I wanted to post some Bridal Portraits I took back in November from a wedding I photographed in the Austin, TX area.

I photographed the wedding on a Saturday night with one of my associates, then on Tuesday we photographed the bride and groom where they had the reception on Saturday night.  It was a gorgeous day outside and we got some very nice photos.  I hope you enjoy them.

Beautiful weather today in Austin.  Going to meet up with some friends later this afternoon for a photo excursion and I’m really looking forward to it.  Something different for me.  I like to try new things.

Merry Christmas to everyone and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

I’m not nearly as relevant as I need to be in order to get some more people reading and following my blog.  Of course, a lot of it is my fault, as I haven’t been posting as regularly as I should be.  I guess one of my new year’s resolutions will be to write on my blog more often in the 2012 year.

I was in Barnes and Noble last Friday and to my surprise, the January 2012 issue of Airways magazine is out on display and ready to purchase.  Why is this so important, you ask?  Well because I wrote an article for the magazine as well as included some photographs for the article as well.

Here is a link to the Airways magazine website that features this month’s issue.  Down the middle of the website / webpage, you can see my article about my trip on the BAC-111 aircraft I flew on, on August 27, 2011.  It was an awesome trip.  Go buy the magazine and read all about it.

http://www.airwaysmag.com/channels.html?article_id=242&channel_id=16

Also, the story will also be published in the January 2012 issue of Airways magazine.  This magazine is published in the United States and it can also be found at most Barnes and Noble stores.

This is my second article to be published by Airliner World magazine.  My first was a couple of years ago when I wrote about the new Founder’s Plaza viewing area at DFW Airport.  I had submitted a few airliner photos to the editor, Tony Dixon and told them they were from the new viewing area and he told me to write a story about this new viewing area.  I told him I had never written an article before and he gave me some tips and told me what to write about, why was this a new viewing area, what happened to the old one, etc. and from there, I wrote my first article.

It truly is very exciting to see your name in print and to know that a great number of people will be reading any article you personally wrote.  Can’t imagine the thrill of writing a book.  I seem to talk a lot, but I can’t even begin to imagine the words it would take to write a book.  Wow.

For those who don’t remember, here are a few photographs from my trip on the BAC-111.

I’ve been in a really funky mood lately due to some personal things going on in my life and I just wish I could get them resolved.  Truthfully, I think the only way they will be resolved is with time and prayer.  I guess I’m also somewhat anxious about the upcoming holiday season.  That always seems to put stress on everyone and people seem to be a little more tense during this time period.  It is also a time when a number of people go through some severe depression as they are away from their family and loved ones, or possibly they just truly don’t have any family, loved ones or close friends to share this season with and that makes me sad.

One thing that REALLY irks me about the holiday season is that many retailers have already started their preparations for Christmas and yet we haven’t even celebrated Thanksgiving yet.  That REALLY bugs me !!  Thanksgiving is an IMPORTANT American holiday and we need to take the time to celebrate it and honor the traditions of this special holiday.  I know there are many times during the year where I get depressed and feel sorry for myself and think I have it so bad, yet I know that I am probably more fortunate than 95 % of the world by being born in America.  Yes, our country has its problems, what country doesn’t?  Yet if American still weren’t the greatest country in the world, why would so many people from around the world want to come here, either legally or illegally?  God has blessed our country beyond measure, yet we can’t take time out of our lives to take the time to THANK God for all that He has given us as Americans?  I just really find that sad.  I do think I’ve heard that Target (I could be mistaken) or some other large chain, (I doubt that it is Wal-Mart !!) has said they will not put up any Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving.  If it is Target, I certainly salute them and their actions.

I am getting excited about next week, as I am driving down to Austin to photograph a wedding of a friend of mine, next Saturday, and then I will spend the next week with my sister and her family and celebrate Thanksgiving with them.

In closing, I had the opportunity last week to photograph a Gulfstream G-IV corporate aircraft and wanted to post a few photos.  I’m not very pleased with the photographs and I have a LOT to learn about photographing interiors.  Thankfully, I will get another opportunity to photograph this plane in the near future.

Went down to Austin last weekend to help a friend of mine photograph a couple of Pop Warner football games as she had never shoot any sporting events. It was a lot of fun but the thing that sticks in my mind so vividly from shooting these games is the screaming parents. They are shouting to their kids to play harder, cover your man better, don’t let the other kid on the other team beat you, etc! What happened to just letting kids have fun playing a game? These are 8 to 12 year olds playing a GAME!! These parents will ruin it for many of their kids and they will quit playing a GAME!!

Okay, I will now get off of my soap box and finish this blog.

Also while I was down in Austin, I had the wonderful opportunity to work witha model named, Haley Elise. Got some excellent photos of her and I will post some of her on my next blog.

Going to be a great weekend, the weather is gorgeous outside, the Fort Worth Air Show is in town this weekend plus I’ve got a Senior Portrait session on Saturday and a Family Portrait session on Sunday.

It is my belief that Steve Jobs will go down in history as our generation’s Thomas Edison.

Think of all the many lives this incredibly brilliant man has changed!

Rest In Peace, Steve.

First thing I would like to say is this, if you are reading my blog, thank you so very much for taking the time to read and view it.  I know your day is extremely busy in this fast-paced world we live in, so thanks again for stopping by and reading my posts.

I had a great week this past week and the highlight of the week was the opportunity to go out and photograph a classic airliner from the World War II era.  I finally got the chance to photograph a DC-3 and it was magnificent!  I have a friend who is a airline mechanic and he started to talk to some people who work on this beautifully restored airliner and told them about me.  My friend arranged for me to meet with the people who were going to fly this aircraft to Washington Dulles Airport for a special, “airplane pull” contest that benefits a charity in the area.  Airplane pools are a lot of fun and give a chance for the airlines to give back to the communities from time to time.

So I went out to the airline’s maintenance hangars and woke up at around 5.00 a.m., to do this.  I met the very nice gentleman who had approved me coming out there to photograph their departure.  As I signed in for the necessary visitors pass, the security people told my escort that I also needed to get approval from a certain level of rank employee from the airline, that would approve me taking a camera out into the maintenance areas.  With it being so early, I really thought my chances were all of a sudden getting shot down to pieces, in a real hurry.  But thankfully, one of the employees who was riding on the DC-3, had this certain employee ranking within the company and I was able to photograph the aircraft.  I also was able to get on board the aircraft as they were preparing it for flight and took some interior shots of the airplane as well.  The people who work on this aircraft all the time told me that the interior was pretty much exactly to standards of what was actually on board the plane, when this aircraft was delivered from the factory in the mid to late 40′s.

After they did a lot of pre-flight work, they towed the aircraft out on the ramp and boarded the plane.  After about 10 minutes of completing their pre-flight checklist, the crew started up the port side (left side) engine first and it kicked up a beautiful smoke as the radial engine began to purr into action.  After about two minutes of tweaking the controls on that engine, they fired up the starboard side (right side) engine and it too, made some beautiful smoke to fill the morning air on the ramp.  The sound of those two engines humming along, as radial engines do, was music to my ears, even though I had ear plugs in my ears!

Once the engines were running at full speed for taxi, the pilot started to taxi the aircraft out on the tarmac and onto the active taxiway and then proceeded to taxi towards the end of the south part of the airport for take-off.  My escort put me along the north end of the tarmac, right next to the runway so I could get some great shots of the DC-3 taking off north, towards Denton Municipal Airport.  They were going up to Denton first, so they could fill up the plane.  Avgas was a lot cheaper at Denton Municipal Airport versus Fort Worth Alliance Airport.  The DC-3 became airborne and I got some great photographs of it as it was flying right past me and my escort.

It was a great time for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment I spent out there.  I thoroughly want to thank all the extremely nice and generous people who made this photo shoot possible for me.  I can’t thank you enough.

Here are a few photos of that special morning, I hope you enjoy them.