Gruene Mansion Inn is a No-Go for Photography {New Braunfels Photography}

I've been photographing the people of New Braunfels for quite a few years now. So I'm no stranger to Gruene. But many of us in the local photography community actually cringe when we hear a client request a Gruene photo session, not because we don't like it. Gruene is gorgeous. We don't blame you for wanting a photo session there. But so does everyone else. It's a common sight to wander the community of Gruene near sunset on a pretty day and see dozens of photo sessions taking place, both professional and amateur. You'll see photographers with full softbox set-ups and numerous assistants, you'll see amateur/semi-pros set up with their pop-up flashes and kit lenses complete with picture frame props and cutesy costumes, and then you'll see the family friend with their point-and-shoots and camera phones taking photos on their own.

It was no wonder that the people of Gruene Mansion Inn were growing weary. On any given day they could see dozens upon dozens of photo sessions on their property. I conducted some of them on occasion. It always made me a little nervous, however. I mean this is their property, and we're technically trespassing. But we were always respectful, always quiet, always tried to stay out of the way of guests. Eventually they started asking photographers to sign in before they came onto the property for a photo shoot. I was fine with that. I'd always thank the desk clerk and promise to be quiet, keep my stands out of gardens, stay away from the guests, everything they asked I was happy to promise and fulfill that promise.

It was only a matter of time before they started to charge a fee. That time came a couple of weeks ago. An e-mail was sent out to all the photographers who had signed in at their front desk. Now they were requiring reservations and a $25 fee to shoot on their property. You were granted a permit for one hour and asked to follow a few simple rules, the same ones we were asked to follow before. I applauded them. I said "good for you, it's your property, you have the right to limit photo sessions and collect a little money for them as well."

And I liked the idea that I was no longer intruding on their property. I would now be a guest who had paid a fee to be there.

So today I had my first session there under the new fee. I called a few days ago to make an appointment, my clients filled out their form, paid their fee and we were issued a tag to wear around my neck to show I'd checked in and paid. For the first time, I felt legitimate to be there. We were paying clients. Guests of the Inn, if only for an hour. But no other time, in the history of shooting there, had I ever felt so unwanted. We did a scene around the cute little swing area. Got some nice images, and moved onto the cool breezeway that's also so popular.



We quietly set up a shot. Yes I say quietly because we reminded each other constantly to stay quiet. But just as we set up, a maid saw us and put a trashcan right next to our scene (on purpose) and went into a room. We found it odd that she would do that. So we moved to another area nearby thinking she would come and move the trashcan. She came back out so we returned to the breezeway we wanted to photograph but not only did she not move the trashcan, but she put a bucket full of supplies down next to it, then went into another room. Knowing that we only had a set amount of time, we decided to just push it a few inches over so we could shoot our scene and then move on. We would put it back when we were done. No harm done. Just as we were about to shoot, she came out, and proceeded to fuss at us for moving her stuff. She was watching and waiting I was sure of it.

Those of you who have ever worked with me before know that I am polite and soft spoken. So I was taken aback by this reaction from her. I showed her our permit, we had checked in, we were allowed to be here. She wasn't impressed. She scowled. We moved on. We decided to try one more set up near the Inn. I thought I'd get my happy couple cuddling on the bottom of the stairs behind the inn.



But as soon as they sat down, a lady came out and told us to move away from the stairs.

Well that about did it. My client was left to wonder why'd she just paid $25 for an hour of time only to be fussed at multiple times for doing exactly what she'd paid to do.

So this is where I get on my soapbox. When you charge a fee to come onto your property for photography, you are making the photographer and the subjects your clients. They are guests on your property. As guests, they should be treated as such and not as intruders. We were not boisterous, loud or rude. We were not stomping gardens, disturbing guests or interfering with your business. As paying clients, we expect to get what we paid for. We decided to move on. We were only on the property a total of 30 minutes (even though we paid for an hour). We simply saw no reason to stay. Who wants to feel like trespassers.

My advice to the Inn is to treat this situation in one of two ways. 1) Charge a fee and welcome your photographer friends as guests. Increase the fee if you want to. I'd rather pay more and be treated with respect than have to deal with what I dealt with today. or 2) Don't allow any professional photography on your property at all. Just say no. Just don't deal with it at all. But you can't have it both ways. Don't take someone's money only to tell them No every step of the way. It left a sour note on my morning but taught me to Just Say No to Gruene Mansion Inn.

There are still plenty of beautiful places to shoot in Gruene without using the Inn. I do it all the time. And to prove it, I'll show you some.

























Lisa On Location Photography

The Treasures to be Found on my iPhone {New Braunfels Photography}

Most people assume I carry my camera gear with me everywhere. There's always a note of surprise when, at a party or out and about, a friend or acquaintance turns with surprise and says "what? no camera?" when something they deem a total Kodak moment pops up. But alas, no I do not carry my gear with me wherever I go. But I do have a camera with me most of the time. Probably the same one you have. The one that's on my phone.

It gets exhausting always being the one who's expected to photograph every moment. But because I am who I am and I can't let those moments go undocumented, I often pull out my trusty iPhone to capture those silly moments of daily life. My problem, however, is that they tend to stay on my phone for long periods of time. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I attempted to take a photo only to get the message that my memory was full. What? I have to get them off my phone now?

So I downloaded finally and what I found was a treasure trove. That phone was packed with more than a year's worth of cool stuff. "How did I miss all this?" I asked myself. There are so many blogable moments here. So many cool things and fun shots. I can't believe all this was in my pocket the whole time!

So I went through and uploaded just a small sample of the treasures on my phone and I did have a hard time at narrowing them down. I love them all. I treasure them all. And I won't even mention all the cool videos my Boy took. I know he likes to borrow my phone from time to time to "make a movie" but I had no idea he was a total Speilberg!

So here you have it. My top iPhone images of the past year.



This one is my son after his coolest haircut ever. Needless to say it didn't stay this way for long. But it did grace the welcome screen of my iPhone for the better part of a year.



This one is too awesome for words. My son took up Taekwondo and decided to hold ninja lessons in our front yard for a while. Every day he'd rush home, as would the kids in our hood, to congregate on the lawn for another day's lessons. It was magical.



This is a fun one of Jayme at one of his science fiction conventions. We took it to make our oldest child jealous. She didn't want to come to the party. When she found out there was a giant dalek there, of course she was insanely jealous because who doesn't want to hang out with one of these things.



While up in Dallas for the above-mentioned convention, we made a side trip to the American Girl store at the request of my sweet then-12-year-old. It was a red-letter day for her.



Her older sister, however, thought the moment was worthy of her best eye roll ever. And I captured it all with my little iPhone.



This one is the sweetest that I found. My Boy hates kisses so I took advantage of him falling asleep next to me watching television. I made sure to take a selfie with the iPhone to prove to him that I did in fact kiss him while he slept. He wiped his cheek when I showed him even though it was hours later.



This one was taken at Texas School of Photography in May 2013. It's me and my favorite second shooter, Laura during one of the after hours parties. What a fun time.



This is the breakfast in bed I got from My Boy for Mother's Day last year. I'm so glad I snapped a photo of it.



Aw, this is one of my favorite. It was taken that same day on Mother's Day. I attempted to take out the trash at the condo on the beach we were staying at and The Boy jumped in and took it from me pronouncing that it is Mother's Day and his mommy would not take out the trash. I'll treasure this photo forever.



It's Baby's First Job! My girl just got her name tag for her very first summer job. I missed her helping me out on sessions, but I was so happy she was able to work another real job and earn some extra money.



This is me and my girls at a San Antonio Missions baseball game last spring.



Oh here's a funny one. This is at the dentist's office after I told The Boy that we weren't quite done yet. His sister was still in the chair for a while longer. I think he was ready to leave.



My baby girl was pet sitting for some friends and made a new friend. This kitty became a model for our Humane Society calendar later because of how she won our hearts.



This was right after I did my own page for the Humane Society calendar. I decided to go fill up my car with gas in full retro wardrobe and hair and makeup. Not a single person looked at me twice. My daughter was teasing me on the way home so I wacked her with this rubber chicken. That's how we roll.



This was taken at the San Antonio Museum of Art. It was a nice day with the kids. I saw them sitting in this window and thought it was so beautiful, if only I had my camera. So I took out the iPhone and still did okay.



Another priceless family moment. My girls squabbling over the front seat. Nice.



It's me and my girl and my sister at the Maroon 5 concert in Austin. How could I possibly carry that big bulky camera with me to this? I'm so glad I have this photo!



It's County Fair time and my boy loves the fun house!



This is my Boy at Freebirds with his Harry Potter wand that he made out of foil. I hope it's still there and didn't get removed. He'll be so happy to see it preserved forever on the wall.



We arrived a little bit early to an engagement session near an old church so we decided to explore the cemetery.



Halloween carnival time!



We finally got the keys to the new studio so me and January from Diamond Divas and Becky from The Bargainista got sweaty and dirty to get it ready for move in. Fun times!



It's Christmas tree time!



We stopped by to see the Girl Scout house before they closed it down for good. It was a sad moment and we saw that other girls were writing their memories on the wall so my girls added to it. Priceless.



My girl got a kick out of the way somebody scratched "Hogwarts" into the back door of the mall. It was a Kodak moment.



This is one of about a hundred selfies I found of my daughter. She likes to take my phone during sessions and clown around while I'm working with the clients. I love finding her little presents on my phone. Usually she'll change the image on my main screen for me.



The Golden Girl herself on a monorail in Orlando.



It's me and The Boy taking a selfie on the Dumbo ride at Disneyworld.

So that brings us up to speed. I shared more than I wanted but it was a really cool year. I hope I don't take another year to download all these images from my phone. I hear there's this cloud thing that will help, but I'm a little behind the times on that. Maybe next year.

Lisa On Location Photography

What I did on my Texas School Vacation {New Braunfels Photography}

Once a year I like to take a drive up to Dallas to participate in the bestest darn photography education in the world. The Texas School of Professional Photography is a week-long school/workshop/convention/tradeshow for professional photographers.

Each year I choose a class, but I have to be quick because some of them fill up fast, and I spend a week with some of the most amazing photographers in the world. Two years ago I was honored to learn some new wedding lighting techniques from Robert and Leslie Faust that I still use at every single wedding I photograph. Last year I sat in Robert Seat's class to learn some Photoshop techniques that helped me perfect my pin-up photography.

Each year I meet more and more fellow photographers and become more and more enriched in the culture of professional photography. I tell my friends I have a love/hate relationship with the school. I hate the drive to Dallas (and don't much care for the city itself), I hate being away from my family for a week, and I hate being away from my workload for a week. But I can't justify not going because I love what I learn. I love coming back with all this new information and then watching it take root in my own business and making me a better photographer and business woman.

This year I took a boudoir photography class with Kay Eskridge. She's a master photographer in Phoenix and she had so much information to share. We had a small class of 15 people and we had the Presidential Suite of the Hotel Intercontinental to ourselves all week. We had boudoir models coming into the suite daily to pose for us as Kay walked us through every detail of running a boudoir photography business. I got valuable feedback on my past boudoir work and a clear direction of where I'm going.

I'm excited share some of the new techniques and business practices I'll be implementing soon. In the meantime, take a look at some of the images I captured with our beautiful models in the class as well as some of the fun I had with my fellow photography friends during the evening parties.

Lisa On Location Photography

In Studio Bridal Sessions: Fear conquered {New Brraunfels Wedding Photography}

Right about now a beautiful bride is saying her I-dos. Congratulations Erin! I've been waiting for a few months to share these images with my blog readers because they're about me conquering a fear I had when I first opened my studio.

I knew I would love shooting boudoir and pin-up in the studio and it has been. Many gorgeous sessions have been pulled off her and there are many more to come. And I've done a few babies in a breeze. But I was worried about shooting bridals here. I was worried there wouldn't be enough beautiful scenery or creative poses that I could come up with in a stiff formal studio setting (not that there's anything stiff and formal about my studio). It just seemed like such a small space for a big bridal.

I ended up quite please with what I captured for Erin. We stayed mostly within the walls of my studio but we did decide to venture out by the river for a couple of images and into the stairwell for a few. I like them.

So as Erin says her I-dos tonight with me there to capture them, I'd like to present to you these. Fear conquered. Bring on more in-studio bridal sessions.

Lisa On Location Photography