A happy puppy found in Arlington, Texas

This past week I was flown to Dallas, Texas, to shoot some pictures for a commercial laundry equipment distributor. During a visit to one of their local coin laundry locations, we found this cute pup hanging out in the back of a pick-up truck.

This was one of only a few personal images I captured, despite having taken over 700 pictures in roughly 72 hours. That represents over 20 gigs of data I now have to sort through and whittle down to something useful. After working from dawn to dust each day, the last thing I wanted to do was go hiking around town with twelve and a half pounds of camera gear on my back and a tripod slung over my shoulder.

One of the goals of the trip was to take pictures of each employee and record personal biography information for their new website. I found its easier to be behind the camera than in front of the lens, but if you're relaxed and confident, your subject will be too. I spent nearly a half hour with each team member, and only a few minutes actually taking pictures.

I admit it was a challenge to find the sexy side of laundromats. Bikini models would have helped, but that was beyond the budget. At one site, a handyman happened to be on location, so I snagged his latter and got some good high-perspective shots. A very handy trick I learned from Scott while in Costa Rica was to lay the camera on the ground, and those shots turned out to be very dramatic. Or, as dramatic as a washing machine can be :)

Dexter Dryer Wall

My hosts were overwhelming gracious, and knew all the best food stops in the area. Their hospitality was especially appreciated during the last day of my trip. I was scheduled to fly out of DFW around noon, but due to an approaching thunderstorm, my flight was cancelled. This is the second time in the past month that an airline has failed to keep my originally scheduled flights.

To complicate things further, the local transport authority temporarily closed the only freeway between our office in Garland, and the airport in Dallas. Traveling south towards the Dallas airport, there is a section where three main freeways converge. A fuel tanker decided to have an accident right at this location, which turned everything within a 5 mile radius into a parking lot. My client and I were stuck, in the rain, hail, and lighting, for over two hours while we waited for the wreck to clear.

Once I arrived at the airport, I found that my flight was now expected to leave 8 hours later. I also would not be flying back to Orange County, but rather to Burbank, an hour north by car from SNA. It quickly become one of those days that you must sit back, relax, and try to roll with whatever happens.

After three gate changes, and nearly 11 hours, the plane finally rolled back from the gates, and we were on our way. Needless to say, the passengers and crew were a little cross-eyed by this point. As the plane started to lift, several of us burst into cheer followed by a sarcastic round of applause.