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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

Anyway.. enjoy a few photos from the wedding

Hi everyone,

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

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

Hi everyone,

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.

Today was fun. I photographed TJ and Montana. TJ, is one of our  2010 US Olympic Downhill skiiers  and his girlfriend, Montana is a  Pro Beach Volleyball player.

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!

Hi everyone (mostly towards my previous photography students)..

I thought I would put a blog out there on something that we all need. COLOR MANAGEMENT.  Several of my past students have written to ask me about why their prints are not coming out the way they think they should. Hmmm…

First, check the color temperature before you take the photograph. How?  Grey cards, expodiscs.. get proper color. This is referred to as white balancing…

Next comes the monitor..You need to do this. You should be doing this every few months to ensure you are getting proper color.  I have spoken to several people who are still using their monitor “as is” fom the day they bought it. You really need to create profiles in order to get proper color. I recommend the XRITE system, the Eye One works great.  I do tis every 3 months to to ensure that I am still A-OK on my monitor calibrations..

The next thing you should think about it the printer that you are printing on. If you are at a lab, you are most likely printing in SRGB. If the file you have edited is in Adobe RGB then you will have some color shifts. You should ensure that you are printing in the same color space as you are editing in.  If you are doing magazine work, convert it to CMYK.. don’t forget or your colors will look really ugly

Remember, the art of photography (in my opinion) is not just the eye that you use to capture but it is also the development of the piece and the printing of the piece-all three of these things still go hand in hand just like in the film days. the only difference is now, the development is not in a chemical darkroom but a digital one.  The final printed product needs to accurately reflect the art that you thought you created..

Cool site of the week: go to John Paul Caponigro’s site. He is a great photographer and he is also a leading expert on color science. awesome site www.johnpaulcaponigro.com

maria