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

Kandice and Jason

You all might notice that there has been a recurring type of photo in some of our recent shoots. We have been fortunate to get a silhouette from most of the recent shoots that we have had. We enjoy capturing the silhouettes and when you have a beautiful sunset in the background, they turn out awesome!

A little over a week ago we did an engagement session with Kandice and Jason at South Padre Island. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful sunset, looked for an alligator, got to see some ducklings and just generally had a great time. Kandice and Jason are such a great couple and we had a blast doing the engagement session. We can't wait for the wedding in October. It is going to be a blast!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the session. To view a slideshow of some of our favorite images from the session go to www.PreciousImages.net/Kandice

Enjoy the photos!

Elizabeth and JD

This post is long overdue! Elizabeth and JD just recently celebrated their 2 month wedding anniversary! Congrats!

Elizabeth made sure that we had some time between the wedding and reception to go to the bed and breakfast where they would be spending their wedding night for some photos. The place was awesome with some stained glass windows, arched entry ways and a really nice staircase. I am so glad that she budgeted the extra time for us to go there and capture some photos of them.

Here are some of my favorites

To view a slideshow of some of the images from their wedding click on www.PreciousImages.net/ElizabethG

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Ok, I feel really bad about neglecting the blog for the past 2 months. I have made a committment to update the blog on a regular basis. I will be mixing in some older material with some recent events in the next several posts, so keep checking back.

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Cluster Map

I found out about this neat software that creates a cluster map for each computer that accesses the blog. The more people that access from a particular area, then the bigger the dot. This should be pretty neat. I know that we have had people access our website from places like Japan, England, France, Australia and some other neat places. Watch it and see how it grows.

FINALLY!!!

Well we are finally getting caught up a little bit. As you know from previous posts, my schedule since the middle of March has been extremely hectic. First it was to Washington D.C. to meet with legislators for ASCE, then to Austin for a meeting, then to Las Vegas for Wedding and Portrait Photographer's International convention, then to Beaumont for an ASCE meeting, then to Ohio for my Mom's 70th birthday, then back 2 weeks later for my Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary, then to Austin again. Mix in with that weddings, engagement and family shoots on every weekend that I was not out of town. So we have a lot of catching up to do with photos.

This past Saturday we had the pleasure to shoot Ernie and Nikki's wedding at South Padre Island. Ernie was leaving at 11AM on Sunday morning for the Marines. Our hats go off to him for serving our country and best wishes to him and Nikki for their future.

The wedding reminded me of some photos that I took in Washington of a soldier that appeared in several of my shots, but always from the rear. I finally caught up with him near the Vietnam War Memorial to thank him for his service to our country. It is due to people like him that we have the freedoms that we do. Keep up the good work!

I arrived to Washington early on Tuesday so I would have that afternoon to sight see and catch some photos. Of course, that afternoon was overcast and it drizzled almost all afternoon. I only packed 1 camera and 1 lense and no flash. Most of the time I had my camera under my jacket so it wouldn't get wet. Of course, while I was in meetings the weather was gorgeous!

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from that afternoon and early evening.

New Slideshow Software

I am excited that we have an update to the software that we use to generate the on line slideshows. It will now allow us to time photos to the music and also to embed the slideshow into a blog or webpage. Sooooo cooooool!!!!!!

Check it out by clicking on www.PreciousImages.net/RGVRodeo This is from the recent RGV Rodeo in Mercedes, Texas.

A Month . . . or 8 Seconds . . . Time Flies!

Wow! I am looking at my schedule for the next month or so and it is so crowded. It actually started last week. I was in Washington D.C. with a group of Civil Engineers from across the US lobbying our legislators for items that are important to our profession and the public. I did this last year also and as a result of our meeting with Rep. Hinojosa's staff, he co-sponsored the Dam Rehabiliation and Repair Act. It was a good feeling to know that our opinions do make a difference to our legislators. As a result of our meeting this year with Rep. Hinojosa's staff, we have been informed that he will co-sponsor The National Levee Safety Program Act. So, if you get a chance to meet with your legislator, please do. They do listen and are interested in what we have to say.

Recently we had the opportunity to photograph Steven Parker at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo. We photographed Steven and Jennifer's Ranch wedding last August and we found out then that Steven was a bull rider when the groomsmen threw him off the hay bales that we had them sitting on for some photos. Steven landed on his feet and we were able to get a couple shots on his way down. Steven switched from bulls to broncs since the wedding. Steven drew a chestnut bronc that didn't seem to be too happy in the chute. The bronc came out of the chute in the air and I don't think he was happy that Steven was on for the ride. Unfortunately Steven didn't make it the 8 seconds necessary to get a score. Here are some photos of Steven coming out of the chute.

5 Generations

We recently had the opportunity to photograph 5 generations of the Maggie Jimenez family. Maggie, her husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were visiting from Georgetown, Texas to see Maggie's Mom and Grandmother. It was a blast. It was so funny watching the grandparents fighting over the grandson's attention and which one of them he was going to look at while I was taking photos. I cracked up several times.

Here a few of my favorites.

Sandra and Sal

We had the opportunity to photograph Sandra and Sal's engagement session recently, and it was a blast. The session was at South Padre Island, and of course, the weather didn't cooperate until the end. A norther had blown in earlier and it was cool and windy. I didn't realize how cool it was until on the walk back to the vehicles at sundown I noticed that Sandra's fingernails were purple. I didn't remember them being purple when we started. I found out that Sandra's fingernails turn purple when she gets cold, and it wasn't fingernail polish....sorry Sandra!

Turns out that both Sandra and Sal are Optometrists and they met in Med school. Sal whisked Sandra away to New York, where he proposed to her at the top of the Empire State Building! Way to go Sal! They are really wonderful people and we can't wait to do their wedding in August! It is going to be fun.

We got some beautiful shots even though the weather didn't cooperate very well and we got some really great silhouettes.

You can view a slideshow of Sandra and Sal's engagement session by going to: www.PreciousImages.net/Sandra