Capturing the Images of Your Life for a Lifetime

September 9, 2011

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a bath tub and a field”… [Jeff & Kelsey part II]

“Wow! Stop the car!” Only hours before Brett had been excitedly hanging out in the back of Jeff and Kelsey’s truck as they drove the 3 hours out to Jeff’s Uncle’s ranch. There was lots of talk of the shoot ahead of them. What kinds of things Jeff and Kelsey liked to do together and how they might like to incorporate them into the weekend ahead. They loved images they had seen of old brass bed frames out in the middle of overgrown fields, but where could we find one of those? All this talk of vintage inspiration got Brett excited. “How amazing would it be if we could get an old claw foot bath tub out into a field,” Brett mentioned to Kelsey. The logistics of finding a bathtub and then transporting it to said field on such short notice made the idea a little unobtainable. Fast forward 3 hours and as they are driving down the winding road to the ranch, out of the corner of Brett’s eye he spots an old rusty tub in a field. Brett yells out to stop. Jeff screeches the truck to a halt on the side of the road and all 3 jump out to investigate. Well it wasn’t a claw foot tub but it was rusty and just about as cool. Kelsey, with her cute Mississippi accent, strolls on up to the owner’s house and charms the couple that own the field and tub into letting Jeff and Kelsey use it for their engagement shoot. Luckily the tub happend to be just 5 minutes down the road from Jeff’s Uncle’s ranch and was easy to treck back to around sunset. Sometimes the universe hears our crazy ideas and makes them a little easier to document.

Hello Gruene Texas!

Inside of Gruene dance Hall we found this beautiful wall of initials carved with love. So it was only appropriate that Jeff carve one for Kelsey.

September 1, 2011

Jeff and Kelsey – Gruene Texas Engagement [part I]

We meet again! Jeff and Kelsey met one night 4 years ago while partying with mutual friends. They shared a cab ride home with Kelsey sitting on Jeff’s lap. She thought, at the time, that Jeff was cute. It ended with that and they both went about their live. One night, three years later, Jeff and Kelsey met again when their friends gathered in 2010 for a New Year’s soiree. Again at the end of the night Jeff ad Kelsey piled into a cab with all of their friends and headed home. Kelsey a second time ended up sitting on Jeff’s lap in the cab and she still thought he was cute. Jeff at this point had also taken a shine to Kelsey.

After their second chance meeting Jeff decided that this time he would not let Kelsey go so easily. For the first three weeks Jeff called Kelsey every night in the hopes they could hang out. At the same time, Kelsey was looking for ways to get together with him. When Valentine’s Day came around, Jeff showed up with a huge bouquet of red roses and a charming card for Kelsey. His hand written card told her how much he enjoyed all they time the spent together and that she always made him smile. What a romantic!

After that they found new things to do each week, building their friendship and falling in love. He took her to ball games and concerts. They would ride bike together around Houston and go to see movies. Jeff made a point of remembering the things Kelsey liked so that when they went to sushi restaurants he knew exactly what to order for her. Their first trip together in July was to Kelsey’s home state of Mississippi to meet her family. She took him to the Casinos on the gulf in Biloxi. The trip only made clearer their feelings for each other and they decided in August to get married. Both are looking forward to their new and wonderful life together.

August 30, 2011

San Fran Polaroids

We LOVE old cameras and our Polaroid is no exception. A few months back we came across a couple of old Polaroid land cameras. I did a little research and discovered some film that would still work in them. Then it was Brett’s job to McGyver the vintage cameras back into working order. Some Googling, inspecting, battery cleaning and 30 miles of driving for film later we had a working camera. The focus and the cropping are not particularly accurate but that’s just part of the fun. We dragged our Polaroid around San Fran with us and had a blast. There are lots of actions and brushes and fun Photoshop effects to create Polaroids digitally, theses are not photoshop digital creations. We shot them, stood around for a minute and half watching our clocks as the polaroid developed before pealing it apart and hoping for the correct exposure. We look forward to posting more of our Polaroids. Enjoy!

Alamo Square.

The view from Tank Park.

August 30, 2011

Coffee, Toys and Ice Cream… [a quick jaunt through San Fran]

Sometimes I think that Brett and I might just be a little off our hinges. We were recently hired to photograph a wedding in Portland. Well we had the option of flying up renting a car and then flying back. What do we do? Rent what was supposed to be a compact car from our local Hertz and drive the 18 hours up to Portland in one day. I’m not sure we were thinking clearly when the little light bulb blinked over our heads and said “lets just drive it!” Well the wedding was fantastic. Portland was having its hottest weekend of the year. We met some wonderful people; created some beautiful pictures and everyone walked away with wonderful memories from the weekend. The advantage to having driven up to Portland was that we could take a nice little detour through San Fran on our journey back home. We managed to swing through Napa for a couple hours and do some wine tasting. By the way if you ever happen to be up in Napa check out Trefethen family vineyards. We thoroughly enjoyed their Reserve tasting and the sommelier were really knowledgable and very nice.

We ventured into San Fran via the Golden Gate, and I just have to say driving over that bridge always feels like my first time. I lean as far forward on my seat as I can with the seatbelt straining to jerk me back in place. My face practically touching the windshield and staring towards the sky as we cross under the beautiful red towers. Poor Brett is then trying to get me to sit back because of course in my excitement I’m blocking the mirrors. This time as we approached the bridge, fog was just starting to come in and it was beautiful to see it rushing up over the bridge and across the blue bay. The pictures don’t do the experience justice. We only had a day and a half to explore the city and see friends but we managed to zig zag all over the city seeing just about everything we had hoped to. We started in the Haight Ashbury district because they have a Kidrobot store, got ourselves a new toy to photograph in the city. Ventured down to the warf so Brett could eat clam chowder. Tried to ride the cable cars but the ridiculously long line was moving at a snails pace. We ate lots of good food and ventured to Twin Towers for a nice view point of the city but the fog was as thick as split pea soup up there. Did manage to find Tank Tower view point a little lower for a beautiful panoramic shot of the city as the fog closed in around us. After the fog consumed us we drove through Golden Gate park and stopped to see the buffalo, yes that’s right buffalo. Went in search of dinner but found the Green Apple book store instead and got lost in the excitement of new and out of print books. We would have loved to stay in the city for a couple more days but it was time to get home to our doggies.

Our first glance of the city was of the epic San Francisco fog bank rolled in over the bridge and across the bay.

First stop was the Kidrobot store on Height St, but we got stopped by a cute dinosaur on our way.

“]

Our new Dunny!!! We were little kids in a candy store picking this guy out.

I just remember the breaks squealing as we passed the Swensen’s ice cream shop and Brett trying to find a parking spot as fast as he could. I wonder if anyone makes a bumper sticker “I break for Ice cream”

I'd like 2 scoops of Cookies N' Cream and Mint Chip. MMMMMmmmm

Yeah, we just picked this girl up out front of some law school. Luckily she knew us and likes ice cream as much as we do. By the way Rachel, thanks for letting us drag you around the city for the day.