Sandra's Bridal Session

We had so much fun shooting Sandra's Bridal session. We met downstairs at the Casa De Palmas Renaissance Hotel in McAllen. If you haven't been to this hotel, you need to go. They have some really neat areas and the food is great.

We started downstairs and the bartender walks by. I asked Sandra if she minded posing at the bar. Sandra had no problem with it, but the bartender wasn't too keen on getting his photo taken. He was a great sport and had some fun with us. It was funny because we saw him when we went back to do the wedding and he wanted to know how the photos turned out.

Sandra is such a sweetheart and we had a great time. She was up for just about anything we wanted to do. I had some photos in mind by the pool, but it was soooooo hot that day. We didn't stay outside very long, but we were able to get some great shots by the fountain, pool and entry way.

To see the slideshow, go to www.PreciousImages.net/SandraFBMG

Kandice's Bridal Session

One of the hardest things for us to do is to keep bridal photos a secret! We do keep them secret, and only allow access to the bride and whoever she gives the password to until after the wedding. We get so excited about the bridal session photos though that we want to show them to everyone. Bridal sessions are a lot of fun, both for the bride and for us. It is a more relaxed atmosphere and we are able to joke around and try a lot of different ideas. Essentially, we have you all to ourselves for the time that we are at the session. Which is completely different than your wedding day. On your wedding day you want to get the photos done quickly so you can get to your guests.

We have had some awesome sessions recently. Some of the sessions are done a couple months before the wedding, so by the time we are able to post photos, we are in the process of getting the wedding photos up for everyone to view. So, to make a long story short, we are playing catch up for the next few posts with some Bridal sessions that we have done over the past few months.

The first is Kandice Duke (Krenek). Kandice is such a sweetheart and we have had so much fun shooting her and Jason's engagement session and then wedding. They and their family have become like family to us. Sounds weird, but we develop that relationship with a lot of our clients.

So, here are some photos from Kandice's Bridal session that we shot at Casa Rama in Harlingen.

Kandice loved to twirl in her dress!!

This bedroom was gorgeous and Kandice had a great time lounging on the bed.

The pool and backyard at Casa Rama are gorgeous. It didn't take much to get Kandice to take her shoes off and relax a little.

The front door is huge and makes such a great backdrop for a photo

As we were walking around the property, Kandice mentioned that they had this gorgeous bathroom and would we be up for taking some photos in the bathroom. OF COURSE!!!

We Have A WINNER(s)!!!!!!!!

We want to thank all of you who stopped by our booth at the McAllen Bridal Fair on Sunday January 21st and congratulations on your engagement! We met a lot of neat people, rekindled some old friendships and had a blast!

One of the things that we always do is analize the data from the people that register for our engagement session giveaway to determine the most popular month for getting married. Well, this one was overwhelmingly July. The most popular date was July 7, 2007 (07/07/07). This didn't hit me until someone at the show told me that it was triple 7's. Most that are getting married on that date also indicated that they wanted to get married at 7PM.

Well, we didn't want to do anything that would be unlucky, so we decided to give away 7 engagement sessions from the people that registered with us.

And.....the winners are......

Kassandra Tapia of Weslaco
Claudia Olvera of Edinburg
Janna Frapafo of Brownsville
Sara Winters of Harlingen
Karen Rodriguez of Brownsville
Janice Martinez of McAllen
Dee Gonzalez of Edinburg

Congratulations to the winners and we look forward to working with you.

Check back on the blog to see their photos.

Swamped!

We have been swamped since about July and it has really hampered us posting to the blog. We are not complaining, we have had a blast shooting weddings and family sessions. We have met so many wonderful people in the past 6 months. We love our job!

We recently attended Imaging USA in San Antonio that is put on by the Professional Photographers of America. It was awesome, and we got to rub elbows and hear different ideas from over 8,000 photographers from all over the world. We always come away with new ideas when we attend events like this and the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention. Look for some of those ideas to pop up here on the blog and website in the future.

We have implemented some items that will improve the workflow and allow us to get back on schedule. We will posting on a regular basis once again, so check back often.

True Love!

We recently spent a Sunday afternoon shooting Olga's Bridal session. Olga is from Russia and gorgeous. She met her fiance, Griffin while they were studying together. Olga is truly an exceptional woman. We hear about the illegal immigrants in our country, but one of the things that I didn't realize until we started working with Olga's future in laws, was how difficult it is to get into this country legally. Everyone was on pins and needles to see if Olga was going to be allowed to come to the US to get married. Her interview was postponed once, which changed the wedding date. Fortunately, we had the new date open.


Anytime we wanted Olga to smile, we just got her to say "Griffin" and she got this really big smile! It was awesome and you could tell that she really loves Griffin, and Griffin is one lucky guy! Olga's wedding dress was from Russia and was awesome. I haven't seen anything like it before and it fit Olga perfectly. We did the session at the Harlingen Country Club. As we were walking outside to go to a spot I had scoped out earlier, Olga saw a golf cart and just had to sit in it. I had already thought of that, but I wasn't sure how receptive Olga would be. Once I saw her light up with the golf cart, I sent Norma to get a putter and we just started having fun! She didn't know what golf was, but I told her about putting and she hit the ball a few times and got it into the hole. We had a blast!!!

Here are some of my favorite images from the afternoon. To see the slideshow go to www.PreciousImages.net/OlgaB

Check back in a few days for the wedding photos and slideshow.

Rachel and Kenneth

We are playing a little catch up here. We have had a crazy schedule for about the past month and it stays this way until about the middle of September. But, we are having a blast!

Recently we shot Rachel and Kenneth's engagement session at South Padre Island. It turned out to be a great afternoon and we had a lot of fun. We were disappointed though to find that one of our favorite locations to shoot at was undergoing some renovations. They are redoing the whole area and we hope that it turns out better than it was before.

Rachel and Kenneth had fun playing in the water and I got my feet wet also. I love it when the couples want to play in the water. Rachel had just returned from a missionary trip to Africa and she was wearing some sandals that she purchased on the trip and they were gorgeous.

Here are some of my favorite photos. To see the slideshow go to www.PreciousImages.net/RachelK

Beautiful Sunset!

Last Thursday we shared the evening with Jackie and Andres shooting their engagement session and we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets that we have seen at South Padre Island in quite a while. We were originally supposed to do the engagement session the previous Sunday, but we were cancelled out by rain. I checked the radar on Thursday before we headed out and there were some showers off shore. We were still concerned about the weather, but we decided to go for it. After all, it would just be a little water.

Fortunately, the rain stayed away and we had beautiful weather. We walked out to the bay and the sunset was gorgeous. But, then as we were walking back to the vehicles I looked back and the clouds were lit up by the sun that had already set. Thank goodness for those showers off shore that were providing the clouds.

For those of you that don't know me very well, I love sunrises and sunsets. There is just something about them that gets my blood pumping. I love photographing them or just watching them. As a matter of fact, if we have the photos that we need for the shoot. I often encourage whoever we are photographing to just enjoy watching the sunset for the last minute or 2 of the evening. We all just soak it in.

We met Jackie almost a year ago and we have been excited about photographing her wedding ever since. She has one of those bubbly personalities that is contagious and she is such a sweetheart. Jackie and Andres get married next month and we can't wait to document it for them.

So, here are some of my favorite engagement shots from Jackie and Andres.

You can check out a slideshow by going to www.PreciousImages.net/Jackie

Rain, Please Go Away!

Rain, please go away! I am sure that is what Mark was saying, praying and dancing to on his wedding day. Mark and Christina had a beautiful backyard wedding. Although they were prepared for rain (just in case), the rain stayed away during the ceremony and reception. Not so though during the day. I was in the area around 3PM and it had just poured. Mark said that thank God, Christina was getting her hair done on the other side of town where it didn't rain.

Here are some of my favorites from the evening. To see a slideshow, go to www.PreciousImages.net/Christina