ROAD TRIP - DAY 10 - Oklahoma City

Lawrence Standifer Stevens August 7, 2014

Oklahoma City

I never thought I'd hear myself say this but. . . Oklahoma City has got it goin' on! Love the Devon Energy building. Because it towers over the rest of the skyline, it seems taller than the Bank of America building back home in Dallas. But it's not. Funny how context can influence perception, is it not?

Devon Energy Towers above the Park House and Ice House

From a new NBA team (well, new to me!) to the Myriad Botanical Gardens downtown to beautiful architecture and friendly people and a laid back attitude, OKC is screaming growth.

The relatively small population (compared to my hometown, Dallas) has an enormous number of benefits from all "stuff" going on. For now, it's a pretty quiet town but it has all the earmarks of growing into a major, very cool, place to live.

As I approached the city from the previous day's stop, Amarillo, I came up alongside a biker on a great looking motorcycle and gave him a thumbs up. And he (I later found out his name was James) looked the part - sleeveless leather jacket, tattoos, tanned and windburned from working outdoors, and, of course, the ZZ-Top beard. Looks tough but was actually a very nice guy. James, originally from Longview, Texas, works on an oil rig and was just out cruising when I asked him to pull over. I had an idea for a photograph. And if there's one thing I've learned over the past 20 years, it's this: If you don't ask the question, the answer will always be NO.

We pulled up in front of the Cox Convention Center and I had him position his bike just so. I went through my way-too-long process of setting up the camera, composing, and adjusting the exposure, and had him mount his bike. I took a few shots, thanked him, and he was off in a cloud of ducks.

The rest of the day was pretty productive. I didn't quite know where I was but it was a target-rich environment and I just began shooting whatever struck me.

Two buildings, the Park House and the Ice House, were beautifully designed and rather minimalist but I could see the thought that went into every inch of each building. The Ice House is a hamburger stand on the edge of the 17-acre Myriad Botanical Gardens. I ordered a cheeseburger (medium rare, thank you!), fries, and a root beer float, and sat down to enjoy breakfast.

The water feature behind the Ice House was like a magnet for kids and moms and it was a pleasure watching them playing with such joy and abandon.

I got up to do some shooting but quickly found that my camera battery was dead and I headed back to the truck. All those carbs (and lack of sleep over the past 10 days) did a number on me and I jumped in the cab of my FJ Cruiser and took a little nap.

When I awoke, the heat had cranked up to the upper 90s. Strapping on 30 pounds of gear and walking around in that heat has a habit of sapping the strength right out of you. Nonetheless, I took a tour about the downtown area and spotted some places to shoot.

As the sun sank in the west, I stumbled on the old Union Station, long since abandoned for newer digs and taken over by area homeless, who, it would seem, have no buses of their own.

As I was going through my paces, shooting different exposures and compositions, a young guy came near to see what I was up to. Ken was his name and he, too, was a photographer, though a nurse by trade. He had a little toy with him that I've had my eye on for some time - a Fujifilm XT-1. Sweeet! I've been thinking about a mirrorless camera like that for a while and it was a treat to actually hold one in my grubby, little paws. We talked photography for a bit and went our separate ways.

An as yet unnamed building at Main and Robinson. Not sure if it has a name. But I love the red brick.

Time to head back to Big D. Fort Worth is on the itinerary tomorrow. Then two days of Dallas. A little pizza at Hideaway Pizza on Broadway and I'm hittin' the road. On the way out of town, I drove by the Botanical Gardens again where they were having some sort of an event. Lovely way to spend a Sunday evening.

(Here's a note for all you grammar purists: I realize I am mixing present and past tense in my running commentary. That's because in the moment I write about my experiences, I sometimes am truly in the moment of experience - it's as if I am there. So, for all the little grammar gremlins out there who are pooh-poohing and tut-tutting about my grammar - particularly the little one on my shoulder - BUZZ OFF! Thank you. Your regularly scheduled commentary will now continue.)

Not far from the Oklahoma/Texas border, I pulled over at a scenic overlook and took a shot of the work by the Greatest Architect. A weak attempt at best but it was the best I could manage on short notice without a tutorial.

The Work of The Greatest Architect - Click to enlarge

See you in FW and D.

ROAD TRIP - DAY 9 - On to Amarillo

Lawrence Standifer Stevens August 4, 2014

Amarillo

Let's be very honest (and by "Let's" I mean "Let me") about my time in Amarillo: I didn't expect much. What I got was a whole lotta sump'n. When I arrived, I thought, Sleepy little town, quiet Saturday afternoon, no one around. And slowly, it started to bubble. Until it started boiling! And boil it did once things got underway.

Things of course meant a road rally, of sorts, that included everything from Model A's to Dodge Vipers, motorcycles and the requisite motorcycle mamas, home-brew restorations and customizations of all sorts. Everyone I approached was beyond helpful and agreeable, some went out of their way to help me make some terrific photos. Thank you Amarillo!

My old friend, Warren, corrected me. This is a '57 210 Single-post Chevy, not an Ol' 55. My bad.

Now, I realize that a celebratory road rally with cars circling a 6 x 2 block area is not really about architecture. And you'd be right in calling me on that fact. But, sometimes, a boy just gotta have fun with some toys. In the meantime, I did make an effort to shoot a number of the buildings downtown and even was able to combine the two.

Having Fun at the Center City Road Rally in Amarillo

On my way back to the truck, I passed by the Paramount Theater again. After dark, the neon does what it was intended — it makes the theater look like a Technicolor® Palace. As tired as I was from a very long day, I couldn't pass this one by and not shoot it. You can almost smell the popcorn!

Before I forget, my thanks to Jacob Rincon, a young guy with a very cool ride who went out of his way to make it possible for me to use my flash -- he rode to the store some 8 blocks away, roundtrip, to buy some double-AA's for my flash, a walk I probably wouldn't have made loaded down with 30 pounds of camera gear. Thank you Jacob!

My new buddy, Jacob Rincon, and his ride

Next stop, Ooooooooooooklahoma City.

ROAD TRIP - DAY 8 & 9 - Albuquerque & Tucumcari

Lawrence Standifer Stevens August 1, 2014

UPDATED 8/4/14

Albuquerque

Approaching Albuquerque overnight, I felt the strong urge to pull over and sleep. Crawling into the back of my FJ Cruiser, I tossed a bit to get comfortable and I remember taking off my glasses. When I awoke, in the semi-dark of the interior lights, I could not find them. Still can't in the light of day. So, I'm working at a disadvantage. But they're somewhere in the truck. It may take completely unloading and going through every item with a fine tooth comb. Ahhh, adventures of being on the road.

Found a few places of interest this morning, including The Hotel Blue, an early-60s mid-century modern structure that has been through a succession of owners. Nonetheless, I asked to photograph the place and they acquiesced.

I'm falling desperately behind in blogging about this road trip. So, let's do a quick blast and get caught up.

Albuquerque was a total blast! Let's just cut to some of the pics and I'll update when I have more time; I'm burning daylight here in OKC.

UNM - School of Architecture and Planning

Just so you know, I plan to create not only a galley that's more comprehensive in nature but a more thoughtful commentary about the architecture I'm photographing. The diner above is one of those items that needs some thought before I start spouting off about its style. But I do enjoy the beauty of its curves and the multi-layered nature of its construction.

During my stay in ABQ, I met a delightful baker named Pratt Morales, who, at 75 is in better shape than I am and makes a delicious apple empanada. I had the pleasure of spending a few hours at his shop, Golden Crown Panaderia, updating this blog and post processing images I had taken earlier. Pratt was kind enough to pose for a few photos.

Pratt Morales of the Golden Crown Panaderia makes these beautiful cilantro loaves every day. Delicious!

The very strange thing is that his son, Chris, dances and teaches Argentine Tango in Albuquerque and knows many of the same people I know back in Dallas and Austin. (The Tango community is very small.) I could swear that I've met him before back in Dallas.

Finishing up in Albuquerque, we hit the road, only to be stopped by the sandman at a little town on old Route 66 called Tucumcari.

Tucumcari

Tucumcari, NM has quite storied history as a stop along the journey from Chicago to L.A. on the old US Highway 66, or Route 66, as it was known in the day. Trying to recapture some of its former fun and glory, there are motels and other businesses that are throwbacks to the style of the 50s, before the Interstate Highway System eventually bypassed them for a more direct, faster, and "cleaner" driving experience. Me? I plan to go back there to stay at the Blue Swallow Motel.

Garage at The Blue Swallow Motel (Who does this anymore?!?) — Garage at The Blue Swallow Motel (Who does this anymore?!?)

Dennis & Mike advised me where to look for interesting architecture

ROAD TRIP - DAY 6 & 7 - Travel Day & El Paso

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 31, 2014

On the way in to El Paso from San Antonio, I became so enthralled with the open, high desert that I forgot what a gas guzzler my FJ Cruiser is and nearly ran out of gas 30 miles east of Fort Stockton. And in 104° heat! On down the road, I ran into a beautiful desert thunderstorm. Within minutes the temp dropped to a mere 63°! I sat for a while as the storm passed by and watched an incredible fireworks display.

The only shelter available was the truck. I couldn't shoot long exposures on my tripod so I had to shoot handheld from the driver's seat. In an hour, I was able to capture only one frame of the magnificent lightning going on all around me by timing my shutter with the rhythm of the electrical display. Finally, I managed to photograph this lovely straggler. Well worth the wait, I'd say.

From the road, I managed to photograph this rain-obscured sunset. Not really sure where it was. Don't think there's a name for Mile Marker 285.

Pushing on in a light rain, I gassed up again in Van Horn, Texas. After only 120 miles or so from my last fill-up, I was a bit gun-shy and decided to play it safe.

I'm not sure how these lone hotels spring up in the middle of nowhere (The Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas comes to mind) but it's like finding a little gemstone. Your eyes get big and your heart skips a beat and the tiniest, little smile curls the corners of your mouth. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Hotel El Capitan.

Finally, after dark, the light rain continued from the road as I-10 veered closer to Mexico and my day's destination. Once again, I was not disappointed. El Paso came through for me with several gems, too, and a couple pieces of costume jewelry.

When I checked into a lovely, little hotel (The Soluna Hotel on E. Paisano - HIGHLY recommend it!) I had the good fortune to meet a native of this city — Josephine. I coerced her into recommending a favorite piece of architecture here. She recommended I take a look at El Paso High School. In a word, Holy Mother of Pearl! She was right. It's an inspirational structure built on a hill up against "the mountain" and adjacent to their football team's gridiron. The effect is amazing, giving the impression that the building is much taller than it is.

While at the school, I ran into an Assistant Coach, Cruz, who gave me a quick tour of the grounds and pointed out the area above the school that wraps around the mountain best known as Scenic Drive.

Scenic Drive not only has many great views of the city, it's home to a lot of large, beautiful residences.

Downtown, I had to shoot the Cortez Building, one of the first structures I ever shot, way back in 1975. Today, the plaza it sits on is being torn apart and rebuilt and some of the long-empty buildings on the square are up for sale or scheduled for remodeling.

I've met a lot of wonderful people on this trip. Somehow a guy with a camera is either dangerous (What are you doing? Get out of here!) or harmless (Hey, what's going on? Taking some pictures?). Most have fallen into that second category. Today I met a reporter with NewsPaperTree and she asked to interview me. So, I fed another dollar into the parking meter and we had our powwow at the nearby, ever-present Starbucks.

I'm not sure when the story will be on their website; I'll be sure to pass along the link as soon as I know something. And she offered to link to my website. Very cool! You never know where your next new friend will come from. That's one reason I love this job.

Have to process images before I upload them to the blog. Check back in a bit. And link to the blog. I'd love to hear your comments.

For now, a shower is calling my name and I've got to check out of the hotel.

UPDATE: Elida Perez wrote a very nice article about me and my travels. You can read it here.

ROAD TRIP - DAY 3 - Austin / DAY 4 & 5 - San Antonio

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 31, 2014

Austin

Houston is a distant memory as I rolled into Austin, Texas early Sunday morning and got to work right away. Soon, once I get to play with some images, I'll upload them and show you.

For whatever reason, photographing the State Capitol at 2am seemed like the thing to do. Then, around dawn, I shot the skyline from the west side, directly into the sun.

UPDATE 9/5/14: All technical issues have been overcome and the challenge has been in editing all the images from the past 3 days. I didn't realize that it would take so long to catch up once I got behind. Enjoy. Especially the panoramas.

—ø—

Still, I haven't quite recovered from a technical SNAFU and can't put my fingers on those images. However, I did take some outstanding images of the Austin skyline that evening from The Long Center during a performance of the Austin Symphony's Jazz Orchestra. (Forgive if the name is not quite right.) Here's a sample of what you'll see later in this blog post:

Let's back up a bit. After shooting the Texas State Capitol at 2am, I wandered around the streets of Austin looking for buildings lit up for all to see. I happened on the Hotel Ella a few blocks north of the capitol and thought I'd try shooting something under the overly bright mercury vapor lights. Unfortunately, being tired and needing sleep more than I needed to photograph the Hotel Ella, I didn't really take my time and explore how I might best shoot it in an extremely mixed-light situation. There was the aforementioned MV lights but the sign and the hotel itself were illuminated with halogens, I think. In any event, it proved to be to much to pull off in glorious Technicolor® so I had to resort to removing the color entirely. Not my favorite reason for making a black and white photograph but serviceable, nonetheless.

Around 4am, I was driving out east on Cesar Chavez Blvd. and found a couple of places that someone had thoughtfully lighted for me so I could shoot in great detail in the middle of the night. Leal's Tire Shop was the first. I'd seen this place on my last trip to Austin and made a mental note to photograph it. I can't seem to make up my mind — black and white or color? What do you think?

Second on my list of middle of the night photos and only a couple hundred feet away from Leal's Tire Shop is a lovely, little boutique hotel (some might even call it a B&B) called The Heywood. I stayed there on my last trip to Austin and loved it. Quiet. Peaceful. Plush. And very close to a great little taqueria down the street.

Keeping an eye on the clock, waiting for sunrise, I wandered around in the pre-dawn hours looking for a good place from which to shoot the sunrise. I found it at last, though I'm not sure how, at Butler Park, between Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road. Using the compass app and a sunrise app on my iPhone, I figured out exactly where the sun would come up. Playing a photographer's game of blind-man's-bluff, I found the perfect spot in the darkness from which to shoot the skyline just as the sun rose.

Finishing up, I saw this little twinkle as I turned around to leave for a hardy breakfast. It's the Austin Green Energy Building. They're responsible for the sustainability movement in Austin architecture and construction.

I'm not one to pass by a Harley begging to be photographed. Found this while driving around a neighborhood looking for subjects.

It must be the "Red Convertible Syndrome." You know, you buy a red convertible and suddenly they're everywhere. Take an Architectural Photo Tour and just by chance you run into the Texas Society of Architects headquarters. I really had no idea where it was. No, really.

Little did I know that I'd be circling back to where I started from as the day progressed. The Long Center for the Performing Arts is a stone's throw from my morning panorama. When I started shooting it, I didn't even know what it was or where I was in relation to the sunrise. I had to ask someone what this strange looking building was. It wasn't until much later when I could look at a map that I realized that I hadn't traveled very far at all, though I had been driving all over the city during the day.

As I approached the enclosed outdoor area of the Long Center with the thought of taking a panorama through the columns, a door opened and a squad of people appeared pushing a cart full of music stands, instrument cases, and sundry items toward me, then, past me to the edge directly under that big "halo" you see in the photo above.

Obviously, they were about to get right in the way of my spectacular panorama. Within a few minutes, more people arrived from within the building and from the lawn beyond. I realized quickly that my vision of a pristine panorama broken into segments by all those columns was shot to hell and it was time to make lemonade.

As it turns out, even with the complicating factor of hundreds of people wandering all over the place making stitching my pano much more difficult than I originally thought, it adds the very reason for this beautiful architecture to exist at all — dirty, nasty, unpredictable humanity, in all its glory.

When all the dancing started — didn't see that coming! — I wished I'd had another camera with me so that I could have shot some video, particularly when the crowd started doing Lindy Hop. But I had decided to travel light and not bring a backup with me on my road trip. C'est la vie!

I must have shot more than a dozen panoramas between 5pm and about 9pm. At some point, I may work on the others. These will do for now.

UPDATE 9/7/14: In retrospect, I didn't really hit my stride until I got to San Antonio. Up to late in the evening in Austin, I'd been struggling to stay awake from the cumulative lack of sleep since leaving Dallas and finding some sort of routine on the road. So, I'll have to go back to do a little more architectural exploration in Austin.

—ø—

San Antonio

Moving on to San Antonio, I stayed with my friends Hector and Theresa Reyes. I worked with Hector at KTFM in S.A. way back when we were both skinny.

In the control room at KTFM back in the day

Shot some promo shots of Hector and his radio partner, Sonny Rios, on Monday for the streaming Internet Radio show they're planning. Can't wait to hear them back on the "air."

That was day one in S.A. Before the sun set completely, Hector gave me a quick tour of downtown and I found something I had to photograph first thing on Day 2 in San Antonio — the San Antonio Public Library. Gorgeous structure!

Realizing I'd forgotten something I needed from the car, I took a short hike back to the parking lot and was greeted by the Weston Centre and the Wyndham Riverwalk.

Weston Centre and Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk

The trip to the car brought to my attention a need that could only be met by a trip to the camera store. That meant calling it quits for the morning and heading out north on San Pedro to The Camera Exchange. Great people. One of the few remaining brick and mortar camera stores in the country. But it's good to have expert advice for camera problems when you're on the road.

Later in the day the sun was still overhead and not very good for most shooting. You may know that photographers prefer "Golden Hour," the time of morning or evening when the light makes everything glow and casts beautiful shadows. I thought I might find something to shoot in an area that is tree-covered and hard to shoot during Golden Hour — Alamo Heights and Olmos Park, two of the more upscale neighborhoods in S.A. It did not disappoint.

As the day wore on, I made my way back downtown on what turned out to be a very hot day. How hot was it? It was so hot, that when I photographed the Milam Building, below, standing in the hot center of a hot, black, asphalt parking lot, all I could think of was, "Ow! Oooh! Ouch! Ah! Gotta. Hurry. Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Quickly, though, I was in the shadows of the downtown canyon and good bit cooler.

I was told this was a movie theater. Beyond these two columns, it looks like it might be a food court. Interesting.

Something about the Hotel Valencia struck my imagination and I saw it as a very old, very European hotel. It inspired me to take a look at how it might appear in other-than-a-traditional style. I'm kinda diggin' the aged look, myself.

By the time I finished with the Valencia, I was feeling the heat again. As I walked by the Buckhorn Saloon, something of a tourist-y type of place, the arctic blast from their wide-open doors invited me in for a little respite. Of course, once I was in, I had to shoot the place. Not sure what the food and drink are like but ya gotta love the decor. As someone who grew up with a couple of deer heads mounted on his bedroom wall — they turned and looked at me in bed every night! I swear. — seeing this just made me a little nervous. That water buffalo or whatever it is, there on the far left, has a glint in his eye and he was snorting while I was there. Word!

I love how cities keep around old line stores to commemorate not only the business but the city's history. It's one of the things that I dislike about my hometown, Dallas. If it's more than 50 years old it's gotta come down! But. . . I digress. Shooting the old Walgreen Drugs store made me think I was looking at a picture postcard from the 40s or 50s.

As I was setting up to shoot the photo, below, of the breezeway entry of the Hyatt Regency, I struck up a conversation with a gentleman sitting on a bench to my left. As many conversations begin, we started talking about the weather. But I soon found out much more about the older man than I might have assumed. His name is Carl Russell. "My full name is Carlton but everyone just calls me Carl." I asked if I could use his full name and he said that I might.

Carlton used to work at the US Treasury in Fort Worth, one of only two facilities in the country where the government prints currency, the other being Washington, D. C. These days, he works for DARS. "The DARS Division for Rehabilitation Services is designated as the state's principal authority on the vocational rehabilitation of Texans with disabilities. . . ," according to their website.

We were having a "good ol' time," as my grandmother might have said, but soon my work was done and I was burning daylight. As we were walking away from our chance meeting, Carlton looked back at me and said, "You really made my day." That may have been the best thing anyone has said to me in a very long time.

San Antonio is not known for it's skyline. But it has a wonderful variety of architectural styles that make for a marvelously diverse cityscape. Of course, there is the Alamo, but there's a lot more.

"La Segunda Compañía Volante de San Carlos del pueblo del Alamo" - The Alamo — "*La Segunda Compañía Volante de San Carlos del pueblo del Alamo*" - The Alamo

It was interesting (to me, at least) that even though I knew there would be a crowd near the Alamo, when I got there and set up the camera, there wasn't a soul within 30 feet of the front of the old mission. The only person in the picture is the guard shown at the entrance to the barracks there in the lower left of the photo. And he shied away from having his photo taken directly by turning the crown of his hat toward the camera.

As many times as I've been to and through the Alamo, I find myself welling up with gratitude when I get near it. Gratitude to the men and women who died so I could call myself a Texan.

I have a lot more to show but time is short and I must away to the Land of Nod. El Paso awaits at dawn.

Workaround

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 27, 2014

The Apple Store solution may be what I needed. I have taken some photographs and I am hereby uploading them. I'm just off Woodway Drive in Houston.

Keep in mind -- and this is only the very anal photographer talking -- these images are not the final images that will be presented to the world. This is just straight out of the camera with maybe a little tweaking in iPhotos on my iPad. They may not even make the final portfolio.

ROAD TRIP-DAY 2-HOUSTON

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 26, 2014

Day 2 got off to a late start only because of leaving Dallas so late. Yes, I know, 10:30am is not exactly prime time for a photographer. But it gave me time to catch up on my rest and re-group.

Not being familiar with Houston, I desperately drove around, ignoring or failing to see all manner of traffic signs and signals. (Oh, yes, I was one of THOSE today.) This is what happens when you (meaning I) have to look at the surroundings and don't have a driver.

Nonetheless, I stumbled into some very upscale neighborhoods and managed to only be questioned twice about my activities. Both occasions were rather pleasant, actually.

UPDATE: All the images below were added 8/20/14, as I've finally come back around to finishing the processing that, for technical reasons, couldn't be done on the road. I'm going to leave the images previously uploaded intact so you can see both versions. I think you'll notice a marked difference in the duplicates, especially in the shadow detail and holding highlights without blowing them out. Your comments are always welcome. Please make them here, not on Facebook.

I suppose an all-white house helps with utilities during the summer.

A bell tower. To call the neighbors? I'm not sure. But I like it.

This house reminds me of the rigging on a sailing ship.

They just don't want to sell, I'm told. 3 or 4 houses down from the Sail House, above.

There was a taqueria next to a Shell station that will have to wait until later because I had to shoot it as a stitched panorama. Kinda cool, though. . . even though I had to shoo off a customer to slightly out of frame.

Later in the day, I found a whacked barbershop with the stripes not only on the barber pole but all over the building.

I stopped to take a photo of a remarkably beautiful statue of Christ in front of a church and was promptly stopped by a poor, lost soul who needed directions and thought I might have the answers she sought. Look higher, I told her.

Later, I unknowingly circled back to a spot I'd been at previously and photographed an ad hoc memorial to someone who had been killed on a bicycle. Sad that.

Late in the day. I started circling downtown Houston in order to get a skyline shot of the city. Driving through a lower-end neighborhood, I came upon a great view with only a fence and some low obstructions in the way of a great shot. I pulled over, got out of the truck and suddenly realized that my "obstruction" was actually a cemetery, probably an old one. I took some test shots and climbed a curb to see over the fence.

I had no footing for the tripod so I rigged a lash to the fence with a bungee cord to steady the 'pod and it was solid as a tombstone. Serendipity is your friend in photography and dumb luck was with me. I couldn't have found a more perfect composition if I'd planned it. And I didn't. I'll leave the meaning for you to decide.

And, finally, as the sun sets, we bid a fond farewell to Houston. This last building, I think, is a town home. Perhaps, a business. It's hard to tell in Houston because of the lack of zoning laws. Behind me as I took the photo there is a TV station. Nonetheless, I knew I had to shoot it as soon as I drove by. In spite of having to wait for a couple of people who couldn't have cared less that they were making me wait on dinner and, possibly, ruin a shot with great light by standing around talking on their cell phones, I outlasted them both and came home with the goods.

From this angle, this looks like a very blocky, very stubby wing. On end. A town home, I think.

Headed to Austin tonight and I'll probably stay in the car at a rest area. Wasn't too bad last time. It can work in a pinch.

More tomorrow from Austin, Texas, the city too weird to grow up. Gotta love it! Later!

BTW, if you ever get to Kingwood, TX, stop in at Wise Guys Pizza. Delicoso!

ROAD TRIP-DAY 1-HOUSTON

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 26, 2014

Houston is surprising on a number of levels. First of all, it is a MUCH bigger ciy than Dallas, far more convoluted, and I have yet to discern a logical layout to the city. It's also denser. Not just in population but in terms of the businesses and buildings and whatnot all crammed together. If it were Dallas the city would be physically twice as big. It's amazing how they cram so much into so little space.

And it's alive! Driving through downtown this evening looking for photographic opportunities I saw more people doing more different things than I could possibly have imagined.

You'll notice that I'm not adding any photos to my photo blog. I'm still having a bit of an issue transferring JPEGs from the card in my camera to my iPad and eventually the website I'll try to figure this out because what's a photo blog without photographs? Right?

I'm finding a wealth of opportunities for taking photographs, architecturally speaking. After all, that's what this tour's all about, right?

I shot some photographs of the museum district right around sunset and we'll see how those turn out. Finally, I had some soup at a Vietnamese restaurant (rather mediocre) and found a real hotel to stay in for the night. Dead tired after a long, hot, humid (but productive) day. Night-night!

ROAD TRIP-DAY 1-HUNTSVILLE

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 26, 2014

I finally left home at 11pm and hit the road for Houston. Took me way too long to pack and unpack and pack again. Keep thinking about George Carlin's routine about "stuff." Seems like I'm trying to take ALL my stuff, not just a smaller version of it. Aaaarrrrgghh!

Just north of Huntsville, about 1:30am, I stopped at a rest area. I was way over-tired and had to get a couple hours sleep in the back of the truck. Not bad, really. The bed I made before I left town paid dividends!

I'd heard that RIck Perry had done a bang up job on the rest areas along Texas highways but I have to say, this one exceeded my expectations. Sadly, no shower, though. A trucker sitting outside doing paperwork told me this is one of the best ones in the state because Sam Houston's home was here.

On the road again at about 4am.

Gassed up at an automated station in Huntsville. First time I've done that. Kind of strange. $3.339/gal.

Grabbed breakfast at the IHOP around the corner. My waitress, Darlene, is from Onalaska, on Lake Livingston. First time ever that I've been asked if I would be needing Wi-Fi.

Ordered a low-cal breakfast but my tummy couldn't take it. Way too much grease. Asked for some oatmeal instead. It was not much better. Actually, it was my stomach that was so sensitive. The food was fine.

Hope this doesn't last long. Two weeks of upset stomach could be miserable.

She gave me directions to "The Walls," the Texas prison Huntsville is famous for. Need to get cleaned up and head over there.

You know, I wonder if my upset stomach is due to taking that chewable B-12 on an empty stomach. Let it be so! Won't make that mistake again.

Photographing "The Walls" is not exactly how I envisioned starting this trip. But there you have it. I'll hang out here for a bit, get cleaned up, and drive over to the prison. Now, that's a sentence I never thought I'd write!

If I'm not mistaken, The Walls faces north, which means the sun will be rising and the sky lightening behind and to the left of the building, as I view it. Lots of "ifs" in there!

Shooting The Walls was not a problem. Technically. But as soon as I set up the camera, almost as soon as I had the tripod on the ground, an assistant warden, Warden Smith came out and wanted to know what the hell I was doing. That was not his attitude but it's what he wanted.

In the end, he gave me about five minutes to do what I needed to do. Fortunately, that's all the time I needed.

Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out a way to transfer images from my camera to my iPad. I think a visit to an Apple Store or a camera store is in my very near future.

Still, the day is young and I've got road to cover between here and Houston. And lots of photographs to take.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 24, 2014

So much for getting out of Dodge in a hurry! Bumper-to-bumper traffic for the past half mile at least and another 2 miles or so past this point. Not real happy about this but what the hell can I do? Work on I-30 continues ad infinitum.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day and streets won't be nearly as clogged. Yikes! As you can see above, only 12.9 miles into the Tour. Took an hour to get back to Dallas from E. Fort Worth. Ouch.

5, 4, 3, 2. . . Houston, we have a problem!

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 24, 2014

And the problem is, I am waaaaay too anal about planning for every contingency. My idea of packing light, evidently, is loading the back of my truck with way too much gear. Not just photo gear. Camping gear, rain gear, solar power gear, coffee gear, cleaning gear. Hell, I'm not totally sure that I haven't pack some transmission gears for good measure!

10, 9, 8, 7. . . .

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 23, 2014

The 2014 Texas (NM & OK) Architectural Photo Tour starts tomorrow. Nine cities in 13 days, covering 2100 miles (not including driving around each of those nine cities, looking for iconic architecture. What is iconic architecture, you ask? The only way I know to describe it is that it's the building you stare at every time you drive by. Send me the name and address of that building if it's in Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio (the Alamo doesn't count), El Paso, Albuquerque, Amarillo, or Oklahoma City. Or it could be within 20 miles of the route highlighted on the map in my last blog post.

It doesn't have to be a skyscraper downtown. Those are nice, certainly, but perhaps a bit obvious. It can be any kind of building that grabs your attention. A garage/gas station, restaurant, store, or even a dry cleaner. It just needs to hold your gaze when you pass by.

Looks like there may be some nasty weather tonight, not sure about tomorrow, but it looks like I'll be moving past it tomorrow -- Houston is the first stop. If you can accommodate a weary traveler, fantastic. Otherwise, I'm doing this on the cheap and will probably find a motel on I-10 west of Houston.

Not that I've told many close friends about it, but I'm really excited about taking a road trip. A weekend-long road trip can be pretty spontaneous. A two-week-long road trip, however, requires, at the least, a bit more thought. For me, anyway.

Have a few things to do today before leaving tomorrow. We’ll catch up later.

The 2014 Texas (NM & OK) Whirlwind Architectural Photo Tour

Lawrence Standifer Stevens July 21, 2014

It’s the 2014 Texas Whirlwind Architectural Photo Tour! Well, actually, that should be the Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma Architectural Photo Tour. But that’s just too damned hard to say.

My itinerary includes 9 cities in 14 days: From Dallas on Thursday, July 24th, to Houston, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, back to Fort Worth, and home to Dallas. I am totally insane!!! But I’m going to do it, nonetheless.

2014 TX NM OK Architectural Photo Tour -- CLICK to enlarge

I want to photograph your favorite building — of whatever size — in each of those cities. This is not a contest. However, it is a request for your help. As familiar as I am with Dallas and, somewhat, Fort Worth, I haven’t been to those other cities in years and need your help in identifying those buildings that are iconic in stature.

That doesn’t mean they have to be skyscrapers in the downtown Central Business District. Hell, the buildings you suggest could be. . . a funky little gas station or taqueria, or a 3-story office building. Do you find yourself staring at it every time you drive by? THAT’S the building I want to photograph!

Why, you ask, am I doing this? Simple. It’s time to update my Architectural Portfolio and get serious about a longtime interest in this area of photography.

Along the way, maybe I’ll meet some interesting people and throw back a beer or two during down times. I’ll try my best to blog about it here while I’m on the road.

With the best sun in the morning and evening, I won’t have much of a chance to shoot a LOT of buildings, just the ones that fall into that iconic category. Write me an email (Tanguero@mac.com), text me (469-279-9018) or Tweet me (@TangueroLS) and tell me exactly where the building or business is — correct addresses earn extra points!

And while your at it, pass this along to your friends, and ask them to pass it along. The more people involved, the better.

By the way, for anyone who makes a contribution to the cause along the way, there's a print of your favorite building with your name on it waiting for you at the end. Or, rather, with MY name on it, since. . . well, you get the idea.

Give your clients a face to hang their hopes on

Lawrence Standifer Stevens May 13, 2014

Sitting in my doctor's clinic, I often watch the other patients. They sit quietly but many show signs of anxiety: they fidget in their chairs, look around the room at nothing at all, and give the once-over to people who walk into the waiting room as they arrive or after they have seen the doc.

I can only use my own experience being a new patient as my guide but this is what I believe: Part of the anxiety those new patients feel has to do with not knowing who is going to treat them for whatever condition that ails them. Simple, really. Who the heck is this stranger who's going to poke and prod me and probably cause me pain before I can get a prescription for a miracle drug that will cure me and make me feel like a new person?

That stranger, in my case, turned out to be my Primary Care Physician and has become a good personal friend, Dr John Richmond, who was the 2007 Family Physician of the Year, awarded by Texas Academy of Family Physicians.

Honestly, I got lucky. Some docs (God love 'em all!) just don't have much bedside manner, particularly in a clinic situation where they often see more patients in a day than might seem humanly possible. To his credit, Dr John works with me as a senior "team member" to help me through my occasional malady.

But let's get back to that new patient. The anxiety he or she is feeling could be softened a bit by giving them a wall full of photographs of smiling faces and short quotes of something personal and empathetic. Credentials? Fuggeddaboudit! What that patient is wanting is reassurance that everything is going to be okay. If they want credentials, too, they can ask for them. And they probably will.

Here's the bottom line: Regardless of the type of business you're in, give your patients/clients/customers a face that reassures them that the world and their place in it is going to be just fine. It'll pay dividends. I promise.

— Lawrences Standifer Stevens

Want better photos? Slow down and speed up.

Lawrence Standifer Stevens April 30, 2014

Slow down and speed up? How is that supposed to improve my photography? I can already hear you saying words to that effect.

But it is true.

By slowing down the entire process of making a photograph, we see more clearly the things that stand out in that image. And often, we will see those things in greater detail, not simply with greater clarity. What does this do? It sometimes — not always but often enough — will give us greater insight into the main subject, insight that usually isn't possible when we rush to press the shutter.

Next time you grab your camera to photograph that sump'n-sump'n that is drawing you to it like a moth to an old sweater, do this: Slow down. And. Really. Look. At. Your. Subject. Don't care what it is. . . unless it's the license plate of a car speeding away after sideswiping your brand new Tesla. . . just slow down.

What you'll notice is that you may start looking at your subject from more than one point of view. This is a good thing. It leads to discovery, and understanding. "Ooooh, I see," you'll say, "I don't want to shoot it from here. . . mmmm. . . I need to be over there. And a LOT closer."

Taking the time to explore your subject before you even put the camera to your eye pays extraordinary dividends. You get to be really present in the moment. And that is very good training for the rest of your life. Letting your eyes glaze over and daydreaming your ass off is not an altogether bad thing. But it is not always appropriate to one's circumstance.

It doesn't matter what type of camera you use or whether you are a Canonista, Nikonian, or a Sony Maroney. You could be a pro or an am. Doesn't matter. Slowing down your process will inevitably lead to better photographs.

"What about speeding up? You forgot that part, you sly devil, you!"

Now this part is aimed more at the beginner. You know who you are. You just got that brand new Kodak Brownie and you're afraid to waste film so you only take one shot of each subject. Whoops! Welcome to the digital age. Once you have the camera, there's not much more expense to it. Shooting frames is virtually free!

Why is this important? If you only take one shot of a subject, you'll never know if there might have been a Pulitzer Prize winning photo of the subject seven frames later. Subject blinked? Oh, well.

You may have heard the term "spray and pray." It refers to the practice of (almost) indiscriminately shooting frame after frame in the hope that a good image just happens to be captured. That's not what we're talking about.

On the contrary, taking enough shots to completely explore an image has a much higher ratio of selects to rejects than spray and pray. It's a conscious thing, shooting lots of images from a variety of different POV's, where spray and pray is almost an unconscious act. When you find that one image that works, well, that's what makes all the trouble you've gone to worthwhile.

— Lawrence Standifer Stevens

Where is a photograph made? In camera or in Photoshop?

Lawrence Standifer Stevens April 26, 2014

The two schools of thought on this subject are at appositional opposition. There are those photographers who adamantly insist that a photograph should be created in camera through traditional (or non-traditional but outside the box) means. Others believe that RAW pixels are merely the raw material for making an image great and that tools like Photoshop (PS) and Lightroom (LR) are where a photograph truly takes its first breath.

Us? We let the photo be our guide. Often, the main objective in camera is to light the subject/scene in a way that (with current technology) cannot be simulated in software and to compose the image as simply as possible, whether we zoom with our feet or our lens. Cropping in camera, in our view, makes for a larger possible print than cropping in PS/LR.

At a minimum, every final selection from a shoot is dodged and burned (to use old-school terms) and sharpened. We also will adjust the histogram (the display of distribution of light and dark tones) so that the image is printable. That is, the image should have no blown highlights and few, if any, plugged up shadows with no detail.

After that, we remove objects (telephone wires, unwanted birds too far away to be of interest, lens flares, stray hairs, etc.) that detract from the subject/scene.

Once all this is done, a photograph will tell us whether it's done (stick a fork in it) or it needs further manipulation. Sometimes, it will call out for another element -- clouds in a bald, uninteresting sky, let's say.

Let's stipulate that that's exactly what it needs. Clouds. We keep a folder full of clouds that we photograph for this very purpose. Here's an example of just such a photograph:

Yes, we know It's not a photograph taken all at the same moment. Get over it. Composite photos have been made almost as long as photographs have been made.

And this one, as they go, is a pretty simple one to execute. Merely select the aforementioned bald, uninteresting sky, refine the edge along the treetops to prevent a white outline, mask the clouds with the field of hay and trees, and you're almost done.

Doing this kept us from having to wait days or weeks for the proper clouds and take the chance that the field would be cleared of the hay, and it also affords us the flexibility of adjusting all the elements of both sky and field independently -- contrast, highlights, shadows, sharpness, etc.

Even though this is a composite, we did everything we could to frame and expose both elements. We waited about half an hour for the last bit of sunlight to skim across the field and hit the hay at just the right angle. The shadow from the horizon was moving so quickly that next frame was half-covered in shadow and the hay rolls were dark where they were light moments before.

The clouds were almost as difficult to capture. Shooting them from a high vantage point to remove clutter and bracketing exposure to make sure there were no blown highlights took some experimentation, too. Pumping up the contrast, they became a bit more ominous than they appeared to the eye. Adjusting them further in PS/LR helped to exaggerate that effect.

So, when it comes to making a good photograph, we go to one school to get what we can and then on to another to make the most of all that we learned. It's really an ongoing exercise and we never fail to learn something new with every photograph.

— Lawrence Standifer Stevens

Being Prepared v. Being In The Moment

Lawrence Standifer Stevens April 23, 2014

Last week, we travelled to Austin to photograph a client as a 60th birthday gift. Even though it was a non-paying job, we like to be prepared as if it were of the paying variety. We believe it keeps us on our toes and fights off the urge to become — how do we put it? — lackadaisical.

So, prep included research on the locations where the client wanted to shoot, some rough storyboards, and packing all the gear we anticipated even the remotest possibility of needing. If you are a shooter, you know what I’m talking about. It gets pretty intense out there, far away from the studio and all the resources we might normally have at our fingertips. Who knows what might come up?

However. . . in the moment, things don’t seem to seem to be quite as exigent as they do in the planning stage. Carrying a boatload of gear while concentrating on how to light, compose, and shoot a subject to best capture her tender personality seems, at best, a bit contradictory. Particularly when the location frowns upon the use of said boatload as it might detract from other visitors' experience. So, the boatload becomes a dinghy, if not a raft.

The point is, in the moment, getting the shot means doing it as simply as possible with little more than just the camera, lens, and a single “voice-activated” lighting unit (or assistant, for short). Okay, we did go to the car for a reflector for fill. But moving quickly, leaving a small footprint, capturing the essence of the subject, these are the things that matter, not having access to every piece of gear we own.

As it turns out, we captured more successful images than we thought possible by keeping it simple. It’s something to think about.

— Lawrence Standifer Stevens

Heading to the Street

Lawrence Standifer Stevens April 16, 2014

I find myself lost in thought more and more, contemplating my navel and coming away with no answers at all. Solving none of the world's problems and precious few of mine, gazing inward seems more and more pointless. So, turning outward to the world and action therein seems like it might be more appropriate. Out to take a walk through downtown Dallas with my camera, I find lots of pretty people but none with a face that interests me. Typically, I turn to things to satisfy my need to capture what I see in the world.

Please enjoy a sample and visit the page where it lives. Look for STREET in the GALLERIES menu.

— Lawrence Standifer Stevens