Christmas Card 2017

Sylvia was going to the ATT Center to watch the Spurs beat the Boston Celtics so I dropped her off at The Quarry to meet our friend. 

I had brought my new camera and tripod and warm clothes, intent on doing some recon for our annual Christmas Card Photo. 

Had a few locations in mind, but also slipped into the familiar "bending like a reed in the wind" mindset--ending up in our favorite "secret" parking lot on the Riverwalk behind The Pearl. 

Started walking while shooting with my phone--taking notes, really--and it was fun because we had just gotten new Samsung Galaxy Note 8s which kick ALL kinds of ass. 

When I came onto this scene I set up the "real" stuff, and had this shot in a couple of minutes. 

Using it's built-in Wifi I sent it from the Sony A6000 to the Note 8 and took a good look at it on the big screen. Then I sent it to Sylvia, because I was heading home and she wasn't going to have to follow me around town for a couple of nights, shivering and bored.  

 

I expected trouble, because the search for our card picture is a tradition--something we always do together. 

But Sylvia saw it and loved it and you can't argue with success. 

The Alpha 6000 is by far the finest night/tripod camera I've ever owned. 

It's exactly what I designed in my head many many years ago. 

Love using it, and great results. 

Now to find crazy deals on some more lenses, or the deluxe lens adapter so I can use my 3 older A-mounts. They're at the bottom of the range price and quality-wise, but the fact remains that I really like the results for a lot of what I do. 

As for the Note 8, I have some things to say about it's cameras in a future post. 

New Camera, New Outlook

Been awhile since I last posted.
Pretty sure nobody comes here anymore but I should keep on doing this, and more often.

My 55th birthday happened 2 weeks ago, and I finally got a new main camera.
The Sony Alpha 300 (then a used 200 when I dropped it) was made in like 2007, and I grew to loathe using it (them). The 300's sensor-shift image stabilization system was thrown way to one corner and got stuck there, so framing was a guessing game and a quarter of the image was soft.
Big, heavy, with a dim and small viewfinder. I had expected the 300's "Live View" feature to mimic my original F717, in that you could frame shots on the LCD instead of the viewfinder--even at night. But came to find out that it didn't "gain up" the screen to mirror your settings, so it was as useless at night as the viewfinder.
Also, only 10.4 megapickles.
Usable ISO was around 1600.
I liked the "look" of my bigger zoom and 50mm prime even though they are the cheapest in Sony's line, but over the years I decided that big heavy DSLRs weren't for me.
I've been looking at the Sony A6000 since it came out in 2014. I liked how it stayed in the line even after newer versions with higher #s in the name came out, and the price dropped a bit.
I liked how it was very small and light.
I liked that it didn't have image stabilization in the body, but many lenses including the "kit" lens had optical stabilization.
So we got me one from B&H Photo, ordered through the link at The Online Photographer blog so he would get a kickback to help pay for his dental work.

 

I went with the graphite finish because I'm tired of black, silver is too conspicuous, and white is just a fashion statement. I think it looks badass, and it does it's job SO well. 

24 mp, electronic OLED viewfinder, flip-up/down LCD screen that gains-up (which rules on a tripod at night!) and even 4K video at 60fps. 

Instead of buying more lenses for it, I'm leaning towards getting an adapter so I can use a couple of my old lenses on rare occasions. Save about $1000 that way. 

I'm glad it has a normal hotshoe for flash and triggers, as the weird Sony/Minolta shoe was a pain in the ass. 

I really love this camera, and making pictures is fun again. 

Went to The Pearl complex last weekend, where I found out how much easier this camera is to use at night. 

Had very little practice under my belt by then, but found that all the controls are very logically placed and intuitive so it was effortless right off the bat. 

 

Today I shot this leopard from hanging out on the fountain of a friend's pool. 

 

To use the best codec for 4K video requires an SDXC card of 64gb or more. 

I had written that off at first because of the cost, but then found a SanDisk of the correct specs for $30, reduced from $100. Had a giftcard, so it all fell into place. 

My first camera--Sony F717--came with a 32mb card. Megabytes! 

I soon found that every year the card capacities would double, while staying at the same price of around $35. In the F717 and later F828 I doubled every year until making it to 1gb. 

For the Alpha DSLRs I had a pair of 4gb CF cards and never needed more. 

This one uses SD, and also Sony Memory Stick Duo, so I already have some spares for stills. 

Smaller and lighter camera bags! Very nice.  

 

Christmas Card 2016

For the 10th anniversary of sending out my own prints as Christmas cards, 11th card in fact, I decided to go back to the beginning and take another photo of the Alamo and HEB tree. Wanted a different viewpoint, so did some pointless research on places I might gain a higher perspective and eventually decided in October to just go downtown and see what I could find.
Across the street there's a row of three-story buildings that house all sorts of tenants, from touristy stuff on the ground floor to offices etc higher up.
The one I had in mind the whole time seemed like the best place to start, so we found a sort of general lobby entrance and barged right in.
Found stairs and started climbing, acting like we knew what we were doing.

On the top floor we came out of the stairwell to find ourselves in a long hallway with various businesses, but the one directly in front of us was the intended target from an "angles" perspective--and it turned out to be a high dollar steakhouse.
The place was seemingly deserted to I kept "boldly going" to the windows facing the Alamo and took a shot with my phone. Exactly what I had been picturing in my head for the past year. Success!!
Then we heard footsteps, and the bartender walked in and started his spiel: "Do you have reservations, or just here for drinks?" etc etc, and I told him the truth of why we were there and asked if he thought it would be okay if we came in for drinks some evening around sunset and maybe took a few pictures out their middle window. Surprisingly, he copped an attitude along the lines of having to ask the owners and suggesting that buying dinner would be the likely price of admission. Wow.
I mean, 55 cards, 55 prints, and 55 stamps is already pretty steep every year, and this ass thinks we're going to drop an extra $200 for the "privilege" of getting a decent photo?

We make the proper responses and grab a card, then head out to the hallway, where it got even weirder.
A waiter came up to us and started acting like Sylvia was Selma Hayek or someone of equal famousness, and we both got completely creeped out. You really should make sure the Ecstasy wears off before starting your shift, hombre.

So, we were still going to stick to the plan and make the shoot happen for the price of a few margaritas and beers with hopefully a less douchey bartender, after Thanksgiving when the Christmas tree in front of the Alamo is lit. On like a Tuesday evening so crowds are small, right after sunset so the sky is a nice rich blue when doing a long exposure.

Then while doing some early holiday shopping at The RIM, we remembered that we'd been meaning to check out a new multi-use commercial development across IH10 called Eilan, consisting of a swanky hotel, apartments, professional commercial spaces, high-end retail along the lines of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (seeing a theme here).
They already had their decorations up, and I took some promising test shots with my phone.
2 nights later we were in the area shopping again and I had my "real" camera and tripod along, so we went back to Eilan.

 

So yeah, we both knew instantly that this was the shot we wanted. The Alamo from up high can wait. 

Quick, painless, pretty, and the cards went out a bit earlier than usual. 

And within days of posting it to Facebook, several friends posted photos of themselves in the exact same spot.......coincidentally. 

It's our fifth card photo with water in the central foreground. 

Coincidentally.

Galveston Island

The family took a long weekend in a rented house just off the beach.
I had never been to Galveston, and enjoyed it much.
Mostly South Texas-based folks, tho' one couple are currently stationed in Minot, North Dakota.

Our niece graduated from high school--the ceremony of which exposed us all to drenching rain and possible death by lightning. Favorite graduate's name heard: Destiny Dream Weaver.

On the second night we had our usual Monopoly game.
Last summer, despite having buildings on Boardwalk and Park Place early, nobody landed on them for hours so I eventually sold out of the game for $20 cash American.
This time I played better and had some luck, and actually won the game.

When the sun finally came out I made a 5 minute trip to the beach with my Sony F828, and shot around 10 variations of the scene below, in infrared of course:

Jumped back in the air-conditioned truck and went back to the house, knowing I had something special.
I love it when that happens, especially the part about not getting greedy and ending up with a sunburn because I kept shooting when there was probably no point.

Pretty sure I missed a good color long exposure the night before (featuring stormy clouds) because dinner ran a bit long, so by the time I went to the beach it was too dark.


On the last full day a few of us went to the restored part of downtown that caters to upscale visitors.
Shot this one with my phone:

I'm weird, shooting with a 13 year old camera--in infrared no less--OR just using my Samsung S5.
The plan is to change this up in the near future and get something approaching a current mirrorless so I'm excited to shoot inconvenient color and night photos again.

Last Day--Back To Breckenridge

A few of us went back to town for more shopping--mainly grabbing stuff we should have bought two days earlier--and to scout the menu at the restaurant we were going to that night. (It was fancy and great).

I brought the Sony F828 with me this time, as it was a clear sunny day that would be perfect for infrared-only black and white photography.

A terrific time was had by all. 

Snowmobiles Over The Continental Divide

Finally, the big day!!
We had made a reservation with Good Times Adventures for a two hour tour, and luckily this day featured the very best weather of our entire vacation.
Cold as hell (10 below zero?) but sunny and clear with lots of fresh snow to make everything pretty.

I decided that their loaner boots were better than mine, but all the rest of my gear was fine. Turned out that the heated footwells on our machines made it a moot point.

Now for some contrast:

 This is what the pair of us rode in March 2013 on our Lake Tahoe trip. Terrific fun, but...

 For 2016 we each had our own one of these.
Won't bore you with the specs, but wow! And they were brand new.
Also, because this was Colorado and not California, the throttle didn't have a difficult to operate weasel-lawyer "safety" device that sucked all the fun out of it and sapped your concentration. California sucks, by the way.


One early favorite part of this tour was that after a familiarization cruise through the woods, we got to a big open field with what can only be described as an oval track. Some of the others didn't quite get it, but me and Lisa sure did. I wound that sucker up and flew, passing on the inside and outside a few times and grinning ear to eel. Pretty sure that had the track been bigger I could have hit 60mph or more.
What a rush!
Time for a quick selfie.

Then it was time to get into the meat of the tour--onward and upward to the Continental Divide!

Single file up, sometimes on impossibly narrow trails through the pines, and God was it beautiful!
The sections on roads or across fields were also fun, because you could gawk without getting croaked.
(BTW, our guide was Ivan from Argentina, and he knows almost as much about Ginobili as we do, being their national hero and all).



Up, up, up we went, until the trail spit us out into another world, at around 12,500 feet above sea level .
This is Mt. Guyot, and the slope to the left drains springtime snowmelt waters to the west, while a few meters to the right etc etc. (When I peed behind a tree, I made sure to be on OUR side. California got enough of my whiz on the Tahoe trip).

To me, the divide was more moving than some invisible thing like a border or the equator. After climbing a mountain range, it's very stirring to see and know that everything really does change. Much like the Mississippi River which I've crossed MANY times, or reaching another continent separated by an ocean.
It was a big event in my life--thinking about how it must have felt to all the pioneers hundreds of years ago.


We got to spend a decent amount of time up there--enough for my aforementioned whiz, where I sank into the snow up to my junk and had a vision of needing help to get out--and for pictures and videos.

Remembering photo tips from many years ago, I was glad I had set my phone's camera to +1.5 EV overexposure, because this is almost exactly how I remember it looked up there.


Our trip down was every bit as much fun as the way up.



The scenery was beautiful and my heart was soaring.
One of the very best days of my entire life.

Breckenridge Colorado

We finally made it into Breck on the 2nd full day there. Mostly shopping and feasting our eyes on what a lovely little town it is. I shot a bunch of selfies alone and in groups using my selfie stick, and while they are all incredible works of art, that's not what I planned on posting here.

During a short period of blue skies, while waiting for my girls to exit a T-shirt shop, I used my phone to grab this view between two buildings:

Again, we waited for the gondolas to stop charging $$$ and took a ride up the mountain.
Right into hell.
Something like 9000 kids were up there skiing and 'boarding, and it was freaking cold.
Apparently I chose an inferior quad of socks, because before long my toes lost all feeling.
The weather was crappier than at any other time during the whole trip, so no photos were taken.
We ended up in a bar eating and drinking, then headed back down.

Next up: It gets much better.

Day 2: Vail

A couple of people wanted to ski in Vail, and the rest of us were more than happy to hang out at the bottom of the mountain drinking and eating on the patio at Garfunkel's.

After many hours I got bored (the only sober one) and took Sylvia on a walk down a trail that looked promising. Brought the Sony F828, for the first real photo expedition since arriving in Colorado.
A few laced gummi bears also marked the first time I've tried to do any "serious" photography with a buzz on.

The bridge was actually well-traveled by every skier who came down the trails and wanted to take the gondola back up.
The fenced field photo is a personal favorite, but won't rate printing because of all the footprints in the snow.
Imagine it with a clean pristine coating of smooth new snow.

At 3:30pm they stop charging too much $$ for the gondola, so we finally went up to the top.
Unlike down in town, it was biting freaking cold with a windchill factor of holy crap.
I was able to tolerate photography for less than 10 minutes, then went inside the lodge to warm up before riding back down.
Skiers must be hardcore to put up with open chair lifts at altitude.


After a few hours dicking around in bars, shops, etc, it was time to cross the mountains on an hour+ drive back to home base in Breckenridge.
As the only sober member of our party--with bonus points for years of experience driving in upstate NY during winter--I was soon tapped to take over.
Within minutes it started to snow heavily with serious winds. Conditions went from "dark" to "OMG 30mph is way too fast". Got some brownie points for keeping my cool in a bad situation, and also for putting up with the panic of seriously baked passengers with grace. Our rented 2016 Lincoln Navigator with 4-wheel drive was the right tool for the job, and I fell in love with it.
Used most of our "Squirty-Juice", AKA windshield washer fluid.
The convenient stores in CO have that stuff right out front on pallets, because it's as critical as gasoline for getting around.

Went shopping for groceries, back to the rental house, and got myself rather well fucked up.

Views Of Colorado

Vacation fun in the Rocky Mountains!
Flew direct SA to Denver, with only one bit of drama after we landed involving a co-conspirator.
It was snowing at sunrise when we went to get our rental SUVs (4-wheel drive was mandatory to get to our rental house) and continued off and on for the rest of the day. After a hearty breakfast, we went shopping for legal intoxicants and food.
Over some mountains to Breckenridge took an hour+, then we settled-in to a beautiful 3-story house with all the amenities.

This is a look at the home next door from the kitchen table, which I claimed as my personal "office".
It gives you an idea of how we were living.

The view from our rear deck. The town of Breckenridge is at the bottom less than a mile to the left.

The snow came up to our bedroom windows on the sunken bottom floor.

This was only my second time in Colorado--the first being in 1987 when my late brother Ken and I went to fly large and dangerous "model" rockets on a high plateau near Hartsell. We became a bit famous on that trip in large part because the hobby was still small and new and we brought high standards of theory, design, construction and finishing to our rockets. It didn't hurt that Ken was a biker and I was a rocker, and we looked it and partied as hard as expected.  
This time the altitude didn't affect me much, possibly because I stay better hydrated these days and also because I spent the first day going up and down stairs as often as possible to speed acclimation.

More to come.

Christmas 2015

It has been a few years since I featured the Riverwalk on our card photo, so it felt right to go back there for something new.
Last year, clued in by some nice shots from a member of my camera club, I got some pics that almost made the cut. This is a fairly new section of the San Antonio Riverwalk behind the old and re-purposed Pearl Beer brewery.
On a "scouting mission" I pulled out the camera and tripod anyway, and shot some tests in the area.
One view was better than last year's stuff so we went back 4 days later.
There was a construction crane in the frame, and on our return it was pivoted into a horrible position--so we were out of luck on what I originally wanted.

Trying to stay positive we walked around a bit, hoping that inspiration or good luck would strike.
On our way back to the car, I re-saw a scene that I liked from the previous visit, but had immediately written off as impossible. But it looked SO good, I let my heart overrule my brain.

You can only get this photo from a stairway landing that doesn't have enough room for my tripod.
And there is foliage encroaching from the top and left sides.
Plus a bright light on the right/top just out of frame.
Move the camera more than 2" in any direction, and it all falls apart.
A real prick of a shot, especially at the long exposure times needed.
Anyone walking across the attached steel footbridge will vibrate the crap out of it, leading to a blurry mess.
I had my tripod's legs folded down straight, and then held it in the corner of the guardrail.

We knew we had it as soon as I asked Sylvia to climb back up the stairs and just look at the scene from the landing. After 3 exposures we went to Mama Margie's for dinner.

Watching my new ted2 DVD. Hilarious!
Shot with my phone using the new selfie stick.
Yes, it sounds crazy for a "serious" photographer to even consider such a thing, but I foresee many situations where it'll be exactly what I need. Sometimes "toys" are just what you need, both for fun and a re-thinking of the way things can be done.


My wish for 2016's Christmas card photo is that I get it in the next couple of weeks, to take some of the pressure off.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Thanks for visiting.  

10 Years Of Christmas Card Photos

2006, the first one. Might as well start with The Alamo, our most famous landmark. Luckily the tree had white lights so it's brightness in relation to the Alamo is as good as it can get. This year's Spurs-themed tree is very dark.

2007, Tower Of The Americas, San Antonio's other iconic landmark. We made a point to come downtown closer to sunset, for more color in the sky.

 2008 San Fernando Cathedral.
This was the only year this photo was possible because sick trees that would have been in the way were removed and not yet replaced. The fountains had just been installed, too.
Probably the best remembered picture, but it set the bar impossibly high. Sold and gifted a lot of 8x10" prints of this.

2009 The Riverwalk.
Right in the heart of downtown. To get our card photo we go all over town looking at decorations in the weeks after Thanksgiving, then return to the best spots at the optimum time to refine the composition and exposure. I put a lot of work into this project, so it's gratifying to hear that most people save the prints every year and look forward to the next one.

2010 Sneaky Santa.
One of our favorite ornaments, posed on the little silver tree in our front window.
I was looking for a change from "downtown SA at night" and having to drag a heavy camera and tripod all over the place. Super easy, and fun.

 2011 The Riverwalk again.
This was the first year the city used LED lights, to mixed reception. Under the impression that they could leave them up all year, the crews went all-out wrapping the trees almost completely. Unfortunately, the color of these first-generation bulbs leaned pretty far to the blue end of the spectrum. Then squirrels ate the wires when the weather warmed up, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lights.

2012 St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church.
Taken a couple of years earlier after Christmas Eve Mass.
I was working 60 hours a week that year, and didn't have time to search out something. Also wanted to go in a religious direction. I also took one where the tree is out of focus but Jesus is sharp, then let Sylvia choose.

2013 Little Church At La Villita.
This pic was maybe 5 years old, and is the only daytime shot.
We weren't finding anything else, then quickly ran out of time.
While printing them, the machine got stuck and wouldn't stop. By the time staff got it shut down there were over 100 extra prints that I still have. This was the year my brother Ken died right before Christmas, and I drew some comfort from this picture.

2014 Blanco County Courthouse, Johnson City Texas.
I had been wanting a shot like this for years, to get a small-town view.
Sylvia left work early so we could make the hour+ drive north in time to catch sunset.


2015....to be continued

Christmas Prep

El Potuso said earlier this week that going forward with "Climate Change" legislation--worldwide--is the best way to send a big FU to terrorists. WTF??? Like they give a shit.
I'm pretty sure he's wrong because he's the one who said it. Can we somehow vote for a polygraph on the executive branch?

In my Texas opinion, the best way to proceed is to have the very best Christmas possible--to celebrate BOTH sides of this blessed and wonderful Holiday right in the face of both those who want to exterminate us, and those in our own country who have misguided values and haven't figured out that the situation is serious.

Never seen "Old Blue" from this high of an angle.
Still looks OK for a 17 year old truck, although she let me down a few weeks ago after 2 good years so trust needs to be earned once more.

After last year's miraculous record of zero blown strings of lights, THIS year has seen every single Christmas tree, outside string of lights, and miscellaneous decoration come up with some level of failure.
Luckily, I've managed to remember where we got the lights however many years ago and they've still had the same brand/model in stock and sometimes on sale, but many many extra trips to the stores = slow progress at confounding the terrorists.

 Our new addition this year is "Bliss Lights" from QVC which are serious lasers that throw a bajillion dots of light all over your house or into your trees or on the ceiling, etc.
I could have just attached them to the included stakes and put them in our yard, but with all of the recent news stories about fuckheads stealing people's decorations I have zero interest in offering up some free "scores" for crackheads and douchebags.
These bad boys (1 red and 1 green) are securely strapped 20 feet up a tree, and tugging on the extension cord to try and steal them will only make you look like a monkey working his personal vine.
After the installation I learned enough to come up with a greatly refined plan for next Christmas that'll save me an hour of extension ladder time and contain all them wires in a single box.

Advancing Christmas lights = FU, terrorists.

 
THIS is what I'm talking about.
A steel Santa Claus we got on a deep discount last year @ Pier One, or the Nativity scene my mother bought in the late 1960s that I grew up loving. (Music box = Silent Night)

It's hard to decide which means more to me, and I'm glad I don't have to.

The last photo was done with my phone, tealights behind the nativity and inside Santa's belly, and an LED flashlight.  

Deep Eddy Distillery

We recently took a guided tour of the Deep Eddy Vodka distillery in Dripping Springs Texas. (East of Austin on 290)

It was the first cold day of the season. I was under-dressed. 

 This is their "column distiller", which accounts for the incredibly high purity of their vodka. With the old-fashioned kettle method, you have to keep repeating the process, and at a certain point it just takes too much time. My go-to vodka is distilled 4 times. Deep Eddy claims 10x, but because this process is so much more efficient the actual result is probably at least double that. Try their unflavored version against any other vodka--straight--and you'll understand.

                                              

These big tanks are where the all natural flavors meet the alcohol.
The product doesn't spend much time there, because this tiny plant is going to top 800,000 cases this year.

 Paper labels are faster, easier, cheaper, prettier, and classic.
I hated screen printing bottles back when Ken and I owned our print shop.

 So...I only got around 3 hours of sleep the night before because it was an early appointment and a long drive. Didn't eat anything either.
This was my breakfast--all 5 flavors of Deep Eddy.
De-fucking-licious!

Also got to pick one of their signature cocktails, served in a mason jar type pint glass, which we got to keep. Good thing we brought snacks, then went right to a decent pizza place in town. 

                                     

 Couldn't manage one of the slushies.

                                     

LOTS of booze.
Sylvia prefers the iced tea flavor.
I like the lemon.
The Ruby Red is great, too.
Don't like cranberry, but their take on it surprised me.
The tour was very educational.
It's a company that has great values and it's going to be a big player before you know it.
All Natural flavors and super-pure alcohol equals the finest vodkas I've ever tried, and at a price that can't be beat.
Made In Texas, Y'all.

A Lovely Setting

My band played a wedding last night in this event center on the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.
After setting up our gear I turned around and realized that maybe...just maybe...I should have brought a real camera.
On the other hand, then I would likely have shot it horizontally and sacrificed the reflection on the floor.

When viewed on Facebook--on a smartphone--it's quite effective since it fills the screen.
On a laptop or desktop--not so much.

Another Unfocused Post

This is a water-level shot of the Guadalupe River, where the whole family spent a relaxing extended weekend in August.
The house we rented was huge, and perfect.
I caught the first fish--a big Bluegill.

We ate well, drank a lot, fished and swam, played pool and Monopoly, and chilled.
There's a good chance we go back to the same place next year.

I rigged up my HD video camera on the end of a pole, with lights.
Was after underwated footage, but it just wasn't clear enough to see anything.
While taking the above photo, unbeknownst to me one of my better vaping devices rolled into the river.
After a few of us searched all over, I deduced what must have happened and found it. Still haven't gotten it to work.

Just found this shot from a few months ago.

I have been animated! 
The crew we have working on Televator's next video gave us a peek at an early step in their production process. Confidentially, out of everyone in the band, mine looks the most like me.
Don't know what the storyline is like, or really anything at all about the video.
It'll be for our song "Milk Run", which started with a bass riff I wrote while watching the Houston Rockets beat up on our Spurs a few years ago. For a VERY short time we had a TV in our practice space, but it wasn't conducive to best practices except for that one time.