After much work, delay, frustration and all of that, I finally have a new website up and running. It still has some kinks, but it works! I have tied it into my new Facebook and Twitter pages (click at the top menu, or in several other places) to follow me there, and I the website has built in ways to make it easier for you to follow my blog, social media posts, etc. I am also soon incorporating a Photo of the Day, and lots more. And be sure to sign up for my email newsletter, which will really help keep you caught up with me. And it is all about me, right?
Inaugural Photo of the Day
Starting soon, I am going to post one Photo of the Day, every day until I die. Or forget. Or whatever. Point is, I am really going to try to stay on top of this, and I hope to add the ability to easily purchase prints or other things as well. But first things first. This is the test. Once I do the official launch, they will come every day, whether you like it or not.
Irish schoolchildren, County Galway, Ireland (Sean Fitzgerald/© Sean Fitzgerald)
Mischievous Irish boy, just like me.
Images for Conservation Fund “Pro Am” – South Texas
I will be leading wildlife and nature photography workshops for the Images for Conservation Fund on some of the incredible ranches in South Texas and the Hill Country this spring and fall. More info on my workshop pages for South Texas in June, and the Hill Country in November.
Couch's Kingbird | Female Oriole on Nest | Mexican Ground Squirrel | Crested Caracara | Painted Bunting Bathing | 
Named as Up and Coming Artist in Dallas by CBS/DFW
I was named as one of the “best up and coming artists in DFW” by CBS/DFW. Very cool!
Dallas Convention Center/Omni Hotel
I have my own section now at the Dallas Convention Center and nearby Omni Hotel. I have 120 images in the Omni Hotel rooms, plus 7 huge photos in the lobby (3rd floor). At the Dallas Convention Center, I have 30 plus images in one of the meeting rooms, images in 4 elevators, a two story image behind one of the escalators, and a 10 foot by 10 foot image hanging somewhere (not sure where yet). More coming, too, I think. I am going to swing by soon and take some pics!
Texas Wildlife Association Speaker
I just got back from San Antonio where the Texas Wildlife Association brought me in as their featured photographer for their yearly convention. Very neat event, before a great group.
Images for Conservation Fund Workshop
I just finished up an Images for Conservation Fund (ICF) Workshop in south Texas at “Dos Venadas Ranch”:http://www.dosvenadas.com/home.htm/ and Campos Viejos Ranch. Great event where participants compete with each other for prize money by submitting an image every day to professional judges who score it. Great fun. ICF has asked me back to do more, and I will post when it is set.
Presentation to Exxon/Mobile
I just did a photo presentation to administrators at Exxon’s corporate headquarters in Irving in their lunchtime speaker series. I gave a presentation on both “how to” photograph nature and on conservation photography in general. Their campus is locked down like something from Mission Impossible, but incredibly beautiful wild areas around the main building.
AIA’s Currents Magazine
Three of my images of the Margarent Hunt Hill Bridge by Santiago Calatrava are in the Spring 2012 Issue of the AIA’s Currents Magazine.
About the Grand Prize Image
I am actually pretty thrilled that they picked this image as the grand prize winner. I almost didn’t enter it. Subtle images rarely do well in these kinds of contests. Having judged enough photo contests, I realize that the judges are seeing hundreds of images and are usually beaten into submission by the end of judging. So the winners are often those that just jump off the page, not images like this. I figured my coyote or bobcat images had a better shot.
My wife, Karen, looks at the image and says “I don’t get it”. She likes her imagery a little bit more literal. So do I, sometimes, but I also love images that are not so much about the particular subject as about the feelings, emotions, memories you remember or the state of mind you tap into as you view it. That is why I love that image. It just has a simple, calm, gentle tranquility that takes me to another place. Karen, not so much.
Fortunately for me, the judges were the touchy, feely types like me and were drawn to the image. I can’t thank them enough! (You can watch a video of the judging “**here**”:http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/01/it_aint_easy_judging_photos_of.php
As to how I took the image, it is from the Trinity River near the Trinity River Audubon Center. Usually the Trinity is pretty brown and silty. But this past October, when I took the image, the drought was still locked in place so the river was still and barely flowing, and I think the lack of runoff allowed some of the silt to settle and gave the river an unusual clarity that reflected the soft blues of the evening sky.
The old snagged tree in the river was rare in that I was able to maneuver to a position along the bank where none of the branches overlapped another, creating a perfect outline and a calming simplicity of form. Had even one of these branches crossed and intersected another, I might not have taken the photo, since for me that triggers a negative psychological reaction.
As for the ripple, as I looked at the scene I saw a turtle poke its head up into the still waters creating little ripples. I tried to sit and wait for the turtle to come to my old snag, but alas, no. So I finally tracked down some rocks and started throwing them myself. Took me about 30 tries to get one into the exact place I wanted (lower and slightly to the right of center in the frame).
