I was quite pleased to be able to spend a bit more time working on Jena’s portfolio before she heads off to LA at the end of this week. (You can see images from her last session here & here.) This time I brought her inside & put her under the studio lights for a slightly more “classic” look. We did several different setups & we got a number of great images from each. It was tough deciding which image to post today. I guess I was just in the mood for a bit of purple.

Here is yet another view of the Austin Skyline from the Long Center for the Performing Arts. (Can you tell I like this view of Austin?) This photograph was made the same evening the I shot the Austin Skyline Panorama. (You can see that photo here.) When I photograph I virtually always do multiple angles and perspectives of my subject matter. Due to time constraints, I generally only retouch one of the images immediately to post. Later it’s always fun to go back through my files after some time has past to mine another photograph. It’s interesting how an image that did not jump out at me during the first pass will really stand out during a second look. This image was like that. When I was browsing through my photographs for my (sometimes) daily posting I found this shot of the Long Center. It’s hard to say, but I may like it better than the original Panorama.

I did a posting a few days ago with a portrait of Jessica’s roommate Jena, stating how I was hoping to be able to do another session with them before they leave for LA at the end of this month. Well, I got my wish. I did a two hour session with Jessica a few days ago & I am doing one with Jena on Friday. For this session I thought we would do a couple of looks that are completely different from each other and from our previous retro looking session. We got a bunch of great images but I thought I just post one of each look for now.  (You can see another great photo from the retro session here.) I believe we succeeded nicely. I am quite happy with how all three of these totally different yet great looks for Jessica turned out. Best of luck in Hollywood!

Fun

Professional

Retro

I had the opportunity last week to do some new portraits of Austin, Keisha & Brooklyn. The first portrait I did for Keisha was a maternity session a few weeks before Brooklyn arrived. (You can see that portrait here.) They live out of state so I really don’t get to do this as often as I would like. It’s sure fun when they are here and I can try and capture another phase in the life of the rapidly changing Brooklyn.

Wow, what a smile! Actually, with Jena to title this post “Jena’s Smile” is somewhat redundant. Jena is pretty much always smiling. She tends to brighten any room with her infectious smile. This is another photo of Jena from the portrait shoot we did when the classic cars were in town. I am trying to arrange time to do another session with Jena and her roommate Jessica before they leave for the lights of LA at the end of this month. Wish me luck!

This past weekend the Lonestar Rod & Kustom Car roundup was in town. With all those beautiful cars in town I could not pass up the opportunity to make use of them as a backdrop for a few portraits. I called upon a friend of mine that is about to graduate from the University of Texas Drama department. Jena brought along her roommate Jessica who just graduated from the UT drama department. This is Jessica looking quite stunning in front of a red ’32 convertible. I’ll post more shots later where you can actually see the cars, Jessica just stole the focus in this one. Such a tough life I have; wonderful locations, beautiful women & cool cars. I love my job.

It was great fun having the opportunity to photograph Kalee & her mom Colleen. (You may remember I posted Kalee’s yearbook shot in a previous post.) Originally the plan was a Senior Portrait shoot for Kalee. When I saw the great interaction between these two I could not pass up the opportunity to shoot a few mom & daughter shots as well as a few individual portraits of her beautiful mother Colleen. Ahhhh I love my job!

Where’d ya get those eyes?…

Dreamin’

That Beautiful Smile…

Peek-a-Boo!

Mom’s Magic Eyes

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Senior Portraits are always fun and Russell made my job especially easy. I believe you get the best result when a session is a collaborative effort between the assistant (David Wellings in this case), the subject & myself. Russell was very relaxed and had fun with the process suggesting locations and ideas for shots. No real surprise he is active in Theater.

I have to give him credit for what was probably my favorite image of the day. He suggested the shot in front of the monster cactus. It really looks great on larger sizes.