This family reunion was on gorgeous Lone Man Creek in even more gorgeous Wimberley, Texas. Everyone had enough personality to fill up two photo shoots, playing and laughing together. And a gorgeous group of people they were, too, easy on the camera!

Just doing my part to uphold our local motto of “Keep Austin Weird” this weekend as Austin Fashion Week opened with its Kick Off Red Carpet Party at GSD&M Idea City downtown. The clever designers and creative stylists put on a fantastic show, as well as local graphic artists creating the original virtual signature characters to advertise the event, and body artists Michelle Pulsifer and Donald McCaskill recreating them in the flesh to the thrill of the paparazzi! I came in to do head shots of the models and got to hang around pretending like I was blending in to the camera crowd.

Luisa & Johnny had a step below an elopement when they decided wedding planning is for the pros and decided to just go for it! A simple ceremony at the intimate Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, TX with just the two of them, the priest, and me: which always makes me feel so honored to be included, unless you count the little dog ahead of me in priority. They are a gorgeous couple with a beautiful and sweet history. And not long before their wedding day they found out they are expecting their first child, (congratulations!) but it made zipping up the dress a fun adventure for us! May your life together be a sweet as your lovely wedding!

Alex & Joaquin shared a beautifully tender but monstrously hot wedding ceremony at the outdoor (in August=really, really hot!) Chapel Dulcinea south of Austin in Driftwood, Texas. Joaquin is faithfully serving his country and about to embark on his second deployment (military dress uniform=really, really hot!) A huge crowd for the small chapel of family and friends surrounded them, as well as their adorable son. Congratulations on the next step in your adventure together, and here’s to hoping it stays just as hot for years to come!

Miriam and Joseph asked for a fantasy location for their engagement session with lots of water and greenery, so when I suggested the fairytale Dunvegan Keep in south Austin it fit their personalities perfectly. I love romantic shoots because of the tenderness the couples always display so openly for the camera. It seems that at those times my soul mate can do no wrong, and that’s important to offset the crash back to reality when he and the kids are screaming while I work in Photoshop ignoring them all wondering what their problem is! But back to my sweet, romantic, simply in love couple. No pretenses, no power struggles, just in love. Thank you for trusting me to capture that!

Michelle Pulsifer of On the Spot Body Art in Austin recently scheduled a painting party to beef up her photo portfolio with a day-long marathon of face and body painting. Lots of kids and pizza and paint, along with two gorgeous pregnant women for maternity painted and henna belly art to literally round out the event!

We have new belly art and boudoir body art joint packages starting at $160 that include painting and a photo session with 8×10 either in the studio, at your home, or outdoors in a private venue, and I’m excited about our new offerings.

While doing the portfolio shoot for On the Spot Body Art, this little model came from a local acting class taught by his father. He was so cute with a great look and attitude that conveyed well on the camera so that after he cleaned off his make up I had to take some head shots for him as he makes his young way in the entertainment industry.

This young couple married at the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, Texas just outside Austin had a great level of energy and excitement to be together. Their colorful sense of style came through loud and clear with great slightly punk rock hair, eyes, and nails on the bride and a pop of bright color on the groom. A gorgeous pair who genuinely enjoyed the time and attention during their photo shoot to focus on each other. I always enjoy the sense of relief that follows a wedding ceremony, and this wedding in particular seemed to mirror that same feeling I had after my own wedding like we had just jumped off a cliff together and landed safely! Best wishes to Carlos and Iris on their new journey together.

This beautiful little family grew a little larger today! Tracy and Kieran were wed at the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, Texas in a quiet, lovely, intimate ceremony with their 2 daughters and infant son. The new stepsisters have known each other since birth and were adorably excited to help and snuggle new baby brother during the wedding. Coming from someone like me, who had only immediate family at our wedding and chose to homebirth to keep the experience small and intimate, being privileged to document their wedding with the officiant as the only other participant was an honor. Congratulations on your new lives together, and thank you so much for allowing me to play a small role. Your deep devotion to each other was evident, accented with a pop of spunky personality symbolized by that fabulous sunflower yellow gown, and I hope these photos do that justice!

Loretta Sommers is new to Austin and a long-time member of the entertainment industry. She has some great new opportunities in Central Texas, but needed new and updated head shots to convey her look, physique, and personality specifically for a host position for our local Liquidation Channel. She said, “I didn’t know I could look like that!’ but well, she’s gorgeous, and it IS what she looks like. Just a reminder that who we see in the mirror is never as wonderful as how other people see us. Good luck, Loretta!

June was a fast-paced month of real estate as it seemed everyone waiting to make a move until school was out suddenly was ready to list their homes. Austin is one of the few cities nationwide where prices have risen the past year and didn’t fall much in previous years, so the market is still jumping. However, as the number of homes hitting the MLS increases, demand from buyers is beginning to slow. Sellers and their agents must be competitive with not just nice photos showing the home, but amazing photos showing OFF the home! Seller demand for professional photography is high, and I’m thrilled to be a part of this industry.

Every month when I prepare my portfolio of the previous four weeks, I am energized all over again. I just love shooting real estate and find myself at portrait clients’ homes or wedding venues itching to take a few moments to light and photograph great spaces wherever I find them! Seriously, I know it’s hard to believe anyone can be this excited about her job or taking pictures of rooms, I’m not just making it up. To prove my point, I challenge you to take your little camera and take a photo of the best room in your home to see just how difficult it is to do well. I struggle every day, and I have so much to learn, which is why it’s so much fun. At 25 homes this month with some of the most amazing views I’ve seen in Austin, I am having a lot of fun!

Happy Father’s Day to my sweet husband, and happy 4th birthday to the best little Father’s Day gift ever!

This adorable trio we shot at Bee Cave Central Park just outside of Austin and Lakeway  just may have been the best behaved, most cooperative little group I’ve worked with. When I complimented them on how well they were doing, mom whispered to me that she’d been prepping them for weeks! It certainly paid off with their great smiles, eye contact, and close poses. She wanted tight head shots in black and white canvas gallery wraps to update some she’d had done six years ago for a previous father’s day gift. It’s a surprise, so shhh! don’t tell!

Rayna & Derek were married in style and fun at the gorgeous Red Berry Mansion in San Antonio. Their no-nonsense attitude and sense of humor combined with a great group of friends made for a beautiful wedding day in spite of the warmer than average Texas June heat. The reception had great music, food, and drinks, and featured a lovely balloon-release memorial to the bride’s late father. Her grandfather officiated, and she was given away by her uncle. Congratulations to a lifetime full of many years of wedded bliss! And ignore the best man’s advice of, “Why get married? Just find a girl you don’t really like and buy her a house!”

May brought more gorgeous weather for colorful springtime exteriors, but a lot of rain postponements. It was worth it for all the green lawns. With nearly 30 homes this month, it didn’t slow down as much as all that rain might have suggested. I really enjoyed my time at a local ranch with an amazing view of my two favorite wedding venues of Chapel Dulcinea and Barsana Dham high on the hill just down the road from my house. I admired and marveled yet again at all the hard work of the homeowners and tenants getting their houses ready to market and wisely treating the photo session as the first and most important showing. Except the final showing that brings in an offer!

In April, I photographed nearly 30 homes for virtual tours, and the springtime outdoor foliage was incredibly beautiful especially with all the rural ranches’ bluebonnet meadows in bloom. Even the suburban back yards were filled with color. I enjoy photographing real estate so much as each shot presents a new and different challenge, and there’s never the same thing twice.

My favorite home this month was 100 Cloudland www.100cloudland.com in Spicewood on a gorgeous waterfall. The neighbors were proud that the home had once been a short-term rental for visiting celebrities working on films in nearby Austin, so I guess that makes us famous now too, right?

19309 White Horse Cove, Spicewood TX 78669 in Travis Settlement is a gorgeous home along a creek canyon with stunning sunsets and hill country views. Offered by agent/owner Tim Gigliotti, we had a great time shooting together. Twilight sessions always yield the best photos, especially on a sunset property such as this one. We ran around like mad shooting before we lost the sun, alternating between serious hard work and laughter to keep things interesting. This is a landscape 2-sided flyer to show off the best feature of the home, its great setting.

Emily and Alan were married earlier in April at a ceremony in Taiwan with Emily’s extended family, but as true Texans and die-hard UT alums, an Austin reception was required. This is the most fun I’ve ever had at a reception! From a photographer working the event, that’s quite a statement. With great senses of humor from the couple and the guests, hot pink Converse and UT burnt orange bow tie (that I tied and staged a photo to make it look like he knew what he was doing), party games, crazy photo booth, guests “crashing” the portrait session, and an amazing location on Lake Travis just off Mansfield Dam in Lakeway, everyone seemed like they were having a good time. The Texas barbecue and red velvet cupcakes were just the butter cream frosting on top.

I personally also really enjoyed looking at the gorgeous art board wedding album their fantastic photographer in Taiwan put together. They said everyone does a 12-hour bridal session there and that perhaps I should consider adding a day-long wedding photo extravaganza called the “Asian Package!”

The cobbler’s son has no shoes, and the photographers family never lives up to the client work. Part of the interference is of course directing the scene while running into it before the self timer fires. Perhaps it’s because there are just so many people to direct! But  I fear the real issue is the sad truth that my own children are not nearly as anxious to please the nice lady as others’ children. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that I’m only a nice lady with other people’s children.

I guess the main point here is that I’m sure you want to capture your own family having as much fun as we are! I saw some seed pods on some of the flowers tonight, so hurry before it looks more like a pea patch than wildflowers.

11441 Cherisse Dr 4/2.5 in Austin’s Circle C Meridian neighborhood offered by Audrey Serenil of Sky Realty at $314,900. Flyers are included in all real estate photo packages. Audrey opted for the pay at close feature of my real estate pricing structure for risk-free access to professional real estate photography. View the full tour here.

One of the nice things about real estate photography (there are a lot of those) is meeting all the great agents around the Austin area. Jill Foye is a beautiful new Keller Williams Realtor® , though as an ASP certified stager certainly no newcomer to the industry. We networked while she was staging, and I had the chance to take her head shots today for her new business cards. KW isn’t as fun with their cards as they have premade designs to choose from and therefore less creativity on my part there, but I loved this design…I think because it looks like my web site header!

Austin bluebonnet season is in full swing. The flowers are bright and juicy, and not a single one has yet gone to seed. Another week of springtime before the pods take over and the Indian Blankets move in.

These gorgeous girls were so fun and easy to work with. They posed, they modeled, they listened, even the baby stayed put, and in between asking for mama created some beautiful smiles. Their dresses lend an almost vintage feel. And as an extra bonus, I found a huge bluebonnet patch just a few minutes from my house the morning of the shoot! Lovely subjects, great location, overcast skies with soft sunset light that needed no flash all added up to a wonderful photo shoot.

The Texas state flower has good reason to be so. Every spring they pop up all over the hill country, especially along the highways making even rush hour seem almost pleasant. With small kids we found an enormous yet out of the way patch just north of Marble Falls for this session in the flowers. Two families back to back with the sun fading by the minute, we moved fast: almost as fast as the toddlers!

I took Baby’s First Year maternity, newborn, 6 months, first birthday, and holiday family photos of the little redhead, and now he’s walking around talking to me! I also did the 6 month session for the toddler in the second family: they do grow up fast!

I’ve shot a lot of real estate homes the past few weeks, and as the busy season comes on I’ll be shooting a lot more! Here are some of the highlights from the last 2 weeks of March, some cottages, some mansions, some ranches, some in between, about 13 homes around southwest Austin and Spicewood. March totaled almost 30 homes.

One of the reasons I love shooting real estate, other than the challenge of interior lighting in difficult situations, is that each home and owner has a unique story. Meeting with homeowners and realtors and hearing about the history of where they’ve lived, where they’re going and why, is always fascinating. The solitude of working alone with a lockbox key has its own rewards, but the story of the home is what holds my interest. This month I knocked on a door in a lovely neighborhood in Westlake only to have it answered by a friend of mine who is sadly (for me) moving. One home was agent owned, and her bittersweet goodbye to her first home as she moves in with her husband just begged to have her photo taken on her own front porch. Then there was a lake-front home in Spicewood full of exotic game on the walls and a bluebonnet meadow in full bloom! And another home in Westlake with a newly retired couple who had taken up metal sculpture with exquisite artwork displayed throughout the home and yard, who are moving to gain more workshop space.

Where we live says so much about who we are, and the homes we  buy can speak to us even without hearing the stories.