Mai Kai Garden

I was in Ft. Lauderdale recently attending The Hukilau and had the chance to visit the amazing Mai Kai. Behind the restaurant there is a beautiful exotic garden you can wonder through with new surprises at every turn. If you're interested in Polynesian Pop era of the 20th century, the Mai Kai is a living time capsule of Polynesian dining at it's best. The garden is filled with carved tikis produced over 50 years ago. I love walking through the garden after a couple of Rum Juleps.

Getting a good picture is easy is you have a tripod and can make exposures that are a few seconds long, but all I had was my gorilla pod. For the picture above I strapped it onto the railing where I was sitting and pointed it toward the waterfall near the entrance to the garden. This was a 3 second exposure at f5.6, ISO 250

Bath Toys

This is the last one from Watters Creek.

I saw these little duckies and couldn't resist trying to get a few shots while they were squawking away. I guess I got too close because Duck Mom came swooping in out of nowhere. 

View From The Bridge

Not the view from the bridge of the Enterprise, I'm afraid. This is another from Watters Creek. I was on one of the bridges looking straight down into the water while bracing the camera on the railing of the bridge. Exposure time was 1/2 second. 

Water at Watters Creek

My friend Dan over at McKinney Daily Photo blogged about this area before and posted some interesting pics. I had some time early one morning and went there to see if I could grab some decent pictures.

Watters Creek is a small development in Allen, TX with shopping, office space, restaurants and apartment lofts, which together give it the feel of a condensed "downtown".  There's a centrally located park area that has a stream running through the center of it with lot's of mini waterfalls that are always fun to photograph. A couple of bridges and rocks surrounding the stream make for some picturesque areas.

I thought I'd try to get some long exposure pics of some of the waterfalls, but I forgot my tripod.  I  used the surrounding rocks to brace the camera for the longer exposures when photographing the waterfalls and also used a polarizer to cut down on the glare in the water.

The rest of Watters Creek is interesting, however I think it's much more photogenic at night when it's lit up. You can see some nighttime photography on their web site. I might try it sometime.

Band Banquet...I need Glasses!

I had the opportunity recently to do portraits at a banquet for the McKinney High School band. The theme of the banquet was Casino Royale...makes for some interesting possibilities when choosing a background. Unfortunately I had only three days to prepare, so I was unable to procure any props or special backgrounds.

I brought along my black muslin background because that was the most formal looking background I have. I was given some plastic party hangers that had dollar signs and playing cards and I hung these on the background. The problem was they were too reflective, and in every practice picture I took they looked like giant glowing white balls. We also tried using some giant dice as a prop. But the problem was they had GLITTER on them which is not good for the camera. It sticks to your hands and there's always a possibility that some could get on your lens or worse yet on the sensor. So we ended up going with....NOTHING. Just the plain black background. The results, although very plain, are not too bad.

When I do these types of portraits I always tell everyone to remain where they are while I double check the image to make sure the composition is acceptable and no one has their eyes closed. Well, I guess I need to start wearing my reading glasses because one person DID in fact shut their eyes (NOT the picture above). I didn't notice it until I was home editing the pictures. Not a good thing to find after the event is over. I printed the picture anyway and attached a note apologizing for my mistake, refunded their money and offered to do a reshoot. Reading glasses are now on my shopping list before I take anymore pictures.

In all the event photography I've done, this is the first time I let something as simple as someone with their eyes closed slip by. I'd post the pic but if the girl with her eyes closed sees it she probably wouldn't be too happy.

More Courtney

From the same session. This time I used Photoshop to keep only her face in focus.

Courtney

One from the portfolio. I photographed Courtney with one 48" softbox.

Abandoned Barn

This old abandoned barn or shed is located on the newly completed stretch of Hardin Rd. in McKinney. It's the same place where I found this chair. Some post production gave it the look of a photo taken with an old camera.