braunfels it was a steady uphill ride. I brought along Amelia's point and shoot camera to keep weight down.


After we tackled 1st street coming out of Austin, we soon found ourselves seemingly out in the country.
We came across a large fire hydrant that was shooting water out onto a field. Everyone was afraid to touch the water for fear of it ripping the flesh off your bones. But it happened and gib went for a boggy walk in the field.

Gib in the middle of the field / fire hydrant spray

Some videos of said action. I wish this little camera had sound....

At this point in the trip it became very clear that we had no idea what road we were supposed to take. Gib had been given a map by a fellow cyclist that looked like this and so we set out to find our own way....

We ended up riding on the access road of I-35 for more than a few miles after being totally lost and getting retarded directions from someone who worked at WalMart. It was amazing.

So here we were, riding along side cars that were going 60mph with no shoulder. We finally found another backroad and we took it.

Mitch on the road to somewhere

It looked promising. It looked amazing. It had a HUGE shoulder, cars were going 45mph, it wasn't uphill....but it took us in the wrong direction.

Gib on the road to nowhere

So we turned around again and got back on I35.


ride heat ride heat ride heat heat heat heat and my legs start cramping. awesome.

We find the holy grail of roads, Post Road, and make our way to San Marcos. I was lagging behind and stopped to take a pee while everyone else made their way up the long and winding road. I caught up with everyone about 5 minutes later at a dump station.

Mitch yelling at everyone to stop tipping the john while he was in there.

Gib poking Mitch with a stick through a small hole after being yelled at.

We got to San Marcos just in time to go swimming at Texas State.

I don't know if we would have made it if we hadn't stopped here. It was so hot I thought I was going to die. The water was cold, deep and there was a bridge me and Mitch jumped off of.

Mitch - "Arms go splash"

We got on the road again and got lost again. We eventually found the road we needed and it was uphill. The entire time. It was stupid how uphill it was. The sun was beating down so hard and the small amount of clouds didn't even seem to stop it. We found refuge under a large tree near some factory in the middle-a-nowhere to take a break under. I think Rick was having a heat stroke and he wasn't feeling very good. So we sat in the shade for a bit and watched cars and tractors go by.

The tree of life.

Gib eating some trail mix as tractors honk at us.

I managed to stick my hand right on top of a cactus while taking this picture. I got the needles out but the real pain started about 5 minutes later. It hurt for almost an hour.

After our little break, we got back on the road again. We weren't but a few miles away from where we were going to stay the night and things looked great.

Rick behind me.

We finally made it to our hotel and it was pretty laid back. We went to eat and ended up at Olive Garden of all places. On our way out, we caught a storm rolling in.

doesn't look that nasty on this video...of course

So once we started to see the storm roll in we did what anyone would do. We got some beer and headed to the pool/hot tub. After sitting around for a good hour we went back to the overpriced room to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZs.

I don't think that is allowed.

After Rick and Gib went to sleep, Mitch gave them a good 'ol steamroller. Nothing like waking up to some dude in his underwear rolling on top of you.

I woke up at my usual time before 8am and headed out to get some hotel breakfast. I found what could possibly be the best thing to happen to this state....

Only in Texas.

After our morning meal we went and tubed the Comal River with hundreds of other people. I'm tired of typing.

My Olympic Debut...

USA Softball. More to come

So much work, so little time

And now ladies and gentlemen, I am off to shoot in Lake Travis after getting up and driving to Round Rock at 7 a.m. this morning. Ah, what a great feeling!

And one from this morning

!

Finally....

Me and Hank in the biggest white space on the planet.

I finally grabbed a program that will put together still photos into a slideshow.



And lastly for now a photo of the recent UIL State Golf Tournament in Austin.

Chris Walker tosses his putter in the air after missing a putt on the ninth green during the Golf State Championships in Austin on Friday. The Woodlands golf team placed second overall in the tournament.

More to come

A couple more things....

Amelia is buying a car as I type this, so no Round Rock Express baseball game tonight. Instead I'm going to update with some photos that never made it to print.

Speaking of baseball, I shot a number of games for Southwestern University in Georgetown...


This one never was printed (for obvious reasons), but it was on the Mutiny Bikes & Coalition BMX sites a while ago. Hanson Little doing a nice one over the hip into the deep end on the last night of the Skatepark of Austin.

Hanson Little

When I was working at the newspaper in Georgetown, I had the double duty of being the chief photographer and the photo editor. All for a pay decrease and a 35 minute commute from the job I left to take the position. Not to mention the normal 60-70 hour workweek that included the weekends. ALL OF THEM.

One day I was sitting at my desk doing something and I heard over the scanner that a naked man with a weapon had barracaded himself inside the courthouse across the street from the office...
I grabbed my cameras and set out the door running. I climbed up to the third story to shoot from the story from above (they were on a balcony where you couldn't see up).
The man had stripped off all his clothes, pulled out a sword that was hidden in his cane and said he was going to kill some people, according to some witnesses that I talked to. That didn't happen. Pretty crazy still....

Surrounded by police and covered with his own shirt on the balcony of one of the oldest
courthouses in Central Texas....

This is out from the AP. Thanks to bmxboard I found this little funny story from the AP...


ST. PAUL (AP) - An orange trail of Cheetos led St. Paul police to three teenagers suspected of burglarizing a vending machine.

Officers were called to the Arlington Recreation Center on July 29, where they found a vending machine's glass had been broken with a chair. Most of the candy and chips were missing, according to a criminal complaint.

The officers followed a trail of snack debris from the rec center, around the side of the building and to a nearby home. Inside, they found numerous vending-sized bags of Cheetos and other snacks.

Police arrested three males aged 17, 18 and 19 who soon arrived at the home by car. The two adults are charged with third-degree burglary; the 17-year-old is charged with criminal damage to property.

All three denied being involved, the complaint says.

amazing.
More to come....

outtakes

The car photos are coming...thanks for the emails!

I'm pretty excited because I put a bid in for a photo job and got it. I overpriced myself like a mother and it worked. Great!

Shot some football for the Statesman this morning.

Here is one of many that I didn't bother sending in. I'll put more up after they have been published....

And now we are off to the Round Rock Express baseball game in Round Rock! Should be a blast, as usual. $1 hotdogs / soda tonight. Cheap date? ha! I'll try to sneak in the 300mm again....heh. Worked last time anyway....

Jeff with a 360 table at Ramp Ranch outside of Austin (in Liberty Hill) this past summer