super quick post tonight. i’m in the middle of throwing some stuff in a bag to head out for a few days of camping with my youth group. last year at this time i was freaking out that i had volunteered as a small group leader for this same camp with the youth. yea, i’m not a camping girl. my “camping” expereience is nil and the camping i do involves the carribean ocean, a hammock, a cababna boy, seafood, $5 coffee and some serious hard core shopping…um, otherwise find another chica. but, because i love the youth at my church so much and because the next best thing to the carribean ocean is Leaky, TX  I headed up last year. I was pleasantly surprised. Once i got over the centipede in the shower, the paralyzing fear of scorpions crawling into my bunk, the obvious lack of air conditioning and cabana boys and the HOT FREAKIN’ TX SUN….I was fine. So this year…..I’m going back. I know. I’m a rockstar. I’ll be gone until Sunday afternoon with no cell phone or internet service and my $5 heroine coffee will be downgraded to Folgers crack so I’ll be cranky but I should be over it by Wednesday so if you need me…wait until then.

In other unplifting news I was in Austin last night for the Free to Succeed Tour with David Jay & Jasmine Star. I feel like I’ve lived in Austin the past 3 weeks….not that I’m complaining…because let’s face it…Austin rocks. 

If I had time I would seriously talk about this in great length. I was SOOOO pleased that this was totally not an informercial plugging all of DJ’s fabulous (and completely above informercial-ism-nes-stuff-yea) but I really thought it was going to be alot of “buy my product and you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams and then will retire at the ripe age of 33 and get to go camping in the carribean all the time” 

Yea, so not like that. This 4 short hours was packed full of nothing short of inspirational goodness and just two genuine people that happen to be very successful at what they do. It was totally based on their enthusiasm to first and foremost, be good people…..and because of that it naturally overflows into their business and into their photography.  DJ was adorable and humble and happy and quite funny. Jasmine was a little photo fashionista who was fired up about her career and her life and where she’s been and where she’s going.  It was just good stuff. I was so happy when I left and even 24 hours later my mind is still reeling with ideas, inspirationan and techniques that I will be implementing into my life and projecting into my business.  The last couple months have been really transitional for me, there’s a new wedding website in the works and so much on the horizon and now I feel like I can dig in and get stuff done.  Things will be changing and baby…change is GOOD. K.I.R to my girl Jas.

Awesome.

I’m off to hunt for a cabana boy to pack in my bag.

 

A couple weeks ago before I left for vacation I got the wonderful pleasure of working with a family that was beyond phenomanal. I swear to you I’m not just saying that either. Truly and honestly photographing families is super hard. Much harder than you would imagine. When I first started doing this I thought I would looooove shooting families and that it would be just cake for me since I… 1) love kids 2) have a teaching background 3) have 3 kids of my own 4) really, how hard could it be?  I quickly realized that it’s hard to strike while everyone is in a decent mood and it’s not completely uncommon for at least 1/2 of the family to hate the idea of the family portrait and they’d rather have their eyes poked out or something as equally as fun. I don’t fret too much over “everyone look here and say cheese” since that’s not what I particularly love to shoot but I know that most families want at least ONE formal shot and sometimes you’ve got to fight for that one.

I say all of this to tell you that when I left after shooting Anne, Troy & their four amazing kiddos I really enjoyed doing family sessions again. It wasn’t so much that everyone was in a great mood and the kids were all well – behaved (though that did help tremendously) it was more that Anne & Troy really embraced each one of their children’s personalities and just let them BE! And I am all about just “being” Just living out loud and letting YOU BE YOU. So it was cool to see that.

I am super super sad to say that the wonderful Hatch family is being transferred to Dallas after just one short year here in San Antonio but I know this family is going to plant roots and grow regardless of where they may be.

Thank you Anne & Troy for letting me come into your home and BE with you & your family. I wish you all the best!

Here are a few of my supa dupa faves from their session!

 

watch for these next two to show up on the website. i just love these cuties! check out those personalities. they are twins. gotta love that!

Today I spent the entire day with the most amazingly creative and incredibly talent John Michael & Dalisa Cooper of AltF.  I’m pretty new to the workshop circuit and have come to realize that not all are created equal. However, I had high hopes since I’m such a fan of JMC and his work. Dalisa is a total sweetheart and flippin adorable and I couldn’t wait to spend the day soaking in some of their creative genius. Even with high hopes I still managed to be blown away. About 20 minutes into the workshop I thought, “they so didn’t charge enough for this”  It was a small intimate workshop of about 15 other photographers and so relaxed and laid back. I typically stay pretty quiet at these things and prefer to soak it in but I felt totally at ease with everyone and JMC answered every question that was thrown at him and more. Eric Doggett hosted at he and his wife were so gracious.  I can’t wait to share all of the details later tonight but for now, I must run and get the littles settled into bed and unpack, unload, upload and throw up a couple shots from the workshop.This is seriously good stuff people. John & Dalisa are on a 9 city tour and several locations are sold out but CHECK IT OUT and GET THERE if you can! I’m only sad I couldn’t stay ALLLL weekend!

 

Update:

so i got everyone tucked away to sleep and wanted to share a few more details. it was a great mix of shooting, q&a, workflow, lighting, posing, business philosophy and just john and dalisa sharing what has made them a household name in the photography industry.  so i had several small ephiphanies while i was sitting there. and there were moments when i felt like the doors flug open in my mind and the white doves were released and a choir of angels sang “halleluja” over me.  really, as i was leaving i felt bad that i had been armed with all this amazing information as well as totally buzzin’ with inspiration. i couldn’t believe i didn’t have to donate a kidney to get into this. i seriously was going to ask dalisa if she wanted a lung….maybe JMC could use my liver. it was that good.

We got to watch John in action as he shot a quick engagement session at the beginning of the workshop and then we ended with a bridal and work on one of his conceptual pieces which he’s doing at each workshop. in dallas he did his take on this infamous beauty of a bride.

You can see his take using the beautiful and wicked cool Kate Mefford of Juxtapose Photography. It’s incredible.

 Here he is getting ready to demo his video lights. i’m so in love with video lights so i was super excited to find out he uses them as well. good stuff! uh, the hat was a nice prop for a bit later.

this is tara marie rockin’ the model.

 

For the conceptual piece at this workshop he said he’d had this idea for a couple years. He’s actually been hinting for that long that he wanted to do this so today he finally got the chance. These are a couple of him doin’ his thing. I can’t wait to see his final edits of these.

Bonnie & Clyde

So i don’t flippin care what the price of gas is right now. Get your ass to the nearest veryaltf workshop….um, now people.

we survived. 3500 miles round trip from texas to michigan and back again. 10 days. oklahoma, missouri, illinois, indiana and back again. lots of fun was had. several colorful four letter words were mumbled under my breath. a couple…ok several drinks were shared with my favorite rockstar soul sisters and even more fun catching up with my family. my daddy. my grammy. my sweet lil’ niece…my brothers, sister, mom, in laws, and my sweet new baby nephew. i can’t wait to post all the fun photos!

trying to catch up on work, get kids to drs. and dentist appts. and all the fun stuff that comes along with returning from vacation.  sweet goodness.

stay tuned for photos!

…..on a side note….i’m in mourning. my lil’est dude got his curls cut off today. i’m bitter. i specifically said, “leave the curls….lose the mullet” apparently that can’t be done. they nearly  had to pull me off the cold floor as they swept away the last shred of his baby-hood. say a little prayer.

 

we’re out. vacation. family. friends. small town carnivals. big ol’ lakes. sand. nieces. nephews. laughing. crying. maid-rite. meijers. hugs. home cooking. eating out. piers. waves. sun. cool lake breezes. alex’s pizza.

we’re on our way out to visit friends & family in missouri. we’re stoked about seeing our family and we get to meet our new nephew, tristin whose only 3 months old and so stinkin’ cute. we get to eat maid rite. (notice that i prioritized and didn’t mention the food first) we’re lucky because mark’s family and my family live in the same town so we get to make our rounds and see everyone. and my aunt, uncle and my cousin’s family are coming in from georgia. brenda’s driving in from springfield and amy’s coming home from lake of the ozarks and we all get to hang. i can’t wait. i haven’ seen the girls since novemeber at carrie’s wedding so i can’t wait. amy’s husband russ is coming home and he & mark get along fabulously since they can talk politics and not hate each other by the end of the night. plus i get to see my little brady man. brady just turned two so i get to catch a glimpse of what my life will look like next year at this time w/ p-diddy parker man. who by the way is sick. poor dude. let’s hope he stays out of crank-ville while we spend 15 hours in the car tomorrow.

mark is smoking crack because he totally thinks we can make this trip in one day. did i mention 15 hours? last time we made this trip parker was only 3 months old and all he required was a boob and an occassional burp and diaper change. these days he’s got me wondering if 11am is too early for vodka. and that’s in our wide open spacious home with all of his toys and lots of places to crawl in and out of. imagine the joy of being restricted to a car seat for 15 hours. i can’t imagine how he wouldn’t like that.

regardless, i’m still excited. after 4 days in missouri we’re heading to grand haven, michigan to see my dad, sister and brother and all my nieces & nephews there. i’ll get to go home to oakley to see my grandma and aunts and uncles too. the kids are super excited about this part of the trip too….they not only get to play with their cousins but we get to spend some serious time on the beach at lake michigan.

i’ll be working a bit while i’m on vacation….i plan to do newborn shots of tristin while i’m home as well as my sister’s belly pics. she’s about 7 months pregnant now and i already told to prep herself for some rolling on the beach fun. she was appalled at the idea but she’ll be fine. i can totally take her so i doubt she’s going to put up a fight. i kicked her a&@ when we were kids so I have no doubt i can still take her down.

happy 4th everyone! enjoy!