I was invited to participate in the Austin Portrait Symposium hosted by Randy Kerr and Doug Box. The symposium was held at the Gusto Studio in Austin, Texas. There were 20-30 participants, photographers and enthusiasts from Texas. Although, I think I heard that one person was from Louisiana. Model Alva Sim, who works for the studio, posed for the group while Randy and Doug demonstrated lighting and how to interact with a model or potential photography client.
​After studio time we all went to lunch then met up again to photograph people on the street in Austin.
Doug brought his 4x5 film view camera along to demonstrate his portrait techniques. Doug is also a big fan of light meters and made sure everyone understood the importance of proper lighting of portraits.
I've always been an available light enthusiast except when I managed photography for Disney. There the photography, primarily advertising, was all about lighting and capturing the Disney Magic. This is a whole other conversation but the lighting options at Disney were so dramatically different than what I used when I was the President's photographer.
Hopefully I will be invited to the next Austin Portrait Symposium where I can share more of my experiences in photography.
Thanks to Randy and Doug for asking me to participate in their symposium. It was also great to meet so many photographers and share a few stories.

I have been invited by Randy Kerr, photographer to participate in the Austin Portrait Symposium in Austin, Texas May 27,2017. I'm looking forward to attending and hopefully I can help contribute by sharing some of my experiences. Below are a few portraits I have taken over the years.

Apple holds numerous classes in their stores to educate Apple users. I participated in a photo walk at the Barton Creek Mall Apple Store in Austin, Texas. I would highly recommend attending one of the Apple Store photo walks in your area. I know I will go back for another class.
John, the Apple Genius, led the walk after some iPhone camera instruction in the store. The theme of the the day was light and shadows. I have held iPhone classes myself but you're never too old to learn something new. John reminded us of the great exposure options in the iPhone camera, using filters before shooting and some of the great editing options. On Apple.com there are numerous short videos that give the highlights of iPhone photography to improve your images. Follow the Apple videos links to see some of the iPhone camera operation tips.

I had an opportunity to photograph the Habitat for Humanity/National Women Build Week sponsored by Lowes in Round Rock, Texas. I have been a part of Habitat for Humanity for more than 30 years starting back in the days when I worked as a photographer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Living now in Georgetown, Texas I got involved with Habitat for Humanity of Williamson County. The National Women Build Week was a national event the week of May 8, 2017. I volunteered to take the still photos for Habitat's social media for the 2 days I was at the build in Round Rock. 
I shot the original photos on my Nikon D750 which has wifi,using a Nikon 28-300mm Nikon lens. From the construction site I sent photos to my iPhone6Plus, edited in Camera+ and texted the photos to my Habitat contact. She then posted images on the Williamson County Habitat Facebook page and texted photos to the leaders of the various volunteer groups who in turn posted my photos on their social media. Glad to be a part of this great effort.

All photographers take different paths in their career. When I was 18 and an Airman in the United States Air Force starting my photography career I never new where life would lead me.  After being a photographer for 4 years in the Air Force I moved to the Washington DC area to be with family who had moved there and to finish my college. I thought I wanted to pursue photojournalism, work for a news magazine or newspaper.  So I ultimately earned a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. While I was taking classes at Maryland, I also worked in photography in Washington, D.C. at Dunlop Studios as a color printer. 
I left there after about a year and went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There I was still a darkroom technician but they sent me on assignments with Agriculture scientists in Beltsville, Maryland and I did studio work in the Agriculture headquarters building. 
One day a Human Resources person approached me about a photographer's position at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. I really didn't know anything about HUD but it meant a promotion and I would be taking photos full time. I had become a full time U.S. Federal Government photographer documenting the history of the United States of America.
At HUD I worked with one other photographer Joe Barcia, who was the lead photographer and he taught me a lot about available light photography. He loved using his Leica cameras with Kodak Tri-X film. In those days we processed all our own film and made our own prints. Our mission was to document the activities of the department. Joe took primary responsibility for photographing the HUD Secretary and I did everything else. At the time FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration was a part of HUD so I went on a lot of national disasters around the country. Also during this time which was in the early 70's we were rebuilding inner cities. I spent a lot of time in Watts, Harlem, Baltimore and countless cities around the country. On a few occasions I would also photograph U.S. Senate Hearings on Capitol Hill. That is where I met a lot of the photojournalist who I admired and who I follow to this day.
At one point Joe retired and I was promoted in grade and took over as the lead photographer. Funny, they didn't replace Joe so I was a staff of one. This gave me a great opportunity to photograph the HUD Secretaries full time and go to the White House with them during our housing events. During this time the Presidents were Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. Little did I know at the time that I would become a Presidential photographer like David Hume Kennerly, Ollie Atkins and Michael Evans all of whom I had an opportunity to work around when I would go to the White House.
For me HUD was a great stepping stone to the next phase of my photography career. When I left HUD I went on to be the Chief Photographer for Nation's Business magazine which was published by the United States Chamber of Commerce.

2017 is my 50th year as a professional photographer and I am always looking to learn something new about photography. When I left the White House as the Personal Photographer for the President of the United States I became Manager of Photography for Walt Disney Attractions. At Disney there was a huge learning curve because I went from pure documentary photography to creating images of things that most times didn't even exist.
Today I hold photo walks to meet photographers or those interested in photography so I can learn from them. We post most of our photowalk images on Instagram. Feel free to follow me davidvaldezusa on Instagram. OccasionalIy I post some of my archived White House Photos on my Instagram account.
I have found the Flipboard app to be a great resource for articles on photography, mobile photography, street photography, new phone apps to improve photography or most any other item of interest you can think of. Flipboard is great for me. Of course the best way to learn more, is to go out there and just do photography as much as you can. Keep em sharp!
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I held a photo walk with Photowalksgtx (photographers from Georgetown,Texas) who joined PhotowalksATX, (photographers from Austin, Texas). We met Saturday March 4th in San Gabriel Park in Georgetown,Texas. The photographers used a variety of cameras including Nikons and Canons, one Polaroid and several iPhones. I think we even had a Canon film camera! It was a rainy day which changed some of the plans and caused a few photographers to leave early. Those of us who stayed went to a dog show held in the park and others went to the Sunken Gardens right there in San Gabriel Park. Most of the photos from the park were macro shots of water drops on flowers, mostly taken with iPhones with macro lens attachments. You can see some of the photos on Instagram #photowalksatx .
I went to the dog show. There I used my Nikon D750 and iPhone6Plus. It was dark in the arena so I had to pump up the ISO to 5000. My go to lens on my NikonD750 is the Nikon 28-300mm lens. I really like that lens for walking around. On the iPhone I used the Hipstamatic app where I used the Tinto 1884 Lens and D-Type film.
I hope to have a photo walk once a month. Details are posted here and on my Instagram account @davidvaldezusa

I've been holding Instagram Meet Ups in Georgetown,Texas. I am expanding to do photo walks so you don't have to be an Instagramer to participate. I am calling the photo walk  PhotowalksGTX. If you participate and want to use Instagram just hash tag your photos #photowalksGTX.
March 4, 2017 I will be holding a PhotowalksGTX meeting at 8am in San Gabriel Park.
The exact location is:
​San Gabriel Park
 445 E Morrow St
Georgetown, Texas. 
Come on out. Let's take and share some photos. We should be done by noon. Sometimes we go get a bite to eat. Hope to see you there. Below are some photos from a previous photo walk in Georgetown, Texas

I had an opportunity to speak to the Texas A&M College Republicans in College Station, Texas about my White House photography. There was a good attendance and I had a lot of questions about my photography and working at the White House. Thanks to Whitney LaJunie for inviting me. I met Whitney when she was an intern on the George P. Bush campaign for Texas Land Commissioner. It's always fun for me to share stories of my experiences as a Presidential Photographer. 

PetaPixel recently ran an article about former USA Presidential Photographers. I was fortunate enough to be one of 9 photographers in the history of the United States who had the job as personal photographer to the President of the United States. Now I hear that Shealah Craighead will be the photographer for President Trump. Congratulations Shealah! 

https://petapixel.com/2017/01/24/photographing-president-look-back-every-white-house-photographer/