Hot Hot Hot

JS1web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

It's hot here in Texas. It's really really hot. One of the wonderful things about being a location photographer is the ability to go out and shoot in natural settings using natural props and lighting. That's also one of the drawbacks. In summer it gets hot here in Texas and even at sunset the temperature is at least 95 and this weekend, it was well over a hundred. I had an engagement session near Houston this weekend and got some really fun shots of the happy couple in the country -- and on and off of a John Deer tractor. We waited as late as we could for the sun to get low but the sweat was pouring off all of us during this session. We had paper towels handy to dab to foreheads every few shots and clean off the sweat. It was a lot of fun and this couple -- who also happens to be my brother-in-law and future sister-in-law were great about it. Congratulations y'all! I can't wait for the wedding!

In Honor of Father's Day

Hannah1web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

A belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Today I wanted to share one of my favorite daddy shots. Isn't it great the way little baby girls can wrap big macho men around their little fingers with absolutely no effort at all! This shot is from a session I had with one of my favorite clients. They're always so willing to let me try new and different poses and techniques out on them. I'm wondering if I should open a new gallery in honor of dads to complement my "Beauty of Motherhood" gallery. I'm starting to collect quite a handful of dad-related pictures and I need a place to display them. That may be in the near future for my site.

Flower Girls are the Cutest Things!

kor30
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I played second shooter at a wedding last weekend and I couldn't help but be drawn to the flower girl of course. Flower girls and ring bearers always steal the show! There's just something about cute little kids all dressed up in itchy formal wear and trying to stand still in front of a church full of people. It makes for priceless photos! Congrats to the happy couple and thank you for letting me in on the fun.

Rest in peace sweet bunny

Roseweb
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

Rose will be missed. Our sweet bunny has passed away. This morning she was fine. We played with her. She nibbled food out of our hands and hopped around the bed. This afternoon she developed a nasty case of diarrhea and was gone within a few hours. So fast. I'm not sure what exactly caused it. After Googling bunny deaths and bunny diarrhea I have figured that it's either because she was weened too soon from her mommy or she ate too many fruits and veggies and not enough of her bunny food. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above. She was so little. That's why my daughter chose her -- she always loves the littlest ones. We are all devastated and feel horribly guilty that we may have done something wrong. Rest in peace sweet Rose Bunny.

Simple Beauty

Old Tree
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I have a thing for trees. I love them. Especially when they are interesting and old. You have to wonder about some of these trees that have been around for hundreds of years. If they could talk, what would they tell us? There's one in the park here in New Braunfels that is so massive it needs stone pillars to hold us some of its branches. It has a fence around it to protect people from getting crushed if some of it's enormous branches were to break off. It has to be several centuries old. That's not the one I have pictured here, this is another interesting tree. It's pretty old too, and I'm fascinated in the twists and turns its branches and its roots take. I've been spending a lot of time at the park lately going on walks and taking photos of whatever catches my eye. I'll share some of them with my blog when I get one that makes me really happy like this one.

Classes anyone?

Lindsey8web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

After much soul-searching and discussion, I have decided to begin offering photography classes this fall. I'll be applying with Community Education this week and if they're okay with it, I'll offer an intro to basic photography class through them. I've heard it at least a dozen times from friends, acquaintances, people I meet on the streets here in New Braunfels, that they wish they had a class they could take to make them a better photographer. On one hand, I feel a little awkward teaching, being that I still feel like I'm learning so much myself. But, in my opinion, when a photographer stops learning, she stops growing. We are all always learning something new every day and I hope that I will never say "there's nothing left to learn." So yes, I will continue attending seminars and workshops to learn more and more and now I can turn around and teach those skills I pick up to others. I'll be the student and the teacher! I've started putting together my syllabus and I'm open to suggestions. What do you think I should include in the course?

The photo you're looking at above is another of my breastfeeding series. Isn't he cute! He kept turning his head to look at me and in the process performed all sorts of gymnastics tricks. This is one of my favorites!

Action photography

workshop16web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I wasn't sure what I would do with these shots of a bride jumping into a swimming pool. I love the one of her with her arms extended as she left the ground but I also loved the one of her running start -- the anticipation of a leap into the pool. Then I thought what better way to really show the excitement of the leap than to put the whole thing together. It's not perfect -- I didn't have a tripod with me and I wasn't really planning to do this until after the fact -- but it was fun and gave me some practice in combining photos to get an interesting action shot. I did this once before with a teenager jumping off a bridge in a park (a small bridge) and that one can be found in my Senior Portraits gallery. This one will go in my Trash the Dress gallery.

Breastfeeding in Style

Lindsey25web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

Remember weeks ago when I blogged about my nursing moms series and how I wanted to spice it up a bit. I did it! What do you think? Lindsey was great and her little boy -- possibly one of the cutest babies ever -- was so willing to go along with whatever we wanted to try. We must have pulled him off and changed his position at least a dozen times and he just went with the flow and even came up with some unique poses of his own (go look at my newborn gallery to see for yourself). This was a great session and I can't wait for the next breastfeeding duo!

My continuing education

workshop1
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I attended a bridal and wedding workshop this weekend put on by Belle's Photography out of New York. I went in with the intent of experimenting and learning new techniques for producing stunning bridal and wedding photos. I like the unusual images -- the ones where the bride is doing something out of the ordinary. Case in point -- my bride tubing the Comal that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. I'm all about the trash the dress poses, but I do want to practice taking unusual and exciting poses without trashing a dress. This picture is just the first that I managed to edit and put up on my site. I'll be working on more as the week goes on. What do you think? Does it catch your eye?

I'd also like to comment about my daughter's first swim meet of the summer. She did so well! I'm so proud of her. I added photos from that meet to my Dolphins gallery on the Clients page. I'll be putting photos from her swim events up all summer.

Some babies are just too cute to not photograph

Bella16web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

I was planning a session with this sweet little baby the other day when I realized I did not have my strobe. I have limited equipment at this time -- basically I have slaves that I use to light my flashes that are dependent upon my strobe to flash to tell them when to flash. Without my strobe, I can't use my fill lights. Darling Jayme took the strobe with him and I was left to fend for myself. But it didn't turn into a disaster because -- low and behold -- I love natural lighting and a large percentage of my photographs were taken using natural light alone. So I didn't get the images I had in mind when I started out this photo session, but I did get a lot of really great shots using only the light from the window. Go find Bella in the Newborn Gallery of my website and tell me what you think. If you'll look closely at her eyes, you can see the window reflecting in the catchlights. And on one of them -- I won't tell you which, you can see our Siamese, Holly, who jumped in the window at just the right time. What could be better than a silhouetted kitten in the catchlight of a baby's eye?

New member of the family

Bunny
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

We added yet another member to our already large family. Rose the bunny has joined us. My daughter has been saving her allowance for a while now to get a new bunny. We had a loss about a year ago when Princess the bunny went to that rabbit hole in the sky. Rose is so very cute and irresistible and she's the friendliest little bunny I've ever seen. The kids hold her and cuddle her nonstop and she doesn't seem to mind at all. The kitten, Holly, who joined the family at Christmas, is most interested in this new addition. She hangs out next to the cage waiting for the perfect moment to stick her little paw through the bars. Remember the story I blogged about a few weeks ago when we had a near death experience with the finch in my daughter's room? Keep your fingers crossed that this fierce hunter of finches, butterflies, and bunnies keeps her paws to herself.

Olympics 2020 here we come!

Josh Davis
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke

My daughter got a taste of the gold yesterday. She attended a swim clinic with her swim team and learned some winning strategies from Josh Davis -- 1996 Olympic gold medal winning swimmer. I'm so proud of her determination and her desire to improve her skills in the pool.

I've added a gallery just for her teammates and their families in my client section. If you're interested in seeing some of the clinic and some of the team's practices, take a look.

13 years and still counting

Thirteen years ago today I married my husband and partner, Jayme. We wanted to do something special, which is always a challenge with us and our busy lives and busy children. Yesterday Jayme's mom came into town to spend the day with the kids so we could slip out. We drove around New Braunfels looking for interesting things to take pictures of and also scouting out more locations to bring clients to for sessions. We found a few places that we think will make for some cool portrait settings! Then we had lunch and went browsing at Target. That's right, wild fun for the old married folks! It isn't everyday, however, that we can goof off on our own without three little monkeys grabbing everything they see and running up and down the aisles.

We're also reminded at this time of the year about our horrible photography experience at our own wedding. We didn't know anyone in town at that time so -- lacking a source for good recommendations -- we hired the first photographer who came along for our wedding. He was from an established studio that had been there forever so we assumed he'd do fine. Bad assumption. Not only did we get awful images from our hired photographer (who did NOT want to be there and rushed us through the whole reception with a heavy hand and sarcastic attitude), but it seems luck was against us in that whole department. My mother-in-law took tons of pictures, but it seems her camera malfunctioned that day and ruined them all. Another relative took some, but said they were lost by the lab, another relative took some but managed to cut the head off of everyone. I'm reminded of the repurcussions of hiring bad photographers for big events every time I want to show off my own wedding. I have vowed to never let that happen to one of my clients.