Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Senior: Taylor!
We shot Taylor at the Texas Capital and down in SOCO. We ended shooting even after the dark to come up with some really fun shots. I think I am more creative when I can't see.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Visit to see Gram.......
This was an odd sort of trip where we drove a lot and talked a lot and seemingly did a lot even though it felt like we weren't too busy. We drove out to visit my grandmother in California. She has terminal cancer. My kids didn't know why we were really going. They thought it was one of Daddy's wacky vacations where he just drives forever. They were right about it for the most part. We did drive a lot.
Visiting my grandmother was a little stressful, but we went down to one of the beaches in Ventura that I had gone to as a little boy with my family including her and watched my little boys flop about in the waves as we talked. She had always been a big part of my life. She was a big part of my eldest son's life as well. When we were in college she drove 50 miles to watch Edmond one or two days a week.
I don't think I'll be able to get to Ventura to see her ever again so this was my goodbye. I don't like this goodbye.
They have Rebel gas stations in Las Vegas.
Corbin at Dodger stadium. I hadn't been there in 29 years. Still was awful.
Always pay attention to the details of what's on the side of the trash cans at the Ventura park. This says that these 55 gallon drums were filled with apple juice concentrate from China for Tropicana. How fresh does your apple juice seem now?
Barbaba Ann Jensen. My last living grandmother. We called her Gram. The name eventually evolved into Grambo, a rough, tough fighting machine groomed specifically for destroying bad guys and making casseroles. She always tried to trick us kids into eating food that had ingredients in it that she claimed weren't in it. I know a freaking onion when I feel it crunching in my mouth. She was in a good deal of pain and had a hard time leaving her apartment, but did venture to the beach and took us out to Andria's Seafood, a local place that my family has gone to for years in Ventura.
Edmond, Christina and Corbin at a Ventura beach
Edmond at a Ventura beach.
I needed a few pictures of Vegas for a crazy project I'm working on so I surprised everyone in the car and drove there without anyone noticing until we got to the Nevada border. I suppose it was a good test to see if I could surprise my wife.
Most every Fry's has a motif. Except perhaps the one in Plano. But I suppose that fits the personality of the city from what I've seen. I've been to a few. Burbank had a alien flying saucer sticking out of the front of it and had a 50s style alien invasion going on. Manhattan Beach had one that was a jungle and completely overgrown with bushes and trees. So I suppose it was fitting that Vegas had this. It was closed when we came by at 9:30 p.m. What the heck? I thought Vegas never slept.
We walked around Vegas for 4 hours with the kids to see the sights and shoot a couple of shots. I think it wiped them out. They never sleep.
Visiting my grandmother was a little stressful, but we went down to one of the beaches in Ventura that I had gone to as a little boy with my family including her and watched my little boys flop about in the waves as we talked. She had always been a big part of my life. She was a big part of my eldest son's life as well. When we were in college she drove 50 miles to watch Edmond one or two days a week.
I don't think I'll be able to get to Ventura to see her ever again so this was my goodbye. I don't like this goodbye.
They have Rebel gas stations in Las Vegas.
Corbin at Dodger stadium. I hadn't been there in 29 years. Still was awful.
Always pay attention to the details of what's on the side of the trash cans at the Ventura park. This says that these 55 gallon drums were filled with apple juice concentrate from China for Tropicana. How fresh does your apple juice seem now?
Barbaba Ann Jensen. My last living grandmother. We called her Gram. The name eventually evolved into Grambo, a rough, tough fighting machine groomed specifically for destroying bad guys and making casseroles. She always tried to trick us kids into eating food that had ingredients in it that she claimed weren't in it. I know a freaking onion when I feel it crunching in my mouth. She was in a good deal of pain and had a hard time leaving her apartment, but did venture to the beach and took us out to Andria's Seafood, a local place that my family has gone to for years in Ventura.
Edmond, Christina and Corbin at a Ventura beach
Edmond at a Ventura beach.
I needed a few pictures of Vegas for a crazy project I'm working on so I surprised everyone in the car and drove there without anyone noticing until we got to the Nevada border. I suppose it was a good test to see if I could surprise my wife.
Most every Fry's has a motif. Except perhaps the one in Plano. But I suppose that fits the personality of the city from what I've seen. I've been to a few. Burbank had a alien flying saucer sticking out of the front of it and had a 50s style alien invasion going on. Manhattan Beach had one that was a jungle and completely overgrown with bushes and trees. So I suppose it was fitting that Vegas had this. It was closed when we came by at 9:30 p.m. What the heck? I thought Vegas never slept.
We walked around Vegas for 4 hours with the kids to see the sights and shoot a couple of shots. I think it wiped them out. They never sleep.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Bride on the run: Angela!
We had some good fun with Angela at the Capital and at the Amtrak station where we were looked on with glee by all of the people to frightened to sit on an airplane. We found some crime scene tape wrapped around a fence post and it turned into one of our more creative shoots involving crime tape. Angela's wedding is coming up soon!
Monday, September 01, 2008
ENGAGE! Amy and Mitchell!
Amy and Mitchell are such a fun loving couple. They were so comfortable in front of the camera and had great body language. Amy did a great job of coordinating their outfits, and Mitchell dutifully changed into everything she told him to. Their wedding will be at Kindred Oaks on November 1 with a crazy, costumed rehearsal dinner on Halloween.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Where are they now: Ladies of the Damned!
If there was a darkest spot in a black hole, it would be Roseburg, Oregon. If there was a pinpoint in the darkest spot, it would be Idleyld, Oregon. But I only came to learn this the hard way.
Roseburg is about 70 miles north of where I lived in Oregon. It was more rural than Grants Pass, but the bridal fair was only $100 for a booth. How could I go wrong? So Christina and I loaded everything up, drove up there, set up our booth, and planned to book a bunch of weddings.
My wife, Christina, met a nice woman there who owned a little wedding venue called the Idleyld Lodge, in the very rural community of Idleyld which is about 20 miles further into the wilderness than Roseburg. Barbara happened to have owned a bridal shop in Portland some years earlier, but had sold it to move out to the country and run the lodge. Christina noticed the most beautiful vintage dresses at her booth and complimented her on them. She said she had tons more dresses. They got to talking and decided it would be fun to come out to her lodge and do a fashion shoot. She would get some models together, and we would bring our favorite hair and makeup artist, Gioia. We would be trading images for lodging and try to cross promote each other's businesses.
Well, the lodge ended up being one of the strangest, scariest places I have ever been. It was more Dukes of Hazzard than the Driskill, that's for sure. The rooms were homier than I cared for with kitschy themes and plastic flowers. As it turned out Barbara only wanted to trade for one room, so we had to pay to put up the makeup artist and our assistant. The whole place was so unphotogenic, that I was hard pressed to find anywhere I wanted to shoot. We finally found a antique room divider screen with a pineapple motif that we were barely able to drag down the stairs. Then our makeup artist broke some antique vase and was trying not to freak out about how much it was going to cost her.
But the dresses! That's where the real fun began. We had seen about four or five gorgeous vintage dresses in her booth at the bridal fair. That's about all there was hidden in the vast sea of the ugliest 80s reject wedding gowns you have ever imagined. There must have been thousands of snow beast monstrosities not to mention fuchsia, emerald green and royal blue bridesmaids' dresses with no shape and only one sleeve. We had to comb through all the hideous dresses to find the gems among them in the hot, musty attic of the lodge where the dresses were crammed together, all the while feigning amazement at the awful dresses Barbara was trying to pick out for us.
The models were nice, local girls excited to be modeling for a "real" fashion shoot. I think Barbara had inflated the credentials of our makeup artist, as one girl seemed to think Gioia was straight out of Hollywood with connections in the modeling world. Gioia worked her wonders, and the girls looked incredible. One of their mom's even modeled a bit. I though she looked very Jackie O.
We had offered to give all the girls who participated a print and let them buy the CD for a very nominal fee. We also gave prints and the CD to the Barbara, the owner. We sent the CD to Barbara first and waited to find out what prints she wanted. We emailed a few times and never heard another word from any of them! I was somewhat relieved as I prayed that I would never have to go back to the Idleyld Lodge, let alone do a wedding there. We have fondly called the shoot the "Ladies of the Damned" ever since. All I can say is, "Viva Texas!"
Roseburg is about 70 miles north of where I lived in Oregon. It was more rural than Grants Pass, but the bridal fair was only $100 for a booth. How could I go wrong? So Christina and I loaded everything up, drove up there, set up our booth, and planned to book a bunch of weddings.
My wife, Christina, met a nice woman there who owned a little wedding venue called the Idleyld Lodge, in the very rural community of Idleyld which is about 20 miles further into the wilderness than Roseburg. Barbara happened to have owned a bridal shop in Portland some years earlier, but had sold it to move out to the country and run the lodge. Christina noticed the most beautiful vintage dresses at her booth and complimented her on them. She said she had tons more dresses. They got to talking and decided it would be fun to come out to her lodge and do a fashion shoot. She would get some models together, and we would bring our favorite hair and makeup artist, Gioia. We would be trading images for lodging and try to cross promote each other's businesses.
Well, the lodge ended up being one of the strangest, scariest places I have ever been. It was more Dukes of Hazzard than the Driskill, that's for sure. The rooms were homier than I cared for with kitschy themes and plastic flowers. As it turned out Barbara only wanted to trade for one room, so we had to pay to put up the makeup artist and our assistant. The whole place was so unphotogenic, that I was hard pressed to find anywhere I wanted to shoot. We finally found a antique room divider screen with a pineapple motif that we were barely able to drag down the stairs. Then our makeup artist broke some antique vase and was trying not to freak out about how much it was going to cost her.
But the dresses! That's where the real fun began. We had seen about four or five gorgeous vintage dresses in her booth at the bridal fair. That's about all there was hidden in the vast sea of the ugliest 80s reject wedding gowns you have ever imagined. There must have been thousands of snow beast monstrosities not to mention fuchsia, emerald green and royal blue bridesmaids' dresses with no shape and only one sleeve. We had to comb through all the hideous dresses to find the gems among them in the hot, musty attic of the lodge where the dresses were crammed together, all the while feigning amazement at the awful dresses Barbara was trying to pick out for us.
The models were nice, local girls excited to be modeling for a "real" fashion shoot. I think Barbara had inflated the credentials of our makeup artist, as one girl seemed to think Gioia was straight out of Hollywood with connections in the modeling world. Gioia worked her wonders, and the girls looked incredible. One of their mom's even modeled a bit. I though she looked very Jackie O.
We had offered to give all the girls who participated a print and let them buy the CD for a very nominal fee. We also gave prints and the CD to the Barbara, the owner. We sent the CD to Barbara first and waited to find out what prints she wanted. We emailed a few times and never heard another word from any of them! I was somewhat relieved as I prayed that I would never have to go back to the Idleyld Lodge, let alone do a wedding there. We have fondly called the shoot the "Ladies of the Damned" ever since. All I can say is, "Viva Texas!"
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Two Rings Bind Them: Estella and Carlos at St. Mary's and the Caswell House!
What a sweet couple Carlos and Estella made, shy but so perfect for each other. They had a very intimate ceremony at St. Mary's Cathedral in downtown Austin and their reception at the Caswell House where all the proceeds benefit the Austin Junior Forum. Estella is a vegan, so we were a bit surprised that their caterer was going to be Pok-e-Jo's, but Estella said their chef wowed her with all the veggie options that were available. I was also quite impressed by the vegan wedding cake that Mr. Natural baked up. Moist, chocolaty, and delicious!
I knew Estella was musical, but it was awesome to see finally see a bride perform at her own wedding! She did a very sweet rendition of "You're Love is Better than Chocolate" by Sarah McLachlan for Carlos. Then he surprised us all with by playing "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds Five on the piano for Estella as she chimed in on the lyrics. So adorable! Then they danced the night away to the sounds of Estella's dad's band who came all the way from Laredo.
I knew Estella was musical, but it was awesome to see finally see a bride perform at her own wedding! She did a very sweet rendition of "You're Love is Better than Chocolate" by Sarah McLachlan for Carlos. Then he surprised us all with by playing "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds Five on the piano for Estella as she chimed in on the lyrics. So adorable! Then they danced the night away to the sounds of Estella's dad's band who came all the way from Laredo.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
ENGAGE! Lindsay and Berry!
Wow, what an adventurous couple with a zest for life! Lindsay and Barry are having quite the wedding in September: a quick ceremony on the Capitol grounds followed by a rockin', video game themed reception at Buffalo Billiards on 6th St. Who else but Rebel with a Camera could shoot that kind of wedding?
We headed out to the UT campus and the student underground for some very unique engagement pictures. From what I understand, Berry finally beat Lindsay at air hockey. I think the revenge will be catastrophic at the reception!
We headed out to the UT campus and the student underground for some very unique engagement pictures. From what I understand, Berry finally beat Lindsay at air hockey. I think the revenge will be catastrophic at the reception!
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