Sunday, August 15, 2010 Posted in Travel
I made the trip up to Chicago, IL for the first time in order to attend Lollapalooza music festival! I am in love with Chicago! It’s simply amazing! I spent 5 days there just walking around town taking in all of the sights and shooting photos. I had an absolute blast and I got to attend a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field! How cool is that?!
I haven’t had time to edit all of my photos from the trip but here’s one I’ll share with you guys. I went to The Sky Deck which is located on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower which was previously named the Sears Tower. They have what they call The Ledge which are 3 all glass enclosures which extend OUT from the edge of the tower about 4 feet. Once you step out onto the glass floor you’re looking straight down 1,353ft to the street below! It is a VERY cool sight to see! I was told that the tower at that floor has a 2-3ft sway in it and that if you go to the bathrooms you can see the water sloshing around in the toilets from the movement! Absolutely crazy!
Here is a fisheye photo of The Ledge.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 15 f/2.8 Fisheye : 1/15h : f/5.6 : 400 ISO : 15mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : No Flash
Sunday, August 15, 2010 Posted in Concerts
Blue October had a 5 show 3 city Acoustic tour this past July and I decided to make the road trip. I drove from Houston to Austin to see show #1, then drove from Austin to Dallas the next day for Shows #2 and #3, then drove from Dallas to Houston the next day for shows #4 and #5. Logged about 700 miles on the car but it was sooooo worth it! I also had photo passes for all 5 shows so I will be going through them this week to get them edited.
Here’s a shot from the opening night of the acoustic tour at Paramount theater in Austin, Texas.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 15 f/2.8 Fisheye : 1/8th : f/2.8 : 2000 ISO : 15mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : No Flash
Friday, July 30, 2010 Posted in Concerts
Well as some of you may know I am a big fan of the band Blue October and have seen them perform live 12 times in the past 13 months in 7 different cities and 5 different states. This is one of the only bands I’ll really travel for and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
This past June I got the opportunity to photograph a charity event for The Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts (ASPVA) which was being hosted by C.B. Hudson (Blue October’s lead guitarist) and his lovely wife Betsy Hudson. Upon arriving at the event I noticed an autographed guitar on display with a silent auction sign up sheet sitting below it. I just knew this had to come home with me and be displayed in my mancave aka home office. Lol.
After a very intense bidding war between myself and two other attendees I managed to sneak my final bid in without the other parties noticing. Once the auction ended the guitar was mine! LOL! SCORE! Haha.
Typically when purchasing autographed guitars, you only find Fender Stratocaster’s which makes it easy because the person gaining the autographs only has to carry around a small pick guard in order to have the band members sign. Then once all of the signatures were given then they’ll mount it to a guitar and sell it. In this particular case there is no pick guard. Each member of the band signed the solid body Epiphone guitar which is a much bigger deal than just a pick guard. In addition to the signatures the guitar also feature the custom Blue October artwork drawn by bassist Matt Noveskey. How’s that for a one of a kind display piece!
Shortly after getting the guitar home I began looking online for a wall mount display case in order to mount in my mancave/office. After a few days of searching I finally contacted Jeff McMurray at Bandmate USA and had them build me a case for my new piece of wall art. Jeff’s craftsmanship on the display case was amazing and I would definitely recommend his products to anyone out there looking for a nice custom case. In fact, I’m about to have him build me another case in order to round out my mancave/office. =)
Signatures going clockwise from the Blue October artwork are:
Matt Noveskey, Jeremy Furstenfeld, Ryan Delahoussaye, C.B. Hudson & Justin Furstenfeld
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L : 1/100th : f/8 : 800 ISO : 70mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : Flash Fired
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Posted in Concerts
I first saw DJ Z-Trip perform here in Houston about 2 years ago and I was completely blown away by this guy! The music was amazing! I made it a point to keep an eye out for this guy’s tour schedule so I can see him live again. As it turns out he was in town on June 23rd and I almost completely missed this current tour date. If it wasn’t for a friend of mine, Alex Luster over at ShootEditSleep.com calling me only hours before the show to tell me about it then I would have indeed missed it. It was a week night and didn’t make it home til past 3am while still having to be at work at 7am that morning. Oh joy. Was it worth it? HELL YA!!!
You can view the entire set of lower resolution photos on my FACEBOOK ALBUM HERE.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 15 f/2.8 Fisheye : 1/60th : f/2.8 : 1000 ISO : 15mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : Flash Fired
Have I mentioned recently how much I love my 135L lens? Ok, just checking. This lens is so freaking tack sharp wide open it’s unbelievable. This is definitely a lens I will hang on to and will not be selling for any reason whatsover.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 135 f/2L : 1/160th : f/2 : 2500 ISO : 135mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : No Flash
Cliche fisheye shot of the crowd. I had timed it just right so when the house lights were at their brightest I snapped the shot. lol.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II : Canon EF 15 f/2.8 Fisheye : 1/40th : f/4 : 800 ISO : 15mm : Manual Mode : 0 Bias : Flash Fired
Keep in mind guys… If you hear of DJ Z-Trip making a stop in your town do yourself a favor and go check him out! You will not be disappointed.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Posted in Travel
I spent the past few days up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on a photo tour of the Grand Teton National Park and it was AMAZING up there! About 50 degrees cooler than the 100 degree weather we’re having here in Houston. Lol. I took about 2,000 photos over the course of the 4 day trip so it will be a little work sifting through them and picking my favorites.
I did manage to check out my Infrared photos real quick to see which ones I liked so I figured I post one up here for you guys. This was taken at Schwabacher’s Landing and the view was absolutely breathtaking. This was definitely one of my favorite spots along the tour to shoot at.
Canon G9 IR Converted : 1/25th : f/8 : 100 ISO : 7.4mm : Aperture Priority : 0 Bias : No Flash
I’ll sift through my photos and get a complete set posted within the week. Stay tuned for a ton of spectacular views and some amazing wildlife. =)
by Abel Longoria
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