Happy Mom's Day

Mom, I wanted to take this opportunity on this day - your day - to tell you 'thank you' for so many things.

Remember the time you let me borrow your car in HS on a Saturday night with zero visibility in the worst fog I'd ever seen? Yes, of course you do. By the time you got it back it had two flat tires, a missing front bumper, and a moon roof that was stuck open. Well, thank you for not holding that one against me by never letting me borrow the car again. BTW, I'm still sticking to the story that it was just a little rock that I hit. And remember that summer when I was in college and you were out of town for the week and I asked if I could "have a few people over" and it turned out to be 40+ 'friends' (not sure I even knew some of them) and a party that got a little outta hand? Thanks for being cool about it once you realized the house was still in one piece, the dog was fine (terrified, but otherwise alive and well), and your (repaired) car was still parked in the garage safe and sound.

Oh, yeah, and I hesitate to mention this one publicly as it's not one of my finest moments, but neither of us will forget the American History paper you 'assisted' me with the last two weeks of my senior year at OSU while I was swamped finishing my senior thesis project. Thanks for the help on that one... as much as I enjoyed my time in college, I didn't wanna have to stick around another quarter just to re-take that class if I didn't get the paper turned in. I'm sure it was a bittersweet moment for you as well. I mean, on one hand, only 8 A's in a class of 220 students... how proud you must've been. But on the other hand... well, you know. Let me just say thanks again.

Seriously, though, thank you for making so many sacrifices as Jas and I were growing up to make sure we had every opportunity to successfully find our paths in this crazy world. Thanks for being so supportive in everything we did even when we made mistakes. Thanks for being there to help me pick up the pieces and get back on my feet when I was going through periods of darkness and uncertainty. Most importantly, thank you for loving me unconditionally as your son.

Today I honor you and celebrate you as a courageous, dedicated mom. My mom. You have given me much and taught me more, many things you may never know. Thank you, and I love you.

----------

To all the mom's out there who have selflessly given to their children and husbands, you're the best. Thanks for all you do.

And to those whose mother's may have already passed from this world to be reunited with Christ, I pray that God would comfort you and smile upon you on this day as you remember the wonderful mothers you were blessed to have for a season.

What ever happened...

... to Tickle-Me Elmo?

Dream On

I'm not a huge reader which is to say more often than not I have the attention span of a 3 year old when it comes to reading books. I'm trying to get better about it, though, and one book that even I really enjoy reading and highly recommend is Leadership Promises For Every Day by John C Maxwell. It's perfect for quick, easy reads each day (ideal for limited attention spans like mine) with great insights, suggestions and motivation based in biblical principles for becoming a better leader.

Here's a little excerpt from May 5th's reading titled "Dream On":

"Many people discover their dream in a flash of insight after working in an area for years. Some receive it in a time of prayer. Others are motivated by an event from their past. If you haven't already discovered your dream, read the following five steps that will help clear away the clutter and discover your dream:

1. Believe in your ability to succeed. You must believe in your ability to succeed if you are to succeed.

2. Get rid of your pride. People full of themselves usually don't have much room left over for a life-changing dream.

3. Cultivate constructive discontent. Discontent is the driving force that makes people search for their dreams. Complacency never brings success.

4. Escape the habit. Don't accept what is without considering what could be.

5. Balance creativity with character. When it comes to their dreams, truly successful people have enough creativity to think it out, and enough character to try it out."

Now go start dreaming.

Image(s) of the Week [edition #2]

Here's a couple images I captured care long forgotten in a field just off the side of O.S.R. (Old San Antonio Rd) on my way back from College Station last week. I love to photograph things like this that have such a raw sense of nostalgia and Americana about them.

My 1st White House Gig

So I was recently invited as part of a group of about 500 photographers to visit the White House and photograph as much as I wanted. Okay, so it was actually at the George Bush Sr. Presidential Library in College Station, and I wasn't technically invited as much as simply given free entry to the museum that was housing this travelling exhibit during a vist with a bunch of other photographers as part of a class at Texas A&M, but, hey, I still got to photograph the White House.

The exhibit's called The White House In Miniature, but there's nothing miniature about the size of this incredibly detailed model of the most famous house in the country. It's 55 feet long by 20 feet wide with the rooms inside being exact replicas of the real thing complete with tiny working TVs in several places.

What was intresting to me is how big the White House actually is. When you see it on TV or in photographs, sure it looks like a good size building, but it doesn't look huge. Lemme tell ya, it's huge.

I also felt very patriotic as I stood for 84 minutes watching a video documentary on the history of the white house and all that's been added to it/changed over the years. I know what your thinking... 'you stood for 84 minutes to watch a documentary? On the White House??" I'm here to tell ya, yes, I did. And even scarier I'd probably do it again if I had it all to do over. It really was fascinating, and I highly recommend the exhibit if your in the College Station neighborhood.

Don't Be the Box

I read an article by D. Keith Robinson today titled "Don't Be the Box", and it was right on cue for the way I've kinda felt today.

Here's a little excerpt that I really relate to:

"It can be horribly stifling to define yourself by those rules, guidelines, prejudices and constraints that surround you. When you become the box you lock yourself into a way of thinking that doesn’t allow you to adapt at all.

Have you ever worked with someone who questions everything, or someone who sees everything though one very narrow point of view? What about someone who has to have everything around them defined for them? These kind of people have become the box, and it’s not a healthy way to work. For them, or for their coworkers. Especially when creativity is involved."

We have all known and likely worked with these type of people, and I really encourage you not to let them be road blocks to your goals and ultimate success. Also, don't be the box that constrains other people's passions either. I love some of the quotes from George Bernard Shaw, and a couple of them that come to mind here are:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man."

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

Photo of the Year... or Month.. or at least this Week

Now, some of you may be thinking, 'Photo of the Year?? Seriously? I mean, it's a nice little image and all, but Photo of the Year??"

Let me explain. A few days ago I had this grand idea that I should start doing a 'Photo of the Day' series and put it on the blog just as a fun, creative activity. I thought about it for awhile (almost 10 seconds) before reality walked through the door and stared me in the face, and I realized that my schedule's a bit crazy right now, and making time to go out and capture one worthy image each day might be a little much currently. Now, I could crank out unworthy images all day, but who who wants to see images of bananas on the kitchen counter, me working on the computer, or random textured walls? Who knows, I may squeeze a few of those in any way if I'm running a little low on quality images some week.

In any case, I've decided to scale it back a bit and do a Photo of the Week. For the inaugural edition, here are a few images I captured during my return road trip from Texas School in College Station last week.

Hope you enjoy. And check back for updates each week.

Back in the Classroom...

It's that time of year again... time for reuniting with old photographer friends, making new ones, free dinners every night, free FUN every night, and learning tons of new photography 'revelations' and techniques from some of the premier photography instructors in the country. That's right, it's late April which means I'm at Texas School again here at the Texas A&M campus in College Station.

BTW, for all you Aggies out there, could someone please coherently tell me with a straight face what in the world "Gig'em" means? And while you're at it, what's with the "Whoop!" every time you mention the school name. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for school spirit, but honestly I'm confused when I'm supposed to say "gig'em", "whoop", so I find myself waffling between the two and simply mumbling "gig-a-whoop" in embarrassment.

Where was I... oh, yeah... Texas School. This really is one of my favorite times of the year. Being around and in class with fellow photographers for a week is an amazing experience. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, 'A thousand photographers hanging out for five days talking about f-stops, ISOs, Rembrandt lighting, dragging the shutter, etc... wow, must be a real party'. I'm always amazed, though, about how much fun this conference is. Think about it, a thousand people who are paid to be creative know how to have a good time.

For example, where else do you get to take part in armadillo races?


Seriously, though, this week is a blast, and these are some of the friendliest people you could ever meet. One of the things I love most about the photographers who come here is that everybody's very open and willing to share tips, tricks and strategies to help each other grow. It's not like some professions where everybody's very territorial and secretive about what they're doing. People helping people is the name of the game, and photographers - especially those at Texas School - are a picture of that (no pun intended... well, sort of).

Okay, gotta run... I'm off to meet up with my classmates for our final night of free food and good times.

Here's an image of one of the couples from the Aggie Wrangler dancers from last night's event. Amazing stuff - country dancing on steroids!


Oh, yeah... "gig-a-whoop'em". Or something like that.

Happy Birthday, Bro!

My brother Jason's birthday is on the 24th, but since I'm going to be at Texas A&M in College Station this week for Texas School , we all got together and celebrated tonight at Big Buck's in Grapevine.

I gotta be honest... as a general rule I'm always a bit leery about eating at establishments that present you with buck antlers for door handles as you walk in the door.


Let's just say my suspicions were unfortunately justified - at least partly - by service that was a tad [read: painfully] slow and food that was so-so. Now, lemme preface that statement (can you preface a statement after you've already stated it?) by saying that we all grew up in relatively small towns in the Midwest where eating out at Applebee's was considered a special occasion, so I would say none of us are particularly picky or generally critical people. However, nearly 3 hours to get in the door, eat, reminisce about how my brother used to pin me down and slobber on me as a kid, and exit that same door is a bit much when the restaurant was only half full on a Friday night. In hindsight, maybe the half full on a Friday night thing shoulda been a clue.

In any case, I digress. It was great to get together again and be able to celebrate his birthday together. Many people live far enough away from family and friends that they don't have luxury of being together for special occasions, so I really am thankful for that.

While my brother and I are very different people (I have hair, he's losing his, etc.), it's funny how when we're together there's a banter that still exists between us that feels like we're still back in jr. high. Man, those were good times. Thanks, bro, for all those times you unknowingly let me borrow your clothes. Thanks for unwillingly chauffeuring me around before I got my license even when you had dates. Most importantly, thanks for showing me all the ways to get caught when you were doing something you weren't supposed to be doing so that I could learn from your mistakes and get away with a lot more!

Seriously, though, thanks for everything. Happy birthday, Bro!

Trusty Co-Pilot

Today is a free day for me, and I couldn't be more excited about just relaxing and doing a whole lotta nothing. A free Saturday this time of year for me is a rare thing, so I'm out cruising around town with my co-pilot, Zoe, catching up on some errands. She loves getting outta the house and doing the ride thing. Just mention the letter "R" and she goes nuts and does her obligatory 'let's go' dance until I give in and we're out the door.

Yeah, she's a smart one... she's figured out the whole spell-the-word-so-the-dog-wont-understand-what-I'm-saying game. Guess I need to come up with a new set of code words.

The weather's beautiful here in Dallas this weekend (sunny and 80), so we went for a "W" today, too. She's such a poser.

Daisy's Day Out

Mary and Daisy took an afternoon off to have some fun at a park near downtown Dallas recently. Mary wanted a few special images for mom for Mother's Day, and of course we had to include little Daisy who, by the way, had a reason of her own to celebrate as she recently turned the big 0-1!

Daisy was such a great dog... very sweet and VERY patient. By the end of our session, though, she'd had enough of the camera and was ready to get back to doing what dogs do.

Trinity at Two [ slideshow ]

Here's a slideshow of little Trinity from our recent session in Las Colinas.

Remi Hits the Big Screen [ slideshow ]

CLICK HERE to see Remi's slideshow debut from our recent session in McKinney, TX.

Trapped In The Drive-Thru

A friend forwarded this to me today, and it's hilariously scary (do those words go together?) how many timea we've all been in situations like this. I'm not typically [read: ever, until this] a fan of Weird Al's work, but the style, feel and storyline of this animated video was strangely mesmerizing. The video's 11 minutes long, which is about 9 minutes longer than my typical attention span for web videos, but I honestly (and embarrassingly) couldn't stop watching.

Trapped In The Drive-Thru

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Miss Tackett turns 2!

I can't believe baby Trinity is becoming a little lady already. Seems like just last month I was taking her baby pictures, and now she's almost 2! I'm sure she's growing way to fast for mom and dad, too.


We had originally planned to photograph Trinity in a little sun dress with a wagon and some lemons for a spring-time theme, but mother nature had other plans. After several days with sun and temps in the low 80's, the day of our session had clouds and a high in the 50's. So, mom decided to make lemonade and ditch the sun dress for a bit more western-style duds.


Tina and Jerry, I know you're good friends, so my perspective might be slightly skewed, but Trinity is so precious and sweet. I just love her like she was my own, and it's been a blessing to see her grow up into an amazing little girl. To be able to capture her milestones with a camera has just been icing on the cake.


Tell her to get that sun dress ready - 'Uncle Matt' will see her again soon.

Remi's Play Day

Little Remi just turned the big 1 recently, so we went to Towne Lake with mom and dad and the birthday girl herself for an afternoon of play time to celebrate.


Remi was all too happy to show us her Hollywood impersonation. Maybe a glimpse of things to come for this budding super star.


And of course she's got the "I'm cute, and you know it" look available on a moment's notice.

Wedding Cherubs

While at a friend's wedding last weekend (see post below), I couldn't help but photograph these two little future stars at the reception. What a fun family, and just the nicest people, too.


Meet Sophia. She's a photographer's dream. Not only is she beautiful, but she's more than willing to pose for you, too! As long as you keep showing her the images of herself on the back of the camera, she's happy to model for you all day.


This is little sister, Maia. She wasn't quite as excited about being photographed as her big sister, but she has gorgeous eyes that make any photo look good.


Poor dad... I think he was getting tired from catching Sophia as she continued to jump off the window sill into his arms over and over. Too fun.

My Life in Pies

I saw this fun idea on Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Flyin' blog, so I thought I'd try it out myself. It basically puts given facets of your life in perspective via the use of pie charts. Fun stuff... give it a try.

Click on the pie chart images for a larger view.

Robin & Crystalyn [ married! ]

Robin and Crystalyn were married on Saturday at the historic Old Red Courthouse in downtown Dallas. The ceremony was beautiful and one of the coolest things was that both the bride and the groom shed tears during the vows. It's great to see such real, unrehearsed, raw emotions shared between two people in such a momentous time in their lives. (Sorry, Robin... I didn't mean to out you on the tears, but let's face it - you had every girl in the room sighing and crying)



One cool thing that the now-newlyweds had at their wedding was an Apache Blessing reading. I had never heard of this before, but it's applicable in many areas of our lives. The idea behind the blessing is that when making decisions, you take into account the impact of the results for the next 10 generations to follow you.




Congrats again, and have a blast in NYC!

Where in the World... [ part II ]

I finally got around to putting some of the images from my recent trip to China into a slideshow. There are a lot of images so they go by pretty quick in the slideshow. No worries, though - you can see a gallery at the end of the slideshow or you can click on the icon below the show window that looks like a grid at any time and this will take you directly to the gallery. Hope you enjoy.