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.