I started classes 2 weeks ago. Between the day job, the hobby, trying to exercise, and keeping up with classword my life has been like a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. It’s only going to get even more hectic over the next couple of months as I try to tackle a couple of things that need attention.

However, since this is a photo blog and not a whiny emotional type blog, let’s get to the photography. I started my Photography II course earlier this month. The prophecies given by my Photography I teacher came to pass – we’re working in color for this course. This is not a bad thing as I want a better understanding of color where photography is concerned. I won’t say at this point whether I like color or black and white better since they both have their pros and cons.

We’re not going to be processing the film or developing prints in chemistry. The teacher has directed us to have our film processed by a third party and we will be using a color processor to achieve the prints. Our only interaction will be to expose the paper on the enlarger. I am a little sad that we won’t be working with chemistry ourselves as this helps to instill that photography is a process and not a singular event. I know I’ll be saving money by not having to purchase chemistry, but I have a feeling that paying a third party to process my film may get a little expensive.
The problem I’m have so far, however, is that I have 5 rolls of film shot (in 2 weeks time) and processed, but I have not yet had a chance to produce any prints! The teacher was there for the first 2 classes but has not been there for 2 of the last 3 meetings (the other meeting, which was the middle of the 2 that the teacher wasn’t present, I wasn’t able to attend due to a lingering migraine). I know he was sick and I hope everything is well with him… I’m just anxious to get started especially since I paid a lot of money to attend this course.
In the meantime, however, I’ve been keeping my Flickr page updated. I haven’t been trying to ignore this blog. It takes a lot of time to develop the words I write here and I want to make sure that everything is at the very least coherent. I apologize for those who may have been waiting for me to update these pages.
Anyway, on to the pictures…

My mother came down to Houston for 2 weeks to watch my cousins as my uncle (her brother) and his wife took a 20th anniversary vacation to Greece (which, incidently, is where they met and married… ironically neither one is Greek). My wife, my mom, her best friend in New York, and I all went down to Corpus Christi, TX over one weekend to visit my grandmother. Since I’m enrolled in a Photo II course, I took my trusty Pentax 645 along with my Canon DSLR. I shot three rolls of Kodak Portra 160 (1 roll of VC and 2 rolls of NC) and about 7 digital shots. After having the film processed, I’ve settled on the shots I like the best.

These 2 shots were taken with the Pentax 645. We were on a T-head along the coast looking at the replica of the Nina. Both of these were pointed out to me… my grandmother pointed to the pelican and my wife pointed to the buildings. The pelican was sitting on that post just past the end of a slip. I walked to the end of the slip to get him… he cast a disinterested look toward me, but that was it… he really didn’t care that I was there. As for the shot of downtown Corpus Christi – I had already gotten some similar shots from other vantage points on the T-head, but in one particular spot my wife had pointed me in that direction again and somehow I knew that where I was standing would be the best shot of these buildings.


In terms of composition this particular picture is my favorite. The city of Corpus Christi, with its shining beacons, is in the background. In the foreground is a desolate area of rock and dirt. The wide water barrier separates the city from the desolate area. The lone man with his fishing pole seems distraught. Has the water yielded no bounty today? Does he dread his task ahead? Perhaps he longs to be in the city, but cannot get there. Has the city cast him out? Is he an outsider to afraid to go in?

This was actually taken before we had gotten to the T-heads. Shoreline Drive follows the Corpus Christi coast right into the downtown area. Along this road are a number of small municipal parks were families can enjoy the weather. This was taken from one of those parks.


While the lonely fisherman may be my favorite, this one has quickly become a favorite on Flickr. I must admit I am rather proud of how this one turned out as in the original scan the picture was very washed out. The scale that is shown here really gives a sense of the size of an aircrafter carrier – even our old World War II-era vessels. I am anxious to get this one in the lab to see if I can get it to come out the same on paper as I got it using Aperture.


These final 2 pictures were taken with my DSLR at sunset on Padre Island, just off the coast of Texas. We were getting ready to eat dinner at a place called Snoopy’s. The patio area of Snoopy’s happens to be a pier. I went out their while waiting for my fish and chips to see if I could capture the sunset. Believe it or not, I was able to get these without needing my tripod. I was proud of both of these as this was one of the first times I was able to get an accurate color representation at the time of the shot and was able to keep the post processing to a minimum.

As always, comments are welcome and encourage so I can continue to grow.