Day 2: A Matinee with the Kiddos {Project 365}

So on to day 2 of my Project 365. Today was a rare wedding-free Saturday for me. I shot a lovely senior session this morning with a beautiful and fun Smithson Valley High School senior.

But the rest of the day I spent with my darling children. First we cleaned out the hall closet (and when I say "we" I mean me mostly with them sticking their head in every now and then to see what treasures I found) then we headed to the movie theater to see Wreck-It Ralph. It was cute and clever just like my children and a fun time was had by all. We can't go to the movies without a big tub of popcorn, however, and since the refills are free, we always top it off before heading home.

Today's photo is our tub of popcorn -- and that little guy behind the tub is my Boy.

Two days down, 363 to go.

Lisa On Location Photography

365 / 1 {Project 365}

Jayme here with my entry for the 365 challenge. It's my Figure-8 puffer fish, which I'd never photographed before. He didn't particularly like the attention, but curiosity eventually got the better of him. It's no cute kitten, but they're interesting critters none the less.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm 2.8 macro

Lisa On Location Photography

Project 365 -- And I Really Mean It This Time {New Braunfels Photography}

This time is for real. I will really truly take a photo every single day and post it here to share with you. A photo of my own choosing. One that I'm not being paid to take. This I swear on my camera. Or rather the threat of something really really unpleasant.

I've said it before and of course I've gotten busy with other projects and then not come back to it. So last night Jayme made a little wager with me. He's going to to do it too. We need to get back to our roots. Back to our passion for photography. What brought this about? You may wonder. Well this time it all started with an e-mail. 101 free prints from Shutterfly. I get this and I say to myself, "Hey how long has it been since I ordered prints for myself?" So I went to my trusty photo album wall of shelves. If you look at my albums you'll see scores and scores of albums from when my big girls were little. I filled an album in a matter of a few weeks. I shot everything. I shot their smiles and their tears, their temper tantrums and their triumphs. At that time I was on a hiatus from professional photography and spent all my creative energy on them.

But alas, I picked up the most recent photo album and looked at the last photos taken, printed up and placed in the album. March 4 of this year. March 4! Seriously. That's like 8 months ago! I then sat down at my computer and looked in the hard drive family file to see if I had shot anything personal since then. Of course I have. There was the trip to Universal Studios, there were a few little events. But they mostly sat unprocessed in raw format in need of some work and some printing. Ouch. Several hours later, I had my 101 images uploaded to Shutterfly (plus a bit more) and the promise of some new photo albums and a renewed vow to photograph my own family a bit more.

Enter in my darling husband and his little wager. I'm never one to walk away from a challenge. And with personal humiliation and a lost bet to boot, how could I turn it down!

So basically the rules are there are no rules. Well not really, but that sounds cooler. The rules are that each of us must shoot an image -- at least one -- of anything we like every single day. We are not allowed to use paid sessions to get our one image. So I can't work a wedding and then upload an image I took at that wedding and count it as my image of the day. But I can stop on the way to the wedding and photograph a pretty butterfly, if I so choose. That counts. I can take a picture of my big toe if I so choose and I just may do that one day if it's 11:45 and I'm tired and want to go to bed! But mostly I'm going to photograph my family. My home, my surroundings, my space. But it's not enough to just shoot it. We have to share it too. On our blogs. I'll be sharing my photos here. And he'll be sharing his photos on his blog here.

Today I'm sharing a photo I took this morning of my sweet kitty, Summerlove. She's so patient with me as I focus, shoot, adjust, shoot again. Truthfully I took about 6 images to get this one, but I won't cheat and use those for the next six days. I don't play that way. I also decided to challenge myself even further by using a lens that I don't use all that often. It's my beloved 85 mm f1.8. I opened it all the way to 1.8 for this image because I don't get to do that very often. I'd love to use this lens more, but it's just not versatile enough to use at a wedding when I'm constantly moving and having to shoot on the fly. I need a telephoto lens to be able to capture all those candids. But this is a lovely portrait lens that I may use a bit on this project.

So I'll shoot my image, put it in a special file on my hard drive conveniently called "365 Project" then I'll share it with you here. Even if I just say "so here's what I took today." And I'll do this every single day for the next 365 days. Even if I'm tired. And even if it's raining. And even if I have a splinter in my shutter pushing finger.

Lisa On Location Photography

And Now for a Collective Sigh {New Braunfels Wedding Photography}

It's done. Whew. That was a tough one. At times I didn't know if I'd make it through. I sweat a lot. I moved a lot. I stayed up until all hours of the night a lot, but it's finally slowing down now. I'm talking wedding season. Yes weddings have seasons and the big wedding season in Texas is October. But that does cause some spillover into September and November as well. But for me, wedding season is over for now.

I do have a few more weddings until the end of the year, but for the moment, I can take a breather and recap some of my favorite images from this fall. I was fortunate enough to be present at the marriage of some beautiful people in some amazing venues.

We had all kinds of crazy weather including rainy days, blistering hot days and a few chilly breezy days. I saw some crazy wild weddings and some mild laid back weddings. I witnessed the consumption of large quantities of food and alcohol and saw more than a few dance floor mishaps.

This was the most booked month I've had in a long time and it flew by like crazy. I was fortunate to have a few days off to spend time with my lovely kiddos. I managed to make it to a couple of parties and took the family to the movies. But I'm looking forward to a more relaxed few weeks.

Just in time for the holidays.

Lisa On Location Photography

Renaissance! {New Braunfels photography}

For our first date, I took Lisa to Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival up in Waxahachie. This was back when we lived in Temple, and Waxahachie wasn't such a long drive. We've made ren fests an annual affair because of that, but since moving to New Braunfels a decade ago, most years we're only able to attend the larger Texas Renaissance Festival outside of Plantersville. This year, we packed up the kids and hit it opening weekend. This kind of outing gives us a chance to take photos for our own entertainment and to preserve family memories--not something we actually get to do all that often.

The weather was cool and overcast--so much so that it rained on us several times during our drive there. The place has changed quite a bit since my first visit back in 1987, but the changes from last year to this may be the biggest yet. The grounds are filled with shops various merchants maintain, traditionally ramshackle wooden cottage-styled places that wouldn't be out of place in an actual medieval village. During the off season, however, quite a bit of construction took place and more impressive, expansive and permanent-looking restaurants and attractions replaced a bunch of the more, ah, atmospheric buildings. That's progress I suppose, but I can't help but miss the dilapidated charm that's been supplanted by architectural precision. The guy in the stilt-equipped bat costume (above) was cool, though. We hadn't seen him before, so I'm guessing he was a new addition. There were quite a few new characters roaming around this year, along with some old favorites. Another new one was a baby dragon "hatching" from an egg (below). Monkey Girl and Fairy Girl loved it. Bug, on the other hand, wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Bug was having everything to do with the first face-painting booth he saw. It didn't take him long to pick out a scary spider design for his cheek, which Lisa, naturally, took the opportunity to photograph--and get in a self-portrait at the same time.

A little further on, a booth selling foam swords invited Bug to participate in a duel. For his opponent, he picked me. Mayhem ensued, as you can see in the photo. Afterward, Bug confessed he picked Dad because he thought I'd be the easiest to beat, but allowed I was "three inches better" than he'd expected. Not sure his rationale, but I'll take that as a compliment!

Here's a confession: I took along the 500mm mirror lens because I wanted to play with it some more, and I thought the joust would offer a prime opportunity. It really is a fun, light lens with a very long reach that I haven't gotten to use very much, simply because it's so long. It is also challenging to use, because it is a "slow" lens and is strictly manual focus. The heavy clouds worked against me, as this lens is at its best in bright, sunny conditions. I had to set the camera's shutter speed a little slower than I'd like, and the ISO a little higher. But as waited for the joust to begin, I watched a squirrel race across the arena, leap up on the retaining wall to grab a dropped piece of food, then race back the way he'd come. I got the following shot.

Not too shabby, considering how far away the squirrel was, and how quickly it was moving. Then the knights showed up in the arena to start the joust, and I had some more dynamic subjects. I have to say, keeping constantly moving targets in focus with a manual lens is quite challenging. The good news is that this is a skill that improves with practice. I had quite a few mis-focused shots, true, but far fewer than I had last month when I photographed the Texas State/Texas Tech football game. If nothing else, I learned first-hand that photographing jousts with a really big lens is a fun thing to do!

Lisa On Location Photography

When You Make Photography a Priority on your Wedding Day, It Shows {New Braunfels Wedding Photography}

Usually, it seems, there are always challenges at every wedding. Just about every single wedding, there's something that comes up that tests my skills, or causes me to think quick on the spot. Whether that's rain, malfunctioning equipment, uncooperative grooms, a minister that prohibits photography, a too dark dance hall, an "Uncle Bob" photographer that insists on blocking my shots, sweltering summer heat, you name it, it's popped up.

So imagine my surprise last weekend when everything fell into place perfectly for Holly and Kenneth's wedding, which I happened to shoot on my birthday. The weather was perfect. All my gear fell into my hands at exactly the right moment and performed exactly the way it was supposed to. Strobes fired when they were supposed to, and best of all, the bride and groom allowed plenty of time for photography and made it a top priority.

They made sure I had everything I needed, that I got the shots I wanted, that I had plenty of time for formal portraits.

That is exactly what it takes to get wedding photos that you'll want to frame and look at every day.

I sat down to edit Holly and Kenneth's photos today and I found myself in wonderful territory. I had too many good shots. Too many images that I wanted to display in my "Lisa's Favorites" gallery, which usually holds a couple of dozen images. I had to pick and choose between "lovely" and "lovelier", only to find "loveliest" a few shots down later.

What did Holly and Kenny do right -- aside from hiring me ;-) Well they decided a while back that photography was important to them. They talked over their vision with me. They explained about getting burned with their engagement session taken by another photographer in a different town. They were nervous about trusting someone after that experience. But then again, it also taught them just how important good photography was. Getting stuck with bad photographs does a lot to teach a couple about quality photography.

I'm so glad you two decided to trust me with your special day. Congratulations, and enjoy your wedding photos!

Lisa On Location Photography

The Party Ain't Over Until the Coyote Leaves

A lot of people, upon hearing that I am a wedding photographer, like to ask "so I bet you see a lot of crazy stuff?" Well, as a matter of fact I do. But I won't go into all that here. I will, however, go into one particular wedding that had it's fair share of crazy stuff. But crazy in a good way.

When Nikii first called me it was just a few short weeks until her wedding and she was just inquiring about availability and packages. I talked to her a while and then we hung up without booking. I didn't hear from her again until about a week before the wedding when she was ready to book if I was still available. I was and we did. She also booked her caterer and venue pretty last minute as well and sent all her invitations out the week before as well.

But Nikii proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can plan and arrange one heck of a wedding/party at the last minute. More than 150 loved ones showed up at Castle Avalon on that beautiful Sunday afternoon. And they were in for surprise after surprise. First came the bagpipe player. I love bagpipe music so I was thrilled to hear it coming from the balcony over the garden during the wedding and recessional.

The guests were then treated to a wonderful mariachi performance during the dinner -- which was quite tasty thanks to Fritz Catering.

But the highlight of the evening, at least for the Spurs fan in me, was the arrival of the Spurs Coyote just in time for dessert.

It was a surprise to the groom, who was celebrating his birthday that weekend. What a lovely birthday gift for a bride to give to her new husband.

Nikii pulled off an amazing party on short notice. I'm so glad she called me!

Lisa On Location Photography