Lens Flare

Lens Flare is a blog dedicated to posting the photos and ramblings of the Lubbock and Austin based photojournalist Sam Grenadier. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-16577798-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

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Texas Tech vs SFA

The Kliff Kingsbury era has officially begun at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders thrashed SFA, their first home opponent of the season, running away with a 61-13 victory.

Click below for a slideshow.

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Texas Tech vs Texas State

The Texas Tech Red Raiders faced the Texas State Bobcats in the annual Celebrate Cotton game. The Red Raiders continued their hot start to the season winning the game 33-7.

Click below for a slideshow.

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Texas Tech vs Iowa State

The 2013 Texas Tech homecoming game was a great success with the Red Raiders leaving Jones AT&T stadium victorious against the Cyclones. The Red Raiders remain undefeated on the season at 6 - 0, a dream start to the Kliff Kingsbury era. Here are some photos from todays game.

Click below for a slideshow.

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The thing I always notice when a photo like this comes around is that people always fail to notice all of the unsuccessful attempts it took to get the shot (probably because people only ever get to see the successes). I don't just mean from that night either. I probably had to drag myself out to four or five different storms to stand around for 30-40 min in the drenching rain before I got anything like this.

Enough ranting. I love this photo (except for that damn rain drop on the left) and I hope the tumblrverse enjoys this photo too.

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Lubbock Music: Glassy Alley Edition

And now for something completely different!

Well, different from what I've posted lately anyways. I found out about a couple shows in Lubbock last weekend through various social medias and decided to check them out. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. Both shows last weekend were at Glassy Alley, a local art gallery with a cool vibe. The only downside was how dark it was in there.

Anyways, here are the photos.

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Mother Falcon: SXSW 2012

This year I had to opportunity to follow around Mother Falcon through their many SXSW shows. Here are some of my favorites from throughout the week. I might as well just rename my blog to Assorted Photos of Mother Falcon.

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Mother Falcon - La Zona Rosa

It has been almost a whole year since my last post and that is just unacceptable. To make up for it, here are some photos of who else but Mother Falcon performing at La Zona Rosa last Halloween. The show was a charity event for victims of the Texas wildfires last year.

While I haven't shot as much as I should have over the last six months I have more than enough backlogged stuff on my hard drive to post consistently for a long time. I won't be foolish enough to guaranteeing such consistency this time around but I will do my best to keep the photos coming more regularly.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Mother Falcon - Rehearsal at CPC

Few things make me happier that even just listening to Mother Falcon. Weather I'm in the car or at a show their music always brings a smile to my face. This weekend I was honored to get to spend the day with these wonderful people preparing the church for their CD release show and shooting the rehearsal that followed. They went all out for this thing and it definitely paid off. Congrats again guys. click more to check out the photos.

PS: their album "Alhambra" is fantastic and everyone should pick it up. It is available on Itunes.

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Mother Falcon - Live at The Parish 2

This week was Thanksgiving break and it went just about as well as I could have asked for. It was full of lots of cooking, good food and great friends and was all capped off with a Mother Falcon concert at The Parish. If you are a regular visitor to my blog then you know that a post of Mother Falcon photos is a regular around here and that there few things that I enjoy more than shooting them at The Parish, an Austin club with great sound and best of all equally good lighting, they were fantastic as always and I would like to think that my photos did them some justice. Check out the sideshow after the break.

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It's officially 4:18 a.m. Monday and I am currently sitting in my office FINALLY!!!! celebrating having finished my 20 page Project Lab report, and what better way to celebrate than posting what is one of the coolest photos I have taken while listening to LCD Soundsystem on blast . ENJOY EVERYBODY!!!! ... nap time (then class at 10)

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Minus the Bear at Jake's

Holy cow it has been a long time since I have had a chance to post here. Between classes and work the past month or so have been incredibly hectic. To put this all in perspective last weekend I drove to Denver, Colorado Friday then continued on to Boulder the next day for a football game. left the night of the game to make it back for a budget meeting and to see Garrison Keillor on Sunday and followed all of this up with a makeup test and Minus the Bear show on Monday. So anyways given the amount of stuff I have waiting to be posted and since this was the first thing I found, without any further adieu, I bring you Minus the Bear live in Lubbock, Texas of all places.

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Texas Tech Football vs. Texas

There is no game that manages to bring more hype to the windy and dusty city of Lubbock than when the Longhorns come to town. It seems like all activity in the city stops for the day to take it all in. In the biggest home game of the season the Red Raider offense fell flat putting only 7 points on the board during a 14-24 losing effort against the Longhorns. The running game was all but nonexistent rushing for a grand total of negative 14 yards. While the game itself may have been a bust the view from the sidelines is always anything but. Here are just a few of the photos I took at the game. Click see more to view the slideshow.

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Texas Tech Football vs. SMU

The semester has just started and the college football season has already kicked into full gear. This weekend Texas Tech played the Southern Methodist University Mustangs in what turned out to be a relatively exciting game featuring some big plays on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. It was head coach Tommy Tuberville's first game at the helm of the Red Raiders and I as always was on the field snapping photos. Click more to see a slideshow of photos from the game.

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Mother Falcon - Live at The Parish

These past 2 weeks have been far and away the busiest of my summer. I traveled to and from Austin 3 times spending about a day and a half on the road and netting around 2000 miles on my car and shot and edited enough stuff to fill a 30 page issue of The Daily Toreador. However, amidst this madness I was able to find the time to shot Mother Falcon at The Parish, a venue that I have been waiting to shoot them at for at least a year, and what a concert it was. The lighting and sound were impeccable and Mother Falcon as always was on point. They had just finished a recording session for their new album and even unleashed a new song. Click more to see a slideshow of their performance.

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Homegrown Live

This past weekend was my 22nd birthday and since I needed to head back to Austin to switch cars anyways I decided to go ahead treat myself to a night of beautiful music and a bit of downtown madness. The night was highlighted by 101X Homegrown Live where the always great Mother Falcon opened for a band that was a wonderful treat, The Octopus Project. As always I brought my camera but this time decided to only shoot Mother Falcon and then take it easy and really enjoy the music that followed. Click on read more to see a slideshow.

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Ghostland Observatory

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing Ghostland Observatory live for the first time and I have to admit that despite the fact that doors were supposed to open at 7 but didn't until 9 and the almost two hour wait between the opener and closer. Ghostland put on an AMAZING show.

Better description to come later ... I'm off to Austin for the weekend. Enjoy the photos!

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Happy Belated Independence Day!!! I had a particularly fantastic Holiday weekend seeing old friends and watching the fireworks flash over the lake here in Austin. Had I really had time to plan shooting this I would have brought along a tripod and scouted out an area ahead of time but given the last minute circumstances I feel like the result is pretty nice.