Congratulations to my long time friend Andrew and Ashley on their recent marriage!

I’ve known Melissa and her family for quite a while, since the late 90′s. So, I was happy to shoot her and Atul’s wedding in Austin, along side Melissa’s brother and my friend Matt.

It had been sprinkling some that morning and about an hour before the ceremony, it began to pour. Everyone hurried to get all the stuff under the house’s big front porch. Wedding time. The traditional American ceremony began in the front room and moved outside to the patio for the Saat Phere ceremony, with new friends and new family shoulder to shoulder. The rain brought everyone together for a cozy ceremony. As the ceremony ended, the clouds had passed and the party began under the big tree outside.

Good times!

Hair by Nichol Olsen
DJ Ryan Williams
Cake by Michelle’s Patisserie
Catering by Star of India
Flowers by Arthouse Floral Design

What a great time of year for getting engaged!

First stop was Houston Arboretum, where it was pretty warm, but clear and beautiful. After some delicious Mexican food for lunch, we ended up downtown in and around the Chevron building, including the Skyring which is a circular elevated walkway over the road. It’s pretty cool.

We had a fun time and are even thinking of shooting session. Looking forward to those!

My friend, Andrew, proposed to his lovely girlfriend on a drizzly Saturday morning in front of a crowd of car friends at Coffee and Cars.

He had sent me a text early that morning, knowing I was going to be there, asking if I could snap a few photos along with some other automotive photogs who’d be there. I was happy to snap a few of it all! Enjoy.

When I got home from work today, there was a package “hidden” under the doormat. I wasn’t expecting anything. It was a nice surprise to find a Google Chrome OS Cr-48 pilot program notebook inside!

If you’re unfamiliar with Chrome OS, it’s built around the idea that pretty much everything you do is online where you just want a faster, easier OS versus a larger (slower), more fully featured (complex) OS.

I had signed up for the pilot program when it was announced a couple of months ago. The purpose is to use it regularly and provide feedback to Google for improvement. The questionnaire focuses on how you use the cloud. They ask for a 140 character reason why you should be selected for the pilot program. In 139 characters, I managed to fit a nice little bit about using the web for both my personal needs and business needs, being a new photographer. For business, I rely on Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs for keeping track of gear, serial numbers, client orders, accounting stuff, etc. I also prefer to deliver my client’s photos via DropBox, rather than mailing a silly disc.

It’s a pretty sleek notebook, especially for a test unit. I’m looking forward to using it!

I had a nice time with the Goudge family on a pleasant Saturday morning at Discovery Green. Clear skies, cool weather and a nice looking family make my job easy!

The Dinh family met me on a pleasant afternoon at the park for a nice family portrait session.

I recently bought a Canon New F-1 to play around with. I wanted something that would really force me to think about exposure and composition, plus, I enjoy the mechanical nature of things like this.  Here are some shots from the first few rolls.

The first location is the boardwalk at Kemah, TX. I live near there and it’s got interesting things to shoot, so I’m often there testing gear and playing around. These were taken on a Thursday summer night, when the boardwalk has live music and a lot of activities going on.

The second location is my “studio” at home. Kitty often crashes the set to see what’s going on. I’m always blowing Kitty hair off whatever I’m trying to shoot.

The third location is David Wayne Hooks airport on the North side of Houston. They have a cool collection of old turbofans that provide an interesting background. The water in the last few shots is actually a water runway for seaplanes!

Enjoy!

An early Sunday morning offered us cool temps, water like glass and decent light for some shots near the water at Lake Buchanan.

Have a look.

My friends, Brooke and Mike, recently got a pair of Honda Ruckuses. They cruised over to the St. Arnold’s Brewery with some other Ruckus riders where I met up with them.

This was the first time I had been to St. Arnold’s and it was an interesting experience. They occupy a 100 year old building that was previously used for Houston ISD’s food service. $7 buys you admission, a small glass and tokens for 4 fills. That’s about 2 beers total. They have a large hall with long tables and plenty of room to stand around and visit. People brought in all kinds of stuff, like pizza, board games, cards and even folding chairs. It was like an indoor park that serves beer. We got a tour of the place by Brock Wagner, the co-founder of St. Arnold’s.

After that, we cruised over to a BBQ place for lunch. Brooke was nice enough to let me ride her Ruckus. It was so much fun! We had a nice little pack of scoots there. After lunch, we ended up downtown for a few shots.

Fun!