I am blogging about Lauren and Ryan today. Lauren and Ryan were married yesterday, July 17th at One World Theatre. This was my first time photographing at One World Theatre, I really really liked it. Here are a couple of photos of the location.
I met Laruen’s mom and dad at J’me and Michael’s wedding in June of 2009 and at the end of that wedding, Lauren’s mom, Michelle, informed me that they would be “honored to have me photograph their daughter’s wedding”. That statement stuck with me a long time-still does. Anyway, Michelle has become one of those ladies that have touched my soul and I am so thrilled that I was the one chosen to photograph her daughter’s wedding!
So… anyway, Lauren and Ryan are awesome kids. I really enjoyed working with them! They are so sweet and so fun and I was so excited to be there on their special day. My favorite two favorite moments were the first time that Humberto, Lauren’s dad, saw his daughter in her dress and the moment we unveiled her bridal portrait to everyone. Unveiled? Yes. I did a digital oil painting of her bridal and so we decided to do an unveiling like artists would do in the olden days. We kept a sheet over the portrait, an announcement was made and everyone stood around the portrait and we unveiled it. WOW to see the look of Ryan, her dad, and everyone else’s face when they saw it was priceless. Her grandmother went over the painting and stood there for what seemed an eternity and cried. She was so happy for her granddaughter and that touched me. I have a special place in my heart for grandparents, I always wanted grandparents but they passed away when by the time I was 5 years old. I secretly adopt any grandparent that I meet
Today, I wanted to blog about Marcus and Esosa. We photographed their wedding at the Renaissance Hotel here in Austin and we just completed their “after the wedding session”. I love doing those! It is such low pressure for the bride and groom. No one is around but me..no party screaming their name..no guests looking at them getting their photos taken. All those things are awesome on the wedding day but they can be distracting to a couple so due to all the excitement on the wedding day, most of my couples like to do an “after the wedding session”
Anyway.. Marcus and Esosa chose Chicago for their session. So they took me to Chicago because they love the city and they love Lake Michigan. July 2nd was the day that they chose and being a genius … well, July 1st was my mine and Eric’s 20th wedding anniversary so I thought, Eric should go with me, he can assist me and then we can spend our anniversary in Chicago!
So, Marcus and Esosa are such sweet people and they had so much fun and so did I. Marcus and Esosa…thanks for such a fun session!
Hello everyone. So I wrote this blog a while ago and then I guess I never pressed the publish button. I am so sorry. I am in a Barnes and Nobel in Iowa on my way back from doing an “after the wedding” session for another couple in Chicago..
Anyway.. I love these guys and I want everyone to “meet them”. I was so excited to photograph their wedding. Brandi and Joshua are so sweet and their families are amazing and they are so welcoming. Brandi and Joshua got married in the cutest church at the UT campus and then their reception was at the Renaissance Hotel in the Glass Oaks Ballroom.
So, Brandi and Joshua have got to be two of the sweetest people on this planet and I wish they were not moving so far away. I had so much fun at their wedding and I am so pleased that they chose me to photograph their wedding.
Anyway, here are a few photos from their wedding-enjoy! YOU NEED FLASH TO SEE THIS
P.S. On a side note, I love the Austin Renaissance Hotel. Their Glass Oaks Ballroom is sooo gorgeous and I have this special place in my heart for it. I photographed the very first event in that ballroom a few years ago! If you are looking for a gorgeous hotel ballroom, the Renaissance is awesome-call Jenny Hernandez, she will take care of you-she is the best!!!
I really am trying to keep up with my blogging. Okay, blog post title: “what is in our water?”-what is that all about? Seniors! High School Seniors! I do not remember High School Seniors EVER looking like they do today. Wow. I get High School seniors in here and I think to myself “what is in your water to look like that and can I get some?” ha ha… Anyway, meet Lindsay. Lindsay is a senior in Dripping Springs and when she walked in the door I had to get on my tippy toes to even look at her! She is so tall. I told her and her mom that she was meant for modeling- totally meant for modeling. I can see her as an EASY, BREEZY, BEAUTIFUL COVER GIRL… or MAYBE SHE’S BORN WITH IT, MAYBELLINE, or in an AVEDA ad or whatever. We might do a fashion portfolio with her as well in the near future because if there is anyone that has walked through these doors that I thought should be signed immediately-it.is.her. I will likely be submitting her to a few agencies that I work with to see their thoughts.
Lindsay is only 17 years old but she easily photographs like a mature 20-something but for a senior portrait the trick is to figure out a balance and have photos where she looks a little more like her age. We did some studio and we did some outdoor work for her and I really enjoyed working with her. Enjoy a few photos
Hi there, time for a new blog post. this one is titled : “i.am.excited.”. why? well, this is competition season. I just drove in from Kerrville, Texas. Kerrville? Yes, Kerrville-it was really pretty, the river was lovely. Am I just excited about seeing a pretty river? no. why then? wait for it…wait for it… ha ha
I entered four prints into the Annual Texas State Professional Photographers Association annual competition. For those photographers out there that do not know about this, you can enter four prints and you can enter a folio and an album if you choose as well but, as far as prints, you get four. I entered four prints, no album this year (forgot) and no folio (I have never entered a folio). Anyway, I entered four prints, three were portraits and one was an illustrative (architecture piece). I was really excited because all my portraits came home with an award and my illustrative came home with an awesome score.
So..the excitement is that I brought home:
-two judge’s choice awards
-three distinguished print awards
-highest print case for a non master. Second highest print case overall (my friend Richard from Dallas beat me for highest print case overall and I was so excited for him. we were sitting at the same table and he won a bunch of trophies in the categories that he was eligible for that night as well. I was very proud of him)
-trophy for Best portrait of a man
-trophy for Best portrait overall –So, I was super excited about that because that was over all portraits, kids, women, men, groups, pets…you name it. That was awesome and then…. holy cow!
-A KODAK AWARD. First reaction was “get out of town charlie brown!!!! Me? a KODAK?” I was soooo honored and sooooo excited, anyone who saw me, will tell you that my smile was ear to ear. I was super duper duper excited over that one! This also means that I am eligible to submit my image to the Imaging USA Kodak Elite competition in January of 2011 for a shot at the KODAK ELITE award. Ouuhhh..I would love to have one of those just once in my career. Of course, this was my first KODAK award period and that felt really really good.
Anyway, I am not putting the images up just yet as I am competing at the Southwest conference this year and a few of these prints will go there so to avoid too many people seeing them, I will post them in September when it is all over.
So, interesting week… the PPA international print competition was this past weekend in Florida as well and I am dying to know how I did there. I sent four prints there as well and I do not know the results….looking forward to those.
I am sooo trying to catch up with my blogging..sorry for my avid readers. I try to pick and choose different mixes of stuff and I realized that there must be at least 15 weddings or so that have gone by and I have not blogged about any of them and I have not posted a wedding blog in a while -oops. I will try to make it up with Sarah and Ronan. Sarah and Ronan were married in Georgetown on May 1st.
Sarah and Ronan were really nice and their families and friends were also really nice and they treated Nathan and I wonderfully-thanks y’all. (Ha ha, my new found Texan language is now sneaking into my writing-”y’all”, that’s funny. Although I am told I need to use “all y’all” at some point. hmmm) And there I go again, getting distracted. So… Sarah and Ronan got married in the sweetest little church in Georgetown and I loved it. It wast truly lovely. Then, off to Angel Springs for their reception. This ws my first time at Angel Springs and I thought it was quite lovely. The grass was green, there were beautiful places for photogaphy and by the time we got there, the lighting could not have been more perfect for us.
The highlights of the evening were cool. Sarah danced with her grandfather and honestly, he reminded me a little of my Dad (he would be 88 next month if he were still here) and it made me cry a little when I saw them dance together. Her uncles were a lot of fun and I guess they have a tradition in their family where they have the “crazy uncle photo”. Sarah and Ronan were so great to take photos of and Ronan kicked butt in a drum circle that night. I had never gone through a drum circle so that was cool. Their whole family is quite musical and in fact, her brother wrote and composed a piano piece that he played for them during the wedding ceremony.
Anyway, enjoy a few images of them.
If you want to see a little more of their wedding, feel free to look at this little slideshow-you can’t see it on phone but you can see it on a regular computer
My BFF is a twin. I always wanted a twin, but I don’t have any siblings.. Anyway, meet Jake and Cole. They are so cute! They were both little preemies and so adorable. I can’t believe how little they were. I mean, Dad’s ring was the size of the palm of their hands! We did the photos at their home because they were too small and they needed to stay in their environment in order to stay healthy. So, I got to their place where I was greeted so nicely by Mom and Dad and their beautiful Labrador (Whom I thought was a riot and I loved him. I love dogs. Anyone who knows me, know this fact.., yes, I know, I am getting sidetracked)
On to Jake and Cole–Ha ha, photographing little baby boys cracks me up because they ALWAYS HAVE PROJECTILE PEE. Ha ha ha… So, being a photographer, I am so used to babies peeing when they get their photos taken but the priceless thing is the look on the parents’ faces when their baby pees on me or them or whatever while they are getting photographed. It happened during this session and it was so funny and it is almost always the same reaction: Mom is…HORRIFIED. Dad is…”wow, look how far that went!”. LOL. What a job sometimes but then you see these precious little babies and it just makes it all worthwhile, you can wash your clothes but those babies are only teeny for a short time in their lives. I am looking forward to photographing these two as they get older.
I used Westcott Spiderlites onsite with these little ones and I know I have been talking a lot about these but I am telling you-I am truly in love with them. I think all photographers should have at least one set in their repertoire of lighting equipment. They were very useful on location for me.
Enjoy!
P.S. I think Cole is actually smiling in his slumber-that is sooo precious!!!
Now that things are going to calm down a little, I plan on catching up on all the people that I want to blog about. there is no particular order but, I got a new tower and these are some of the newest photos and they are on the new tower so, she gets a blog first.
Meet Taylor: 9 years old. sweet.full of energy. total ham on camera. Taylor has discovered that she loves to be on camera and just wrapped up her first film! impressive? yah. Asked her to give me different emotions and she did it without even batting an eye, impressive? yah. I think you get the drift, I was very impressed with her. Taylor, her mom, her Dad, and I would love for her to get an agent-I hope she does. Taylor was made to act and to be on camera!
For the photographers out there, her headshot with the yellow shirt were done with the WESTCOTT spiderlites. I have been super impressed with them! I cannot believe how much I am loving these lights. For the other shots, I used my Profoto 600R lights and I always find those to be super dependable and beautiful, like always. Why two different types of lights? Not every photograph needs to be shot the same way with the same lights. I am so excited to have the new Westcott spiderlites in my studio. I plan on demonstrating those in November when I speak in Dallas as one of the pros on the Westcott 25 pros in 25 city tour.
Anyway, if you are an agent looking at this site and you want to talk to her parents, let me know and I can arrange a meet.
The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind–and at some moments, literally a whirlwind. Over the last few weeks, this is where I have been. Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Austin.
First. one week in Dallas..Had a great time at the TPPA event there. It was great to see all my photographer friends from around the state and other states! Loved every minute of it. Came back for one day and did a bunch of sessions and then left again for Oklahoma. I went to go speak in Oklahoma City on the night of their first huge, national news making, destroying tornado. Holy cow! Before you ask..no, I did not take any photos of it. So, I went to Oklahoma as the May keynote speaker to the professional photographers association in OK city and the tornado came. long story short…city sirens went off, got sent to the freezer in a restaurant…still ticking in Austin Texas - Maria survival rate: 100% I had a great time with that group. They were so inviting and they treated me really well. The next day I went to Tulsa as the May keynote speaker to the Professional Photographer’s Association of Tulsa. That was a funny group. They laughed a lot, they were so much fun! Overall, speaking in Oklahoma was a great experience, minus the tornado.
After that, I got back to Austin in time to photograph clients for two straight days and then the Austin Professsional Photographer’s Association held their annual print competition. I entered and I was so excited to win a First Place Tropy for Best Portrait, a Second Place Trophy for Best Portrait, a Third Place Tropy for Best Illustrative Image, a First Place Trophy for Best Wedding Image, The BEST IN SHOW Trophy, and a Judge’s choice award. Overall, I was super duper excited but to tell you the truth I was more excited for my associate photographer, Nathan who entered one print and received the second place trophy for an Illustrative image, and my friend Dianna Walker who won first place. I was so proud of them!!!! I gave them huge hugs..
Then, I have had session after session, a couple of personal things that got me distracted and another wedding to shoot. I am finally back in the office for a few days. I am on vacation this weekend, then I leave for Fort Worth to speak to their Professional Photographer’s Association, then I come back and then I go to Kerrville for the Texas State Annual Print Competition, then I go to Iowa to photograph the Bridges of Madison county and then, I am flying to Chicago to photograph one of my favorite couples, Esosa and Marcus for their anniversary. Nathan and I photographed their engagement last year, her bridal and her two days of wedding (Nigerian and traditional european ceremonies). You can probably find them in a previous blog.
Talk to you all soon and I know that I have a lot of photos to post and I will do so very soon!!!
We did a fashion shoot for publication and then we did some sexy photos for them as well. Montana was a riot! she kept me laughing the whole day and I just kept thinking how absolutely beautiful she was. Montana is out there and fun and she really is the life of the party. TJ was very laid back and fun to work with. We cracked up a lot. It was nice to have them come into the studio for their fashion shoot and personal session.
I do want to give a shout out to my neighbor, Mike, who loaned us his plane to do part of the fashion shoot-that was super nice of him to do ! I wish I could show you the photos but I cannot yet. I also want to give a shout out to Chuck, the owner of Keepers in Austin-as he provided all of TJ’s clothing. There was some really nice stuff and I really coveted the Versace and Jhane Barnes suit that he wore in one of the formal shots…mmm….Versace. I would have loved to keep those and give them to my husband Also, a shout out to The Garden room for providing all of Montana’s clothing for their shoot as well!
Anyway, these photos are not with the clothes I mentioned since those are for magazine publication but, here are a couple of the shots from their sexy session and that I have permision to release on my blog… enjoy!
