I've been spending a lot of time at a local barn and in such have been getting to know the horses that reside there.

Here's a shot I took that I'm still working on. I'm not sure which composition I will keep. Throw a comment my way and let me know if you like the first image or the second.

_/oe

Take 1:

Take 2:

One of the more fun things I got to do in 2007 was to visit my local elementary school and talk to the kids about photography.

I was able to choose a class and pass out disposable cameras which the kids were allowed to carry with them all day. At the end of the day the cameras were collected and returned to me.

I processed all the images, had them put into simple memory books and have them passed out during Parent Night. It was a big hit with the kids and the parents loved having pictures of their little ones at school.

Thus "Kids Who Click" was born. More to come on it in 2008...

Here's a shot of the class with their cameras:

I guess the best way to start this blog of mine is to look back on the images I was able to create in 2007 but first off, I must thank my beautiful wife and wonderful kids. Without their support this page would be blank.

So let's start...

The first three are from the Galapagos Islands. Each year I try and attend at least 3 new workshops and make one photo safari. This one was put on by Andy Biggs Safari's.

Next up is the typical Texas weather of which there is nothing typical: This one was taken while driving home from a shoot. I was lucky enough to have my equipment with me, pulled over to a rest stop and let'r rip. You can see the streaks of tail lights from passing cars at the bottom of the frame:

We had a week of breathtaking sunrise. I finally couldn't take it anymore and brought out the camera on the last day:

Thanks to my young son, I've become knowledgeable in the art of the car and it's been a fun ride (ugh).

We venture out to Texas Motor Speedway every April and November to watch the NASCAR races. Dale Jr. is an icon around here and the stands are usually full of red.

During practice, the drivers like to make the car backfire as they come back into the garage area. This has the effect of shooting out a large flame accompanied by a very loud shot. The fans seem to enjoy it...

There are usually many different car shows throughout the year, some specialized, some to show off the gear.

Drag racing in Texas is reminiscent of early years. If my body didn't shake apart, I could have stood here and handheld this shot. As it was, a Superclamp and a Pocket Wizard did the trick for me.

Horses are big where I am. The effect they have on young children can not be understated.

We try and travel around Texas as much as we can, seeing a new city or two each year. This year it was San Antonio along with the Natural Bridge Caverns

There were a few other trips this year, one to Annapolis that came with a tour of the chapel at the Naval Academy:

For our vacation we ended up down in Cabo San Lucas. This shot was taken using my Leica D-lux 3 point-n-shoot.

Now, one of the more fun things I got to try this year was working with a Tilt-Shift lens. While used mostly when shooting architecture it gives large events a "model" type quality:

And finally, one more experiment that didn't work out so well and the one shot here I didn't take. I clamped a remote camera to the fence of a large cat preserve, Pug Mark Park in order to take a unique view of the tigers. That said, Sheba got a little too close and I ended up with a blurry blob of tiger fur.

Hope you enjoyed this series. Thanks for taking the time to look at all of them!

_/oe