Tommy Tune Awards

So I get this email from the boss, accompanying an assignment to shoot the Tommy Tune Awards, the annual Theatre Under The Stars gala awards presentation for Houston-area high school musical theatre productions, and she says “shoot a lot; the boss wants to do a gallery.”

Okay. I can do a gallery.

The neat part of this was that I had the opportunity to shoot several of these productions during rehearsals, and I’ve shot most of the high school companies in west Houston one time or another over the last few years, so I KNEW I was in for something special. A boatload of work, for sure, but lots of fun and a fabulous show.

They did not disappoint. Kudos to all the participants, winners, nominees, coaches, parents, TUTS people… everyone.

Ladies and Gents, Grills and Bars, there’s one born every minute…

It’s SHOWTIME!!!!

click pic

Some Days

you know — from the start, you just KNOW, somehow — that things are not going to go the way you’d planned.

Fortunately I don’t leave anything in the car overnight that’s worth stealing, and since I found a pair of cheap sunglasses on the hood and a broken glass tube (crack pipe) on the ground by the door, I suspect the alarm scared the bad guys off pretty much immediately.

So my quiet day of shooting pictures and hiking through the park became a day of shooting pictures and sitting in the waiting room at Affordable Auto Glass, but it’s fixed again.

Whee.

Life on the wild side.

Wheee!!!

This young lady just experienced one of the great joys of school festivals everywhere.

She just dunked her math teacher.

Life is good.

Lock and load; let’s hit the streets.

Fiestas Patrias 2007

Parade morning:

Padre Hidalgo ringing the bell…

Folkloric dancers having a good time.

Folkloric dancers not having a good time. Yet. Those dresses are heavy and hot, and it’s a typical Houston summer morning, warm and humid.

Pretty girls on horses.

Pretty girls NOT on horses:

Handsome men on horses

Handsome men NOT on horses

Big devil. (Better be careful; that’s an awfully big whip and he’s pretty good.)

Fortunately for me, he’s friendly.

When you see agave plants chasing you down the street on a Saturday morning, you start to wonder what you don’t remember about Friday night…

So. Let’s round this thing up, it’s time to hit the streets.

Sun(and)Flower

Just a minor little day-brightener I found in the files….

Low Light

One thing I’m loving about some of the new technology for cameras and lenses is the capability to work – casually – in extreme conditions which would have meant hours of work in pre-digital days. (Not that I minded the hours of work; sometimes I even miss them…)

Some of these things, however…

 

This is a shot which I would not have even TRIED to get, ten years ago.  1/6th second at 3200, handheld?  Only in my dreams.

Now, it’s a throwaway, an “oh, nice lighting on those” view that I grabbed almost casually while chatting with a couple of musicians I know.

 In some ways, it really IS progress.

 

 

 

Lock and load; let’s get back to work.

Pictures To Come

No picture just now; haven’t shot a lot personal in the last week or two, haven’t run what I have shot, and haven’t really felt that the few frames I DID shoot were inspiring me to rush home and run the film just to see if I got it. Not interesting or exciting, in other words.

However, there’s a new camera (yes, another! damn things multiply like VERY expensive rabbits) arriving today or tomorrow, a Kiev/Kneb 4AM (Russian copy of a Contax II rangefinder) so I’m going to load some FP4 up and go play… shots this weekend if the real world gives me darkroom time…