Mark Oristano Photography

An Oristano at the Emmy’s | Friday Night Lights

moristano — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:03:24 +0000

Well, I’ve mentioned before that my daughter, Stacey, was one of the cast members of the outstanding TV show FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on NBC. Last night, at the Emmy Awards, Stacey was there along with most of the rest of the cast. Two big wins for the show… Jason Katims, the head writer, took home the drama writing award, and Kyle Chandler was named best actor in a drama for his flawless performance as Coach Eric Taylor.

I’ll admit that I’ve never watched the Emmy’s before, but I did last night, just for the thrill of seeing her there. Here’s her moment on the E! podium.

Dallas Actor Headshot | Grace Loncar

moristano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:42:36 +0000

She’s only 11, but Grace Loncar is for sure her mother’s daughter. If you know Sue Loncar, who runs Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, you see a lot of her in this young woman. We had a lot of fun during the shoot, even though Grace told me she doesn’t like to smile. I made her smile anyway!

Grace Loncar

For more, visit www.markoristano-photographer.com

Dallas Cowboys Preview | NFL Week 2

moristano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:22:27 +0000

OK, heading into week two of the Cowboys season after the almost mind-boggling loss to the Jets in week 1… (and remember, I was an NFL broadcaster for 30 years, so even though I’m a photographer now, gimme a little cred, will you?)

Will WR Dez Bryant play in SF Sunday? This has become a recurring theme with this guy. Will he be ready. This time it’s a bruised thigh. It’s fine to have a lot of talent. It’s fine to be called the next Michael Irvin. It’s fine to showboat on the field and taunt DBs after you make big, leaping catch. But the only way that stuff works is if you’re on the field to do it in the first place, and this guy seems to be kind of fragile.

Not an adjective you want applied to you in the NFL. Only the strong survive. The biggest badge of courage in the NFL is not just playing when you’re hurt, but playing WELL when you’re hurt. Bryant needs to step up or sit out.

On the defensive side, if linebacker Sean Lee keeps playing the way he did vs the Jets, the Cowboys have a new star on their hands. This guy was all over the place. He’s worth keeping an eye on.

As for Tony Romo… same song, twelfth verse.

Crested Butte Photography | Corral Mountains

moristano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:11:50 +0000

Driving around Crested Butte, Colorado about ten days ago, while the temperature was 30 degrees cooler than Dallas, I just kept seeing mountain after mountain after mountain. And then, all of a sudden, something caught my eye. I backed up my car (not that much traffic up there), got out and saw a scene begging to be photographed. So I did.

Crested Butte Corral

For more travel photos and other fun stuff, visit www.markoristano-photographer.com

Dallas Photographer Mark Oristano | Pick’s Picks

moristano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:57:52 +0000

So I’m at the Ranger game last night with my friends Danielle Pickard and Andrews (Plural Boy) Cope. And while Cope is off getting Danielle ice cream (he’s so devoted) Danielle and I are talking, of course, about food. She’s tells me about this Italian joint in Oak Cliff called LUCIA. Says it takes about a month to get a table. Says it’s the best Italian food she’s ever tasted. Danielle knows food. She is thin as a reed, but she knows food. As does Andrews, who made a pie for me and Lynn last October after we took them to a Ranger playoff game. After the first bite, I texted him that it was the “Josh Hamilton of pies.” Andrews is in the restaurant game and is a serious chef.

So anyhow, it’s now my mission to have dinner at Lucia. When we do, I’ll let you know how it was.

Crested Butte Photography | Slogar’s Dinner

moristano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:47:11 +0000

Heaven in Colorado

Spent a few days in Colorado recently, specifically Crested Butte, a ski town north of Gunnison that is just gorgeous. I’d been there almost 30 years ago, on a radio trip for KVIL in my sportscasting days. There was a little joint that everybody said I had to try called Slogar’s. All they served was a home-style fried chicken dinner. And it was amazing!

28 years later, we’re back… Slogar’s is still there… and it was just as amazing as I remembered it.

For more fun stuff, and small bits of herring, visit www.markoristano-photographer.com

Friday Night Lights | Farewell Dillon, Texas

moristano — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:08:39 +0000

Well, as many of you know, my daughter Stacey was a cast member of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on NBC for five years. It turned out to be one of the finest shows ever done on TV, and for to have a role in it was the thrill of a lifetime. The other day on Facebook, somebody asked me if I had any final thoughts now that the series has come to an official end. So… I wrote the following…

It was all so real. Maybe that’s why Friday Night Lights never got the big audience. People don’t want to sit at home and see real life. They want reality, but they want it scripted, and packaged, and with three witty judges sitting out front. The only judges we ever saw in Dillon, Texas were the people who lived there and who (thanks to incredible scripts) were judging, most often, themselves, with a Shakespearean sense of introspection most writers are incapable of providing.

Sometimes, it hurt to watch. In the very first episode, they took the handsome, stud quarterback, Jason Street, and laid him out with a spinal cord injury that would put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and I thought, “Damn, this is not your average TV show.” And then I remembered my friend Kent Waldrep, a good ol’ Texas boy who played running back for TCU, and in a game at Alabama in 1974, took off around right end, got knocked down, and never got up again.

Sometimes, it was so real, you felt like you could walk into a scene. I’d watch Kyle Chandler as head coach Eric Taylor and think, “Damn, I’ve interviewed that guy five hundred times over the years.” He could have been Merlin Priddy from Fort Worth Arlington Heights, or any one of hundreds of other coaches I’d known. And I won’t even get into how realistic the Taylor’s marriage was.

And we had tears, and were prepared to shed them; when Tim went to prison for Billy; when Billy and Mindy took Becky back to her mother. Sometimes, the tears were from laughter. When Mindy demanded that Becky “evaluate” her. (I should add, for those who don’t know, Mindy is played by my daughter, Stacey, so I’m a little biased here.) When Tami yelled at Eric, “I think we’re in agreement here!”

Each week, each season, they never took the easy way out. In football parlance, they always left everything on the field. And for these reasons and more, I actually don’t think I’ll be able to watch FNL again, even though I do, of course, have all five seasons on DVD. I may take one out and watch some of Stacey’s scenes now and again. But I don’t think I want to go through a replay of Friday Night Lights the way I’ve replayed Foyle’s War again and again. I don’t want to see Street get hurt again. I don’t want to relive Smash’s problems with his girlfriend’s mental illness. It was all too real.

In my real life I have, since some severe problems back in the early 90’s, always tried to live by going forward. I don’t want to dwell in the past, to be one of those aging types who tell everybody how great it was “in my day.” I believe we learn from the past, but that as it is the past, it is best left behind. Whenever a theater colleague asks me what my favorite role is, I always say “The next one.” Some understand; some don’t.

I’ve also always said that I’d rather play on special teams for the Super Bowl winner than be the starting quarterback of a team that never makes the playoffs. Despite occasional bouts of obnoxious individuality, I’d always rather be part of a team. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. And the five years spent in Dillon taught me once again how wonderful that feeling is.

I could sign off with a cliché, “Clear eyes… full hearts,” but that would be contrary to everything we got out of the show. So, I’ll sign off as “Dillon” as I can.

See y’all later. (…at www.markoristano-photographer.com)

Texas Rangers Ballpark Photographs | Shooting Baseball

moristano — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:25:07 +0000

We’ve got a lot of hot sports action in the Dallas area. (Especially this summer!) Rangers, Cowboys, Mavs, Stars, TCU, SMU, minor league baseball, soccer… on and on. And you can get in on the photography. It’s not just for the guys from the Dallas Morning News.

You don’t have to have a super great seat or a super long lens to get some good shots at a Major League Baseball game. You do need a super lens if you want to take those stop-action, freeze shots, because everything is moving real fast. But you can shots of players in interesting poses all around the park.

Last week I went to Rangers Ballpark and brought a 150mm lens to shoot with. I shot RAW, so that if I got something good, I could blow it up fairly easily. Here’s the original “frame” or full shot that I took looking toward Mitch Moreland at bat with Mike Napoli on deck behind him.

Now, here’s what I whittled it down to for a shot I titled “Could be tough!”

For more photo fun, please click here and visit us at www.markoristano-photographer.com

Texas Rangers Ballpark Photographs | Home Run Porch

moristano — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:03:16 +0000

I figure if you have a camera, you should have fun with it, whether you do portraits, travel, or just snaps for fun. So, the other night I bought a way too expensive seat at Ranger’s Ballpark in Arlington, sat down on the third base line, and started shooting baseball players. At one point, I looked at the Home Run Porch in right field and I had a vision of a Norman Rockwell painting. So I fired off three quick shots at different exposures and did an HDR photo of the Ballpark. I don’t know about you, but I like it.

For more on our work, please click to visit www.dallasportraitphotographer.com.

Photographing Children | Great Shots of Kids

moristano — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:22:07 +0000

How do you take good photos of children? Especially portraits? How do you get them to sit still? How do you get them to smile and not make their “silly” face? Well, for me, it’s a matter of spending a little time with them and trying to relate to them, close to their own age level of course, so they’ll let some of their guard down before portrait time. I wish my grand-daughter, known to all as “Hannah Banana” lived closer to Dallas. But she and her folks are in Oregon, so I have to make the most of the time I have around her, while not make it all about photography. Up in Oregon last week, she was sitting on the couch with her Grammy Lynn and I sat down next to her and we all just talked about stuff. And when she was calm and relaxed, I snapped the shutter.

For more of our family portrait photography please click here to visit www.dallasportraitphotographer.com.