Kayla, Kayla, Kayla!

Last fall, I had the pleasure of shooting Kayla and her fiancé Darby's engagement photos. This weekend, Kayla and I went down to Waco to shoot her bridal portraits. I had a beautiful model with a beautiful dress and two WONDERFUL assistants (the mother and future mother-in-law of the bride), BUT, due to operating hours at the arboretum, we were shooting a very white dress in full high-noon sunlight. So here are the favorites. Let me know what you think and Kayla, I hope you like them!

More puppy pictures!

So the other day I hauled Indy out in the yard and made Eric take pictures of us. I thought he did so good (since he had to battle my huge manual camera)! So, here we are! Isn't he cute!

The dog ate my homework (and other bad excuses for not posting)

The past two months have been a strange time for me. Last semester was a blur between getting graduated and getting married and finishing my internship. This semester has just been busy. I started my job as a substitute teacher--which I absolutely love. I've been shooting stuff for Belle's Photography, which has been a blast, and doing a little babysitting while they finish up the studio (also fun!). AND Eric and I acquired the light of my life, Indiana Jones Lemmons...our dog.

Eric and I have been attending the church where my former (very texan) roommate, Kalyn's Yankee husband preaches. It's a very small country congregation and we just love it (and BJ's 10 minute sermons)! In February, one of the members found 12 Old English Sheepdog/German Shepherd mix puppies under his house. These are big puppies. Kalyn took me out "just to look." And I absolutely fell in love with Indy. So, my friends (who are wonderful!) went out and got him and food and toys and a bowl and puppy treats and a leash and his first set of shots and gave him to me for my birthday in March.

And that's when I began to have absolutely no free time.

Here are pictures of Indy the weekend we got him.




Getting Indy meant we needed to move to a place that could accommodate a big dog. So we spent the next three weeks house hunting, painting, and moving all our stuff. It may only get three lines in the blog, but I assure you it's a much bigger deal.

Throw in a week in some little kids, bunny rabbits, and a trip to Louisiana for Spring Break-- where I shot an Engagement session I still haven't finished editing--and you've got the makings for a very busy month.

Then, Belle's Photography has started doing portraiture workshops. Two weeks ago, we were in Dallas and this weekend we were in San Antonio. We hire a model (our model in Dallas was Kristen and in San Antonio we had a Russian model named Lyuba), provide the dress, and show 6 to 12 aspiring photographers (or those who are experienced and want a fresh take on the process) what we do in a typical bridal session. So far the classes have turned out really great.

Here's what I got in between helping Mike and Holly at the Dallas workshop:







Here's what I got in between helping Mike and Holly at the San Antonio workshop:

Let me know what you think!

tales from a fifth grade nothing

In response to my recent graduation I have taken a most lofty position as a substitute teacher for AISD. It's kind of like being The Fugitive--every day I'm someone new, some place new, pretending to know things I don't. Really, it's a rather exotic job.

On Friday I was a fifth grade teacher. Fifth graders are interesting creatures--in one moment they look sweet and innocent and they want to know all about you (what's your first name? how old are you? are you married? what's your favorite sport? if you had a choice between a new car and $100 which one would you take?...I'm not kidding, these are all actual questions). The next moment they're calling the teacher next door a "hater,"pronounced "hate-ah," one who dislikes the actions and/or beliefs of another, example: "Mrs. X is a hater. She's always up on me like I can't do nothing right." Then they proceed to sing Eminem songs at the top of their lungs, "Will the real Slim Shady...," while their classmates attempt to clip each other with office supplies, coat their hands with Elmer's glue, just to peel it off, and EAT holes through the center of their homework. My response to this, and I quote, was, "Ewwwwwwww."

At one point I had an intriguing conversation with a young lady in my class. She came up to the desk to ask me a question and in the process said the word "ain't." To which I corrected, "isn't." To which she countered, "Mrs. Lemmons, I'm from Texas and we don't say 'isn't' here." I was forced to admit she had a valid point and proceeded to blow fish bubbles of shock as she returned to her math worksheet.

But my all-time favorite, can't imagine how another student will top this, moment goes as follows:

For our science lesson, we were to watch an extremely boring video made by National Geographic on natural disasters. About half-way through the 38minute video, the kids completely lost interest and began yelling, screaming and being generally disorderly so I stopped the video and asked them questions about what they had seen. Finally, I asked the question, "Has anyone seen or lived through a natural disaster?" A little boy in the back of the room raised his hand and began attempting to tell me about a tornado he had witnessed, but he was so excited his words jumbled in his mouth and fell in a tangled mess at his feet confusing him and us in regards to what he was trying to say.

At this point, a little girl who was very very white, had glasses and long black stringy hair, and looked like she should belong to the future psychopathic killers of America said, "It's because he's Mexican. They all talk too fast."

She said this in a class where at least 50% of the students were Mexican.

I thought I was going to have a riot. The class erupted in comments all directed at this very unwise little girl. I then steered the conversation back to natural disasters and re-started the movie.

::sigh:: Fifth graders. ::shakes head:: Will wonders never cease?

Curious Alex (and family)

Yesterday I had a surreal experience...my first baby shoot. The kid was really very cute. Alex was only 12 days old and still wrinkly with a crusty belly-button, but he was very alert. If you got too close he'd just stare and stare at you. Curious would be a good description and with a head of hair befitting someone much older than 12 days. But I didn't expect how wiggly he would be...or just how loud he could scream. And once, when Holly and Mom weren't around, he started screaming so I attempted to stroke his little back like I had seen Holly do to calm him but he just screamed louder so I backed away.

Anyway, I'm happy with the results and I hope Mom and Dad are too. Enjoy!

Eric, Emerald and...pause, wait for it...

THE SNOWFLAKE!

Okay, maybe that shouldn't have been so dramatic, but I found these funny pictures from when Eric and I were decorating our house for Christmas and couldn't resist.

My new interior decorator line...

So recently my sister-in-law Melissa decided that she wants to redecorate her bedroom around the pretty slate blue bedspread she and Chris painstakingly decided they could both live with (I'm sure any married person remembers just how difficult those first decorating moves are before the guy finally decides he doesn't care and the girl finally gets to do what she wants).

In addition to staining the bedroom furniture just black enough to still show the wood grain, buying pretty slate blue curtains, and spraying the bed frame "black granite," Melissa requested I go through my "archives" and find "interesting pictures not of people" for fear that pictures of people might look like "those cheesy images you get in the frames when you buy them." Her only other specification? That they look good black and white.

She wasn't very specific, but here's my preliminary home decorator line. Enjoy! Images are available in any size between 5x7 and 18x20 for a meagre price--should anyone besides Melissa be interested.

Also, having been intrigued by the process, I'd love for you to post suggestions for a themed line of wall art for me to work on in my post-graduation stupor.

aN EXEMPLaRY EXHIBITION

So, my friend Kalyn (the democratic, pacifistic, cat-loving texan) is steadily working hard on her senior art show at ACU. Here's the poster. Check it out, it's definately going to be cool!

Portrait Posing Workshop

Holly Ward, one of my employers at Belle's Bridal and Family Photography, will be hosting the first of three Portrait Posing Workshops on February 8, from 2 to 5pm, at Willow Creek Chapel.

Each three-hour workshop will teach you how to pose brides of different body types and with different gown styles for fabulous, flattering bridal portraits. The model will be provided. The result for you will be portfolio quality images and skills that will carry over to other venues of photography. And for this first workshop, you will also have the opportunity to submit your best images for display in Willow Creek Chapel--which will look great on a resume!

The cost is $99 per person if you sign up ahead of time. At the door, the cost will be $125. ACU students will receive a $25 discount for signing up ahead of time. Class size will be limeted so sign up soon!

For more information or to sign up for this great opportunity, you can contact Holly or Mike Ward at (325) 201-7458 or info@bellesphotography.com.

PS--This workshop is geared similarly toward what Holly did with me during my internship at Belle's. To see images from that session you can visit Melissa's Bridal Portraits.

Murder in the swamp

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've had a very busy few weeks. With finishing school and graduation--and the family that brought into town--and then the Holidays, I haven't have time to post after Marnie's roommate pictures. Not that I could post a large amount of pictures anyway as I currently have no machine to edit them on.

In October, Eric and I bought a brand new I-Mac so that A) we would no longer be fighting over what was more important: World of Warcraft or editing pictures, and B) I would have a machine capable of running all of my Photoshop programs at once and also a machine with a reliable monitor--a calibrated monitor really is the most important thing to editing and my laptop definitely didn't have it. Right after everyone went home from graduation and I finally had a little time, I no more than sat down at my wondrous computer and a grey cloud of doom rolled down from the top of the screen telling me in five different languages to "restart or else." I restarted and nothing happened. My baby has now been at the doctor two weeks with a diagnosis of rotten memory and a failed fan and I still have no reliable computer.

As of now, I'm in Westlake and though I'm busy with the usual attic cleaning and renovating, Westlake is having a crisis of its own. Our recently elected mayor, Gerald Washington, the first African American mayor in our history was found shot to death in the parking lot of the Special Education Testing Center in Mossville--a neighboring city that is considered part of Westlake. Police have ruled it suicide, but I don't know a single person here besides the cops that believes that. Hence the controversy that has sparked national news coverage.

So, in lieu of pictures from me you can check out the news articles about our murdered mayor--suicide? Racially motivated murder? Or knocked off by powerful Mafia related enemies? Let me know what you decide.