Candid Children Photography

     One of the most rewarding types of photography for me is when I'm asked to shoot a gathering of children. Candid child shots seem to offer an array of genuine expressions. The ratio of keepers is low but the shots that are true keepers usually are moving and emotional...

Opening Gifts

Gift Envy

Any More Cake?

The Beauty of Lake Tahoe

     After baking in the Texas heat all summer, and I mean ALL SUMMER, my wife and I retreated to the cool dry air of Lake Tahoe California. Although the day time highs were in the eighties by morning we were treated to lows in the thirties. Although it was the cooler air we were after the beauty of the surroundings is something to behold.

     The heat of the summer had put a damper on my photographic activity. I could hardly wait to explore the mountains and lakes for renewed inspiration and I wasn't disappointed.

   

Emerald Bay Sunrise

South Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake

Emerald Bay Sunset

New North Texas Stadium Nears Completion

A follow up to a previous post on the progress of construction of North Texas' new football stadium. The final stages of construction are nearing as photos show work appears to be right on schedule.

Boston Model Shoot

   During a recent vacation to the northeast with my wife I was requested to do an outside model shoot. I waited for an afternoon with good light to do the session. Although I didn't have the lighting gear I would normally would have used,  even with a single SB-900 and a Sto-Fen Omni Bounce diffuser, good results are still possible.

Friendship of Salem - Tall Ships Still Sail!

   Friendship of Salem is part of the National Park Service’s larger exhibit area at Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Friendship is a newly constructed ship based upon an East Indiaman built by Enos Briggs in Salem in 1797.

 The original Friendship was constructed in Briggs’ shipyard across the South River, near the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. The three-masted square-rigged 342-ton vessel was registered to merchants Jerathmiel Pierce and Aaron Wite of Salem.Friendship made 15 voyages around the world, trading for pepper, exotic spices, sugar, coffee and other goods.

 She was captured by the British during the War of 1812 and was condemned and sold. The newFriendship is handicap accessible and meets modern safety requirements but retains the appearance of the late 18th century vessel.

Evelina M. Goulart - Retired Fishing Schooner, Essex, MA

   The Evelina M. Goulart is an 83-foot (25.2-meter) fishing schooner built by Arthur D. Story in the Story Shipyard (now the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum) in 1927. She is one of seven surviving Essex-built fishing schooners and the only one to be virtually unchanged from its original configuration. At some point in her life she was converted into a fishing dragger, being fitted with an engine for the purpose.

 Throughout her life she was primarily used for swordfishing. In 1985 Hurricane Gloria touched down in the New England area and damaged the stern of the Goulart. Tied up to the wharf and retired, her engine was removed. At some point the bilge pumps failed and the vessel sank.

In 1990 Evelina M. Goulart was donated to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Housed in an open-sided shed, the ship was intended as an example of ship construction, once the ship was stabilized. However the hull is badly deteriorated and the vessel may end its days at the breakers, with only the significant portions preserved for the future.

Salem, MA - A Tough Place in 1692 !

 From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging.

 Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges.

 Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials.  Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.