I brought my Holga camera to my bride, Jessica’s bridal portrait in Houston a few weeks ago.  It’s always a gamble to shoot with this particular camera.  You never know what you’ll get, if anything at all.

This is a nice one though, so I thought I’d share.

I’m off to Washington DC in a few days to shoot an engagement portrait.  I’m really excited to be shooting in a city that I’ve never visited before.  It’s wedding season, so things are bananas around here!  Maybe not the best time to schedule a portrait on the east coast.  However, I opted for better weather rather than the convenience of scheduling.  So, stay away rain and heat!

Have a great weekend!

Smash

We are always so pleased when Junebug Weddings features a wedding that we have shot.  This particular gem was really fun!  The couple, Sarah and Chris requested that I shoot with my Holga camera as well as digital.  This always seems to be a good indicator that the couple will be easy to work with and that photography is really important to them.  Frankly, they were a dream come true!

Thank you Sarah and Chris for hiring us to shoot your wedding.  Thank you also for the kind things you said about me in the post.  That was unexpected to read!!

Smash

Here are a handful of photos I shot with my holga while working in Salem, Mass last September.

Happy Tuesday, all!

Smash

It is a rare but welcome occasion when a client requests that I shoot some portraits with my Holga.  Sarah and Chris were such clients, even making sure we started earlier enough so we could have the right kind of light.  The outcome, while always unpredictable can often produce at least one image I am pleased with.  There are actually several images that came out from the Holga.  But this one is my favorite.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Smash

This is The River Thames that runs through Putney, England.  I went to Putney (a suburb outside London) to meet with Robie and Lucy so we could discuss the details of the wedding day, which was fast approaching.  The day actually looked exactly as it does in these photographs.  Cool, drizzling rain, darkish.  It was the perfect weather for shooting with a holga camera.

To be perfectly honest, I would give nearly anything…anything at all to have cool, drizzling rain and darkish as a description for the weather.  I want to climb into that bottom photo, swim to the boat and lounge until I was forced back to land.

We are frying like bacon down here in Austin.  Please send relief!!!!!

Melting,

smash

There are few things as glorious as photographing a wedding in the English countryside.  It was especially nice escaping the Texas summer for awhile.  While I can’t share the wedding with you just yet, here are a few photos of Lucy and Robie that I shot after the ceremony.  Some are with the holga camera too, which is always fun.

More coming soon from Lucy and Robie’s wedding!

Have a good Tuesday,

Smash

I shot these while wandering around The Banking District one afternoon in London.  The top picture is of Threadneedle Street.  The rest were shot around the same area but I’m not really sure because, as usual, I got lost.  I would never make it on The Amazing Race.

Have a good Thursday!

Smash

Looking at these photos makes me feel cool.  Not cool, like “oh, I’m so cool.”  But cool, like it’s not 100ish degrees in San Francisco like it is in Austin.  This is the time of year when we talk incessantly about the heat.  As if we are suddenly surprised that it is this hot again.  But my goodness, even with the rain we received this morning, I found myself putting my head in the freezer a few minutes ago.

It’s hot y’all.  It’s really hot.

Smash

During my trip to India last November, we visited the Taj Mahal on a drizzly, kind of chilly day.  It was a fairly miserable six hour bus ride to get to Agra from New Delhi.  Needless to say, we weren’t in the best of spirits.  However, it was beautiful regardless.  It IS the Taj Mahal after all.  Did you know that The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died while giving birth to their fourteenth child?

***pause***

FOURTEENTH CHILD?!?

Moving on…she dies, and he’s so grief stricken that he orders the court into mourning for two years.   Some time later (around 1632) he began erecting the Taj in memory of his beloved.  It took 22 years and over 22,000 workers to complete it.  There is also a myth that upon completion, Shah Jahan had the hands of his architects and sculptors cut off so the could never create anything as beautiful as the Taj Mahal.  By the way, up until this very moment, I took this gruesome piece of information as fact until I started researching the Taj.  Of course it’s a myth!

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum and both the Shah Jahan and his third wife’s tombs are inside.  It is one of the seven wonders of the world.  I recommend seeing it at the beginning of a trip to India, so it will properly knock your socks off.  Here’s some photos I took on this particularly murky day in India:

PS – The emperor also had two other wives.  Ugh, talk about playing second fiddle.  I would have hated to be those ladies!

I was thrilled to find out I had placed in the Photo District News: Top Knots Contest (the new school of wedding photography).  I placed in candids and in portraits.  They only award a first place in each category, but I am pleased to simply be included among the rest of the winners!  I was also excited that two of my holga images won.

The magazine has come out but the online gallery has not been published yet, so here is a closer look at the photos.

Sarah and Adam’s portraits I took of them with my holga on their wedding day:

One of my favorite images of two flower girls on the stairs getting ready for the ceremony placed in the candids category:

I’ll post a link when the online images become available for viewing!

Happy Monday,

Smash