Summertime

dad mucho happy, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

How could I forget Dolly?

Man, talk about forgotten photos. I recently found some band group shots I took almost a year ago(!) but pretty much forgot about after delivered the images. I found some good stuff in the folder, so I sorted out my favorites for editing ... only to find out the next day that the band had already broken up. Whoops.

I put up a handful of pictures up anyways, just 'cause I thought the stood on their own as interesting pictures. I particularly like this top-down take on Dolly (the band was called The Dolly Partners). Not sure which one I prefer.

So this was kind of a big deal

Things have been pretty busy the last six months to say the least. So busy that I forgot to mention my mom and two of her sisters starred in a TV news story. All three of them have had and overcome a similar form of cancer, with my mom the most recent mutated-cell ass-kicker. I never mentioned it here before because Mom's a private person, but now her story's up on Houston news channel MyFoxHouston.com.

Technical note: I hope that player still works. The station didn't seem too on the ball with their equipment. For instance the "home video," as the report calls it, of my mom and her sisters was actually shot by a reporter from the station. When the footage didn't come out well -- a kind of huge white light envelopes my mom and her sisters -- the station coolly laid the blame on the cancer victims. Mom calls it their halo.

Medical note: All three sisters were nearly mis-diagnosed as cancer-free, by virtue of a variety of medical mishaps. Long story short: if something doesn't seem right when you're being screened for stuff like this, be real damn sure to speak up about it and nag until you get your questions answered. My mom and her sisters did, and they're all probably alive today because of it.

We've been Cox'd

(Justin edited/replaced the photo, so now my HTML is messed up. You can see the image that was in this space here.)

Amanda and I (and Spoon and Danka) become the latest members of Justin's illustrious Bedroom Series. Hooray for Justin for not using the shot that made it look like I had man-boobs.

Family funtimes

levi as david caruso, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

From a family baby shower about a week ago. Maybe it's the red hair, maybe it's because L. looks like he's picking up a piece of evidence, but I thought of David Caruso when I was editing this shot.

Some technical notes: I shot the entire shower with my 35mm lens. No complaints. I really like its versatility. Now I just need to work on controlling depth of field better. Also a tip for you cold-blooded baby shooters out there. To make your little devil look angelic, it's a pretty simple matter of editing, using mainly the dodge tool. After you've done basic edits to the entire frame, use the dodge tool to basically remove all the shadows from the kid's face. It's best to do it slowly in several steps, switching often between dodging midtones and dodging highlights. If the features ever begin to look washed out, you can restore proper contrast by burning in the shadows.

Taken to its extremes, this method produces children who appear to radiate purity. It's popular on Flickr. Here is one good purveyor of the style.

Saturday at the Mattanda House

the queen of narnia, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Amanda shows off her Queen of Narnia jacket from -- where else? -- Thriftland.

Two-sentence movie review: Pirates of the Caribbean 3

A fundamentally silly attempt at filming a two-and-a-half-hour continuous crescendo. At least it featured a monkey, prominently.

Crazy-eyed Cavs killer

tiumphant coyote, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Quintessential Coyote. Pictures of the entire Spurs roster now up in the Champs 2007 set.

I've been a bad blogger

the sad coyote, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Dang meat-world, getting in the way.

This is how we do it

fab's fabulous tooth, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Man, I wish I could write more, but the celebration last weekend for the Spurs fourth title was sweeeeeeet. A few pics are already up in the Spurs Champs 2007 set. This one wasn't nearly the best, technically speaking, but it's got to be the funniest. Who knew Fab sported a platinum tooth? Thumbs up!

Fixing the Finals

As I prepare to head to S.A. for me and Grady's longstanding Spurs close-out game ritual, I see that more than a few people feel like the NBA Finals needs fixing, mainly because no one cares about them, so no one's watching. While there's plenty I'd change about the league, when it comes to the Finals, the NBA probably doesn't need procedural solutions. It just needs to tell better stories.

We can thank the Cavs' particular brand of awful basketball for the recent calls for revolution, although it's not their fault the East sucks. But they're obviously outclassed. Supposedly this is why people aren't watching, because the basketball isn't competitive.

The assumption here is that a higher quality of product -- i.e., a better caliber of basketball -- would bring more consumers. Not so, I say. It's not like the quality of the games played in the Super Bowl or World Series increases from a normal game. The Super Bowl is not hugely popular because the football suddenly becomes so compelling. Really, ratings have nothing to do with gameplay. They're about everything that goes on in between plays. But the NFL knows how to dress up its product to get non-football fans to watch. They sell the spectacle. The World Series sells history (explaining why the Red Sox title had HUGE ratings, but Astros-White Sox set record lows). The NBA hasn't figured out what to sell since Michael Jordan left the league.

If ratings are the goal, then that's what this boils down to: there's no compelling narrative that non-basketball fans can tap into. Solve that, and the ratings would improve, regardless of the quality of basketball. But right now the league's choices of theme song (some a capella choir?) and playoff spokesman (fucking David Blaine?) show they're a long, long way from figuring their audience out.

Ai yai yai yai!

just awesome, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Weddings present a number of challenges, but the most unexpected for me comes during post-processing and image presentation. The most important task in terms of making your client happy and yourself look good is to simply weed through the hundreds, if not thousands, of frames and put your best shots forward.

The editing ranks as a secondary concern for two reasons: 1) even though it will bug a photographer to no end, most people won't notice if the shot lacks an absolute black and an absolute white with a smooth tonal range in between; and 2) there's really an upper bound on how great any wedding photo can be, especially from an artistic standpoint, which means realizing your particular vision for an image may take it from pretty good to good -- not from good to great, as you'd like.

That hasn't kept me from spending a rather inordinate amount of time on wedding photos these past few weeks, but I can pin that blame on my own perfectionism and sentimentality. When working for a relative stranger, part of the reason I come so cheap is that I make the client play the part of photo editor. They choose the 35-50 shots they like most and I'll give them a quick once over and forget about all the other frames. But when I'm shooting for friends, the workload quickly mushrooms into the hundreds since I'm a sap. My attachment to the people in the pictures influences my decision more than the pictures themselves. That leads me to like a lot more frames -- e.g., "Oh, man, this picture perfectly captures so-and-so's expression" -- as my shutterbug roots run roughshod over my efforts to act like a pro.

Technology, of course, only complicates things. For instance, I'm always torn over whether to put the images on Flickr, because I like to delude myself into thinking that prospective clients or employers might look at my photostream. Do I really want to slap up 200 technically shoddy wedding shots? How to weigh the value of my photostream against public (a few friends) clamoring to conveniently view the photos? C'mon, man, get over yourself. You've got public pictures of you drunk off your gourd; this isn't exactly genius grant application you're putting together... And so on.

As always the advance of technology, to which I owe my psuedo-career behind the lens, is also responsible for the traps I fall in without fail. In the same way that digital photography drastically reduced the price-per-frame -- lowering the bar for entry into the industry far enough to let me in as part of the Flickring masses -- it means I value each frame less, meaning I shoot with more abandon and end up with more fair to middling images. And because each image takes less time to "perfect," it's easier to say "Forget it, I'll do 'em all," and hurry through the edits. If I had to print these by hand, or just pay for the prints, or scan the images first, you can bet I'd be more selective. But I don't have to be, so in the end, I probably spend more time editing the glut, and the resulting large set is inferior to the more condensed alternative. It's visual verbiage.

I know this. Rationally, I get it. Yet I still can't break myself of the compulsion.

Anyways, speaking of verbiage, this whole deal was intended to say that I'll be using the blog to single out the 8-10 worthwhile shots, such as the one above, before they are lost to the depths of my photostream.

(And if you happen to be a client or employer reading this, please start with my Portfolio set before going through my spring break shots. Thanks.)

Wedding overload

exit, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

All the photos from Hugh's wedding are finally up. I really wish I'd had my new flash for this ceremony. Would've made a world of difference. Still plenty of good stuff in the set, though.

Not sure what to make of this photo

setting up, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

It reminds me of Eastern Europe for some reason. From Aileen's wedding.

Non-Spurs basketball stuff

Superstition prevents me from talking about the Spurs during this Finals run, but here are a couple other quick things on the NBA landscape via TrueHoop.

1. Corey Brewer
This guy's going to be the steal of the draft, even if he goes at #3 (which he won't, because it's the Hawks). Word is, Doc Rivers really liked the workout the uber-wing gave last week. The Celtics would be smart to follow this hunch.

Brewer's got the skills and the track record. Two NCAA titles. Tourney Most Outstanding Player award. He succeeded in an system that stressed teamwork over superstars. He can play three positions in the NBA. Defense is his calling card. He knocks down open shots. And that's before we even talk about his ability to slash to the bucket. Great player. Seems exactly like the glue the C's need.

If Boston fans could stop whimpering for just a second, they might realize they're still getting a potential franchise cornerstone in Brewer. He'd be my #1 pick if not for Durant and Oden.

2. Two trades
While I know everyone wrongly thinks they could be an NBA GM, that won't stop me from proposing a couple trades that make sense.

Assuming the C's draft Brewer, what about offering Paul Pierce to the Clippers for Maggette, Kaman, and salary cap fodder? The deal works for both teams, I think, but only if the Clippers' owner is willing to give up Maggette, a personal favorite of his, in exchange for dumping Kaman's suddenly onerous contract.

Finally, it's clear the Utah Jazz are trying to move AK-47, but can't because of his massive contract. "There aren't many teams that are going to want to take on that financial load unless they're assured he's going to be a top-notch player," owner Larry Miller said (scroll down).

But what if another team owed an equally absurd amount of money to an underperforming star? In fact, one such team, Cleveland, has a player in Larry Hughes that exactly fits what the Jazz are looking for: an athletic, lock-down defending 2 who can hit open set shots.

Kirilenko for Hughes, straight up, works.

From Cleveland's perspective, Hughes has been misused ever since he came to town. He simply doesn't fit into their system. Cleveland does none of the things that Washington did to create on-court chaos that made Hughes an All-Star. Like Ginobili, he needs to be allowed to roam, to create steals, to make hustle plays on offense -- not initiating the offense.

With the emergence of Daniel Gibson and the assumption that Pavlovic will shake off his current jitters with age, the Cavs are fine at guard. With Kirilenko they become even better defensively and they add another player who is an excellent facilitator, which might, God willing, free LeBron up from dominating the ball. The move also makes Drew Gooden expendable. If they could trade him cap space to resign Varejao and a late 1st round pick, they could take a talented, pass-first PG, like Marist legend Jared Jordan.

Starting 5: Jordan, Gibson/Pavlovic, James, AK, Big Z.
Go big: Gibson, James, AK, Varejao, Big Z.
Go small: Jordan, Gibson, Pavlovic, James, AK.

That's a heck of a lot more versatility than they have this year, and the defense-first attitude is still preserved. But they have to acknowledge that they'll never win a championship with the offense they have now, and this offseason is the best time to address it.

To that end, the more I think about it, the more this deal makes sense -- except for the injury history of both players. It's essentially like trading two Faberge eggs. We'll see, I guess.

Good times by the lake

good times by the lake, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Just to prove I do more with my camera than record weddings. I also watch politicians and celebrities talk into microphones before signing pieces of paper. This was Perry and Dennis Quaid's appearance at the signing of a state-funded film incentive program.

The replacements

next up, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Slowly the editing versions of photos from Leslie's wedding will begin trickling in on Flickr. My goal is to quickly edit 3-5 photos from Leslie's wedding each night. At that right, it'll only take me three months to finish! OK, so I won't be editing every frame, but some, like the one above, really needed it. Big fan of the weird composition in it; needed to bring that out.

UPDATE: Hmm, reading that paragraph again this morning it's pretty obvious I wrote it when I could barely keep my eyes open, huh?

Death Comes for the Optio

from the depths, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

There was but one (glaring) design flaw in my waterproof Optio WPi: it sunk.

Several weeks ago the inevitable finally happened. The camera succumbed to the depths of a Central Texas river, laudably in the service of chasing down a loose beer. I realized almost immediately that I had forgotten to check if the strap was on my wrist before flopping off my tube, but the thing was nowhere in sight.

Even after struggling upstream, enlisting the help of some nerd wearing goggles, and then diving around for half an hour myself, it was no use. Two and a half years, 10,000 frames, a lot of annoyed friends, and several hours worth of low-fi audio recordings ... as well as crappy image quality, a poor auto-focus system, sluggish shutter response, and terrible color reproduction.

The last surviving underwater pictures turned out to be from the Turtle Pond at UT, which kind of puts the couple hundred dollar loss in perspective.

BONUS: Turtle Pond fiction?

Wedding — in the raw!

beautiful bride, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

It's the moment you've all been waiting for, when the curtain is pulled back from the magician's lair of my dazzling photographic abilities, and you can see the pure, unadulterated vision of my vision. Mostly, it's pretty underexposed.

Leslie, Clare, and Amy convinced me to put every photo I thought was any good from Leslie and Bryan's wedding online, without editing. It went against every impulse I have as an artist and a businessman -- and if ever there were two words to describe my outlook on life, those ... two ... probably aren't them -- but I gritted my teeth and clicked Upload.

If you want to see what a shoot looks like before I spend 10-15 minutes per frame editing, this is your chance. Exciting, I know! Nearly all of these are dark, because it's easier to salvage underexposed images than overexposed ones (quicker shutter speeds also help ensure sharpness), and just as many need cropping. Not much time to fully frame a shot at a wedding.