Too many great pictures to share from last night. So I went the slideshow route for today’s post.

Thanks to McMurtrie Farms and Event Center and Flower Child Design for working hard on a Labor day weekend. We appreciate it!

Models, thanks for working in the sweat, around the creek, and in the midst of the cicadas and occasional spider.

–JB

Chelsey and I met up again at Ramaker Stables in Leader, Texas. We had about an hour to knock out some different looks and get a 17 hand horse named Bentley involved. No problem.

We started in the Small Barn, not as new as the Big Barn, but more colorful and possessing more character. I was thinking something along the lines of images out of Dover Saddlery, but prettier.

Tried working with some backlit/Ezybox combo’s, but they weren’t working for me. Ended up with an over/under lighting scheme to bring some beauty and contrast to Chelsey.

This image has a Lastolie 24 inch Ezybox (my favorite) on top, with a big reversible umbrella on the bottom, both are off to one side slightly.

Remember in part one, when I said there were no clouds. That changed for the better.

The barn was fun, but then the sky did me a favor and went wild with clouds and color. Let’s ditch inside the barn and go crazy with the sky’s.

What is more fun that a senior and great skies? A senior, her horse and great skies!

Thanks again to Chelsey for being a wonderful model.

See all of the images here

–JB

Started working with Chelsey after I talked to her from the Sunsets and Horses photos from last week. Said she might be interested in some Senior Portraits. I said, “Let’s do it!”

We started at Cianfrani’s in the square at Georgetown, my favorite coffee shop. Met up with Chelsey and her mother and went over the plan I had set out for us. Our plan was to use the niche’s and vignettes that make the Georgetown square one of my favorite shooting area’s. Thanks to my buddy Geoff Hammond to turning me onto a couple of them.

First, we hit up a doorway on the backside of the square to show off the angles and lines of Chelsey’s 6’2” frame. I used my orbis ringflash on these to give it a high fashion look. Had to make sure the the first location was in the shade because the sun was out with no clouds, although that would change later, because the Orbis eats up a lot of power from my 430′s.

Our second location was at the Rough and Ready Antique Store, a great location for vignettes. The sunlight was hard still with no clouds and about 12:45 in the day. I found a non-wet chair with good color and told Chelsey to “get slinky”. this location produced 2 of my favorites from the day.

The 2 images above seem like they could be from a 1970′s movie set, one starring Farrah Fawcett, or maybe Barbarella.

Then off to the classic alley way in between Rough and Ready Antiques and The Framer’s Gallery. I have used the back drop before. Still love it.

From there, we moved around the corner to a little white table and chair, with the Antique Sign in the background. The last 3 locations are within 30 feet of each other, but each gives such a different vibe. Thanks again to the local merchants of Georgetown fro keeping your stores awesome. Almost Mediterranean in feel, Chelsey is rocking the casual look in these.

And it wouldn’t be a good blog post with out some bodily injury to me, the photographer. We were setting up right on the corner of 7th and Main, watching the cops roll by, when my forehead fell in love with a dowel rod on a lamp post. 3 days later, and I still have a bump, bruise and scab…. Love hurts.

I knew this would be a good location because it really says Georgetown to me, well, not just me, the sign in the back actually reads, “Discover Georgetown”. Figured it would be a good graphic element to work with, and I ran with it as my adrenaline was coursing due to head trauma.

The last location at Georgetown is my wife’s favorite, I like it too. My buddy David helped us out here, the wind blew him to our corner of the street and I used the gift.
He is holding the 24 inch Ezybox while Chelsey get her posin’ on.

We finished up at the Square in a robust 90 minutes of shooting, full of antiques, vignettes, green tea, and battle wounds.

The gallery of Georgetown images is here.

In Part Two we travel to Ramaker Stables

– JB

We live in Austin,Texas. We get to see snow on the Olympics and when we go Skiing in New Mexico or Colorado. But Snow in Austin? Not so much.

Yesterday was a glorious day. Austin received several inches of snow. Two days prior the temperature was in the 70′s. I blame Al Gore.

As a photographer and a Texan, we have to seize rare opportunities. Tuesday was one such opportunity, I posted on Facebook, “Who wants Snow Pictures?”. I got a reply within 10 minutes. Gump and Olivia, some horse friends of my wife, were game so we trekked over to Brushy Creek Park in Cedar Park Texas, an in between meeting spot for us.

My goal was travel light in gear because the snow was occasionally light rain and I didn’t want my gear getting too soaked, so I headed out with my trusty Lastolite Ezybox 24″ and my Orbis Ring Flash. Camera strapped around my neck, I had a hand for each light modifier. Gump and Olivia were willing models, staging a quick snowball fight, and mucking through the mud to get to the prime locations. After my Ezybox toppled twice, Gump and Olivia alternated as VAL’s (voice activated lightstands).

My photography goal at first was Snowing Senior Photos (yes, all caps, it was a main thought). We meandered around the park, using the running trail as a pathway. I was getting some good, some bad, but nothing that I absolutely loved. That is, until we found a sweet spot in the trees with a pathway running away from us. My photography imagery turned to the wood nymphs I have been reading about in the Percy Jackson series (movie? eh, not good). Maybe for its rareness to me, but a good flaky snow just transforms ugly cedar trees into a sweet winter vignette. We finished up the shoot with these fun Girl in the Woods photos.

On the way home, I had to stop off of the toll road onto a sidestreet that dead ended. I had driven past a group of small barn houses in failing condition a 100 times, and decided that because of the snow, today was the day to stop and shoot. I was thinking of my buddy Andy, who jumps fences to get the shot he wants, but I was feeling un-nimble in my snow clothes. The hog wire bottom, barb wire top were daunting to me on this day as the steady flow of cars just feet away were witness to my weakness. Instead, I just used the fence as a compositional element in my frames. I processed the HDR’s by going through Lightroom > Photomatix > Photoshop>Imagenomic>Photoshop.

The sense of urgency and immediacy of yesterday is hard to replicate. The snow that fell was the best snow in this area in 20 years, maybe since 1985. And today? Should be in the 60′s. Grab your camera. Get out the door!

–JB