Summer Time Sloth

This Summer in Austin is off to a brutal start. We're on our third or fourth day of temperatures over 100 degrees (f). But we're not lucky like people who live is dry climates, our heat is usually accompanied by tons of humidity. Makes it seem all the more unbearable.

So my thoughts turn to swimming pools. Sure, you can spend your life in air conditioning but a good pool is a fabulous place to wile away a heat wave.

I photographed this pool a while ago. It was next to a really cool house, up on a hill in the western part of Austin, with a view that mainly consisted of cedar, oak and pecan trees. When I look at this image I'm reminded that sometimes good photography is more of a waiting game then a lighting challenge. I turned on the pool lights, got a glass of red wine and settled down in a chair to wait. Every once in a while I'd snap a photo to see what the balance between the pool lights and the landscape looked like. When we started getting close I put the wine down and started to pay attention. There's a few minutes when the balance is just perfect and it's good to be ready because it'll take at least another 24 hours until the scene looks just right again.....In the movie business they call it "magic hour" even though it only lasts for moments.

It was hot that day so I was trying to remember stuff like staying hydrated and keeping a handle on the location of my sunscreen. But if memory serves I used a Nikon D2x and a 12-24mm lens. We had a lighting plan if the existing stuff didn't work out but we never had to use it. Ran in a feature about pools in Tribeza Magazine.

It's almost seven p.m. and I've been backing up files to DVD's for hours. I'm shutting it all down and heading for my neighborhood pool. If everything works out well we'll run into friends there and have a beer or two as the night drops in and quiets everything down.

Hope you are staying cool.