fist blog post of the new year and we are super excited about this one!  setting up for the bridal show in below freezing weather....i think we did pretty good.  come check us out today!  jan 9-10.  we are having an open gallery on the 30th with a great booking incentive so, get to the show to pick up an invite.  here is a shot of our booth.

charlie and brooke are great people and i am excited that we have been able to work with each other so well!  these two are getting married next october and i can't wait to be part of this special day (hopefully ;)!  part of the marriage process is sending out 'save the dates'.  well, they asked me to design some unique 'save the dates' for them and i of course obliged!  i love any opportunity to do graphic design and love creating things for people who get really excited about the outcome!  so we finished up the design and sent them off for printing (brooke i know your ready to get them and i promise to send them to you as soon as i get them back from the lab)!!  we also did a pretty nice envelope with their return address on them.  so while we wait for them to return from the lab here are the samples along with some of my favorites from their engagement session.


The envelope with the return address label we designed.













Stay tuned for more from Brooke and Charlie!

3 Kids - well guys I can tell you that just about everyone I know has been giving birth to boys...including us!  my two are the absolute joys of my life and I don't know how to exist without them.  i'm not sure what it will take to produce a stanley girl, but if we can't get one - no one will be able to say there was no effort applied.  children are the window to the past and all things innocent and that is something i am blessed to experience everyday!  i'm not sure if you figured this out but i love kids!

anyways, onto the portraits of innocence. i've done this post a little unorthodox but i really just wanted to get a few recent photos up of shots that bring joy to me.

sorry for combining all these into one post but i have been so busy trying to get our mini-christmas sessions launched otherwise eating my usual blog time...oh, check out the info for the mini sessions - HERE!  

my son dean @ 5 months



landon @ 4 months



a first birthday boy - luke.  congrats to you!

Orchestrated - You know, there's always a plan when you setup engagement shoots (decide on a location based on the couple's interest and the photographers vision), but there's always surprises! Sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad. I will save you the distress as this one was good! whew

The plan (and request from Brooke) was to have a very outdoor type setting with downtown Houston in the background. That's easy...Eleanor Tinsley park. We planned it for dusk, but luck would have it that the sky was very overcast which gave us a nice big diffuser. We didn't know that an orchestra was also planning a photo shoot up on a bridge out of our view. We explored for an hour or so and then decided to cross the river and check out the other side of the park. When we came up the side of the bridge...wow!! An entire orchestra was posed for a photo shoot overlooking the downtown skyline! I was thinking photo-op and they were thinking - what a coincidence! It just so happened that they were playing the wedding march...crazy!

Anyways, I thought I would imbed a slideshow of the images on the blog. The only problem is that the sound doesn't yet work on this feature. So, to enjoy the riffs of Andrew Bird while watching the shots of this amazingly beautiful couple - CLICK HERE and I choose the second option for the best viewing experience (but that's up to you). Also, feel free to comment below and make sure to link it to your blog or webpage!

Hot Surprise - Every wedding day is full of surprises and one always hopes that the surprises are laughable.  Well this surprise could go either way depending on the person.  While this day was one of the hottest and driest on records in Houston it was going to (for a moment) get a little hotter in the grooms dressing room....the best man left the ring in his truck!  That truck just so happened to be a 20 minute drive in each direction and we were about 25 minutes from the start time.  After some choice words and a little chastising it was decided that getting that ring was out of the question.  So the search was one for a ring of equal beauty and size.  It was found and the wedding went as planned.  Luckily Kim is extremely easy going and it didn't seem to bother her at all....whew!  Here are a few of my favorites:








Ah yes...grandpa!  




I would love for someone to come up with a clever caption for this shot.  Okay sounds like a contest.  So, down in the comments section write your caption and when I have twenty comments I will award the best one with 10% off a location shoot package!





You guys were awesome and so easy going.  I am looking forward to future work with you and your wonderful family!