Yo, Mom... Happy Day!

Hey, mom, I thought I'd step it up a bit from the "that's so 2005" traditional Mother's Day card this year and do something a little snazzier.

Love ya lots!

Back in the Saddle

I'm finally home from Texas School, and I'm. Worn. Out. It was 5 awesome days of tons of photography instruction, a load of networking, and just a little fun. Just a little. [grin]. It's a good thing it's only 5 days - my body was going into shock from all the early mornings - both on the getting up and finally going to sleep. And after all the free fried/barbecued/greasy/grilled food I had all week, my digestive system rejected the first inkling of green, healthy food I ate when I got back Friday night. I can't even begin to guess what my calorie intake for the week was, but I'm half expecting a call from the FDA to do a case study on me any moment now.

It's good to be home, but I'm already looking forward to next year's school.

My friends Tina and Cecily went down with me this year, and we stopped a couple times on the way home to snag a few images. Here's a few of my favorites. We're such western wanna-be's.

We found this incredible old abandoned gas station near Normangee, TX. So cool, and so much character.




I love this shot of the gas pump with Cecily in the background. Check out the price of gas back in this station's hay day... $.31/gallon. Good grief - I need to get a horse.


Cecily just happened to have these sweet boots on during the trip home. Perfect for this shot.


Again with the boots.












Oh yeah, and Cecily grabbed this image of Tina trying to teach me how to 2 step early in the week. Dear Lord, I was terrible... further proof that God has a sense of humor. Sorry, Tina.


Check out Cecily looking all sultry.


And finally, here's Tina enjoying a little Spasmatic action.

Back To [Texas] School

'What's the deal? How come he hasn't posted anything in a week??' I know all 6 of you out there have been wondering where all the new posts are and what's taking so long. In my head I'm hearing (in a voice fit for scolding a dog), "Bad blogger! Bad, bad blogger!!"

Sorry about that. This week I'm at Texas School on the Texas A&M campus in College Station with about a thousand other photographers from all over the country. This year I'm in Bry Cox's class, and he's one of the best around. Tons of awards. Amazing work. Sharp business skills... I could go on and on. I honestly don't know how he does it, because he's got a thriving one-man-show photography business and still has time to travel the country for speaking/teaching engagements as well as making time for his other talents including accomplished Jazz musician and authentic western pistol/rifle shooting ace.

Here's me with Bry doing what guys do... hanging out in from of men's bathroom doors.

"Photographing kids is exactly like hitting on women." ~Bry Cox.

This might be - no, is - the funniest analogy I've heard all week, but stay with me here... I think it's true (at least for the kids part). Often times when you first meet little kiddos at a photography session, they can be disinterested, shy, or scared of you. So, to get them to warm up to you, you've gotta slowly break down those barriers, so you talk to them for just a few seconds and then you walk away and leave them alone. After awhile, when you ignore them, they'll let their guard down and begin to show a little interest, and eventually they'll hopefully warm up to you.

I'll let the ladies out there be the judge on whether that works on them, but I know from experience it does work with kids. And don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. We all laughed in class about that one, though.

It's been a long week with every day starting at 8:30 with class all day and then some type of social event ending late each night. I'm beat already, and it's only the end of day 3. But I'm having a ton of fun, too.

Here's a few more images from our event on Monday night at the Texas Hall of Fame.

This is my 4th year coming to Texas School, and this year my friends Cecily and Tina made the trip from Dallas to attend VIcki & Jed Tauffer's class.


Each year the Texas A&M Wranglers come out and put on an incredible show. TO call their stuff line dancing is an injustice. They are simply amazing and show more coordination and athleticism in 02 minutes than I've shown in my entire laugh. It's really part country-western dancing, part acrobatics, and a whole lotta fun.






The highlight of the night was the Spazmatics. The best way I can describe these guys is a cross between Devo and the guys from Revenge of the Nerds. They were freakin' hilarious and played all the great 80's songs. They rocked!

Yabba-dabba-doh!

These are the things life's made of. I wish I could say these kinda things don't happen very often to me, but truth be told it's more frequent than I care to admit. Case in point - remember poor Mac? (On a side note, just this past weekend I left poor Mac's replacement in the seat back in front of me on my flight from Houston to Dallas, and I didn't realize it until I got all the way out to my car. Long story short, I'm sure I looked like OJ dashing through the airport in those old Hertz commercials, but I got the laptop back from the gate agent just before the plane went on to Toronto.) And just a couple weeks ago there was the pile of spaghetti that free-falled onto the white carpet below when the plate it was on just randomly snapped in half as I was carrying it to the couch. And I can't count the number of times I've searched for my car keys for more than a few minutes only to realize they're in my hand... I could go on (and on, and on), but I digress.

Any long time blog readers know I'm a big fan of Fruity Pebbles. Yes, I'm 35. Yes, I know 12 year olds love this Bedrock favorite. Yes, I know it's basically pure sugar. I. Don't. Care. Nothing you can say will change my fondness for the Pebbles. Sometimes I like to take a bowl with me to eat on the drive into the office. I know, I know... I shouldn't be eating and driving at the same time especially given my multi-tasking deficiencies, but it's a trade-off. I can either get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning and eat breakfast, or I can sleep in 10 more minutes and eat on the road. I dunno 'bout you, but it's no contest for me. Maybe God was telling me he doesn't approve of my choice because this morning as I was walking out the door with hands full, well... you can see for yourself below. Sorry Fred. Sorry Barney.

It's usually when I'm trying to do too much or too many things at once when these things happen. I think God's got a sense of humor (after all, He did invent it), and these are his ways of saying 'Slow down, chief. Maybe you need to focus just a bit more."

I'm getting the message. And I'm also getting more Fruity Pebbles.

Friends, Families, Festivals & (Craw)Fish

I just got back from an awesome weekend where I got to visit some old friends and meet up with some new ones. I met Karen and Sharon - both from Sugar Land, TX - several months ago as part of a photography forum I'm a member of. We've become friends and I was honored - and a bit nervous since they're photographers as well - when they asked me to come to Houston to photograph their beautiful families. I'll post images of their precious little ones in upcoming posts, but I'll warn you, you may very well melt when you see their kids. Sooo sweet and adorable.

I took the 42 minute flight down to Houston on Friday and was stoked to find out that the guy sitting next to me on the plane was Jack Gruber, one of the 5 staff photographers for USAToday. (just a warning that if you check out Jack's site - and you should - a few of the images are a little graphic, especially those in the Irag, Afghanistan, Sunami sections) What are the odds? 42 minutes wasn't nearly enough time to hear all the amazing stories he has of the places he's been, the things he's seen, and the people he's met. Truly a down to earth guy and a pleasure to talk to.

In Houston, I was able to visit and stay with my friends Eric and Liz, and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality. I met Eric when he used to work at Texas Instruments and through him I met Liz, and they were gracious enough to trust me to photograph their engagement images and Liz's bridal images a little over two years ago when I'd never done any bridal photography. Not only did they pick me up and drop me off at the airport and give me an awesome room to stay in, they also gave me a car to use for the weekend, cooked me breakfast both mornings, took me to the annual Old Town Spring Texas Crawfish & Music Festival, and gave me unlimited play time with their sweet Schnauzer, Macy. How cool is that?

Here's a few images from the weekend.

Here's yours truly, Liz and Eric at the festival. It was pretty sunny out that day (probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion lumens if I had to guess), and Eric offered to take one for the team by letting me where his cool Oakley glasses while he sported the Elvis specs he picked up when they passed through Graceland a couple years ago. Thank you, Eric. Thank you very much.



Yah. Ummm, this is why I don't eat crawfish. I like my food a little more processed thank you very much.



Macy!!! She was my buddy the instant we met.



Meet Karen, Jen & Sharon. Jen is part of the same photographer forum and lives near Houston, so she met up with us for Sharon's session on Friday night and then went to dinner with us afterwards. My hat goes off to these ladies. I don't know how they do it - each of them is married with multiple children and still find time to have a photography business!

BTW, this photo was made possible by the kind folks at Apple. Long live the Mac and the iPhone!



Karen and Jen getting ready to assist with Sharon's session on Friday. This answers the question no one's been wondering, "Just how many photographers does it take to hold a 24" white balance disc?"



After dinner at Sambuca we walked around downtown Houston Friday night just to see if we could find any fun shots. (BTW, for anyone that's curious, all these night-time shots including the "iPhaces" image above were shot with the Nikon D3 with no external flash using only available street light @ ISO 5000.)




Having a moment of Zen on a street corner downtown. I couldn't keep my balance for more than 2 seconds, so not sure how Karen got this one.



Karen looking all saucy on the construction scaffolding.



Uh... don't ask. This is what dorky photographers do when they've got a camera and time to kill.



Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
Oh, c'mon... gimme a break. Tell me you weren't thinking it.)



Too easy. Dumb, I know. But easy.

I've been labeled.

So I saw this Personal DNA test on another blog, and decided to give it a try. At the end it spits out a report and a label that describes you. When I read my report, it's actually relatively accurate for me. There were a few things I questioned, but in general I agreed with much of it. Give it a try, and see if you learn something about yourself.


My personalDNA Report

Faithful Architect

Party for a Princess

Princess Trinity turns 3 on tax day this week, so to celebrate the royal parents Jerry & Tina hosted a party and a feast for your highness. Cinderella even stopped by and entertained the court with some dancing, story-telling, a treasure hunt and a little face-painting.

Mom and dad really went all out for this one, which is nothing new for the Tackett's. They are truly the host(esses) with the most(esses).

Here's a few photos I managed to capture amidst the festivities.



Here's the invite. Tina designed and printed these on parchment paper and mailed them to the guests rolled up in a tube like a scroll.


What would a Cinderella party be without a glass slipper?


...or two.


...or 20.


Tina's super-talented friend Leanne made a whole castle full of cupcakes disguised as mice. Too cool.




As usual, Tina never misses a detail for these parties.


Ahem... a little subliminal [read: shameless] self-promotion for yours truly.


The best part about this image is the little knight sitting across from Cinderella watching her intently with his helmet on. Rocks.


No comment required.




Each knight and princess had a royal costume to change into when they arrived at the Tackett castle. This little guy was off looking for his damsel to rescue.


Knights un-armored and princesses back in their street clothes, it was time for some mice cake and other royal treats.


Cinderella and the birthday girl.


BTW, the castle was custom built by King Jerry and the Queen mom, Tina, using 2 refrigerator packaging boxes, an oven packaging box, some rope for the (working) draw bridges, and a whole lotta purple paint and brick stencilling. Nothing like doing a nice, small, low-key birthday party for your 3 year-old.