HOLIDAY - part 1

How to ruin a photoshoot:
step 1, show up with the stomach virus. no step 2 needed.
seriously, couldn't believe this happened! i was so excited about this shoot!! we had a great band booked and we had the use of a really cool bar in downtown austin. i had been planning for this shoot for weeks; i had taken off work, i had the kids set up with babysitters, i made sure nigel, aka my equipment manager, could come along and we even had some new gear to test out. everything was set! or so i thought.
about halfway to austin i'm noticing my guts are not happy with me. i keep thinking it was something i ate or maybe i just needed some tums. but as time went on and we had to stop to go to the bathroom several times, i was beginning to realize this was not good.
when we showed up at Swan Dive we met with the band, Holiday, and i told them i wasn't feeling well, but that i thought i could push through and do the shoot anyway. so we get the lights and gear set up and i'm still running to the bathroom every 10 min or so. we get some pretty cool shots at the bar, then we move to another spot, get a few more good shots. but then the fever hits. i'm freezing and shaking like a leaf and apparently it was pretty hot in the place. i really could barely go on after this. nigel helped out and we finished up and i had to go lay in the car until everything was packed up. i felt like such an ass showing up to this shoot sick, but seriously, i felt fine before we left! dang stomach virus, why you gotta be so sneaky??
all in all, i'm really happy with the few pics we were able to get, and once we get the band re-scheduled you can look forward to part 2! Holiday is a great band, by the way, and you can check them out here:
http://www.atxmusicmag.com/holiday-austin-tx/

MARY

So this is Mary, and she used to model in high school. she left that world behind to study nursing, but leave it to me to drag her back :)
the day of the shoot turned out to be pretty nasty. it rained, and rained, and kept raining. i've never tried tossing a plastic bag over my gear and shooting in the rain and i was still scared to try on this day! sooo, since my husband was loading up furniture into our storage building i thought maybe we could do some pics there on the inside. well, other people were moving too so i decided to be nice and stay out of the way. luckily it stopped raining for a minute and we got a shot or two outside the unit. then we 'borrowed' someone's lovely green pick up that was in the RV storage area :) hopefully no one minded. or will ever find out! next it was back to my make-shift studio for some portraits. all in all i'm really happy with what we got! a big thanks to mary and taylor for driving in the rain to come do this shoot!

J. WESLEY HAYNES TRIO!

So i finally got my first photo shoot with a band: the J. Wesley Haynes Trio!
i was pretty nervous since this was my first shoot of this nature, and i also had no idea where exactly i was going to take them for the photo shoot! i hadn't been to austin, tx in years and when i got there i realized things had changed quite a bit. the place i had asked them to meet me turned out to be a bit of a dud, but luckily my friend sara met up with me and showed me around a bit, thank god!! i went to several bars and asked if we could take photos inside and i pretty much got a no at all of them. then we ended up on east 6th st. and the nice bartender at Rio Ritas let us use the back area for some photos. the rest we took outside, and i had a blast taking photos of these guys! now i just need to go back and catch one of their shows! if you wanna check them out go here: http://www.reverbnation.com/thejwesleyhaynestrio OR http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Wesley-Haynes-Trio/163594923955

MORGAN in the STUDIO

So when i say 'studio' i mean my garage. my garage with a sheet/fabric taped to the wall. yes, i know, super high tech. but hey, it seems to be working for the time being!
i actually took these photos of Morgan before the Christmas portraits that i posted, but it has taken me a while to work on them due to all of the holiday hubub.
this was actually my first attempt at the whole 'studio' look, as previously i have done everything outside. i had a lot of fun with this shoot and i'm pretty excited to try some more like this!