Friday, February 25, 2011

My tribute to the King -- in cupcake form {New Braunfels photographer}

I consider myself an artist. A portrait artist. I think like an artist, I act like an artist, and I use my form of expression to put onto film -- or rather digital "film" -- my interpretation of life. So it was that artist in me that sat down with my snack this morning and saw something beautiful. As I was about to dive into this sugary sweet cupcake I decided to photograph it first.

The cupcake is beautiful -- inside and out. Outside you see the peanut buttery frosting and crispy bacon bits sprinkled on top. Stop there, hold on just a second. Did I just say bacon bits? Why yes, in fact I did say bacon bits. You see this is no ordinary cupcake. This is the famous Elvis cupcake from Sweet Dreams Bakery. The baker at this little bakery is an artist in her own right. She takes sugar, eggs and flour and creates something like this. A true work of art. And this little number pays tribute to the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis. Inside is delicious chocolate cake and banana cream filling and outside, as I said, is peanut butter frosting and bacon bits.

Elvis himself was an artist. He could take a tune and turn it into something sweet and delicious as well. Thank you very much.

So now we come full circle. This photograph is a work of art portraying a yummy delicious work of art, which pays tribute to another artist and his fascinating palate.

So now I will eat my cupcake -- my delicious, sweet work of art. And I will post this blog, itself a work of art if you ask me, and contemplate the piece of work that is my 4-year-old. He'd like to finger paint this afternoon. The artist in him has spoken. Did I mention they also make Rum and Coke cupcakes made with real rum? I think another trip to the bakery will be in order after the fingerpainting adventure.
Lisa On Location Photography

Monday, February 21, 2011

"How did she do that without getting her dress wet?" {New Braunfels Wedding Photography}

That was the number one question asked to me by bride-to-be after bride-to-be yesterday at the Columbus Bridal Expo in Columbus, Texas. The answer, of course, is "she didn't." That's a real dress that is really getting wet and she's really floating in an inner tube wearing that dress in the Comal River here in New Braunfels.

I took this shot a couple of years ago and it's still the one that seems to get the most attention when I display it at a bridal show or online. I've blogged before about my trash the dress shoots and how much fun it is to get dirty in our best evening wear. But it's still fun to see the faces of those who'd never heard of the concept before.

Bridal shows are a blast. This was only my second show. Each time I learn a little more about what to do next time. I get ideas from other vendors on how best to display my packages and my photos.

The best part is meeting all the brides. They're so wide eyed and excited. Some are just getting started having gotten engaged merely days or weeks ago. Others have been doing this a while and are trying to finish up last minute errands. Some have a wedding date three years in the future, others are scrambling to pull one together in a few weeks. They ranged in age from young adult (just a few years older than my own daughter -- yikes) to mature couples planning to settle down with their new love after their own children are already grown and on their own.

It was also fun to meet other vendors and swap stories about weddings and share ideas.

I don't know how often I'll do bridal shows. They're a lot of fun but they're also a lot of work and an exhausting way to spend a Sunday afternoon. This one resulted in a nasty scratch on my nice flat screen slideshow display monitor -- one of the hazards of moving it around. But it was worth it to meet some new friends and possibly book a few weddings.

If you're one of the brides I met yesterday, thanks for coming to my blog and give me a call when you'd like to talk some more!

Friday, February 18, 2011

She oughta be in pictures {New Braunfels Baby Photography}

Once again I was reminded that I'm among the luckiest people in the world to be doing something I love on almost a daily basis. I met baby Olivia the other day and had so much fun playing with this little cutie. She's 6 months old with the personality (and the face) of an angel.

She smiled right on cue, grabbed her toes right on cue, sucked her thumb like a champ and didn't spill a drop of pee on my props!

My own children are 12, 10 and 4 (almost 5) and I'm done with babies of my own. So this is the perfect time for me to cuddle and admire the babies of others. I get to play with, take photos of, and coochie coo them all I want but as soon as they start to get cranky it's off to mom or dad. Isn't it great! I love my job!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day {New Braunfels Photography}




You may notice a new look to my blog and my website! I'm updating my style and colors. I was looking for something richer and more vibrant instead of the plain old black and found this color scheme to match the new Lisa on Location website. I'd love to hear your comments. Change is good from time to time!

Another change at Lisa on Location was hosting my first annual (I usually hate that phrase "first annual" because it's incorrect journalistically -- how can something be annual if it's the first time it's happened, but I digress) Boudoir Day. I rented a nice room at a Bed and Breakfast here in New Braunfels and hired a make-up artist. We had wine, chocolate, nice music and had a blast giving make-overs and then photographing some beautiful women in pretty clothes. The results of those sessions are top secret! But I've shared some images from another couple of ladies I shot last month who were all in favor of me sharing their images with you.

I had so much fun with my January boudoir sessions I've decided to make it a yearly thing. It's perfect for the slow photography season and perfect for the dull winter months. I've already started planning next year's Boudoir Day and may make it a whole weekend, or a couple of weekends if demand is high enough. It's never too early to get your name on the list for next year!


Monday, February 7, 2011

Snow Day! {New Braunfels Photography}


websnow5
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke
Last week hell froze over. Well, not exactly. More like South Texas froze over, but it only falls slightly cooler than hell on the scale of hotness in the middle of summer. So it's pretty rare to get a snow day in these parts. My daughter prayed for it. She talked about it nonstop for days, peaking out the window in the middle of the night, every night, watching and waiting. All the while I stood by and told her not to get her hopes up too high. The chances were pretty small.

But her prayers were heard. We got about half an inch at our house, preceded by hours of freezing rain so the roads were nice and slick when the snow settled on top of the ice.

We ventured out at the crack of dawn and made snow angels in the only spot with snow deep enough to register any imprint -- the sidewalk. My daughter built a tiny little snowman no bigger than a Barbie doll and scraped up most of the snow on the sidewalk to do that. She pelted me with "snowballs" that were more accurately described as fistfulls of frost. School was canceled for the day, of course. Many of our northern friends questioned the reasoning behind canceling school with half an inch of snow, but then, we question why they complain about a week of 90-degree heat in the middle of summer and call it a "dangerous heat wave." We call a that a cold front.

The roads were slick with ice and I saw a handful of cars spinning out on the roads trying to get out of the neighborhood. We don't own snow tires, we don't own chains, we don't know how to drive in this stuff. We don't even know what it is we need to drive in this.

I had hoped to get to go out and shoot the scenery in San Antonio. The Missions under snow sound beautiful. But when it came down to it, I didn't want to get out there. And even if I did, the interstates were closed as well as most of the back roads and sitting at home sounded like so much more fun. The snow was gone by noon except a small little patch in the shadow of the house.

We put chili in the crockpot and watched The Day After Tomorrow -- now there's a snow storm.

This weekend was gorgeous. Sunny and in the 60s. We kicked the A/C on in the car when it got a bit toasty. The temps are only going up from here, I believe. We got our token week of winter weather. The kids got to take the tags off their Christmas mittens for one day, but now it's time to put them away for a while.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Coming Soon: Me, CPP {New Braunfels Photographer}


webMadi2
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke
Two years ago I eavesdropped on a conversation between photographers about the Certified Professional Photographer exam. One had recently taken it and not passed and was looking for help on how to pass it the next time he sat for it. The other told him to forget about it, it was too hard and technical and you really didn't need to get that CPP designation anyway. Just keep on doing what you're doing and don't worry about it.

I made up my mind then and there that I wouldn't bother with it. If it was too hard to pass for those guys, I had no hope for it. My weakness had always been the technical side of photography, whereas my love was for the artistic. I put it out of my mind, yet it kept popping up. I attended a photography seminar and the speaker talked about the importance of getting certified, I attended a few webinars and it came up again -- over and over. More and more photographers that I admired were talking about it. I finally accepted that this certification was important to me. To me. Not to those guys I overheard two years ago. It's important to me. I needed to get over my fear of techno talk, my fear of tests, my fear of things that are hard, and take this exam. Wasn't it Kennedy who said "We will go to the moon and do other things, NOT because they are easy but because they are HARD." I didn't want to go to the moon. I wanted to pass this test.

I declared my candidacy last fall. That was the first step, passing that exam, was the second and hardest step. The third step is a review of my work by a board of certified photography judges.

I sat for the exam last month during the PPA convention in San Antonio. I forced myself to learn the things that always scared me -- inverse square law, lighting ratios, formulas, corrective lighting, filters, gels, digital terminology. I took my time on the test. We had two hours to answer 100 questions and I took roughly an hour and a half before I was comfortable handing my test over to the proctor. I did a count of the questions I was sure I got right beyond a shadow of a doubt. It came to 66. Not good enough. I'd have to hope my best guess and my estimates were able to pull me through at least 4 of the rest.

I got my test results in the other day -- a full two weeks before they told me to start looking for them. It took me by surprise and I feared the worst. Imagine my thrill when seeing the phrase "congratulations" in the first graph of that letter. Yes, I passed it! It was hard, and I passed it.

I am now ready to tackle the next phase of this process. I will stand before those judges with some of my favorite images and I will ask them to approve me for certification, not because it's easy, because it's hard. Not because I need to do this to be a photographer, but because I want to. Because it may not mean anything to those guys two years ago, but it means something to me.