I watched the Super Bowl last night and all I can say is WOW. It’s hard not to love the underdog…one of the most memorable Super Bowls I have witnessed. My hat is off to Eli Manning who somehow avoided a sure sack and then to Tyree who made an amazing catch (using his helmet) to put them in range of the easy score.

The Patriots and their fans can only question what in the world they were thinking when they went for it on 4th and 16 instead of attempting a field goal when they were within the range of their kicker.

I occasionally get emails asking for explanations on assignments. For today’s entry I wanted to give some of my students a sample of what a Texture Scavenger Hunt looks like.This is probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your photographs- Most of these are on a macro level, but the assignment is simple: train your eye to recognize textures.

Textures are any repeating patterns and they make awesome backgrounds. Nature is loaded with them. When shooting freestyle (meaning you don’t use backdrops on location) you must be comfortable walking into any environment and knowing you will find the right background (think textures!). One of the results of this is your pictures will constantly have variation, as each background is different.

In a way, shooting freestyle is like judo…you dont go into the shoot with a set plan or a lot of extra gear, you let the energy of your environment determine your actions and push your photographs towards the most favorable outcome following a set of rules.

Maybe I am jibbering….I hope that makes sense.