UNT Idea Competition

Yesterday I was one the of twelve finalists for the UNT Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship Idea Competition.  We were given two minutes to present our ideas to three judges and then they had one minute to ask us questions.  The judges were experienced business men and knew what they were talking about.  They brought up a lot of good points that I need to think about, so even though I didn't win, it was a great experience.  One of the judges even e-mailed me today with some feedback.  I feel so lucky to be a part of a school that has faith in it's students, even if you aren't even majoring in their department.

I don't want to give away too much of what my business idea is, but if it takes off I believe it could really be something good, and it could DO something good as well which is what makes it so important to me.  My "associates" and I will be going over a few things and hopefully in a couple of months we will have our first products available for you to purchase, so stay tuned for info!

Bryan Bristow of Longhorn Helicopters

This semester I am in a visual journalism class, and the first half of the semester was focused on still photography, and the second half is video.  Before spring break, I had to turn in my final photo project which was a photo story.  I chose to follow around Bryan Bristow at Longhorn Helicopters.  Here are a few of the shots I turned in, as well as some others that I had to edit out against my will because of the assignment requirements.  While aviation isn't something I had originally set out to photograph, I really do enjoy it and am lucky to know people in the industry that let me take photos like these.

While he was on that flight, I cruised around the hangars.  Always some interesting things to get shots of out there like this one.

 I went back later that night to get some more photos of Bryan with a student.

This one is my favorite from the day.

After the student was done logging the hours, it was my turn to go up in the helicopter. I've been flying with Chris a few times, but never Bryan.  He is a great pilot.

This flight resulted in my first ever aerial shot, and a night one at that.  One thing I learned that day is that I need to upgrade some of my equipment!  Even though I was using a very wrong lens for something like this, I was very please with the result.

Reflection of the hangar in the helicopter, always gotta get creative!

Now this wasn't Bryan, this was another pilot, but I love these photos.  Just not something you get to see everyday.

Bryan pushed in the helicopter, and closed the hangar doors and my photo story was complete.

My teacher went pretty nuts over these photos, so thank you Bryan for letting me follow you around!

Macro Photography

I blame my latest obsession with macro photography on my boss, Jonny Carroll.  Last semester I told him I was going to be spending the weekend taking photos for an assignment in my Design I class, and he let me borrow some of his macro gear.  It wasn't long before I was purchasing my own extension tubes and a macro flash.  Since then, macro photography has become something that I am fascinated with.  It's another area of photography that I am constantly improving in my work.  A few of these are from Hawaii, and the rest are from the Dallas Arboretum.  You can see more by clicking here.