Elise and David's Wedding

In August of 2010, Elise and David married at the Lakeway Resort and Spa outside of Austin, TX.  You might remember Elise from her bridal portraits on the UT campus.  Elise and David are both so much fun to be around.  They're both such joyful people, and if you spend about two minutes with them, you'll know that they are obviously in love!
Here are some of my favorite images from the day, I hope y'all will enjoy.

 

Elise and David used Central Market for their cakes, Lakeway Resort and Spa for the venue and food, Bouquets of Austin for the flowers, and Sound Source Entertainment for lighting and a DJ.

Lauren and Parker (Teaser with more to come)

My first post of the New Year...starting with great aspirations to keep this blog fresh with new and developing work!  There is no better way to start than posting some photos of my wonderful cousin, Lauren, and her fiance, Parker.  I couldn't be happier for them both.

This is just a teaser...I'll be posting more from this shoot soon.  But I wanted to go ahead and get a couple of my favorites up before the weekend.  These were taken over Thanksgiving on Lake Travis outside of Austin.  We had the most incredible light!  I love working in places like this, where inspiration just flows freely.  Everywhere you turn, things are clicking!

There is a lot going on here in the studio.  Kara has been helping me get more organized (thank you, Kara), and we are making some changes.  I'll be updating my blog and website soon with fresh work from 2010, and we'll be adding a lot more information about my studio and the products that we now offer.  We've added a new product from Queensberry, their Press Books, and they are really beautiful books.  I'll make a post about them soon.  Our goal is to make this blog much more informative about my studio, the level of quality that we stand for, and the things we offer for our wedding and portrait clients.  I'm excited to be making these changes, please stay tuned as this blog develops in the coming month or two.

Have a great weekend!

Lauren and Bryan's Engagement Shoot

 Way back in June, Lauren, Bryan and I set out to the country to take some engagement portraits.  We headed out to Chappell Hill, Texas for the afternoon and evening, and had a great time together.  Bryan is a long time friend of mine, so it was really neat for me to be able to do this for them.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I'll be posting lots more from 2010 in the weeks to come...

 

Kate and JJ's Engagement Portraits

It’s been months since my last post, and a lot has been happening around here!  I’ve got a lot of work to post from the last several months, and am excited to finally get it up on my site.  Stay tuned over the next couple weeks, we’ll be updating the blog and website with new work from this year that has not yet been seen.

 Also, some news from the studio...I now have a Studio Manager!  Kara started working for me in late October, and has been doing a wonderful job.  She is extremely talented, and has a natural eye for photography and design.  She’ll be helping me to get in a regular routine of posting to my blog, among lots of other things!

 

To start it off, here is a shoot from early November with Kate and JJ.  We had such a great time taking these photos.  On Friday, we headed to Kate’s family ranch, and began shooting Saturday.  I brought all of the tintype gear, and we spent the day on Saturday taking 8X10 tintypes.  For sunset we ventured up the hill to a place we had scoped out earlier in the day, and photographed until after sunset.  We had the most incredible light, and Kate and JJ did awesome!  Every time I look at these photos it makes me want to head back to the hill country.  After a great dinner, I made Kate and JJ pose for me one more time before going to bed, and we got the shot with the stars.  Being in Houston, I forget that all of those stars are up in the sky.  What a beautiful weekend.

 

On Sunday morning we got up early for sun rise.  It was cold, but well worth it.  The warm colors of the early morning were magical.

 

It was a wonderful weekend, and I have to thank Kate and JJ, and Kate’s family for hosting us all weekend.  They were such gracious hosts, and made our stay so comfortable and fun.  Also, a big thanks to Ed Cowan, who gave me a hand that weekend.

Scan of the original tintype plate

 

 JJ with his new pistol...Kate's family gave JJ this as a gift.  Welcome to the family, JJ. 

Scan of the original tintype plate

Scan of the original tintype plate

Lauren and Bryan's Engagement Portraits

In May, Lauren, Bryan and I headed out to downtown Houston to take their engagement portraits.  We had a blast photographing at Discovery Green and Minute Maid Park, then stopping along Allen Parkway at the water fountain where Bryan proposed.

Lauren and Bryan tie the knot this weekend at Rice University.  It will be a beautiful and exciting day!

Here are some of my favorites from their engagement shoot.

Katie and Patrick's Santa Fe Wedding

Over the weekend of July 10th, Katie and Patrick tied the knot in Santa Fe, NM with friends and family by their sides.  The ceremony and reception were held at El Encantado Resort right outside of downtown Santa Fe.  It was a beautiful wedding day, and the reception was a blast.  The Patrick Smith Band brought the house down with their awesome sound, while Andrea Soorikian created beautiful bouquets, floral arrangements and an elegant and unique setting for the celebration.  Make up artist, Monica Stark, did a wonderful job, and Keely Thorne and Emily of Keely Thorne Events coordinated the weekend's events beautifully.

My work started on the Wednesday before the wedding, when Katie and Patrick met with me in Lamy, NM, a small town about 15 minutes outside of Santa Fe.  Back in the day, when you'd travel to Santa Fe by train, you'd have to come through Lamy to catch the spur into Santa Fe.  Today, there's not much left of the town, just the train station (which is still operating), and the old Legal Tender Saloon, which is a museum now.  I thought it would make a neat setting for what we would be doing...TINTYPES! 

If you've read my blog before, you might have seen me mentioning tintypes.  I took some for Kate and Garner's engagement photos in front of an old historic home in Chappell Hill, TX.  The tintype process was developed in the mid-1800s, and is an antique photo process in which one photographs directly onto sheet metal.  It is a labor intensive process, with many factors, and you must have a darkroom ON SITE to process and fix the photo immediately after exposing it.  The tintype cannot be replicated, it is a totally unique image, which is a strange way to photograph in today's digital world.  However, there is a certain beauty in that idea.  In a later post I will show some of the tintypes that I took of John Boland, an art director at the Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe.  He also took some photographs of me working, and I'll be sure to post those also.

Anyhow, Katie and Patrick spent several hours working with me in this process, and I've posted two of the tintypes we took during the day.

Here are my favorite images from the weekend, including the tintypes we took.

Melanie and Matt's Engagement Portraits

These were taken of Melanie and Matt way back in January, when it was still cold!  Melanie and Matt are getting married later this year on a destination wedding, and needed some engagement portraits.  I was so happy they called me!  I had a blast photographing them in Uptown Park, and found out that Matt plays in the Wade Bowen Band (how cool!).  Check out Wade Bowen and his band, they've got some great music.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot.  I hope you all enjoy.  Have a great weekend!