More Fall Color.... and a bit of ORANGE!

Sara and I continued our college tour to Georgia Tech and Clemson last weekend. While we were in South Carolina I got to visit one of the places I loved when I was in graduate school: Whitewater Falls. It's just over the border in North Carolina and I hit it about right for some fall color. Click the photo and it will take you to my SaltForkImages gallery with more shots of the falls.



Saturday afternoon we got a little more Clemson color. ORANGE! We joined about 80,000 like-minded individuals in Death Valley to watch the Tigers beat up on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Our vantage point from high in the nose-bleed section gave us a great view of "the most exciting 25 seconds in College Football." Here's a shot of the team running down the hill after rubbing Howard's Rock.



Go Tigers!

Portrait Season

It's mid-October and the fall portrait season for high school seniors is winding down and the Christmas card portrait season is about to start. E-mail me at jalbritton@mesh.net if you would like to do some Christmas portraits. I can set you up with flat cards, folded cards, and photos suitable for grandma's mantle!


I took some photos of my daughter, Sara, a few nights ago. Her mom likes the one below the best. I blew the highlights out in Photoshop for a little different look.


Here's another one more to my liking. She got her braces off a few weeks ago and she's a lot more willing to smile now!



Sara and I are headed out over the next few weeks for some college visits. Louisiana Tech, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Baylor and Texas A&M are all on her radar. It should be a fun search! Wish us luck!


I had another fun portrait shoot last week with a young man named Sam. You can see from the two photos below that this was not an ordinary portrait session. View the rest of his gallery here.





Christmas will be here before you know it! Give me a shout.....

Southern Hospitality - an Aledo High School Theatre Production

Those talented kids at Aledo High School were at it again last week!

Their production of Southern Hospitality was outstanding. Once again I was asked to shoot the cast and crew prior to the performance and as always I hung out in the back with the monopod and the big lens.

You can see the entire gallery at this link. The shot below is one of many that made me laugh!

Those kids are SOOOO talented!

Fall Color in Wyoming

If you've visited my galleries before then you know that Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, must be my absolute favorite place in the world to photograph. Last week I was there with a friend chasing the fall colors and we had a great time. The park was pretty quiet except for all THE PHOTOGRAPHERS. It seems that everyone who owns a tripod knows that the last week of September and the first week of October are the best time to catch the aspens as they turn fiery yellow.

We arrived at Schwabacher's Landing about fifteen minutes before sunrise and found 24 cars in the parking lot and at least 30 photographers scattered along this picturesque backwater of the Snake River. Here's a shot of "THE SPOT" right after the sun hit the top of the mountains.



Of course I wanted the same shot they wanted and the sweet pink light on the mountains was not going to last much longer so I got right behind them and raised my tripod as high as it would go. I set my camera to "live-view" and framed the shot and then locked the ballhead of the tripod down tight. I hit the focus button on the back of my camera and cranked off three rapid-fire, bracketed shots. One of the guys on the front line heard my 1DM3 fire off overhead and turned around with a rather stunned look on his face. I just smiled and said, "Sometimes you've just got to improvise."

Here's the result:



We got what we wanted at Schwabacher's and then headed to Oxbow Bend. This is another popular spot with the photogs as there were at least another 20 or so set up here. You can certainly see why:



It was a great trip and the trees did not disappoint. Next year I'm hoping for clouds. And maybe I'll get up a little earlier so that I can be on the frontline. (Nah!)

Context in Photography

Everyone loves a beautiful scenic photograph. Catch the light just right and it can be magical. Sometimes, however, our goal as photographers is to tell a more complete story with our photos. Not every photo we take is destined for a custom frame in the lobby of the local bank. Sometimes we just want to document our lives. We do this by providing our photos with "context."

There are probably as many ways to show context in a photo as there are photographers. Portrait photographers do it by shooting on-location. Wedding photographers don't shoot a portrait of the bride wearing half her makeup; they shoot into the mirror while she's applying the makeup. Context helps to make a photo make sense.

During the summer of 2010 I took a scenic airplane flight around Teton Valley, Idaho. We took off from the Driggs airport and headed southwest toward Pine Creek Pass. As we climbed through 10,000 feet with the Big Hole Mountains on our right, our pilot gradually turned to the east. We continued to climb above the Snake River Range and then made the big sweeping turn back to the north. This took us directly over the western foothills of the Tetons just barely inside the western edge of Wyoming. Grand Teton tops out at 13,770 feet but our flight never got over about 12,500. That means that we were staring at The Grand (and Middle, South, Owen, and Teewinot) straight out the window.

As we approached the big peaks my pilot announced over the intercom that he would be glad to tilt the little plane whichever way I wanted so that I could get some good shots of the mountains. I thanked him and when the time came he pulled the right wing up a little so I could get the unobstructed view he thought I wanted. I snapped a few shots and was generally pleased with them but as he leveled the plane and I backed out on the zoom lens, I noticed how much more I liked the shots that showed the airplane wing and the wingstrut. The photo below is an example of the kind of context that tells a story.



There is no question, when you look at this photo, that I was riding in a small airplane. Immediately upon knowing that fact, the viewer of this photo becomes engaged in a whole new way:

"What kind of plane was it?" (Cessna 172)

"Was it bumpy?" (Not that day.)

"Did you get sick?" (No)

"Had you ever been up in a small plane before?" (Yes, a long time ago.)

"Did you get to open the window to take the photos?" (Yes)

When I look back at the photo above, I think, "Wow, I love those mountains!," and "This airplane thing is cool..... I've got to GET ME ONE!"

Football Season in Full Swing

The 2010 campaign has begun!

Aledo High School won the 4A Division II State Championship in 2009 and is off to a great start in 2010. The opening game was another fantastic battle between Aledo and rival Stephenville. Aledo triumphed 20-3. Game two saw Aledo avenge its only loss of 2009 with a 48-13 romp over the Kangaroos of Weatherford.

And then came Game Three: Aledo traveled to Austin to challenge the 2009 4A Division I State Champ, Lake Travis. Bragging rights were on the line and the home team was heavily favored. Lake Travis opened the scoring and led at the half by a count of 10-7. The second half was an epic defensive struggle. Both teams pounded the ball inside but in the end it was the strong running of Aledo's Jonathan Gray behind the talented Bearcat offensive line that won the day. Aledo made believers of the central Texas crowd with a final score of 14-10.

Here's a shot I took of J-Gray taking the ball on one of those up-the-middle rampages. Shutter speed was 1/1000, ISO was 1600 and the f/stop was 2.8. Enjoy!

OLIVER!

Please, Sir, I want some more!



Check out my galleries from the Aledo High School Theatre presentation of OLIVER!

It was a lot of fun shooting the show and one of the rehearsals. Congratulations, AHS Theatre! Great Job!