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New Galleries of Texas and Oklahoma Landscapes have been updated.

Lots of new images have been posted.

Click here to view the galleries.

Click here to see more

What will I think of next?

Keep coming back. I never stop creating.

Tips and tricks for night time photography

I am spilling my guts and letting out all the tips and tricks I used for night time photography. I have a lot of info already posted here in the photo gallery section. Click here to read what I have posted so far. I will keep updating this page as time allows me to write more in the evenings. But some of the basics as well as a lot of advanced tips and tricks are online for all to read up on and go out and experiment on your own.

So click on the gallery link and follow along. My site is set up to show my work of course, but it is also set up to help other photographer locate hard to find places. As always, simply email me if you have questions about images I have created or places I have been. I am always willing to write back with detail directions.

Night time photography gallery

See more illustrations at the Digital Gallery.

To buy this print, click here

Texas Photography Lessons and Workshops

Digital Photography - Level I

This class will teach you one on one to use your digital camera. We’ll begin with the basics, and then advance to using the various functions of your equipment, including camera operations, terms and terminology of photography, composition, flash photography.

You will learn about understanding the technical aspects of photography. You will leave with an understanding of things like depth of field and how to control it, hyper focal distance, shooting in aperture priority vs shutter priority. You will know how to shoot in manual mode and how to balance out exposures by manipulating f/stops and shutter speed and how ISO settings can affect this.

All of this will be set up in small groups or individuals as to give the one on one attention that is needed for you to enhance your skills level.

Level I class is $300
Private continuation classes: $100 per hour with a two hour minimum.
Private lesson can also be applied towards Photoshop and photo editing.
Call for details! 972-439-7631

Digital Photography - Level II – The Workshops

The landscape workshops are a one day workshop for anyone who wishes to explore artistic photography using available light. These classes are set up in small groups or one on one to give the student the attention to detail they will need to walk away with the confidence that they can take great photographs on their own. Focus will be on composition and we will go over techniques such as the rule of thirds, the use of lines, symmetry, the use of gradual neutral density filters, the importance of warm light.

Level II class is $500
Call for details! 972-439-7631

Advanced workshops are also available with the focus on night time photography. Call for details! These are usually one on one lessons so the focus will be on the individual to learn about night time photography. Price is dependent on location, time and travel distance.

You have seen the galleries, now sign up so your own images can make a lasting impression!

Special locations will be added throughout the year. We will be visiting areas that are close by for weekend or day trips.
Weekend trips can range anywhere from Galveston Bay, Enchanted Rock, Caddo Lake to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge near Lawton Oklahoma.
Day trips will be focused on locations near the Dallas Ft. Worth areas.

2012 Memorial Day weekend Photo workshop in the Badlands of New Mexico.

Leave Friday and come back late Monday
May 25th to May 28th

6 Spots available Cost is $550 per person.

The workshop from 2011 was a great success.

Taken this weekend. This turned out to be plan “C” as our first two locations did not work out.
Gotta adapt to the situation.

Well start off with tips and locations with a mix of the things we enjoyed most about our trip to Florida.
Here is a link to the gallery

As always, most my trips are all about the photography. I spend most my time in the desert canyons or mountain regions with strenuous hikes with either 30 pounds of camera gear or 50 pounds of both camping and camera gear. But the trip to the Keys was a pleasant change for sure. Only compliant was the 27 hour drive from Dallas. Should have just flown in. But I like to have the freedom and mobility at all times and never want to be hindered by a rental or restrictions on what I can bring with me.

With a brief stop in Jupiter to photograph the Blowing rocks at Coral Cove State Park, I split this trip in two. First part of the trip was to hang out at Key Largo and shoot the upper Keys. Then move on to Key West to focus on the lower Keys.

I found the best spot for sunsets to be at a bird sanctuary believe it or not. It is on the Bay side of the Island. It’s called the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. Here is a link to their website and address. http://fkwbc.org/index.php/contact-us. GPS coordinates to turn in to the place is 25.031835° -80.503098° Here you pay a small donation and you get your fill of wild birds on the back side of the Key and also get to see the birds they are helping to recover. Numerous birds hang out in this area for the free food. So if you are looking for the perfect sunset spot or want to photograph wild birds that are accustomed to people being around, this is a must see place to mark on your map. They practically pose for you.

For a good morning spot, there is a place called Garden Cove. Park here 25.03211, -80.50455 and walk out to the water’s edge. It’s on the ocean side and I was scrambling to find a spot to be my first morning with no time to really scope a place out. Found t by accident.

The rest of my mornings and sunset shots were spent way south at Anne’s Beach, south of Islamorada Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. GPS for the turn off here is 24.846833° -80.744380°. I shot here several times doing night time photography and morning shots. On South across the bridge is a home that was damaged by a hurricane and abandoned on the bay side. You can’t miss it. There is a gate here, but it was unlocked when I was there so I had some interesting shots here as well.

After just three days in the Key Largo area, I also explored John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and a sunset at the Everglades National Park. Then it was time to move on south to Key West.

From a photographers point of view, I did not care much for Key West, I wanted to shoot the more secluded locations and we stayed at the Double Tree Hotel, which was at the furthest eastern point of Key West. This helped me get out quickly at 4 am to get to some of the other Keys I would photography. I spent most my time at Big Pine Key, Bahia Honda Key and Spanish Key. These were the best locations in my opinion for the secluded spots with lots of Mangroves for foreground subject matter.

I am going to give away my secret spot for Big Pine Key. I spent two mornings here. GPS location to park is 24.641933° -81.332535°. Then hike about a quarter mile to the ocean side for sunrise shots. Lots of good mangrove trees here and some rocky areas to use as foreground subject matter. Target area here is 24.639784° -81.332462°. Spend time walking along the beach, You will find some areas where you will sink in seaweed. But keep walking around and find your spot. I came here the day before and scouted around looking the area over.

The second best location for my morning shots was just north of here at Spanish Key. Nice rocky area for Florida. I got here at 3am too shoot my favorite shot here. That magic moment when you can see the suns glow and the stars. Only lasts for about 10 minutes. Safest turn in for this spot is 24.654865° -81.299890°. Lots of mangroves here as well. But look it over in the daytime to see the best spots. I shot the area keeping the Old Bahia Honda Bridge out of my shots. It did not interest me much, but you may like it.

Bahia Honda Key is one of the prettiest Keys around, but you will have to camp here to avoid the times they close and open the park. But it is worth it. Has some of the cleanest and prettiest beaches with lots of trails to go explore. So devote some time for it.

So On to Key West. My wife loved it. I hated it. It’s a tourist trap. But we all know that. Since we stayed at the Double Tree. My recommendation is to just park the car and take advantage of the shuttle service to the main attractions. They run every thirty minutes. I covered most the area doing this. But I did drive to Fort Taylor State Park for Sunset. They shut and close the park down at sunset, but you have plenty of time to get your shot. I recommend heading to the furthest point south and west. 24.545453° -81.812463°. Here there are nice large rocks to climb on and get some good shots. Beaches are also very clean here with plenty to see, like the old Fort. So we spent an entire day here. There is a small entrance fee to get in but it is worth it.

I shot a lot at night around Mallory Square as well as a sunset shot. The typical tourest areas are all located here and there is a tone of info about all that everywhere on the net. So I am not going to go over that much.

I will say this for shooting at night in this area, watch your back. There are people looking to steel and take advantage of the dumb tourist with $10,000 dollars worth of camera gear. But I had a friend with me who used to live in Key West with me taking me around, as well as a .45. So I was not too worried. Duval Street is pretty safe to be at all times. Just do not deviate to far from it. It is sad that the lighthouse is right near a not so friendly neighborhood. But I took the risk and shot it at night time anyway.

A lot of the nicer beaches are on resorts. So they are hard to get to. I just did not feel like paying $300 a night to stay there when my main focus was on the more remote Keys.

Also a word of advice. When driving through the towns on the smaller Keys, watch your speed. Handing out tickets is how they pay for the cops salary. Also, near Big Pine Key, the small Key Deer are all over the place here so slow down around here as well. You would hate to hit one by accident. They are very small deer, about the size of a large dog. And they are endangered and this is their habitat.

I plan on heading back here soon. So many other smaller Keys to go explore. You can’t see it all in one trip.

Well, this is a pretty good general overview of the trip. If you have any questions feel free to email me. I get about 10 emails a week from people traveling America and are asking for more info and am always willing to help. You will find my email on my contact page.

If you feel any of my info helped you, feel free to buy one of my books or prints from the online store. What would a blog post be without a shameless plug!

Any of these would look great on your wall or at your office!
Visit the online store.
Click on the link and see the whole collection.

Now selling all my photography for prints at Fine Art America.
It’s cheaper, faster and comes with a 100% guarantee from them for the quality of print you order.
Look through the online gallery today and buy a print for your home or office.

Decided this year I would make my own top 10 list from the places I traveled to this year. They are not necessarily chosen because of their uniqueness, but may be listed because of what I may have had to go through to get them.

I feel blessed that I get to go and see so many places. Sometimes it is sheer determination or stubborn will that gets me there. Weekend marathon trips take me traveling 12 hours each way to get out of Texas sometimes.

So here they are.
#10
First up will be White Sands New Mexico. I took this trip right at the beginning of the year over the New Year’s holiday. Some of you have already read about the worthless park ranger they have working there. So I felt it fitting to be the first place mentioned.

#9
Extreme drought caused most of Texas to wither up and die this year. So when you have a patch of life hanging on so close to home, you need to go out and appreciate it. So this field of sunflowers hung on as long as it could. Only to fall victim as well two weeks later to the scorching sun.

#8
A small town in far west Texas. Turkey Texas to be exact. This old retro gas station that has been kept up is the only thing going for this little town. As you drive through, if you blink, you will miss this.

#7
Bolivar Point Lighthouse is at the opening channel into Galveston Bay. I have traveled twice to Galveston this year to see the different stages of recovery they have made from hurricane Ike. Galveston was devastated and it is now well on its way to full recovery. Lots of great historical places were destroyed. But the people have rebuilt many homes and repaired much that was lost.

#6
Mossbrae Falls, California
A beautiful waterfall photographed by millions. Not so much a unique photograph, but I flew into Sacramento over a holiday weekend and drove straight up to northern California to shoot several waterfalls in the area. On the third day I finally got some sleep.

#5
Hell Roaring Lake, Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho.
We had several hikes planned for the area. Our main objective was Alice Lake. But the snow drift was still too deep in some areas. So we changed plans and hike 5 miles with all our camping and photography gear to this nice spot.

#4
The Everglades National Park, Florida
Sometimes you need to look in your rear view mirror more often. I was done shooting after sunset and on my way out of the park. I looked in my rear view mirror only to see the sky giving one last performance. I threw the car over into the ditch and jumped out and quickly set up the camera to capture this scene. It only lasted a minute, then it was gone. Unfortunately, I left the doors and the back hatch open so all the mosquitoes could get a free meal from the two companions sitting in the car waiting for yet another photo I had to take. Sometimes it sucks to be with me if you are not a photographer…Sometimes it sucks even if you are a photographer. I tend to push things and people to their limits.

#3
Somewhere in central New Mexico.
We stumbled upon this old forgotten church by accident while we were out shooting the Very Large Array. It was another marathon trip consisting of 12 hours of driving each way. Reason this image stands out to me was the distinct sweat smell in the air that was only in this area. 200 yards away we shot another scene of an old hotel and noticed no smell. But here, it was different. It was an experience that really made you think.

#2
The Subway in Zion National Park.
This place had been on my bucket list for years. I just was not willing to go at it alone. Finally found a friend who was a photographer who could make the hike with me and also wanted to see it. We did this hike over Labor Day weekend. Flew into Phoenix, drove all night to Zion, waited in line at 4am to get a permit. The first mistake I did was to hike 10 miles in the Narrows that day. Got 3 hours of sleep. The next day we hiked 10 more miles to the Subway and back. One of the toughest hikes I have ever done. Raced back to Phoenix to make my flight back home. I ended up blowing out both knees on this trip due to the rough terrain. Left knee was really bad and only now is back to normal.

#1
After all the hell of traveling to numerous spots that criss•crossed all over the western part of the US, I drove 27 hours to the Florida Keys. I should have just flown down there and rented a car. But during this trip it became apparent that I have spent far too much time in the desert. And I was asking myself why. Perfect skies every night for sunset, perfect skies for every morning for sunrise. Perfect temperatures of 75 degrees during the day, perfect temperatures of 70 degrees at night. I got to pull right up to shooting locations. I did not have to hike 10 miles with 30 pounds of gear on my back. Or climb up mountains or scale canyon walls.

I got to eat like I was a Greek and not stuff MRE’s or Mountain House Meals down me. I still got up early at 4 am to make it to my sunrise locations. But then took nice naps on the beach most of the day while my wife enjoyed the sun.

The Florida Keys was a game changer for me. I will be spending a lot more time in the tropics. So it gets the number one spot on this list for the year.