Happy New Year

This is my last posting of 2010.  This is different than the pic I posted on Facebook in fear of the Facebook censors.  I took this a few weeks ago in a photo shoot with model Jade Bryce.  Jade's career is taking off and you might even find her in Playboy, soon.  When she isn't modeling, she is an ambassador to a village in Africa where she has visited a couple of times and raises money and awareness.  Today, I'll be posting this and several pics from recent shoots on my website at www.douggraybealphotography.com.

Time to look back and say, "what a year".  For me, this was a year of transition.  For many reasons, I'm glad the year is over but as I look back, there was a lot of good that came out of it.  I started 2010 looking at photography as a fun hobby. By the end of the year, I was shooting models like Jade to build up a portfolio.  I now have a solid plan and clear direction with where I will take my photography.  In fact, in 2011 it will no longer be a hobby but a business.  I'll be making announcements over the next few months about launching a new web site where you can purchase fine art photography for calendars, cards, posters, prints and just about anything else you can think of that takes a picture.  I'll also be available for hire for portrait, glamour and boudoir photography.

This year certainly has been a journey.  With 10% unemployment and 2 wars that don't seem to end, it seems there isn't much to celebrate.  On the other hand, we can see these as challenges and overcome them.  I believe that makes us better than had we never had the challenges in the first place.  I know that if I become successful in photography, this past year would have been worth every amount of sacrifice.  That's why life is All About The Journey.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Merry Christmas, From My Family, To Yours

How often have you put all the time and effort in to getting the perfect Christmas pic and end up frustrated because nothing goes right.  Some of you have already seen this pic but since it is Christmas Eve, I wanted to share our family Christmas pic one last time.  If you believe that life is All About the Journey, then you have to embrace imperfection.  We finally got some good shots that night, but after we looked at all of them, this was clearly the best.  It is real, and that's what we like about it.  Apparently, many of you agree.  I received several comments on my personal Facebook page when I first posted it. My wife also posted this on another popular Facebook page for the Texas Hill Country and it received over 50 "likes" and 20 comments.  

I wish everyone a great Christmas or Hanukah or Kwansa or just have a great Festivus for the Rest of us!  That's what I plan on doing.  To our family and friends back in Washington, we miss you and wish we were there.   

Embrace imperfection.  It's liberating.

And to our friends here in Austin and friends, family and strangers everywhere, Merry Christmas.

"Hey. I'm watching You."

Happy Friday, everyone.  This is one of my favorite pics from my shoot in Amarillo, Texas a few weeks ago.  Sometimes, cows seem a little smarter than they really are.  I love the way this one stares at me while I am taking this pic, as if to say, "I'm watching you.  Don't make any sudden moves."  This was taken at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.  I wrote a few blogs about it last month and posted several pictures on my website atwww.douggraybealphotography.com.  

I was asked last weekend if I ever did a photo shoot with exotic animals and a model.  "Uh, no.  Why?  You got any?"  I don't have many animal pictures, but not for any particular reason.  The few I have seem to be taken when something inspired me at the moment.  That's one of the things I like about photography.  It can be spontaneous.  It captures a moment in time.  A fraction of a second.  And yet, it can say so much without using words.  I've looked at this picture enough times and come up with a million stories to go with it.  I even thought it might be fun giving it to some kindergartners and asking them to make up a story about it. 

When I was in college I took an art history course on the French Riviera.  Since I was majoring in economics,  I was trying to get a few easy classes down to help my GPA.  We went to the Picasso Museum in Antibbe, France.  It was incredible.  I remember my professor telling us that anyone can paint.  I, of course, thought she was nuts.  Well, she really was nuts but that's a blog for some other day.  Then, a class of kindergartners came in and laid on the floor.  Their teacher gave them paper and markers and they all had to draw a copy of one of Picasso's paintings.  I was in the same room, taking notes for one of our exams and I walked around to see what the children were drawing.  It was incredible.  All of these children were drawing as well as Picasso's originals.  Seriously!

Picasso said he felt like a failure because the limitations in his mind kept him from being honest in his paintings (that's my interpretation, not a direct quote).  He also said that children had no limitations, yet, and he hoped he could get back to that point.  This class of students proved that to me.  As someone who tries to create art with photography, I'm challenged by  my own limitations.  Sometimes we need to let it all go and see what happens.  I went to Amarillo to photograph a model and came back with great pictures of some cows.  (My pics of the model came out great, too.)  Who would've thought?  .....Well, maybe that's the problem.

Wakeboarder Dude Hits The Water In December

Okay, lots going on these days with work, the holidays, family and trying to have a life.  I haven’t blogged in over a week, which is my longest dry streak since I started this.  That must mean I have a lot to blog about.  I’ll skip the boring stuff and get right to the fun stuff.

I had 3 photo shoots this weekend.  The first two were models and a make-up artist I brought in to experiment on some artistic ideas that I have.  I posted some sneak previews of those over the weekend.  Jade has been modeling for a long time and has appeared in magazines such as Maxim and Playboy while Yolany had never posed for a photographer before.  Both were great and Kaylin, the MUA, was fantastic. We got some excellent fine art pics that I’ll be posting soon.

Sunday evening I did a photo shoot for some friends that were recently engaged.  These were family/engagement pics.  They were good sports and let me try some different poses and we captured some great moments of the two of them and their kids.  Congratulations, Adam and Janet!  By now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with a wake boarder in the picture.

As we were doing their photo shoot on Lake Austin, there were a few die hard water rats on jet skis and wake boarding in the distance.  Now, Lake Austin is cold by Texas standards any time of year.  In December, the water is probably around 55 degrees F.   (That’s my very unofficial guestimate.)  Either way, it’s cold, which made me respect this guy even more.  As we saw him jumping the wake, our attention shifted from our photo shoot to watching this guy perform.  On one pass, I asked him to jump right in front of me so I could snag a pic.  I had one shot and the result is posted above.

It is easy to say life is All About The Journey.  The truth is, you have no idea where that journey will lead you.  A simple moment like this brought 3 different groups of people together: a wake boarder who wanted to get some water time when no one else would be out there; a couple recently engaged trying to capture an exciting time in their lives; and a wannabe pro photographer trying to forget about the day job and explore his creative side.  For one moment, all three journeys came together and then gone again.  And it sure was cool.