Photography Ramblings

This is a photo shoot I did for a friend of mine. His daughter plays in volleyball leagues here in San Antonio and needed a picture for the league. Being the over the top kinda guy he is, he commissioned me for this shot. He wanted something mean and "bad @ss" looking. 

Those of you who know me, know that I love photography. I wish I could do nothing but shoot pictures all the time and never have to work. The problem is life requires money. Photography requires even more money. I could easily spend $25,000.00 on photo gear and still not get everything I want / need. So instead I have to build up my gear one pay check and one photo shoot at a time. Anyone out there with a winning Lotto ticket they don't know what to do with?

Sometimes You Get Lucky

"Rosemary" - copyright 2010 William Caldera

In preparation for dinner I cut a few sprig of fresh rosemary and placed them in a vase of water next to the couch. While gathering my geadr to go shoot last years Christmas card, I sat on my couch to run through the settings on my camera and format my cf cards. The winter sun on a late December afternoon was pouring through an open window just behind me. The quality of light illuminating some fresh sprigs of rosemary I cut earlier in the day was eye catching. With camera in hand, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap off a few shots. Next to the rosemary sat a glittery Christmas cone "thingy" that was refracting the sun light and projecting it into a cool pattern on the wall behind the rosemary. The was quickly changing and only lasted a few fleeting minutes. This is one of those serendipitous instances where everything comes together to make an interesting image. I just happened to have my camera in hand at the right moment. That should serve as a lesson for me to carry my camera with me more often.

"Rosemary" - copyright 2010 William Caldera

"Rosemary" - copyright 2010 William Caldera

"Rosemary" - copyright 2010 William Caldera

Making of a Christmas Card

My Christmas Card for 2010... HDR photo of San Fernando Cathedral in Main plaza on December 4th, 2010. San Antonio, Texas

I went downtown to Main Plaza around 5:30pm on December the 4th thinking that the Christmas tree was lit up at the same time as the river walk (the Friday after Thanksgiving). With the greasy aroma of fried corn wafting in the air, I quickly picked a spot to shoot from, making sure to crop out the gordiata vendor just to the right of the tree. IThe plaza was filled with tourist and locals strolling about taking snap shots and chit chatting. Knowing that I would be shooting from a prime location for an extended amount of time, I brought extra patience with me. The cool weather was just right. The few times i started to get annoyed with people who decided to loiter in front of my lens for extended amounts of time, the tranquil sounds of the water fountains brought me back to a peaceful mind. Watching the toddlers play in the fountains helped pass the time.

I set up the tripod and camera, then fired off a few test shots.  I began taking different bracketed exposures as the sun set. Knowing I would be shooting at slow shutter speeds, I remotely triggered the camera with a set of Pocket Wizards.  When 6:15 rolled around, the lights on the church came on. The Christmas tree remained dark however. As the sky grew darker, I watched a band set up off in the corner. Then the big man himself showed up. Saint Nick parked his rump in a chair in front of the dark Christmas tree. Turns out kids could take pictures of Santa Clause bathed in blue lights (that's where the blue light next to the tree is coming from).  Finally the PA system was set up and an announcement given. Turns out the tree lighting ceremony was to take place in about 30 minutes.  Time to pull out the old smart phone, peruse Facebook, Twitter and become mayor of Main Plaza on Foursquare!

At about 6:55 the ceremony was finally over. The lights on the tree illuminated. The camera locked in the same place it was at 5:45 with no light left in the sky and an aperture or f22, I slowed the shutter speed down to 20 seconds (that means the shutter was open for 20 seconds). The low shutter speed helped the swarms of people strolling through the plaza to magically disappear.

The next day I merged 6 photos (3 with the blue sky and no lights on the tree, and 3 with black sky and the tree lit up) together in Photoshop CS5 using the HDR tools that come with Photoshop. The photo merging also helped to remove more of the ghosting created by people moving about while the shutter was open.

San Jose Website Design

I've been hard at work the last month spending every free minute working on a website. Ive been so busy in fact that I haven't even updated my face book profile that often. In addition to to the website, I also work full time and I am taking a summer flex course at NE Lakeview. The first week of class we recieved 10 chapters of assigned reading . The only reason I have time to write this blog post is because I'm sitting in class waiting for others to finish a test so we can begin this weeks series of topics.

Work on the website began when I took vacation the first week of June. Shannon and I drove to Waco to visit my family. While there we spent nearly 2 days at my uncles new shop; Shannon working on the page layout while I was photographing the products. When we weren't at the shop I was working on the code or drinking margaritas with my brother and cousins. It was supposed to be a vacation afterall.



After shooting all the products I had to clean up all 60 something images in Photoshop (I.e. sharpen, adjust levels, crop, and remove dust, smudges, and fibers). That was another weeks worh of work. Once Shannon was finished with the design, I had to dissect it into smaller images and make the actual website look like her design. The home page took very tedious work to align everything seemlessly.

It took about 2 weeks to code all 12 pages. I finally finished all the major work last night at midnight (instead of studying for my test). Now minor editing and tweaking remains before we launch the new site. I hope to have it done by this weekend so I can enjoy my birthday weekend (and a few margaritas ). 

HDR Photography

This is my first ever attempt at High Dynamic Range, or HDR, photography. HDR photography involves a process of bracketing shots and then composting the individual shots with software. I also followed some of the techniques in this Photoshop tutorial, minus the sky portion. Its  not as great as I had hoped, however, shooting at 2pm is not the ideal time.

 

Bluebonnets

A couple weeks ago, I took some pictures of Texas Bluebonnets.  According to Texas A&M, bluebonnets:

•  Bloom between March and April
• Can also be white, pink, purple and Aggie Maroon
• Will not produce mature seed until June
• Are extremely cold hardy
• Help produce nitrogen in the soil

The time to spread wildflower seed is actually in the fall, not early spring. "September and October are the months for planting cold hardy fall annuals which bloom profusely the following spring" (Parsons, par 10)

According to the USDA, Lupinus subcarnosus Hook (a.k.a.
Texas bluebonnet ) is drought tolerant, and a member of the pea family.

Lupinus subcarnosus became the State flower March 7th, 1901. 70 years later, the state legislature added another species of bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, to Lupinus subcarnosus as the state flower in addition to "any other variety of bluebonnet not heretofore recorded", and lumped them all into one state flower.  Among the many things the Legislature did not know then was that the big state of Texas is home to three other species of Lupines and the umbrella clause makes all five of them the state flower. And, if any new species are discovered, they automatically will assume the mantle of state flower as well" (Parsons, par 6).

Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to pick bluebonnets in the state of Texas. Just because you can do something, however, doesn't always mean you should.

Burnet and Chappell Hill have annual "Bluebonnet Festivals."


"Ennis was designated by the 1997 State Legislature as the home of the Official Texas Bluebonnet Trail and was designated the Official Bluebonnet City of Texas" (Ennis Convention and Visitors Bureau).

I-phone Art - Mission Concepción

Mission Concepción is one of the famous Spanish missions along the San Antonio river. For more information on the Missions, go to the National Parks Service website.  While working on a news report, I snapped a few shots on my phone. These photos were taken with my I-phone 3gs and edited in the Photoshop.com Mobile app.  All images are copyright 2010 and may not be used for commercial purposes. For non-profit use please credit WilliamCaldera.com

Original Images

Alicia Ontiveros

This is some of my older work from 2005. Alicia Ontiveros was an intern at my work. She was a great model to work with. Unfortunately all the art on the wall has been painted over with a solid tan color.