Celeste had her hair and make-up done by Thelma at the studio today which was awesome! Celeste looked great and we left to the Texas Capitol as quick as we could then down to the Amtrak station where we shot on the railroad tracks. We shot some great pictures at both places and I had an interesting senior experience shooting on the railroad tracks. As I sit on one of the rails shooting I felt a weird vibration and turned around to find a train coming up behind me. Wow! What stress! I kept shooting for a minute long then got out of the way. Celeste’s senior pictures turned out awesome!

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Everyone seems to have a cool hat these days. I think I’ve lived in Texas long enough to have a cool cowboy hat. Seems it would be very appropriate. Joe’s senior pictures took place at the Texas Capitol and the 360 bridge. Today was a particularly windy day at the 360 bridge, like nothing I’ve ever seen before actually. It was good that Joe had short hair because if he’d had any more hair the wind would have really messed it up. What a great senior session!

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Not a huge mount of people get married in Round Rock. I mean, it’s not Austin. There are however a couple of really cool places to have wedding including the Bella Notte and Casa Blanca down by Brushy Creek. They both are cool in different ways, but the coolest reason of all to enjoy these places? Because my house is only a couple of miles away. Melissa and Chris chose the Bella Notte for their wedding and it was a glorious place indeed. It was a terrific day which included a beautiful ceremony, a wonderful meal, a Simon Lee cake and lots of crazy dancing! What a night!

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I suppose this image that was captured by Christina at Melissa and Chris’ wedding really is a good example of how I was born into the wrong era. I think I was meant to be around in the ’40s when my hats were more appropriate. The hat has many uses including keeping me from getting cooked by the insane Texas sun and hides the retreat of my hairline toward the North Pole. It also can be used to hide my inevitable bad hair days.

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Austin is the place for people to plan their destination wedding. I’ve done more weddings here in Austin than I can count for people who come here just for their wedding and then go back where ever they came from; Houston, Dallas, New York, Canada. This time it was a destination senior. Britanni was looking for something different and she found different about two hundred miles from her home at Rebel With a Camera. She lives in Conroe, a city north of Houston up I-45 a little bit and she came all the way to Austin for a little bit of a different flavor of senior portraits than what she could get, in Conroe. I think I talked with Brittani more than any other senior in a long time during her shoot. Megan was sick that day so I was without assistance on the shoot so I think I talked a lot more than usual. Brittani looked like a much younger twin of my good photographer friend from Oregon, Coral, which tripped me out to no end. We shot the capitol and at my studio in North Austin.

This dress is absolutely fabulous!  I love this ruffled material thing it has going on!  I wonder if they make suits for guys like this.  No, probably wouldn’t work for a guy.  Want some incredible senior portraits, give us a call at 512-377-6169!

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For some reason I am a member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance. I think it was something I joined way back when I first came to Austin when I was just getting to know people in the business and got out there in every way imaginable. The TXMPA had been lobbying for some time to promote a state bill to attract film makers to Texas to produce their films. I never really paid any attention to what exactly the details were, but it was a tax break or free money or something to bring film business to Texas. The bill passed both houses of the state legislature and the bill was to be signed by the Governor, Rick Perry at Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios here in Austin. Now I’m not a big fan of government giving incentives to big huge groups who make all kinds of promises such as the Domain and it’s claims to bring middle class jobs for a massive sales and property tax breaks or the Cabela’s tax break which I understand has now backfired on them, but I figured it would be fun to go back to my photojournalist roots and shoot something like the press photographer I was born to be. So I went and shot the following pictures of government doing what it does best: Spend your money! Fun!

Texas Governor Rick Perry shares a cell phone with filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez at Troublemaker Studios during a bill signing in Austin, Texas.

Filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez speaks at Troublemaker Studios during a bill signing in Austin, Texas.

Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks at Troublemaker Studios during a bill signing in Austin, Texas.

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Justin and Cyndi live so close to the downtown square in Georgetown that I probably almost tripped over their house the last time I was shooting there. So it made sense for them to have some of their pictures taken there. I love the fire escape stairs that are stuck to the side of so many buildings made of rusted old iron It gives so much character to the old buildings. We also drove down to the east side of Round Rock out in the green fields to a friends ranch where we found some really kitchy things to use as our backdrop. We could have stayed longer, because there was so much to shoot but the sun did set and we had to quit. It was a fun shoot and I was excited about the outcome!

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Wow! Hamilton 12 looked incredible especially after Jeff and Ashley, of Austin Wedding Planners added the finishing touches to the decor. It was all about the details at Raina and Jason’s wedding. And the details were grand! Flowers were everywhere! The cake was beautiful and the grooms uncles were crazy once they hit the dance floor. I can only hope to embarrass my nephews at their weddings by dressing like the Village People. It will be a night to remember.

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Ann and Nick wanted an engagement that was very Austin so I suggested some of those places Austin and off we went to SOCO and the Amtrak Station. What great fun it was! I was able to try a few new things at Penn Field and was so happy that the fountains were both running! SOCO sure has a lot of neat things to shoot! Looking forward to Ann and Nick’s wedding at Nature’s Point in October!

They liked to kiss so who am I to tell them to stop.  Want cool engagements pictures, contact me at 512-377-6169!

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Sherry and William had a lovely wedding in Marble Falls. I’d never been to Marble Falls before so going there for the first time was kind of exciting. I’d always thought it was some tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but in typical Texas style Marble Falls had both a Home Depot and a Lowes. Weird! We began early on Saturday morning at the La Quinta Inn overlooking the river. We arrived at 6:15 and after finding out how early 6:15 a.m. is I’ve decided to never go to a wedding that early again because to get to Marble Falls at that time from Austin put our getting up time at around 4:30 a.m. Wow! The ceremony was at William’s uncle’s ranch a little bit out of town, a place the William had visited as a boy. And then the couple was off to the convention center on the Colorado River near downtown for their reception where a wonderful variety of Texas meat and sausage was served to the delight of the guests and bride and groom. I liked it too.

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