Back in the office, and hitting the ground running!

in , ,

After an epic road trip to Savannah, Georgia, with stops in Biloxi/Gulfport, MS, and New Orleans, LA, I returned to the office middle of last week with thousands of images to sort through, and senior portrait shoots galore!  The trip was wonderful.  First stop was for a beautiful wedding in Gulfport.  After that I continued onto Savannah where I shot some bridal portraits under the iconic old oaks and moss of the South.  On the way back to Houston, I stopped in New Orleans to photograph an off-shore facility for Tana Exploration, an oil and gas company based in the Woodlands, TX.  After a hot day photographing the various activities at the facility, I flew out in a helicopter, and was able to take some ariels of their facilities that afternoon, before heading to their Lafayette offices the following day.  It was an exciting couple of weeks, and a neat opportunity to cover a wide variety subjects!

The above photo was taken at the Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, GA.

Kate's Bahamian Bachorlette Bash

in , ,

In February I traveled to the Bahamas to photograph Kate over her bachelorette party weekend.  Kate and her friends had traveled to an island called Green Turtle Cay, and I met up with them for a couple of fun days.  We had such a great time hanging out and getting some fun pictures.

On my second day there, we boarded a boat that left from Brendall's Dive Shop.  Brendall is world famous for his dive tours and his delicious cooking.  Brendall himself was our captain, and we set out with our snorkel gear ready for the day.  I of course had my cameras.

What followed was some of the most beautiful snorkeling I have ever done.  We found a large reef that was full of incredible wildlife.  Shark, stingray, barracuda, and all sorts of colorful fish swam around us.  Some of the girls even saw some baby sea turtles.  While we snorkeled, Brendall swam around and gathered lobsters for us.  It was incredible to see him work.  He would hold his breath and dive down, searching out the nooks and crannies for lobster.  As you can see in the photos below, he caught us a feast!

When we were worn out from snorkeling, we headed back to the boat to break out the rum punches.  Brendall returned with his catch, and took us to a beautiful stretch of beach on a small neighboring island.  We unloaded, and walked the beach, finding an abundance of sand dollars and starfish.  While we enjoyed the waters and wildlife, and took some photos, Brendall was hard at work cooking up an awesome lunch.  After about 45 minutes, he blew his whistle for us to return and eat.  I have never tasted anything more delicious in my life!

We returned that evening late hoping to take some bridals of Kate.  Kate had brought her short wedding dress, one that she was going to change into in the middle of the night at her wedding.  We only had about 5 minutes to shoot before we lost all light, so we moved quickly and got a couple keepers.  The next morning we woke up for sunrise to get some more photos of Kate in her dress.

Here are some of my favorite photos from an incredible weekend in the Bahamas.

Thanks Kate for everything!

 

 

 

 

Kate's Bridal Portraits

in

You might remember Kate from her and JJ's ranch engagement shoot late last year or from the short movie I made a couple weeks ago of her wedding ceremony.  Kate has been a dream to work with, and I've had so much fun capturing all of the parts of her and JJ's wedding.

We took Kate's bridals at Shadowhawk Country Club on a windy and cloudy day in February.  When she arrived to Shadowhawk, the weather didn't look good.  We shot with what we had, using some nice soft window light.

After we finished up around the club house, I wasn't totally content.  Kate was wearing her mother's beautiful cathedral length veil, and I really wanted to do something to feature that.  I had come up with some ideas and locations on the course to shoot that would feature her beautifully in the veil, but they didn't really fit the weather we were dealing with.  So I decided we would just head over towards a hill that I had seen earlier, and try to make the best of it.

It was a good thing we decided to give it a try, because right after I posed Kate on top of the hill, the skies began to open up just a bit.  The sun had made its way down, and there was too much cloud cover for a much desired dramatic sunset.  However, the sky opened up just enough to give us a nice, deep blue and purple sky, which was a welcomed sight after having nothing but cold, grey skies all day.  For the next 15 minutes we just played with the wind and light, and had so much fun getting these photos of Kate.

Blayne's Bridal Portraits

in

We took Blayne's bridal portraits in February in a stunning home in River Oaks.  It was an absolutely amazing shoot, and Blayne could not have looked more beautiful.  Blayne married in March in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Blayne is an interior designer, and works with Kara Childress.  They helped design this incredible house, full of some of the most beautiful French antiques that I've ever seen.  In the backyard, amongst the gardens, is a chapel that was brought over from the countryside of France.

Here are some of my favorites from the shoot.

 

Incendiary-Portraits of Filmakers Joe Bailey and Steve Mims

in

In March, at Austin's SXSW film festival, filmmakers Steve Mims and Joe Bailey (my brother) premiered a film titled Incendiary: The Willingham Case.  The film premiered at the Paramount Theater on Congress, and opened to a packed house.  It was awesome.  Steve and Joe had been working tirelessly to get the film together, and they did an incredible job.  The film received the Louis Black Lone Star Award, an award given to a Texas-specific film.


The movie focuses on arson investigation, and centers around the arson case of Todd Willingham, who was put to death in 2004 for the death of his three young children in the fire.  Since his conviction and death, advances in arson investigation reveal that much of the evidence used to convict him is not actually reliable evidence of arson.  Willingham maintained his innocence to his death.


Check out the film's website, where you can watch the trailer and read about Steve and Joe, and the press they've received.

Here are some portraits that I took of Steve and Joe for their website.