Blue eyes in bluebonnets

"The traditional bluebonnet photo is irredeemable cheesy," the editors of Texas Monthly dared to promulgate in the April 2012 issue.

 

Say it to my face, this beautiful child retorted. Seeing as how we Kellerpeople are moving to Little Rock in about a week, it was gosh darn necessary for me to get some quintessential bluebonnet pictures of my little baby while she's still a Texan!  

 

My friend Brandi was game to join me with her kids on a little bluebonnet hunt this afternoon, and thanks to a tip on twitter we found a little patch away from any possible traffic.  The tricky (spooky) part was that it lay smack dab in the middle of an old cemetery.

I mean, I knew we were headed to "the Buffalo Gap Cemetery" but I assumed it was an open place with a couple rolling hills... Wrong!  This was a straight-up fenced-in acre of decrepit tombstones.  I believe Wyatt decided to rest his weary bones on top of a small stone perch called Unknown, while Jackie, full of ideas for poses, said, "You know what would be pretty? If I stood next to that sign!"  That sign was a 4-foot headstone.

Here's a pic where you can tell we're in a cemetery.  I think I forgot to mention to my husband that we ended up there.  Good thing it would never cross his mind to read my blog. 

Now it's time to ask the obvious question: where are the bluebonnets?  They're all over the place in the above pictures, but because the only time we could go was smack dab in the middle of direct sun, I had trouble getting shadow-free faces and getting the background, so the best pictures turned out to be the ones where the kids are in the shade of a tree while the background is in full sun.  I try encourage my clients to do sessions within a couple hours of sunrise or sundown but that's not often feasible.  My favorite, favorite lighting is an overcast sky.  It's not as versatile as a rising or setting sun in a partly-cloudy sky, but it definitely makes for a more fuss-free photo session.

By the way, the bright, blown out background and pastel features is quickly becoming my favorite style of portraiture, evidence of which can be found in my last four sessions. Does anyone have any feedback for me?  Should I make it my signature look as I grow my business?

Anyway, regardless of the whole interment setting, the kids had a lot of fun and so did Brandi and I!  Kate was pretty mellow most of the time but the fresh air was so good for her.  I'm a bad mom and sometimes the only fresh air we get is a 10-15 minute evening walk, so this was just what we needed.

And hopefully Kate will make it back to Texas each spring for more pictures just like these.

Say "cheese!" And say it to their faces, baby girl.

{Engagements} Bethany & Josh

This was a really fun shoot. Bethany had a lot of great ideas and Josh was game. (As "game" as a guy can be getting his picture taken for two and a half hours straight!) Our friend Lane also came along to provide the entertainment. Thanks for letting me take these, Future Berrys! ...Berries?

 

 

Update: These two are getting married in Little Rock in August, so I'm excited to see them again after we move there!

{Seniors} Morgan, Rachel & Hadley

Let's start with Morgan, shall we?  She's a senior at Cooper High School who very smartly offered to swap babysitting services for a few senior pics in her cheer uniform.  I attempted an in-home "studio" for the first time and got only a couple usable shots out of it, but it was fun trying.  Then we headed outside where Morgan had to work for her pictures!

  

 

 

I asked Morgan to bring a friend since it would be more fun and get more relaxed and natural photos as a result.  Plus, I can make them hold my stuff. :)  So Morgan brought Rachel, and within a week I had another senior client!  We took all these within one block in downtown Abilene and finished off with Rachel holding her letter of acceptance from Texas A&M.  Congratulations!

 

 

Then comes Hadley, who served as my assistant extraordinaire for Rachel's shoot.  Turns out she goes to my church and we had about 20 Facebook friends in common.  She looked so cute I had to take some pictures of her, too!

 

Geez, of the 100+ pics to choose from I decided to post these...apparently I'm a fan of framing to the left!

{Engagements} Session Re-dos

I figured out some new Photoshop tricks so I decided to go back through and re-process some of the pictures I've taken...like this one!

{Families} 19 People and Counting

 

Some childhood friends of mine asked me to come over to their parents' house the day before Christmas Eve and capture their growing family... and it worked out! 

I was so excited to see Maria and Olga and the rest of the gang.  It had been about seven or eight years since we'd been together, and the family has basically doubled in size since then.  And, in addition to us doing something meaningful with the money from the session fee, they also paid me in homemade tamales.  Who can beat that?!

 

 

On the surface, I can see about 100 woulda-shoulda-couldas in these photos, but if you just look past them all you'll see is a lot of love in a family which is also loved by me!

No business like snow business!

Somebody got married...

I blogged a lot about this wedding craft so I might as well post the results, huh?  I didn't get a good shot of the ring bearer's accessories, but if you look closely you can see the bow tie and his mom holding the ring pillow.  I also whipped up a headband for Kate using the first bow tie I attempted that came out too small.

I seem to remember snapping a photo of the guy who caught the garter sporting my hard work as a sweatband (I'm not making any sarcastic implications here; I was really excited when he displayed my handiwork!) but that photo does not exist on my camera.  I'm not surprised.  My friend, Mr. Cabernet, may have told me to delete it or it's possible he accidentally handed me someone else's camera.

It was such a beautiful, fun and unique wedding and I was happy to be a part of it!  Enjoy some more of the photos..

BCH Sports - They're on it!

For some reason I offered to take photos at Shotwell Stadium (a high school football field) in the middle of July because I thought the sports team needed some fresh promotional photos before the season started and because I wanted an excuse to rent a wide-angle lens.  It was more than 100 degrees outside, so we did this all in about 10 minutes.  I'm mostly pleased with how they turned out, but I would have spent a lot more time barking orders about who should stand where if it had been, oh, only 90 degrees.

I can't believe I forgot to use the flash to fill those facial shadows.  I hate flash photos with the exception of outdoors on bright days.  But what was I supposed to do, ask them to come back? :)

Kat in the Hat

Not to be redundant from the other blog, but here are a few photos I took last week for yarnaholics.etsy.com, in exchange for a discount off of the hat to go with Kate's Halloween costume, which remains a surprise! :)

Mila's Daydreams knockoff

If you haven't seen pictures of Mila's Daydreams, you should check them out.  Unfortunately Mila's mom's photos got "stolen" from her blog so quickly that she doesn't even have them up anymore, but they're still all over the internet.

Austin requested a picture of Kate for our anniversary, so using those photos as inspiration, here's what I ended up with!  I LOVE it.

That be one fun day!

After months and months of talking about taking these pictures, we finally did it!  My friend, whose husband is a B-1 pilot, first suggested it some time last year.  But the winter was too cold, the spring went by too fast, the dress took a while to order, I became a mom... and if we hadn't done it today it never would have happened because these two are moving to a land far, far away in a matter of days!

We weren't able to get on to the flight line to take pics with the B-1s that are actually in service, but this bad boy worked out just fine.

If you notice, the sidewalk is wet in some of the photos.  We had a little issue with sprinklers, which threatened to derail the entire shoot. :)

So, there they are!  I'm so happy to have been asked to take these and we'll see if any other wives are interested in doing it.  I hear there might be a black and white polka dot dress listed on eBay soon...