Friends and Family

The Polaroid photo is one taken at my birthday party in Beaumont. I don't know the date but I would guess around 1968. Top row is Cindy McGovern, Sam McGovern and my Dad. Second row is me with my eyes closed and a silly grin, Erich Garland, Amanda Burnett and Rosalind Garland.

Basilio Ramirez Soto (1858-1923)

In this photo Basilio is standing on the left. The other names in the photo are Alejandro DeLeon, Santos Romo and wife. I am assuming that Senor Romo and his wife are the ones that are sitting and Senor DeLeon is the one standing next to Basilio. Basilio was my great grandfather on my mother's paternal side of the family. He was married twice and my great grandmother, Concepcion Enriquez was his second wife. Basilio was a Mexican Methodist minister. Basilio was born in Laredo, Texas to Antonio Soto and Francisca Ramirez de Soto. The photo was taken on April 30, 1884 by Louis de Planque who was a well known photographer in the Corpus Christi area.

405 East Third St., Austin, TX

405 East Third Street is the house that my mother grew up in. The first mention that I can find of my Mom's family living there was in 1935 and the first mention that I can find about the property was in 1848 when the state of Texas granted the property to James Cole. The first listing of the house in the Austin directory was in 1900. The photo was taken on August 5, 1943. My maternal grandmother is the woman standing in front of the house. My parents bought the house from my grandparents in 1973 and my Mom sold the property on November 15, 1989. By the time the property was sold the house was one of the few homes still standing in the downtown Austin area. The property is now part of the Austin Convention Center.

Bye Bye Film

I don't use film anymore. I bought my digital camera in 2003 and haven't bought film since then. At first I thought that my digital images wouldn't be as good as my film images. I was wrong. I had been using film for a long time so it wasn't easy for me to give up but when I realized the benefits I switched completely to digital. With film I had to buy it, develop it, print it. Now I don't. I have a 2 Gb compact flash card that will hold hundreds of high resolution images. The maximum number of images I could get on a roll of film was 36. The way people view images now has also changed. Most people look at images on their computer monitors. I used to get a whole roll developed and printed and it wasn't cheap. Now I can shoot and view my images without having to wait plus if I want to share them I can e-mail them or I can now print them on my high quality color printer. I can also "fix" my images in Photoshop so that they look even better or if I want to change something I can. I still have all my negatives and slides and if I want to print them I have a digital film scanner but the photos I shoot with my digital camera look better. I know that there are people that will miss the "feel" that film gives but I am glad that I have my digital camera now.

Wildlife Photography

I'm not talking about the photos you see of the animals in Africa although they are beautiful photos. I am talking about every day wildlife that you may come across where you live. One of my first volunteer jobs was working with a group in Austin called Wildlife Rescue. I found out about them when I was visiting the Austin Nature Center. They had a booth and were looking for volunteers. I thought it might be interesting so I checked them out and signed up for their free classes. I told them that I had an interest in photography and wanted to photograph the animals that they were rehabilitating. I have photographed a number of injured and orphaned animals over the years. Seeing a beautiful animal up close can be amazing. I also photographed animals for Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network. I also transported the animals to rehabilitators. For someone who is interested in photographing animals I can't think of a better way to get close to the animals than working with a rescue group. Of course I wouldn't mind traveling to exotic locations to photograph animals but I would need a really good telephoto lens.

"Taking a photo" or "Making a photo"

What is the difference? Taking a photo or photos isn't pre-planned. It is usually spur of the moment. You see something or someone and you point the camera and take the photo. I would say most people "take" photos. There is little thought given to it. They can still be good photos but they have little control over the elements of the photo. The lighting could be bad or they don't have enough time to compose the image they want. To "make" a photo a photographer has to think ahead of time about how they want to image to look. They consider the subject, the lighting, the location, etc.. I would say 99% of photos are taken. Not that it is a bad thing. Some of the best photos can be spontaneous. Photo journalists have to depend on capturing "the moment" and they get paid handsomely for it. It does take a knack though to create good "spontaneous" photos. The people that "make" photos can spend hours, days or even weeks preparing for a shoot. For me it can be very difficut to "make" a good photo. I remember once having to do an assignment and nothing came to mind. Fortunately a friend came up with a suggestion and it turned out well.

Applied Photographic Science

Here is some of what I was supposed to learn in my Applied Photographic Science class at Brooks Institute.


Exam 1

Convert inches to centimeters to millimeters and vice versa.

Understand the concept of “model” in science.

Explain and recognize examples of direct and inverse proportions.

Explain the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves.

Explain constructive and destructive interference.

Know the names of the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum in the proper order and relate the energy to the position in the spectrum.

Explain beating, resonance, and interference and use the vocabulary of waves and vibrations properly.

Know the order of the colors of the visible spectrum and relate this to their frequency, wavelength, and energy.

Explain infrared film and predict the color shifts. Contrast the performance of film with that of sensors.

Understand the concept of “photon” and explain color, energy, frequency, and brightness in terms of photons.

Understand the cause of fluorescence and phosphorescence.

Recognize the spectral distribution of low pressure gases, high pressure gases, and solids.

Recognize how temperature and filtration affect the distribution of energy of a source. Interpret graphs of spectral distribution.

Use the concept of “energy level” to explain how atoms produce spectra. Be able to predict the spectra from the energy level diagram.

Relate “object color”, “perceived color”, and “illumination source”.

Contrast sound waves and light waves.

Predict the color shift of film with different sources.

Apply the inverse-square law to the calculation of illumination levels. Use the terms candle, foot-candle, lumen, lux.

Explain the fundamental principles of holograms.

Understand the concept of stimulated emission.

Explain the concepts “color temperature” and “black body”.

Explain the behavior of safelights as a photoelectric phenomenon.

Know the speed of light and relate the variables “speed”, “frequency”, and “wavelength” to each other.

Vocabulary: velocity, frequency, wave length, continuous spectrum, line spectrum, emission spectrum, absorption spectrum, interference, diffraction, hologram, Kelvin temperature, direct proportion, inverse proportion, quantum, inverse square, stimulated emission, photoelectric, phase angle, amplitude, resonance, beats, opaque, coherent light, color shift, intensity, illumination, foot-candle, candle, temperature, color temperature, black body, spectrum, spectra, constructive, destructive, radiation, graph slope

I got a B- in the class.