kirby • fashion photography

FIVE MONTHS. That's how long I waited. And Kirby has waited. This may be the biggest case of procrastination I have ever had. 

I asked Kirby to model for me a while back. I needed it, personally...to get out and shoot what I really love. She obliged, and we had a slightly windy, slightly scary, but nonetheless fun photoshoot. Kirby was a fantastic model. 

After the photoshoot, I backed up the images, and then became consumed with other work. The longer I waited to work on the images, the more I worried I wouldn't like them after all. I had a really bad case of being comfortable. 

Today I opened them. And I have learned my lesson. Thanks, Kirby, for providing me with images that I really, really love- and helping me to remember why I do what I do. 

More than anything, I KNOW that I can't be comfortable with what I shoot. This means I have to push myself with every image, try things I an unsure of, and trust that what I make will be bigger and better than I expected. I hope you, my clients, will be up for the journey! There is so much out there that hasn't been done yet.

 

chris hudgins • music

I just got to check out my friend Chris Hudgins' new myspace page. We shot some promo images quite a while back, but it sure is satisfying getting to see them presented in a clean, professional design by Chris Brown. 

Go check out the music! Chris plays a lot of shows locally, so I hope you Lubbock readers will get to listen in sometime. 

senior photographer • jillian • lubbock, tx

Jillian is a friend of Rachel and also a senior at Littlefield High School. When she first contacted me I immediately thought of this book. Was I the only one who read it religiously when I was little?

Anyway- THIS Jillian was fantastic to work with. Thanks for trusting me when we pulled up to a La Quinta. :)

Beautiful, huh? LOVE this outfit.

jeremy cowart workshop • music photographer • nashville, tn

Stancy and I attended Jeremy Cowart's workshop last week. Jeremy is a music and commercial photographer based in Nashville. I love getting to meet other photographers at events like this, and we also had time to go out and shoot- which was my favorite part of the day. 

This is Jeremy instructing us on posing...or talking about elevator music- I can't remember. :)

Some of my favorites.

where the heck am i?

I've been "out of the office" for the past few days, so I thought I'd update you all on just what I've been doing.

I flew to Dallas. 

Met up with Stancy, and hung out with my sister for a bit.

We then drove to Norman, OK.

I got to second shoot a very fun wedding with Stancy. It was 4 degrees outside, but I totally enjoyed not being in the driver's seat and getting to experiment a bit.

Then, we headed back to Fort Worth.

I enjoyed many things there. The company of some great people (Josh + Lauren), Pappasitos, Redeemer Church Fort Worth, and Sprinkles! Oh yeah, and we went to a cool yarn shop.

Then we flew to Nashville.

Today we spent a couple hours at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel checking out the trade show at Imaging USA (huge nationwide photography conference). After that, we spent some time hanging out here, here, and here. 

Now we're about to head to a workshop with Jeremy Cowart. I'm excited!

On Thursday I'll fly to San Antonio to catch up with Shawn and the band at a Disciple Now. Should be lots of fun! 

I'll be "back in the office" on Monday. Until then, I hope you all had/have a great week!

i need your feedback!

I'm always having people ask me about workshops or internship programs, and I've been thinking about doing a workshop/internship for quite some time now.

I've hesitated because 1) I don't consider myself a technical expert, nor do I want to be one. I just know how to do what I do. 2) I don't want to give the impression that I will teach you exactly how to make the pictures that come out of my camera. For me, the whole point of working with other photographers is to collaborate and make something that I could never do on my own, so creativity and uniqueness are key.

There are so many different ways to do something like this, and I would LOVE to hear what type of things you guys are all interested in.

If you've got a second, would you mind filling out this short form for me? Thanks!

advent calendar project

I went to Target yesterday. And like most times, I left with more than what was on my list. :)

They had LOTS of Christmas stuff at 90% off, so I dug through the bins and found these velvet ornaments and ribbon. And then the light bulb went off.

I've been wanting to make a non-traditional advent calendar for our family, and this would be perfect. Yes, I realize that Christmas is now over, but it will be so much fun to pull it out next year and use it! Here's what I ended up with:

I know, I misspelled Micah. I corrected it after I saw this picture. 

The ornaments rang up at .19 each and the ribbon was .50- so project total was 1.26!

I thought I'd share with you how I made it. Here's what you'll need:

Ribbon

Ornaments

White Cardstock

Wire

Glue Gun

Scissors

Tags PDF (below)

I started by making the bows. This ribbon is only one sided and of the cheap variety so it was important to make sure the reverse orange-y side didn't show. Cut 5 12-inch ribbons at an angle and lay them out like this:

Have a piece of wire ready to tie it. Gather the middle of the ribbon together in your hand. Make sure you like how the front of the bow is appearing- it's easiest to make small folds in the ribbon and then squish them together. You can adjust the loops later. 

Then tie it with a wire. Take a 3 inch strip of new ribbon and cut it in half length wise. You'll have 2 1.5x3 inch ribbons. This is what you'll cover the wire with. Bust out the hot glue gun and glue the strip of ribbon over the wire, sealing it in the back, and trimming off excess ribbon.

Before and after.

Then print out this PDF onto some cardstock. Just right-click on the image and download it. (This will be the ONLY time you hear me advising that on my website :). It will not be cut-off when you save it.

Cut the tags out. I decided to leave off the scolloped edge- for huge bows was enough for me. :) 

I attached the number tags with the hot glue gun at the bottom of each ornament. Then I cut some thinner red ribbon to string the scripture tags with. I glued them under the right loop of each bow. 

To attach the bow to the ornament, simply put the excess wire on each bow through the top of the ornament and twist together.

After I had each ornament assembled, I laid them all out to get a feel for how long I wanted it to hang. I cut the red ribbon to size, then found some gray (hark!) that I had left over from another project. I just glued the gray to the red, dotting hot glue in areas that would be covered by the ornaments.

Lastly, I glued the ornaments to the ribbon. Since they are a flat surface, it was more sturdy to attach the ornament than the ribbon.

I hope you enjoyed my little project! There are LOTS of variations you can do with this one- so get to those clearance aisles and have fun! And because I can, here's a random photo of Willy enjoying his new dog bed. 

 

shawn's surprise weekend

My birthday, Christmas, our wedding anniversary, and Shawn's birthday all fall within a matter of weeks. So, each year Shawn or I plan one big surprise for the other. Last year was Shawn's turn (it involved a shopping spree for me, a nice dinner, and a b&b). This year was mine! I started planning it back in June. 

This past weekend was it- and it was SO much fun to have little surprises along the way. I thought I'd take you with me...in pictures of course!

We began driving...for 5 hours...to Dallas. So I experimented with my camera.

This is what you get if you take off your 50mm lens, turn it backwards, hold it nice and steady and shoot. Macro!

Finally we arrived at our hotel. I love Aloft!

The hotel has such cool, modern details. I could shoot there all day.

That night we went to Studio Movie Grill and watched Avatar. It was definitely worth it to see it in 3-D, although it made finding our food a bit more of a challenge. :) This is a terrible picture shot with my point and shoot. We tried to get a decent one, but figured the people directly behind us were most likely going blind from the flash.

The next day I only had dinner plans, so we just hopped from place to place depending on what we wanted to do next. 

We started the day with breakfast at Ikea, which is typically only 99 cents, but this day it happened to be FREE! 

After perusing the store, Shawn decided he needed some "man heaven". So we went here-

After that, we chose to visit the Nasher Sculpture Garden. (Yes, Shawn really did want to go.) It was free admission on Saturday, so that was an extra treat! It was such a refreshing experience. We spent a lot of time in the courtyard photographing the sculptures and each other. 

The light was gorgeous.

Haha. We never get too serious.

I think I might change my title to include "bubble-ographer".

Yes, Layne, I stole your shirt. And I enjoyed wearing it. Thanks! :)

After that we decided to go see the "Bodies" exhibition we'd been hearing about. HERE's the main site. It was, um, interesting. More than anything I left in amazement that somehow God makes all of those bones and ligaments and veins work together to make a human.

After that, we had a few hours to kill so we went to Borders. Someone was tired, and someone was bored. 

Then it was time for dinner! Neither us had ever been to Medieval Times, and we had a good time eating with our hands and cheering on the red and yellow knight.

After that, as far as Shawn knew, we were driving home the next morning. And after a yummy breakfast at Panera, we began to. Until I made an exit in Arlington. Here was the dialogue:

Shawn: We just exited. We're not going home, are we?

Lissa: Nope.

Shawn: ARE WE GOING TO THE COWBOYS GAME?? Oh my gosh. No way. (Hits me on the shoulder)

Lissa: Yep.

Shawn: NO FREAKING WAY! (Hits me on the shoulder again)

Lissa: Haha, yeah! We are going!

Shawn: OH MY GOSH. No way. (Another shoulder hit)

Lissa: Ok, you can open that present now!

Back in June, I had collaborated with his Mom and sister to get tickets for his whole family. As long as I can remember he's talked about going to a Cowboys game with his Dad. So we surprised them both, and somehow got them both to the stadium without spilling the beans! They were both shocked to say the least. We saw this face a lot.

The stadium was incredible. I have never seen that many people in one place. It was a great game (Cowboys win!) and such a good time.

happy anniversary, my love!

Today is not just New Year's Eve in our house, it's also our wedding anniversary! We were married 4 years ago and had a fantastic wedding full of sentimental things, loving family and friends, and dancing.

The day after the wedding, our flight was cancelled to our honeymoon destination and so we had to go to some pretty extreme measures to finally get there. I felt like it was just a hint at what marriage would be like- lots of unexpected adventures and memories- all made together as a team.

I know there have definitely been times when I wasn't feeling so "sportsmanlike"...which is why I am SO thankful for a husband that is always willing to be patient and communicate. Shawn is constantly seeking what the Lord would have for us above our own material desires, and for that I love him so much. 

I know I'm better with him than without and I still sometimes pause in amazement at how I ended up marrying the boy who grew up just a few blocks away from my own house. I just wanted to say thank you, Shawn, for pushing me, supporting me, and taking such good care of our household and our future. I can't wait for the next adventure!

This is one of my favorite photos of us- taken by accident by my sister while we were on vacation in Puerto Rico this past summer. I just love everything it says about our relationship...it's not perfect, but it's us...and when you step back and take a look at it, it's really a beautiful picture.

Best of 09 Contest Winners!

8,562. That's how many votes were cast overall.

Needless to say, I am floored at the amount of enthusiasm everyone has put into this contest! It's been so much fun to watch the polls this week and now I get to give some stuff away! 

Drumroll please.....and the winners are...

BRIDE + GROOM CATEGORY

#13

SENIORS CATEGORY

#6

WEDDING PARTY CATEGORY

#12

ENGAGEMENT CATEGORY

#16

KIDS + BABIES CATEGORY

#5

BRIDES CATEGORY

#1

FAMILIES CATEGORY

#1

Winners, I will be working on your free prints after I get back from the holidays, so get excited! You'll have a nice BIG present in your mailbox soon. 

Thanks so much for your input, everyone- many people have told me how they've enjoyed voting, so I'm sure this will become an annual affair. :) 

Shawn, Willy, Lola and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! 

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