Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas at The Islands


Our neighborhood is AWESOME. I mean, where else can you host a Christmas get-together in your backyard and have the evenings entertainment float by?

Every year, our neighbors get together with their spectacularly decked-out pontoon boats and cruise the lake, giving those of us with lake-front homes a gorgeous lighted Christmas boat parade. Our boat is not appropriate for this lake because it would have to be both electric and smaller, and so we couldn't participate in the parade, but I believe it was just as much fun to watch.

We invited our friends Suzi, Ivan and thier son G (who has the same name as my son, G) over to eat some grilled hotdogs, drink some eggnog, enjoy the parade and finally, visit with Santa at the Islands clubhouse.

Here are the boats, as they began their tour of our section of the lake:


I had a very difficult time getting good shots because there were several things working against me.

1. It was really dark that night. No light in the sky AT ALL. I wish the parade had started at least an hour sooner.

2. Since the boats were moving, I couldn't slow my shutter much without blurring everything to total obscurity.

3. Also, the boats were pretty far away, so I couldn't reach them with the flash.

Once they got closer to our yard, I started to experiment with slower shutter speeds and got some interesting shots like these:




These are our neighbors that live across the street, with their grandson at the front of the boat. Hi M!


A blurry shot of my kids, watching the boats go by and waiting for candy:


After the last boat motored past, we headed down to the park to see Santa!

Doesn't he look fantstic?

I was expecting a less-than-authentic looking version, but when we walked up to him Suzi and I looked at each other and said "He looks real!!!"

He let the kids test his beard:


I took at least 20 shots of Suzi's son sitting on Santa's lap. I'm not sure what they talked about, but it was a good, long conversation!


I also got a shot of G's friend, A:

My kids, who were being their usual camera-shy selves, would only sit NEXT to Santa, not on his lap, and only long enough to take one picture:


You can see the decorated homes in the background on the other side of the lake. I believe many of the lakehomes are more decked out in the back than the front:

And M, who was the most excited to go see Santa of all, who talked about it non-stop for weeks and weeks, wouldn't go anywhere near him. I was lucky to get this:


We stayed late enough to see Santa leave the park, but never did see any reindeer. Weird.


I think Deidre Garber, Islands Community Events Coordinator, did a fantastic job organizing the activities for the kids. I can't wait to participate in the next event!

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Brooke & Rocco: Los Encinos

During Thanksgiving weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity to fly back home to San Antonio to shoot the wedding of Brooke and Russ(Rocco)Cortez. It was a beautiful wedding from beginning to end, partly because of the bride and groom's casual and no-fuss attitude, partly because the location for the ceremony is one of my favorites, and partly because I had the opportunity to visit with some of my friends who were family and friends of the wedding couple.

The day began with a portrait session of the Brooke and Rocco. I always love it when my couples choose to see each other before the ceremony. Besides the benefit of having the day flow so smoothly, it is awesome for the bride and groom to carve out a few moments to themselves.

It was a fantastic night with gorgeous details, great music, tons of happy guests and a very calm/content/happy wedding couple.

If you look closely at the images below, you will even see a proposal happening. I had to blink back quite a few tears at that!


Thank you Brooke, Rocco and Minerva for allowing me to be there. And a special thanks to Michelle and Raul for recommending me. You are all very special to me!
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Mom of four fantastic, funny kids. Freakishy addicted to hot tea and cold cereal. Fantasizes about a future in photography. Loves to death her fun friends, funky family and football (just ask anyone). This has been brought to you by the letters "Ph."