This was my favorite shot taken in 2020…It was mid-October in Downtown San Antonio on a hot and humid night. My cousin Edward (aka NappooBeats) was with me, scootering around the city and photographing whatever looked good.
We were on our way to go photograph the Alamodome (former arena for the San Antonio Spurs) when we came across a colorfully-lit freeway underpass that I had to stop and photograph. Using the brake lights on our scooters as light trails, I had Edward do figure-8’s to capture that slow shutter speed. I also waited for the cars to drive by to add more depth to the photo. The colors of the freeway lights randomly changed color-themes, so if I didn’t get my camera settings ready in time, I had to wait a few minutes for it to re-appear.
Many times, when I’m out shooting a new location, I don’t know exactly know what I’m looking for until I get there. Sometimes, all I see is a particular angle or a color….and then I take that small idea and try to project that through the lens. Sometimes I feel stuck with what I’m looking for and then just move onto the next place….During this situation on this particular day, I was drawn to the the vibrant colors- and once I committed and settled in, my creative juices began flowing…
I started tilting my camera to get certain angles. I adjusted the height of the tripod. I told Edward to ride the scooter over and over again until I got a decent amount of red light from both the scooter and the on-coming car traffic. I waited for strangers to walk by to discretely include them as blurry subjects. By remembering all of the details till this day, I can now mentally take myself back to that night of scouting Downtown and getting lost, with no care of direction to go to next. All of these memories makes this photo even more sentimental. To me, THIS is what photography is all about and that’s why I love it so much.
I had a great time during this 10-day vacation. Aside from passing through for 2 days back in 2012, it was my first time in Texas and definitely won’t be the last. I was able to spend time with the kids, go to a gun shooting range, watch the Lakers win their 17th NBA championship with the family, and even got to hang out for a few days in Austin with my other cousins, Janna and Genesis!
Thank you to Sophia and Ryan for dinner. And thank you to Rummel for driving me around Austin.
Last but no least- Thank you to Shanay, Edward, Janna, and Genesis for the hospitality and letting me stay in their homes and eat all of your delicious food!
And yes- Texas BBQ is as good as they say it is!
I’ll be back! (Arnold voice)
One love
-J