When it SNOWS in TEXAS...

When it snows in Texas... there is one common theme: SNOWMEN!! And they were out in full force yesterday. All shapes and sizes, single snowmen and families of snow-people, creative snowmen, and simple snow-figures. To commemorate Texas SNOWDAY 2010, here are some fun things I saw and put together.

All over Georgetown, Tx., the Square, and Southwestern University

The "Canuck" snowman at the Fuller house and the Amantes Snowman

San Gabriel Park

Down the Alley Bistro

The crew at Sonic had fun putting this guy together! And a Southwestern Snowman - Bones Up!

I had a blast taking these and playing in the snow and watching the kiddo's chase each other with snow balls and knocking each other's snowmen down just so they could re-build them. Here's hoping next years is just as good! Hope you have a great day.

--T

Forging New and Wondrous Things...

About a month ago a friend told me about Jose Villa and I completely forgot about him. However, this morning when I was looking for some photographic inspiration I came across Mrs. Britteny Melton's blog and she had entered a contest through The Wedding Chicks and Jose Villa and I was reminded to go check out his work. If amazing and visually wondrous aren't cool enough adjectives to go and check out his work, maybe these reviews will entice you:

"Jose villa is one of the hottest youngest photographers in the industry" -WPPI

"One of the most inspirational wedding photographers in todays industry" - PDN

"1 of the top wedding photographers in the world" - American Photo Magazine

Seriously, if you are in California and need a wedding photographer and can spend some serious dinero on a photographer, please call Jose Villa!

Hope you have an amazing weekend!!

--T

Giving your time to a cause

One of my goals as a photographer is donate my time, when I can, to help a charity or individual or group with knowledge, physical labor, and/or photographs. One that I have seriously been looking into is, Now I lay me down to sleep. The organization works with photographers who donate their time to do selfless work for families that have lost their newborn.

"For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives. The NILMDTS mission statement is to introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with the gift of professional portraiture. We believe these images serve as an important step in the family's healing process by honoring their child's legacy. The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of more than 7,000 volunteer photographers in the United States and 25 countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby."

While I wasn't involved with anything quite like that, this past weekend I was able to photograph a unique charity event. A local Austin group named Brewing Hope is an organization that hosts social events in cities all over the country with a goal of raising money to help find a cure for MS.

"There are a reported 350,000 cases of MS in the US alone and that is only those you have been diagnosed. Many people go years without even recognizing symptoms for MS. Our goal is to help the National MS Society raise money to continue research for a cure and treatment as well as make more people aware of this disease and it’s symptoms. "

I had a great time assisting the staff, here are just a few pictures of the day.

To learn more about Brewing Hope, the work they are doing, and when they might be in your town next, visit them at: http://www.brewinghope.com/

To learn more about Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, the work they are doing, and when how you can participate and or assist the organization, visit them at:

http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Thanks for reading, hope your week is going great!

--T

What's one thing you want to do before you die?

So I was watching TV while I ate lunch the other day. Skimming through the guide to see what was on and I saw something that caught my eye, called The Buried Life (don't ask me why that caught my eye). It's this show on MTV about four friends who travel the country with a group bucket list they dreamed up. Anyways, this is not your normal MTV, wild boys type of show. Four honest guys that are buddies trying to accomplish real goals as they travel the country. The kicker is that in each town that they stop to try and accomplish one of their wishes on the list, they ask a random person they come across what one thing that would like to do before they die. Regardless if they accomplish their item on the list or not they still try to make the person's wish happen. It was a very cool show, check it out.

That got me thinking about the things that I would like to accomplish before I die: Skydiving, Eiffel Tower, Scuba-diving, the Great Wall, climb to the peak of an actual mountain... Then I checked my email while I was day dreaming about fun stuff I'd like to do and got the weekly email from DPS (Digital Photography School). http://digital-photography-school.com/

This my friend, is one of the most helpful photography sites you will ever come across. I subscribe (for free) to their weekly emails, to which are chalk full of tips, tricks, forums, how-to's, new gear... you name it, they talk about it. I highly recommend you check them out. Back to my initial thought, the email had a note from the editor and founder of DPS (Darren Rowse) on his Photography Bucket List (http://digital-photography-school.com/my-photography-bucket-list). What are the odds right? A couple of mine are very similar to his own.

1. The perfect sunset over the ocean picture. Somewhere luxurious like the bahamas, jamaica, hawaii...
2. A foggy tree line in the middle of a forest. Calm, quiet, peaceful - perfect.
3. A long exposure waterfall. I don't know if you've seen waterfall's in hawaii. Take my word for it - picturesque. I kick myself every time I think back to my trip to Maui and not having a DSLR...
4. Actions shots: whether it be a sports figure make an amazing play. A bird in mid-flight, perfectly frozen in stride, or some other natural wonder. Just being somewhere at the right place, at the right time and capturing that moment forever.
5. Completing an entire wedding day to perfection. Getting home and not having to do a single edit! (Ha, wouldn't that be awesome!)

Those are just a few that I could conger up. What's your bucket list? What's your most sought after photo you have to take before you hang up your hat?

Have a blessed week! --T