Why my dog is just as wonderful as Gus Gensic!

They may be brothers, they may be the same color, but they are not at all alike, and of the two, people generally like Gus better for his docile disposition, entertaining stupidity, passion for water, and fluffy-like-a-bear coat. However, my dog is just as wonderful as Gus--and this is why: because, even with a hurt leg and no desire to move, Indy took the time to share his food with his best friend besides me...Crab.

See? Just as wonderful!

Experiments in display

You may have noticed that the locations for my last two portrait sessions were similar. That is because a) both ladies wanted downtown portraits, b) the sessions were a day apart, and c) I wanted to run some experiments in posing, lighting, editing, and creative layouts. Here are the results of one of those experiments and I'd love to hear what you think about them!!

Erin and Brenden

Erin is a friend of mine from my Fat Tuesday friends. She and her fiancee Brenden are getting married in December and asked me to do some quick engagement photos so they could get their "Save-the-dates" out on time. So, we played in downtown Abilene at sunset. Here are some of my favorites:

Josh and Allie

It seems like every post lately has something to do with Kalyn. Josh and Allie are friends of Kalyn and her husband and pretty soon--if not already--they will be celebrating their second wedding anniversary. They asked me to take some pictures in honor of that event. Here are some of my favorites:

A wedding I didn't HAVE to photograph...

Last weekend, Kalyn's cousin Emily got married. The wedding was several hours away and Kalyn was driving by herself and knew she would be coming back at night. Now since we haven't had a road trip in a while, haven't stopped at Dairy Queen in a while, and Kalyn's still a little deer-skittish, she asked me to come along with her and crash Emily's wedding. She also told me that her uncle Ron had planted an entire field of sunflowers in honor of Emily's wedding and I should bring my camera and we could go play in the flowers. So I did. But!, we didn't end up actually getting to the entire field of sunflowers.

So I pose this question: What does a wedding photographer do at a wedding where there's already a photographer?

The answer: Try not to take pictures for the first hour and a half and then give in and bombard the people she knows with her camera. So here you have it...portraits and portraits of flowers.

Monks (the non-monastic, non-OCD kind)

Monks is a coffee shop in downtown Abilene. There slogan is, "Keep Abilene boring." I like it. I also like that the periodically display local artists' work as their wall decorations. Good coffee and good art totally go hand in hand. This month, along with several others, my friend Kalyn's work is displayed. She has a wide variety of pieces ranging from modern art to roosters. You should totally go check it out! Monks is located at 233 Cypress Street.

Here are some pictures from her "gallery opening":







Considering how many times Kalyn has appeared on my blog--and the THINGS she writes on HER blog--this may be a shock, but she's actually very shy. Hence the pillow hiding whilst I try to take her picture by her artwork. ::sigh::

Orange Prom Dress steals the show...

Yesterday I worked with Belle's on a private lesson to a couple just getting into the business. They had attended a group workshop Belle's had put on and wanted further experience and portfolio pieces. So, Holly and I took them on a mock senior shoot where my favorite fairy princess bride posed in her own personal BRIGHT ORANGE PROM DRESS! At first I wasn't a big fan of her rainbow colored socks, but Holly was right, they do add ambiance. ::grin:: Let me know what you think!

Good fairy, bad fairy...

The day after Jarrod and Julia's wedding, I helped with Belle's Abilene workshop. Here are some of my images from that class. The model is a high school student who loves ponies and unicorns and FAIRIES! And she was so cool, she even brought wings to the shoot! So here she is...let me know what you think!








I thought she looked so overwhelmed by all the photographers. What you can't see in the following image is the other six cameras and the other six humans shooting at her from the sides.

This marks the end of my catch-up period. Hopefully, the next post will be
Jarrod and Julia's wedding!!!!

Speed Bridals...

Wednesday, I did a bridal session with Belle's. While the session lasted about an hour and a half--which is normal or slightly short as far as bridals go--it felt like the absolute fastest bridal session ever! The location was a lovely Presbyterian church downtown and it really seemed like just as soon as I was set up, it was time to move to the next spot. Anyway, here are my favorites, let me know what you think!

I couldn't resist posting this one. I call this "The Perplexed Bride." This is what happens when the photographer tells the model to do something and but she doesn't make any sense whatsoever.