Super fantastic bridal shoot!

bridal31
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I am really excited about some of the shots I got from a bridal shoot this weekend. I've finally added a link for the brides-to-be in my gallery. Go check it out and see some of the pictures I took of Jessica. I think she's beautiful and I hope my photos did her justice. I'll be uploading some more later to share but here's a little sample of some of the fun I had with it. I'd love to have more fantasy and whimsical photos in my portfolio so I added some mystery to this one.

We almost didn't make this shoot happen. We were supposed to meet at Brackenridge park last night near sunset. Big mistake! Everyone else in San Antonio also had the same idea. It was not just packed, it was sardine packed. We got stuck in a non-moving train of cars and could not get out. I think a gang fight broke out a few feet behind us so I had to distract the kids so they wouldn't see it. Poor Jessica was waiting for us for a while before we finally caught up with her and decided to move to the McNay. Remember the other day I told you about our visit there. It turned out to be the best thing we could have done. It was gorgeous and there were only a few others there -- another group of people taking portraits as well. We had the place mostly to ourselves. Jessica was a great sport about the last minute change and she did a great job.

McNay

McNay3
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

We went to the McNay art museum in San Antonio yesterday. We had heard it was beautiful and a great spot for portraits so we had to see for ourselves. I'm actually surprised that we hadn't been there before. We are avid art lovers and artists ourselves. It's just something that was put off so often because there just isn't enough time to do all the things we want to do. But, with spring break here and the kids sitting around with nothing to do, it was the right time. Aside from the fact that we had to carry Orion all the way through -- he's 3 and he loves to run and destroy -- we managed to enjoy ourselves. The girls are little artists themselves and oohed and ahhed at all the appropriate moments, but I'm afraid their favorite moment was watching a stray cat poop in the garden outside one of the galleries. Let's see, here's a series of beautiful sculptures by Auguste Rodin and there's a cat pooping right outside the window, what should we look at?

After a few hours of nonstop culture immersion, we moved out to the grounds right about sunset and were able to run around like little monkeys through the gardens. It really is a perfect spot for portraiture so we will put it on our list of locales.

More fun with the camera

Calistaglowsweb
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

So I set up my little home studio the other night to play around with the lights and try new things when Calista wandered into the room and said "Take a picture of me," which she never says. Usually it's "are we done yet?" Being the daughter of a photographer has made her dread posing for pictures the way most kids dread going to the dentist. So I snapped one or two pictures off and low and behold I see this on my LCD screen. Wow! I thought, that looks really pretty. So I wanted to share it with all of you. I think I'll add some shots like this into my little bag of tricks.

Workshops coming up

Today I signed up for a couple of workshops that I'm really excited about. The first is a "trash the dress" workshop in Brenham in a couple of weeks. I should get an opportunity to really have some fun and learn a few things. Trash the dress is a fairly new concept that involves taking a beautiful white wedding dress -- or any formal dress I suppose -- and then going out into the field and setting up some unusual shots that may end up getting the dress quite messy and dirty. The idea is that brides take these shots after the wedding when they no longer need their dress and aren't concerned about it getting "trashed".

The other is a bridal portrait workshop in Austin set for June. I'm really looking forward to that one because I've heard great things about this company and they have some really beautiful and dramatic bridal portraits on their website. I'm excited about getting into the line of wedding photography and I hope to learn a lot at this session.

In other news, I have a couple of photo shoots this weekend that I'm looking forward to. I hope to post a few pictures from them on my blog next week. I have some ideas to make some very romantic husband and wife portraits for these clients. Look for those soon!

My New Van

The Blaschkes have a new member of the family. As I told you previously, we put our long time minivan for sale the other day. It was snapped up pretty quickly -- and why shouldn't it be, it was a great car! But I was left without a car all of a sudden, so off we trek to our local used car dealer - because I don't buy new. We found a newer version of my old reliable Caravan. This one is a bit bigger, which is important because my children seem to keep getting bigger and bigger -- that's what happens when you feed those things! I also needed more space for my equipment.

My favorite feature on this thing is the plug for my MP3 player, if only I can figure out how to use the thing. I also like the stow and go seating and the built in child restraint system. I'm thinking of ordering one of those big stickers for the back window to advertise my site and get more traffic here.

Rained out sessions

Well it looks like my photo sessions for this Saturday are going to be rained out. That's one of the drawbacks to doing location shooting. There's always the possibility of bad weather. So instead of doing photo shoots I'll be driving around looking for possible shoot locations for future sessions. Or I could take advantage of the rain out to actually stay home and do housework -- Nahh!

In other news I put my van up for sale today. It's a 1998 minivan that I bought when I was pregnant with Keela. Keela is now 8 years old! It's taken us on a lot of fun trips and there are so many memories attached to it. Bringing Keela home for the first time, bringing Orion home for the first time, driving back and forth from Temple to Columbus to Bastrop. I get attached to things, even old cars, so I know I'll be getting sentimental as we find a new home for this van and move on to the next one that will be coming shortly. We'll have to peel Keela's sticker collection off the back window. And remove the melted crayon from the back cup holder. And of course take off the Aggie stickers and the sticker that says "Got breastmilk" on the back window. I'm sure our new van will bring us just as much fun. I can't wait to meet it.

Models Needed

Well I had a model set up for a artistic bridal shoot that I have in mind and she canceled out on me. I was really looking forward to it. So that leaves me with tons of ideas and inspiration and no model to carry them out. If you wear a size 8 and want some free images for a portfolio, give me an e-mail.

Music for my site

I've been going back and forth about the issue of music on my site. Some people say it needs music to go with the slide show, but others say they hate music on websites. So for now, I have an idea. Those of you who like music on their websites do this: open up a new tab on your web browser and go to the site of your choice that has cool music on it. I recommend www. juliabailey.com for looking at photographic slideshows. Her music is great and the photos are cool too. But you won't be looking at those because then you're going to open another tab and go back to my site www.lisaonlocation.com. Now just sit back and enjoy the slide show and the music.

The Boy's Birthday

Orioncake
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

Well my baby boy turned 3 yesterday and it was an exhausting day of toddler birthday parties and the ever popular Chuck E. Cheese. I had this wonderful idea to make a cake and create a dinosaur scene on top with little plastic toys. I made the mistake of icing the cake while everyone was eating lunch and then decided to lay the little ones down and finish up during naptime. I turned my back for literally two minutes and come back to find this.

He was so proud of his creation. He delights in making messes. Fortunately, uncle Shaggy showed up with an ice cream cake for us. I couldn't resist his little mess, however, and let him put the candles on this one. We just told everyone that the cake was an artistic creation of the dinosaurs coming upon a tarpit , within which the dinosaurs would fall and be lost for millions of years -- or until we dug them out and ate around them.

Happy Birthday Bugaboo!

Today my baby boy turns 3. It seems like just yesterday that I was surprised to learn we'd be having a third child. Just when I'd accepted the fact that we'd be a family of 4 and I'd never have a boy. I was content. Who needed a boy when I had two wonderful little girls who gave me all the joy I could imagine -- in addition to more frustration than I ever thought two little cute darlings could bring.

We're having a little party for him this afternoon. He's got a table full of presents that he keeps getting into and trying to open before it's time. It's so funny to see how frustrated he gets. They're right in front of his face and he wants them so bad! After the party it's off to Chuck E. Cheese for yet more noise and chaos -- because one can never have enough plastic pinwheels and sticky wall clinging fingers -- but hey, they cost 250 tickets so they must be worth it!

Upcoming shoots that I'm excited about

I have several photo shoots scheduled for the next few weeks that I'm really excited about. One of them is a "Trash the Dress" shoot featuring a beautiful white wedding dress that won't be so white once we're done with it. I don't want to go into details but one of the places we'll be going will involve an innertube and cowboy boots.

Another photo shoot that I'm really looking forward to will involve a superhero costume and an aspiring model. She's beautiful and I have some great ideas on how to have some fun and get some unique shots.

Elaine

shackweb
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

My site is up and running!

Well after working countless naptime hours to get my site functional, I can honestly say that I'm at a point where I'm ready to tell people about it. I'm still fine tuning it. I haven't gotten my wedding packages page up yet, but that will come soon enough. I'm also looking into adding music to my slideshow, but that can wait as well.

I only have a few hours a day that I can work on it. The kids need to be sleeping in order to do that.