Life In The RGV

Talking a little bit about what we’ve been up to and also answering a question about how to deal with criticism. Believe it or not Photography comes with critics. Ha ha

Anytime you go on to the internet and put yourself out there they’ll be watching.  CRTICS.  Don’t worry about it.  As we tell our young kids, not everyone is going to like you.  Just worry about you and find your own way.  I’m sure there’s hundreds if not thousands of methods that keep people going but I use a few and I present them in our Tuesday video.

Again this is just a fun little project to keep me entertained and connect with those that are out there.  It’s been fun and if you have a comment or a question you’d like to see answered shoot me a line.  This is meant to be fun.  Hope to hear form you soon.

Abel.

Life in Mission Texas – We put out our flag last night to participate in they city’s call to stand united during this whole crisis. Truth be told this flag was given to me by a veteran a few years back and has served as a background for a lot of our photoshoots. It’s been in storage for a few years ever since we closed our studio but it’s still coming in handy. #MissionStrong

I needed a break from the video editing for a while and started to go through some of the 2019 archives – Adventures in Texas photography. Here’s one from a solar power farm being built out in the outskirts of Encino. The project owners are from California and I believe this will be one of their first solar power farms based here in South Texas. I’ve seen the huge wind farms they have out in Cameron county, but have never seen a solar power farm up close.

This is just a glimpse of phase one and what you don’t see is all the cabling they put into this whole project. They tether all these banks together with what I’m guessing would be miles and miles of cable. I decided to go with the drone to finish up the project as I didn’t want to end up as a snack for rattle snakes. It was pretty cold that morning and the snakes were apparently coming out to sun themselves.

Never been a fan of taking unnecessary risks so I just hung back. You have to love technology. — in Encino, Texas.

Friday night photography editing. I’ll be honest I try and get it right in camera but there are times you have to make adjustments on event photos and Lightroom is AWESOME!

Now having said that I also over shoot to make sure I have a good shot to represent that part of the conference so I have to look though a lot of pics just to find that right one. I would say about 20% of what I do is actually being behind the camera, the rest is editing, cataloging, story telling, and getting the things out on time and to the right people.

What a crazy month it’s been. 

i’m not complaining in any way but normally we usually knock off by December 14th and we just coast into the new year with new projects.  We’ll be off for at least two MAYBE three days before we jump back into the swing of things but I wanted to start sharing some of my favorite images from this past month.

Last week I had a chance to document a family as they went back to visit where they grew up.  They helped the City of #McAllen by donating property to help expand a firehouse to better serve the community.  It was cool hearing their stories about growing up in the area and even taking a ride with the grandkids in a fire truck to see the neighborhood.  Lots of memories and fun all around.

This is probably one of my favorite photos from last night’s gala.

Another McAllen Chamber Gala has come and gone and as always the chamber went all out at new location, the McAllen Embassy Suites Hotel. This year the chamber honored Bob Boggus (of Boggus Ford) and Jessica Delgado of SALT and House.Wine in McAllen.

I think this was my fifth gala that I’ve been invited to cover and as always it’s a big reunion with friends that I haven’t seen in a while. It’s always great to catch up with everyone and hear what they’re planning for 2020.

Probably one the best things about covering these events is the positive energy that comes out of the whole thing. I’m not talking about receiving the award, it’s the stories that come out and how hard they’ve worked to be part of the McAllen community. And as always they have lots of friends and family that have stood by them supporting them every step of the way.

As much as McAllen has changed since I was growing up there, it’s still growing and it’s great knowing there are people that still believe in reinvesting into the community and volunteering their time.

What a morning, you know you’re in October when everything goes pink for Breast Cancer Awareness! This time I was asked to help with “Love your Cha Cha’s” 10th Annual event this year. There was a lot of spirit, fun, and fellowship as survivors caught up with one another and shared about their experiences.

It was the first one that I’ve covered but they put on an awesome walk. The one thing you’ll always see at any breast cancer awareness walk is the fellowship among the survivors.  When we had our studios we’d have a program called “Shooting for the cure” where we’d take photos of breast cancer survivors to share their stories.  What always amazed me was how quickly they’d come together and support one another no matter what stage they were in.  I can only imagine the strength and mindset one must have to deal with something like this.

Now comes the hard part, looking though all the photos and posting only a handful here and on our social media.

I’m not going to steal their thunder so I’ll just share a few snapshots that I took. I’ll send the rest to Tres Lagos Monday morning. Have a great weekend!