Life Around These Parts

The Professional Cupcake Eater

Sam would like you all to know that he has officially opened his cupcake eating business.

More Polaroids

All taken with a Polaroid 600SE on Fujifilm FP-3000B.

The Donkey and Me

My wonderful Foundation team leader and friend Amy Deputy took this wonderful photo of me with the donkeys.

Dim Sum Night

The boys love their Chinese dumplings. Sam was even reduced to tears when he thought there were no more steamed pork buns.

Parenthood | Austin Family Photographer

Here are two shots from the Roselle's session that I had not posted yet and that I love. They are just so 'parenthood' to me. Its blessings and its frustrations in all their glory.

The Owens Family | Austin Family Photographer

Here are some more from this very fun session.

Happy 5th Birthday Ben!

When Ben was just one month old I took the photo below of him and it is one of my all time favorites. So at my behest, Ben and I recreated that photo this morning on the event of his fifth birthday. I am not a perfect mother, but in my favor, I did remember your birthday on the right day this year. I love you baby.

Polaroid

I just bought an old Polaroid 600SE and I LOVE it. I was inspired by the family polaroids taken by Jonathan Canlas. I am having such a good time with this camera. Having trouble nailing the exposures, but working on it.

How I Went to a Truck Stop and Got Bit by a Donkey / aka FW8

It is hard to write about things that are meaningful to me. And the Foundation Workshop was very meaningful. It was hard and fun and exhausting and exhilarating. It changed the way I see and nothing is more valuable for my photography than that. I had an amazing team led by the extraordinary Amy Deputy, who not only does amazing work, but has a heart bigger than the state of Texas. Our mentors were: Huy Nguyen, Rachel LaCour Nieson and Jay Premack. One thing I loved about the team leaders was that they all had skills and personalities that complemented each other. But the most important gift to me was their total generosity with their time, their skills and their energy. We had the only all female team, which I thought was pretty cool. My amazing team members were: Britt Bailey, Gulnara Samoilova, Emmy Sherman, Tak Yi Young and Tina Wilson. We made such a great team--I love them all. And a shout out to Matt Mendelsohn, who is nothing short of splendid. He is not only a great photographer, but a darn good writer to boot.

We were each given an assignment to shoot. Mine was to photograph the opening of a new yoga studio called Get Yogafied and in particular the story of Shana, who is an attorney looking to change her life by helping to open a yoga studio. After reviewing my photos from the first day of shooting, the team leaders decided that that story was complete even without the lawyer angle and that I needed to find something that would challenge me a bit more. So Huy, in his infinite wisdom, thought I should just head up 75 north and find a truck stop to shoot at. So I did. I had never been to a truck stop before and I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly everyone was. Only two people did not want me to take their photo. Mostly people just wanted me to listen to their story. Among the many people I met was JR, who works at the adjoining mini mart. He invited me to come to his 280 acre place where he has 40 DONKEYS. So of course I couldn't pass that one up. And Amy came along for the ride.

The final night everyone showed slides of their work and I WAS BLOWN AWAY! If you want to go to a workshop that doesn't talk about marketing, gear or posing, but gets to the heart of photography--the art of telling a story, then this is the one for you. The first day I got there and found out that many people had been before I was confused. I thought "why would you attend the same workshop more than once?" Now I am mentally saving my pennies to go back next year.

Below are three slideshows that show what I shot while I was there. You should definitely check out Anna Kuperberg's amazing photos of the week here and Vlad's fabulous video here.

Sneak Peek | Austin Family Photographer

I LOVED this family. Not only were they lovable, but they had chickens and a dog. What's not to love about chickens and dogs? More to come.

Settling In

I am still playing catch up from being out of town last week. So for now. here are some more from the other night.

Home

I am back home with so much to say about what transpired last week. But for now I am just happy to be reunited with these two.

Sometimes I Forget What it is All About and Then I Remember

Susie and Sadie | Austin Family Photographer

I still have yet to finish proofing baby Henry's newborn shoot, but I thought I would share one I got back from the lab of Susie and Sadie.Our little family has been struck by sick kids and pink eye and sick mommy. It has been a whirlwind of disease and disruption of the routine around here. I suppose that is par for the course in February. And then to top it off some crazy guy rams his plane into an office building a half mile from here. Luckily no one was hurt. Normality, like Susie and Sadie snuggling in a chair, never looked so seductive.

iphone iphone iphone

The iphone is the obsession at our house these days. The boys want to be playing on it constantly--especially Sam. He loves doing puzzles on it. I let him play on it, but I try to limit him, which is a tough proposition. It has gotten so bad that I cannot even use my phone in front of him because he starts screaming that he wants it. I have created a monster.

Sam Eating Toast

I needed to finish off a roll of film from a family photo shoot, so I took a couple quick ones of Sam before we left to take him to school. Here he is finishing off his morning toast. Shot with a Hasselblad 500C on Kodak Portra 400NC.

Striving

Lately I am tired. Tired of being in front of the computer all of the time. So I have started shooting more film and sending it to the lab. And when I am shooting digital I am looking to get my shots as close to perfect in camera as possible. But they have always needed some tweaking. The exposure is always a little off etc. Two days ago I picked up the camera and these came out. They are not perfect by any means, but I did not post process them at all. Not one single adjustment. They are straight out of my 5D MKII and I LOVE them.

Ben Gets New Rainboots