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My wife and I were reminiscing about our Senior Year when the Mesquite Skeeters made it all the way to State, and exactly 40 years ago we were in the Cotton Bowl, just like you guys were this year. Robin was in the All-Stars and I was )you guessed it!) doing the School Photography for the MHS Newspaper and Annual! Some things never change! That night was so foggy no one saw the game, except for those standing on the sidelines! It is remembered as the Fog Bowl! I would not be surprised if you guys do not remember this as the "Rain Bowl!"
I will tell you, cherish these moments...they go by so quickly and you are blessed to have these memories. We cherish ours, and can tell you with personal experience that these are memories you will be talking about 40 years from now. Many of your classmates are so uninvolved that they will look back on their High School days without the fun memories and accomplishments that you Burnt Orange Band members, Drill Team, Football players, Cheerleaders, etc. have earned. Such a shame.
The next big event for me will be your Band Banquet. And here's the catch. So far, I have made almost no money photographing your many games, competitions, and banquets. This web site costs me $140 per year to maintain, and my equipment costs are staggering. I am eyeing a $500 lens for photographing group shots you guys always ask of me. It will especially be necessary for the Band Banquet if I shoot it again (last year there were NO sales from that event). Please keep that in mind, I really need to recoup some of these expenses...I only got back into photography to serve the needs of the Burnt Orange Band with professional quality photography. 10 years from now you guys will love the fact that this website is still here with all your memories in tact, and available for downloading and ordering. That is my goal.
Yours,
Mr. Huddleston
"It's Not in My Job Description, But it's for the Kids!"
BOB Historian, Truck Driver, Photographer
MISD Substitute Teacher
]]>OK, just so no one misunderstands, there are free digital photo's available to download free of charge, but be sure and read the License Agreement, as all photo's are copyrighted. The License Agreement given with every download states that these are free for use in NON-Printed format. You can post them, send them to family or friends, but you and they are not allowed to print them in any form. Print's by a PROFESSIONAL print lab are offered at VERY reasonable prices, and are 75% discounted on individual prints.
AND, I am offering a Steal of a Deal on a package price for your pictures. 2 8 x 10's, 4 5 x 7's and 12 wallets for $29.99 plus tax. I dare you to find ANY photographer with a better deal. The 8 x 10's are worth over $20 each alone! The package includes a digital download as well.e You cannot find anything priced better than these prints; these are not automatic prints done at the drugstore, these are PROFESSIONAL prints by a PROFESSIONAL Photographic Lab.
While you are here, take a look at the various Galleries of Photo's of the games for the past two years. Thousands of photo's are available, and the prices for them are being offered at the same package and discounts for our BOB family!
Let me just say how excited I am to be your OFFICIAL Band Photographer and Historian for the 2014-2015 Band Season. As a grandfather of your fellow Band member, Serisa Huddleston, Clarinet Section Leader in 2014-2015, I view all the kids in Band, Drill Team, Cheerleading, Color Guard as my step-Grandchildren! I have watched many of you literally grow up through your association with Serisa all these years! As I said back when I was a church Youth Minister, I say as a Band Parent Association officer and Band Chaperone and Substitute School Teacher: "It's not in my job description, but it's for the kids!..."
I also enjoy seeing all of you during classes when I Substitute Teach at West Mesquite!
"Hey Band, How Do You Feel?"
If you want this package for an existing photograph on my site (like a BOB photo, etc) I will throw in additional prints in place of the session! DISCOUNT COUPONS DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS DEAL!
This is a great opportunity to get all those photo's to share as Christmas gifts!
Hurry - this is a limited time offer! Remember - NO COUPONS OR OTHER DISCOUNTS CAN BE APPLIED, and puzzles or other products are not included.
Marvin W. Huddleston
]]>These photo's include all the senior night photo's that I took, so please enjoy! Remember, use the coupon code BOB for 50% off all photo prints ordered and download products. Also remember, there are custom wooden puzzles available for any photo's that would make great Christmas presents that are hand made by me on a scroll saw! The website also offers a number of other fine products like mouse pads, books, etc. These products are NOT available at the discounted price; and now Photo's ordered require approval because some retouching will be done on all of them by me in Photo Shop before being sent on to be fulfilled by the lab.
The image below is an HDR photo of the band performing the National Anthem at the beginning of the game that evening. This image was processed in PhotoMatrix software and created from three images, one two stops underexposed, one at the correct exposure, and the last one at 2 stops over exposed. The resulting image when combined and processed by the software results in this High Definition Resolution image!
Marvin W. Huddleston
Marvin W. Huddleston Photography
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Talk about bringing back memories, September 20, 2013 brought them back to me in a huge way. The Mesquite High School All Stars celebrated their 50th anniversary, inviting all former All Star Alumni back for the game that night as well as a reception the following Saturday. As my wife Robin 'Rackley' Huddleston and All Star Class of 74/75 said, "This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. There will never be another 50th year celebration!"
This was the first time in 38 years that I did sideline photography at Hanby Stadium (will always be Skeeter Stadium to me!). There I was once again photographing one of my favorite high school subjects, the All Stars. What fun! These days my Friday night photography is usually restricted to my Granddaughter Serisa and her West Mesquite High School Burnt Orange Band.
My, how photography has changed over the past 38 years. When I started in photography around 1972 everything was shot in film. Kodachrome was the name of the game! How I remember changing the film rolls in the camera, shooting the games and school activities, placing the camera into a black felt bag in the darkroom to remove the film, winding it on developer rolls, putting the rolls in a tank and processing the film. It was then hung up to dry in the darkroom. Then it was placed on the projector, and a whole new process begun. The film was exposed to photographic paper via a projector mechanism, exposed, cropped, printed, etc. It took forever by today's standards to see if your work was good or a bust.
Today, everything is digital. You put a memory card into the camera, shoot, and see an INSTANT proof on the screen of the shot. Back in 1975 one of the worst fears was forgetting to put film in the camera (easier to forget then one might think). Today, that fear is you left the memory card in the computer (again, easier to forget to do than one might think!). There is no film to buy so that saves you a LOT of money. One of the down sides today is that everyone and their dog consider themselves photographers. We live in an age of folks spending large sums of money oh photographic equipment - but this is akin to a person buying an expensive set of cookware and then calling themselves a Chef!
In high school, I recall being allowed a 36 exposure roll of black & white film maybe every month...not much of a budget so you had to shoot well. However, I was always a trigger happy photographer and bought a lot of personal film, so when I graduated I had a black notebook filled with some 5,000 negatives shot during my high school career. I also recall multiple cameras hanging around my neck. and a monster flash unit that used a large heavy battery! When you shot a photo there was this loud flash and whirring sound of the flash recharging. People seldom knew what I looked like because all they saw was a lens pointed their way and a partial face as I took pictures!
Prior to the digital age, there was no easy way to share photo's. You either handed someone a negative or you made them a print. When our 10 year High School Reunion came up, I was approached for pictures. I gave them my notebook to use in the reunion planning. It never returned to me. So the thousands of negatives have been AWOL for the past 30 some-odd years. Today you would simply make a duplicate set of photo's on a disk or a card.
]]>Friday night will be a special experience. Robin will be participating in the Mesquite High School All Star 50th Reunion, and all the All Stars for the past 50 years will be the invited guests. Of course Robin, my wife and high school sweetheart, will be there. And of course, her photographer husband will be there once again photographing his favorite All Star just like he was doing 38 years ago! I do promise you won't have to be standing next to her to get your photograph taken, which I was accused of during my high school days! I pleed the 5th Amendment on that one!
So far West Mesquite Burnt Orange Band has had three games, and I have made two of them only missing one due to the toe. Not sure how many total photographs I have posted here on my website this year for the BOB, but I do know I uploaded 340+ of last Fridany's game despite being a little lame and not able to float around the field like I would have liked to to. Next home game is October 4th and I should be in regular style by then.
Order your Senior Portraits soon! Time is running out! I will try and post dates when I can discover the deadlines for the MISD schools Annuals for those ads you will need Senior photo's taken for.
Also, visit my woodworking web site: The Woodscribe (CLICK the name) and take a look at my custom gift ideas for Christmas. I will soon be listing custom wooden Photo Puzzles, where I can take your photo you supply or any I take for for and create a Custom Wooden Puzzle of them for you - they make fantastic gifts!
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Welcome to my new website - please visit often as this page quickly evolves!
Ever have something that is such a part of you that without it you feel incomplete? I have often said this about my interest in Astronomy. Without a telescope I have often said that I feel like Luke Skywalker without a Tie Fighter. Grounded, looking longingly into space but forever stranded. I felt the same way for many years without a professional grade camera, as my passion for Photography mirrored my passion for astronomy. When one needs a quick jump into orbit a rusting Ford just does not quite muster.
I caught the camera bug in high school (circa 1972), about the same time my longtime interest in Astronomy blossomed into a lifetime avocation. I started out as the school photographer and later head photographer of the fighting Mesquite High School Skeeters! I became head photographer for both the newspaper as well as annual staff. Later, I worked in photography for the Balch Springs Bulletin and the Mesquite Daily News. I also ran my own business, when Marvin W. Huddleston Photography was born. Those were the days of Darkrooms and Film photography.
So welcome to the current Digital Universe of Marvin W. Huddleston. Here I will blog about my photographic quests, memories and other general items of interest.
The evolution of a photographer...
My wife and I started helping my granddaughter's band in 2012, the West Mesquite High School Burnt Orange Band, where we are active Band Chaperones. Most of the time I drove an equipment truck and helped push instruments onto the field. I also started taking pictures which were soon in demand by the band leaders. One night I was asked to take another photographers Nikon to the top of the stadium and shoot some shots for her, & suddenly I was again hooked on Photography. My old point and shoot toy Olympus camera was just not the same. I longed to get back to real Photography, one of my all time passions! I started earnestly shooting photo's with the Olympus of the granddaughter and quickly realized this would not satisfy me; nor would I be able to produce the kind of art I wanted to offer other parents for sale. I am now shooting with the Canon Rebel T3i and an assortment of professional quality lenses. I cannot wait for the 2013 season!
I often hear people question the need for a photographer these days. Everyone with a smart phone thinks of themselves as a photographer. And I have to admit that my iPhone 4s takes some pretty impressive photo's. However, try taking one of these photo's and have it printed in 16 x 20 or larger and you will quickly learn one of the problems often encountered. Then there is always an uncle Tom in most families who spent thousands of dollars buying the latest and greatest camera's, gadgets and lenses. But think of it this way. Just because I go out and spend $5,000 on a set of cookwear does not mean that I am now a Chef and can thus produce similar results cooking a steak as I will get at 4 Season's Steakhouse which was prepared by a true Chef...in photography there is the artistry side as well as the equipment side. Being a photographic artist is one thing, being a snapshot shooter quite another.
I studied Art and Media Graphics while in college, at Dallas Baptist University, taking courses such as cartooning and media graphics. If I had things to do over, I probably would have pursued Art as my major degree field. It would have been much more productive in income production for sure!
My photography passion includes the field of Astrophotography (the photographing of Astronomical Objects), and one of my best efforts here were photographs I did of the Comet Hale-Bopp. By today's astrophotography standards, this is not a spectacular astrophoto, but given the limited equipment at the time, I was quite pleased with the results and anxiously await another great comet anticipated at the end of 2013!
Aside from my Art interests in photography, I also am an Artist in Wood mediums: I do scroll saw art, pyrography, woodturning and other forms of Artistry in Wood.
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