Last night after a long day of shooting I decided to stop at my local coffee shop and have a nice Americano to before heading to the office to upload my days work. As I enjoyed my coffee the light took on a wonderful orange cast that turned more rose colored as the sun started setting. I had to pull out my gear an take a couple of photos to try & capture the moment.

Those that follow my blog are familiar with my images of pretty places & things, but I also really enjoy taking pretty portraits too! Last Friday evening I had the pleasure of doing a fun portrait session in downtown Austin. Originally I was just going to be photographing Denise but a week or so before the shoot we decided to also include her friend Hollyn. I’ll post some of the great images of Hollyn on a future date. It was a great time and I think you will agree, quite productive!

Chillin’

Hat Trick

The Wall

Struttin 6th Street!

In downtown Oklahoma City there is another wonderful botanical garden, the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory & Myriad Botanical Gardens. The first image was taken inside the 220 foot long Crystal Bridge Conservatory that sits in the middle of the 17 acre botanical gardens. The Crystal Bridge is home to more than 1000 species of plants including everything from giant palms to hundreds of various orchids. On one end there is a Tropical Rain Forest Zone with various waterfalls & on the other is the Dry Tropical zone. The Conservatory includes plants from every continent except Antarctica. You can see the end of the Crystal Bridge in the second image taken from the gardens.  (If you like beautiful gardens, also check out my Butchart Garden blog.)

Crystal Bridge

Myriad Botanical Gardens

I’ve stated here before, I’m a city boy. I’m a city boy, but my mom was raised in the country just outside a little town south of Dallas named Maypearl Texas. Perhaps its from the childhood memory’s of going to my grandmothers house in the summer, eating fresh peach cobbler and listening to stories of picking cotton & actually plucking the soft white cotton balls from the rather pokey plants that has caused me to be a bit fascinated by a big white field of cotton.
Driving down the Texas back roads one evening I ran across this pair or trees standing in a ripe cotton field. I had to stop & pluck a cotton ball or two and take a photograph.