Sofa PURCHASED!!!

Yipee! It is official. I am no in possession of a lovely new sofa - thank you labor day for making it affordable. :)

SPOILER

Simon don't look!

Today I met with Jema and Simon for the first time! They booked me over the phone. :) They are getting married on Saturday and we did some quick bridal photos today for her mom. It was very hot and it looked like it was going to rain. :( The upside is I like my new assistant (Davis) and I'm happy with the pictures. Just wished we weren't so HOT. I guess it is August in Texas.

The Darjeeling Limited + The Wilsons

At the Alamo a few days ago I saw the preview for Darjeeling Limited and thought it was very strange that Luke Wilson (who was very rude to me) was being played by Jason Schwartzman (who was very nice to me). Wes Anderson has always been my favorite Wilson with Owen close behind. I was very sad to hear about Owen Wilsons suicide attempt.

Business Awards

Last night was the Austin Chamber of Commerce annual Business Awards. My friend Clayton at Sweet Leaf was up for an award! The highlight of the evening was the desserts. MMM.

Jane!

See Jane. See Jane sleep. Sleep Jane sleep.

My good friends Lazlo and Baby have a lovely new daughter. Her name is Jane and she has a big sister Wren.

While we are talking about babies - more and more of my friends are starting to have them, and they always pick my favorite names! Is it rude to give my baby (no I'm not pregnant) the same name as one of my friends? Is there a rule about how distant a friend has to be to give your kid their kids names?

Luxury Condos

Working on a project for the City documenting the construction of luxury condos in downtown Austin and the development of homes at Mueller. I am no expert on the housing market, but it seems like they are building more condos than there are people to live in them. It will be interesting to see what the prices of these properties do over the next few years. (think subprime crunch)

Studio Update

Sept 1 was supposed to be moving day. Alas the studio is not finished. They are making some progress but the building still lacks floors, walls, electricity, plumbing, a window and door. The property manager said it will be ready in two weeks - which is what he said two weeks ago. :)
Look... it is the view through to the new Do512 office. Scott's company is renting the front half of the building so we will be neighbors! We are going to share a wall, but I've asked them not to put a door between the two office. This confused the landlord.
The bathroom. 6ft x 5ft of bathroom goodness. The door opens in for those of you making to scale replicas of my photo studio at home.
Isn't it just glorious!

Today is...

Scott's birthday! Happy birthday Scott! You are the best friend a girl could have.

Canon Mark 1d Mark III

I've been shooting with this camera for about a month so it seems like a good time to critique it. Overall I'm not impressed. At $4500 I expected unicorns and ferries. What I got was a camera that is slow to focus and does not have a full frame sensor. This camera weighs more than the trusty 5d and has much more bulk. I was hoping the extra features would make up for it. They don't. This camera does not perform as well in low light situation like concerts as the 5d does. The screen is not as sharp as the 5d's screen - making it very hard to check my work. I like the live view and the self cleaning sensor, but at the price of the non-full frame sensor, the fuzzy screen and the extra $2000 cost it isn't worth it.

Christmas Cards

It is time to schedule your Christmas Card sittings. This is going to be my card this year. Extra special thanks go to David Hill for his lovely photography and mad Photoshop skills.

Goldie was STOLEN

Goldie my friend Lawrence's truck has been STOLEN!
Plate # - 94D DK2

UPDATE - GOLDIE HAS BEEN FOUND. SHE WAS VACATIONING IN AN AVIS PARKING LOT DOWNTOWN. THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR TIPS. :)

Kristen's Bridal

Kristen is my hero!!! She was a champ at our shoot on Saturday. She manage to smile despite the heat and the bugs. :) This was my first trip to Dunvegan Keep. I am certainly a convert. It is a bit of a trek to get out there, but it was well worth the trip.

Try some Kombucha

If you've never tried Kombucha I highly recommend it! Kombucha is a "organic, raw, fermented tea" with a mushroom (or plant-senta) growing in it. If you've never had it before I like G.T. Daves because it is mixed with fruit juices and tastes a little less like vinegar than some other brands. In addition to being an amazing hang over cure the bottle alleges lots of other health attributes. :)

Mr. Marmalade

We went to see Mr. Marmalade at Hyde Park Theater last night. Mark Pickell did a great job directing the show. We will definitely be going to more shows by Capital T Theatre.

King of Kong - Fistful of Quarters

We were going to watch Superbad, but it was sold out so we went to see King of Kong instead. What a great movie!!! Definitely the best movie I've seen all summer and one of the best I've seen all year. While I'm on the subject of movies I love the Alamo Draft House. I did lots of promo photos for them last year and got hooked on the free passes they gave me. Now we go almost every week sans pass. :)

My new Ad

My new ad for the Austin Wedding Guide. Isn't it pretty??

8 Things about me....

I've been tagged for the 8 things about me game. :)

1. I starred on a reality TV show called Faking It. I spent 5 weeks being filmed in LA learning how to become a Lifestyle Diva. If you want to see the show we have a viewing every year on my birthday 12/4.

2. Despite having a full scholarship I dropped out of Law School at Whittier. I didn't make it past registration day. My other odd academic pursuit was Aerospace in college. My BA is in Humanities.

3. I have four horses. Peanut a palimino shetland pony. Roan and Bently are blue roans who are quarter horse crosses. And a paint welsh pony named Rosa Lita. My mom boards my horses for me on her quarter horse farm. When I was a kid I was a barrel racer and a flag bearer.

4. When I was a freshman in high school (age 14) I played my baritone/euphonium at Carnegie Hall. The same year I was a princess in the McDade Watermelon Festival.

5. My great uncle Asa Chandler started a beverage company and donated the funds to start at university. Someday I will inherited the official early 1900's recipe and enough money to buy a small used car.

6. I cry at weddings. Always. Sometimes it's while the bride is getting ready. Often it is during the ceremony. Toasts get me... Always. Friends weddings. Weddings I'm photographing. Sometimes even weddings on TV.

7. I am a third generation Austinite. My grandfather Dr. Sledd was a professor at UT, and my parents started a plant nursery in Clarksville called Sledd Nursery. I've done lots of traveling and spent time in other places, but I will ALWAYS call Austin home.

8. My first photography job was working at the Austin Chronicle. I started taking pictures for them at the tender age of 16. I had my first cover at 18. A girl couldn't ask for a better freelance job! It's been a great ten years so far and hopefully I'll get to work for them for another ten.

The look I want...

Today has been sort of rough. My laptop died and the lovely Dell tech who came by the house was unable to fix it because it is a "software" problem and she only fixes hardware. Alas. I'm going to try just erasing everything and starting over.

Disco is sick. :( I took him the vet yesterday and he seems to be doing a bit better. Unfortanately I think the entire bedroom carpet will need to be replaced, OR we can take this as an opportunity to get rid of the yucky carpet and fix up the wood floors underneath. (BTW giant home project is the last thing my BF wants to read about this morning I'm sure.) The only upside to having a sick pup is that he is being SOOOO sweet. I'm sure it is just because he isn't feeling well, but wow is he much easier to take care of this way.

Veeta and Andy (my lovely aunt and uncle) who usually take care of my grandmother are out of town this week so I'm g-ma-sitting. It has been fun to spend hours talking to Ma about life and her history. Ma lives in a great old house in Tarrytown, but it makes some SCARY sounds at night. I felt like such a little kid, but the creaking and bumping kept waking me up. :)

Oh. Yet another photo of what I want my future studio furniture to look like. :) I'm sure y'all are tried of seeing samples, but I just can't help myself.

Studio Update

Sept 1 date is most likely not going to happen. Last time I went by they had 1 window installed, but no floors, walls, electricity or floors. Hopefully we will be moving in on Sept 15. Furniture picking is coming along nicely. So far I have purchased a sofa, coffee table and two chairs. The chairs are going to be recovered by our neighbor at Accent Upholstery. I'm still trying to pick between having them redone in leather or cloth and I've narrowed the colors I want to light brown/oatmeal or robins egg blue. If I can't find better bookshelves/file drawers I'm going to pick them up at West Elm or Ikea. The only big items left to find are a desk and a gun safe or something similar to lock gear in.

Birthday Girl!

Look who's turning 3!!!

Jake's Photos

Thanks Jake for posting photos from Skyler's wedding on your BLOG! You did a great job.

Look. It's me.

Oh look. It's a pictures of me! This was on my camera when I was developing the photos from the wedding. Can't remember who was using my camera at the time, but that did a pretty good job.

Skyler and Jimmy

My friends Skyler and Jimmy got married this Saturday at Green Pastures! We had a great time at the wedding. We were having SO much fun I only took a few pictures. Luckily the lovely and talented Jake Holt was on hand as the "official" photographer.