My Beautiful Nephew Beau

In January, our friends Jarrod and Julia acquired Beauregaurd, a full-blood Basset Hound. Baby Beau posed for these pictures in February, but, alas, I am a negligent auntie and am just now getting around to getting them back to his parents. In any case, he's a pretty cute kid...even now that he's learned his "big-boy-bark..." which my own darling Claire (pictured in image 3) continually reminds us he has. Little instigator!

Jonathan

Of the list of friends I have made through my husband and his crazy Friday Game Nights ("game" meaning World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, etc.), Jonathan is one of my favorites. Jonathan is always considerate and caring and willing to help with whatever catastrophe we're handling--like the time he bailed out my mother and I as we attempted to repair my rent-house closet after it collapsed on my two rambunctious dogs... ::sigh:: Memories. This portrait session is no exception. Jonathan asked me to take a few pictures of him as Graduation from ACU pictures for his mom--and I got the best smiles by reminding him of who they were for! Here are my favorites:

to view the rest of Jonathan's portraits, click here

Rick & Laura

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of shooting Rick and Laura's engagement photos. Rick is a friend I dearly miss since he moved to Fort Worth to be closer to Laura. His move was for a worthy cause, though, as he and Laura seem sincerely happy together!

We shot at two Fort Worth locations I had never been to--the Water Gardens, which were amazing...though not at all what I expected, and the Rose Chapel (which was adorable!), where Rick and Laura will be married next summer. Here are my favorite shots:

you can view the rest of their pictures here

Kaci and Dusty

On May 10th, I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Kaci & Dusty in Olney, Texas. Here are a few of my favorites.

to view the rest of their images, click here

Kaci

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking Kaci's bridal portraits. We had a LOT of fun and I found my dream home--believe it or not, still in Texas! This house had tons of natural light, beautiful details, and it was out in the quiet with a fantastic view. Thanks Kaci! I'm looking forward to working with you again at your wedding.

to view the rest of Kaci's portraits, click here

John & Anna

While on a trip home in Louisiana, I had the pleasure of shooting John & Anna's engagement pictures. John is the brother of one of my best friends from school and acted as my older brother for the majority of high school. I had an absolute blast meeting John's bride-to-be and watching her laugh off his quirky antics.

to view the rest of John and Anna's pictures, click here


By the way: I'm testing frames and logos...what do you think of this combination?
Please leave a comment!!

Gensic-Finch Wedding

to view Alison and Breandon's wedding photos, click here

an infamous hat makes a smokin' good time

For Christmas, my parents surprised me with an antique photo light--bought off Ebay of course. So, a few weeks ago, as our husbands/friends were playing some silly boy game, Julia, Jen, Claire and I decided to play dress-up and test it out. My "new" toy has a 600 watt lightbulb in its itty-bitty, Model-T-headlight-shaped enclosure. After blasting ourselves with it the first time, we decided it needed to be shaded a little. We tried wax paper...and melted it. We tried the scrap material from my curtains...and set it on fire. Then we decided to just go out into the pitch black darkness and see how lit-up we could get Jen. Thats when we noticed the light itself was smoking from the inside. So we took a picture.


One of my trusted associates claims that you can only have this light on for 30seconds or less at a time. As someone who is used to working with hotlights, I find this hard to believe. The box it came in and instruction manual claim the light is for video--it even lists weddings as an event at which to use this product. If anyone else has some input as to how to use my toy without setting a grass fire, I'd love to hear it.

Not inclined to give up so soon, we substituted the fancy-smancy-flaming-photo equipment for a floor lamp my friend Jarrod found at a garage sale. Here are the results:

Jen a-la-1940's

Julia a-la-United Colors of Benetton Ad

Add to the mix: one innocent looking puppy and a feather boa

...and then let her speak her mind.

A perfect evening!

Waiting for Daddy...

Just thought I'd post a picture of my babies waiting for Eric to get home.

Baumgartner Family Portraits

The Baumgartner family:

Pierce Family Portraits

A long, long time ago--well maybe not so long ago--the Pierce family helped me immensely in pulling off my wedding. Though it doesn't come close to repaying the debt, I offered to take a family portrait in return. Here are the results:

Lady Claire Bailey

Todays post is coming not from Emerald, but rather her husband Eric. Yesterday, New Year's Eve, Emerald and myself were heading out the door to get the appropriate material components for some festive New Year's Eve beverages, when out from beneath the truck appears a surprise. It was the four-legged and furry kind of surprise. And it was cute...very cute.

Now, I am not a dog person (or at least I wasn't a dog person until I married Emerald and she came home one day holding a fuzzy black thing named Indiana saying, "Please don't kill me."), but this cute little thing somehow weaseled it's white and black spotted self into my heart a little too quickly.

When she was found she had a little leather collar and four paws of painted finger-nails. So for now we are assuming she was some child's Christmas present and that child will want her back. We walked around the neighborhood, but nobody had ever even seen her before. I went and put signs up this morning with my phone number. We will give it a week and if we hear nothing, well, Indy has needed a playmate, right?

In the meantime, we needed to call her something. So I present to you, Lady Claire Bailey; disturber of Indys, snatcher of chewies, and Queen of cuteness: