Desert Bowl

Desert Bowl, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Cadillac Sky

Cadillac Sky, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Cadillac Sunset

Cadillac Sunset, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Cadillac Ranch Graffiti

Cadillac Ranch Graffiti, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

The Cadillacs

The Cadillacs, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Prairie Rainbow

Prairie Rainbow, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

SunsetStorm

SunsetStorm, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Prairie Storm

Prairie Storm, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Prickly Pear

Prickly Pear, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Garrett at PDC

Garrett at PDC, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Palo Duro Canyon

Palo Duro Canyon, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Beautiful Palo Duro Canyon. I forget how much I love this place. If you like the West, then visit the canyon, which offers hiking, sight seeing, camping, mountain biking and picnics. Also, the outdoor play "Texas" is performed in the canyon through-out the summer.

Palo Duro Rescue

Palo Duro Rescue, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Oops! Climbers bit off more than they could chew this Memorial Day weekend. Rescuers were called in for help. Picture taken from the floor of Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas. Only injuries were to the climber's egos.

Paramount in Red

Paramount in Red, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Love this one!

Amarillo by Morning

It's been a while, but I'm back. I posted last week that I was heading to Amarillo for my cousin's wedding. Well, it was a great trip! I'm still trying to recover from the golf, beer, late nights, the beer and the bourbon, oh yeah, and the excellent food (yes, you have to recover from too much excellent food). I'll be loading a bunch of pictures from the trip, some that I think absolutely rock and others that are just family pics. If you're family and you'd like to see a whole lot more than I have here on the blog check out my Ryan's Wedding flickr set by clicking on the link. Check back over the week following this post because it'll take me some time to get everything uploaded.

Here we go: I've never taken pictures in an airport or on-board a plane before, so I really hoped they'd let me. Turns out it's no big deal at all.

Now why would they need to put a sign on the walkway telling people not to push it with the plane? I'd think it's just common sense to not push anything with a plane.

Southwest changed their seating procedure. You've been warned.

Ha-ha! The common man can take flying pictures too. Whooo-Hoooo!

So I get to Amarillo, pick up the rental and head to my brother's office where he's been working on a rubber band ball for quite some time. He's mighty proud of his work. What do you think?

Over all Garrett was a pretty good sport about the pictures. I drove him all over town in my quest to get everything, and he was a big help with ideas.

The 5 Wood

The 5 Wood, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Taken at the driving range at dusk, this is the first picture taken with my new 1.8/f 50mm lens. I cropped only, meaning this is straight out of the camera! Check out the detail the lens picked up. Called the "nifty fifty" by the Canon community because it's unbelievably cheap for the spectacular glass, I can't wait to go play with this lens.

Dad's full moon

Dad's full moon, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Dad called me up to tell me the moon was just over the horizon. He wasn't happy with my other full moon shot, I guess :p Like any good son I went out to take a picture for him. The things we do for our parents.

A little secret:

This picture is actually a compilation of two pictures. I had to slow the shutter way down to get the church as light as it is. I then increased the speed again for the moon picture. Later I merged the two in PS. The moon never seems big enough in the original pictures, meaning it doesn't look as big in the pictures as it looks when we see it with the naked eye, so I increased the scale of the moon in this picture to compensate.

Rabbit Ears

Rabbit Ears, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Mike lets Maddie get a little payback for his earlier antics. No tripod, and very little light so no choice but to use the OC flash. Photoshop helped a little, but I know I can do better than this.

Maddie on the Range

Maddie on the Range, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Maddie swinging away at the local range. She had a blast, but her hands had a few blisters. I've got to find some very small gloves for her.

Full Moon

Full Moon, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

I finally did it. I still can't believe it, but I had to ramp the shutter speed up to 1/800 of a second to get this shot at ISO 200. I only have an 85mm lens, but as my lens collection grows I'm sure this shot will improve.

Neon Vision

Neon Vision, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Favorite shot of the night. What better than a neon sign lighting up the night with an advertisement for eyeglasses.

Sky Statue

Sky Statue, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Looks better in a large view. Click on the image to go to flickr where a larger view can be found.

Railroad Brake Wheel

Railroad Brake Wheel, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Taken from the parking lot of the railroad museum on Galveston. Now I need to actually pay to get inside the museum and take more pictures.

Crackle Color

Crackle Color, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Found this nut and bolt attached to big, narrow spindle on the side of the road. The color grabbed my attention right away.

Saltgrass Sunset

Saltgrass Sunset, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Going for depth of field here, but the sun kind of took over the shot. I'll have to practice on something else from now on.

Going Home

Some good news, folks. I'll be heading to Amarillo on the 22nd for my cousin's wedding. No, I'm not the photographer. *huge sigh of relief from the peanut gallery* I'm looking forward to seeing the family, playing some golf, and taking lots of picture. Now what does Amarillo have to offer, you may ask yourself? Good question! I'll tell ya.

1. The Cadillac Ranch
2. Palo Duro Canyon
3. My brain damaged relatives. You know there's going to be good pictures when the whole lot of them are certifiable. If the cops show up I'll be sure to get a shot of that.
4. The Big Texan
5. A possible lightning storm. Though it may be too early in the season for them the lightning storms that roll in during the Spring are phenomenal. Watching bolt after bolt jump from cloud to cloud then strike the prairie just can't be described. I simply don't have the words.
   
6. The "hill" country North-West of town down Old Boys Ranch road. Anyone living in the real hill country of Texas would laugh, but it really is very pretty land. I recall a rancher building a white fence around the middle of one of the plateaus out that way in an effort to make the top of the plateau "float" in the air. I'd be shocked if the fence is still there, but if I see it I'll show you.
7. The crazy street signs design by some mad artist cemented into the middle of people's yards all over town.
   
8. Downtown and the East end of Amarillo Boulevard
   
9. The "Old West" meets "the '50s" feel to so many of the buildings and art.
   
10. Last, be certainly not least - Route 66.

Amarillo is where I was born, where I spent my summer's growing up, where I finished high school, learned to bartend, received an Associates to start my current career, and where my two kids were born. Though I doubt I'll ever live there again, I've a place in my heart for the prairie town. This will be my first time back in 8 years, so it'll be good to see what's changed, how it's grown, and what the people that bought my granddad's house did to it. He used to live on Memory Lane, and I've walked down his street. Yeah, I'm lame.

Momma Ruthie

Ruthie Portrait 2, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Happy Mother's Day. Yeah, I know it's not Mother's day anymore, but I started all of this on Mother's day, so it counts. I seriously have to get faster at processing pictures.

Like any good son who lives relatively close I visited mom on Mother's day. Please understand, mom's not doing so hot compared to most others her age because of a funcky, ultra-rare, pain in the ass disease which basically killed her lungs. She's only with us now because of a double lung transplant she underwent a little over a year ago. Understandably, I thought I should get a few pictures while I was over and mom went along with it. She doesn't have the strength to put up much of a fight, so I was getting the pictures whether she wanted to or not :)

I hope you like the after effects on the photos, mom. I still have the originals, so no worries there. Also, I did a little touch up and air brushing - you're a regular model now. Lova ya mom; hope you had a good day. And, thanks for the steak and potatos dad!

Ruthie on the swing

Ruthie on the swing, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Ruthie Portrait

Ruthie Portrait, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Vintage Ruthie

Vintage Ruthie, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

Happy Mother's day, Mom!

Ruthie and Trampus

Ruthie and Trampus, originally uploaded by Mike Seymour.

I'm digging on...

Pioneer Woman Photography by Ree. She's funny, and takes some amazing pictures. She also has a Photoshop Actions download that I tried for the first time tonight. Holy crap are actions cool! In just a bit you'll see the results, and I hope you like them.

Here's another blog with nothing to do with photography, but is extremely well written. The site is http://www.fatcyclist.com/, and though the site is based on mountain biking it expands into road cycling and the happenings in the life of the author. I love the author's sense of humor, and feel terrible for his family. Ever ridden down a road and had some *very bad expletive here* person swerve/honk/yell/throw something at you. If so, you've got to read this open letter from the Fat Cyclist.

On to the pictures. Hope you enjoy

Been busy

Hi again. I'm sorry; I don't have anything to show today. It's been pretty busy around here lately, and I haven't had much chance to take pictures. I did take a few, but they were pretty bad and I'll spare you. Just so you didn't waste all your time, here are a few links to some excellent photoshop tutorials:

Unsharpen Mask
Actions and Batch Processing
Black and White Toning in Photoshop CS3
Pop the Image in Photoshop CS3

Weekend Wrap-up

Last weekend was a lot of fun, and I'll upload a few pictures in a minute to prove it. Saturday included a trip to the parents to set up a new wireless network and new laptop followed by an Astros game. The Brewers were pounded, and we all had a good time. Did I mention we had box seats and the tickets were nice and free? Even included parking! You just can't beat that. Well, that's not exactly true. We had to pay for the beer and burgers, and the skybox tickets we lucked into at the Houston Open INCLUDED the beer and burgers. I sure do appreciate all the free tickets coming my way. Please, don't let the tap dry up!

I did the normal PhotoShop touch up to most of these images, but I did a little extra to one of them. See if you can tell which one. Enjoy.

"Blue Ride" - Coming home from the game.


"The Tools" - Parent's backyard.


"Rusty Clippers" - Parent's backyard.


"Spring Bloom" - Parent's Backyard


"The Pitch" - Brewers Vs Astros May 3, 08

Awesome colors!

Beautiful Entry, originally uploaded by Michael Seymour.

Have I mentioned that I love colors? I saw this wall and just about fell over drooling, and of course, took pictures. The composition isn't the best, but have I mentioned the colors? Wow!

DIY Softbox

Spending a lot of money for lighting is just beyond me right now despite the economic stimulous package which is going to help buy shocks and pay for a move. However, when the sun goes down I'd still like to be able to shoot. The solution? A DIY Softbox, but I'll need a plan. You've got to love the net. A little searching, and you can find almost anything. Here's the link to a great blog post telling you how to make one yourself for a fraction of the cost of buying one. Thanks to Alex Campagna for posting!

Other great DIY tips can be found at DIYPhotography.net.

Okay, so I know the only people currently reading this are friends and family, most of, if not all of whom don't care about this type of stuff, but blogging about it gives me a great way to write down and keep all the cool tips and tricks I find. Sorry, but you're just going to have to deal'wit'it.

Trip to the book store

What to do on a Thursday evening with the kids while mom's at the gym? Why, head to half-priced books of course. Here are a couple shots I took of the kids in the store. By the way, if you want to feel like you're drawing attention to yourself, start taking pictures of your kids in a book store. I felt like everyone in there was ready to call the police and have the pervert with the camera arrested.

I almost never use a flash anymore, but the camera still takes great pictures. Check out the colors in the picture of Maddie - just amazing! However, I seriously need to work on focus. I've been very disappointed lately with the lack of focus my photos have had, these included.