I haven't quite put my finger on why yet, but I seem to have a fetish with car faces... especially the vintage type. There's just something that draws me to them. I'm sure it probably has something to do with some suppressed, bizarre childhood experience or something. Whatever that experience is, I'm certain it's also contributing to my narcissistic habit of stepping on the gas whenever someone is going faster than me on the highway... Hey, you can't pass me! Nevertheless, these kind of cars make great art pieces. I can see these images in a retro contemporary office, or in a stylin' urban loft on an exposed brick wall. Now, if Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware would just call, I'd be happy to make them a deal. [grin]

BTW, for the geekers out there, I used NIK Software's new Silver Efex Pro Photoshop plug-in for the black and white conversion. Love that you can emulate many of the old b&w films and I'm also diggin' the amount of detail and pop this software enables me to achieve.

I know, I know... the wheels haven't quite fallen off of the Project 365 wagon yet, but the hubcaps are surely gone and I think I'm down to my last lug nut on each wheel. I was out last week for my annual trek to Texas School, and I was having entirely too much fun during the few hours we weren't in class to think much about blogging. Play time is over, though, and I'm slowly getting back into regularly scheduled blog programming. To start things off, after dinner on Wednesday night, I went out with some photography forum friends to play around with some off-camera flash action. And with that, the answer to the age-old question 'What do photographers do for fun when they're not photographing?' that's been burning in the back of your mind has finally been answered... more photography. I was explaining to couple of people how I use off-camera flash, and here's a couple of the resulting images. Thanks to Lauren for being the lovely model in these images, to Erin for persevering through the burning in her arms to hold the flash with the softbox over her head I'm sure what seemed like an hour, and to Jamie for holding the second kicker light flash behind Lauren.

Love the feel of this one... reminds me of 1940's glam.

Thanks, ladies, for making Wednesday night a blast.

I watch American Idol. I am not ashamed. In fact, I'm enjoying this season more than any previous installment. But the fact that Fox has quietly passed on doing an Idol Gives Back show this year hasn't gone unnoticed, and this blog will not stand for such shenanigans... Starting now, the texture shown below is available (in hi res glory sans my copyright notice) for free download to the first 25 people people who snatch it up by going here and typing in the password "texture". Clock's ticking, so you better get it while supplies last.

And now the fine print: 1) To those of you that aren't photographers, you're probably asking yourself, 'What in the world would I do with this silly texture?' Well, probably not much. Photographer types use textures to overlay on top of other images to create a little more spice in their images, although you could download this as a desktop wall paper or better yet got a nice big print made to go above your cool couch. 2) Once 25 people have downloaded the file, that's all she wrote. Please don't email me asking if you can still get the texture if you click on the link and it says the texture's no longer available... my hands are (sort of) tied. I've set up my yousendit account to have the file expire after 25 downloads. 3) This file may be used in any non-commercial work without needing copyright permission. If you plan on using the texture to create the next greatest art piece of our time and have plans to market and sell said art piece worldwide, you'll have to come see me first, and we'll work something out. Otherwise, have fun and use it however you want, including in images for your portrait photography clients. 4) Although not required, I would certainly be amused if you would mutter under your breath 'everything tastes better with texture' while downloading the file. Good luck!

Downtown Dallas. After a shoot. Saw this building.

I'm at Texas School this week, and there's waaaay too much learning and fun going on here, so my posting this week may be a little slow. Monday night's event was a barbecue dinner and then a concert by the Spazmatics. If you're in Texas, and you haven't seen them yet, put it on your bucket list. Here's a few images from the night.

Tina grabbed this image of me grabbing on image of the band and, of course, uploading it to Facebook.

Here's my friend's and fellow photographers Cecily and Tina and Tina's husband Jerry.

And finally, here's a group of awesome photography ladies that are members of a photography forum I'm part of. It was cool seeing Jamie, Haley, Erin, Crystal and Lauren in person. (The shadow in front of them is yours truly). Technology has truly made the world a smaller place as I felt like I've already been long-time friends with these girls even though this was the first time I met a couple of them in person.