Sunday, May 31, 2009

Pic A Day 21: Gonzalez

Several years ago I met Lindsey & Romeo. They hired me to do the photography for their wedding. In fact, their engagement photos were one of the first sittings I ever did at Chandor Gardens. This collection the their photos have always been some of my favorites to display.
A couple of years later little Hudson joined their lives. It make me proud to know that they liked their wedding photos enough to now let me capture Hudson as he get older.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Pic A Day: Don't Mess With My Baby

I found this series of photos on the net I& thought they were funny.





"I think I just got my butt kicked by a squirrel!?!?"

Friday, May 29, 2009

Pic A Day 20: Last Day of School

It's hard to believe that another school year had gone by. Our son completed his third grade year at Crockett Elementary. Chase was lucky to have such a great teacher (Mrs. Crimmings) who goes that extra mile for her students.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pic A Day 19: Unusual Flamingos

In around 1996 my Mom bought a pair of 40th anniversary pink flamingos. Inside the package there was a photo contest to enter using the birds. There were three categories to choose from. You could photograph the flamingos in attractive, unusual or funny settings.  She was on my case every weekend I was in from college to photograph them. After weeks of her hounding me I took them out on the RR tracks and positioned them as if they were crossing over.  I thought surely this would make her happy so she could quickly send them out to make the contest deadline. She clearly was more excited than I was about it this whole contest thing. I was shocked to find out I won third place in the unusual category. They sent me a coffee table book with all the other finalists and a $200 check!!! She practically drug me out to the tracks that day to get the photo. Did I share the winnings........heck no! She wouldn't ever take money from a broke college student.  haha   Here's the link: http://www.flamingosbynight.com/Fotocontest.html



(bad quality...I copied this from their site.)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Pic A Day 18: Ashley & Bradley

Ashley & Bradley got married at Clark Gardens in Mineral Wells. Unfortunately we had rain showers all day for their garden wedding. Luckily they had back-up plans in case of rain & we made the best of it. We actually were able to do a few photos outside between showers. As planned, their reception took place under a huge tent where they had a wonderful dinner for their guests. Family & friends laughed & danced throughout the evening to celebrate the couple. Congratulations Ashley & Bradley.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Pic A Day 17: Congratulations 2009 Seniors

We would like to congratulate all 2009 graduating seniors. This is the graduating class from Millsap High. I am especially partial to this class because I am a 1995 graduate from Millsap. After graduating from collage in 1997 one of the coaches called us up and wanted to give us a shot at photographing one of their events. Since then we have been doing all the sports photography for the school. We have watched most of these kids grow up from photographing them in Jr. High too. We appreciate Millsap giving us the opportunity to continue providing them with our services each year.


Sunday, May 24, 2009

Pic A Day 16: Awkward Family Photos

A couple of days ago I came across a hilarious web site called http://www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ . I laughed out loud many times at so many of the photos there. Some of them were just awkward poses and others were just funny looking people. Here's a few I thought were funny.
After several attempts, the photographer finally came up with the perfect pose.


A priest in gym shorts.




I spy a pee spot.

Pic A Day 15: Party Time

Today we celebrated Jenna's 4th Birthday with a swim party at our house. It's always great to have all the cousins get together to play. Jenna got tons of new clothes & toys too. She got everything Hannah Montana....costume, lip gloss, microphone & the movie soundtrack. See her strike a pose with her colorful clip on hair. It looks like we will have our hands full!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Pic A Day 14: Happy Birthday Jenna!

4 years ago today we said hello to Jenna Rene' Felts. Chase was around 2 years old when we decided to have another baby. Three years later when he was almost 5 , we found Dr. Lisa Gardner who was willing to go that extra step and figure out what we needed.
I really don't know what we would have done without her. It was such a blessing that we found Dr. Gardner when we did. We appreciate everything she did for us.

The first photo was one of my all time favorites. Moments after Jenna arrived with her hand stretch out, I immediately noticed how much she looked like her brother. Exactly like Chase! It wasn't until she was around 2 that they started to look different. I guess because that was when she finally got some hair. You parents of bald baby girls know how we get tired of hearing how cute HE is! I once had this old lady do a double take of my baby girl (dressed in pink) and say to me "It is a girl isn't it"? Yes IT is. Old people can't help it sometimes.


This was a short session we did for Jenna's Birthday invitation. Like most girls her age she loves Hannah Montana & Jonas Brothers. Such a little drama queen. I've got to share a funny story. We were watching American Idol the other night. Adam Lambert was singing, as I looked over and her eyes were glued to the TV. A few seconds later without moving her head, she cuts her eyes over to me. She says in her cute little lisp "I want to kissth him.." I said why?..... and she said "cauth" I wanted to say your not his type... but didn't. You had to be there.

I can't believe our little girl is already 4 . Enjoy every day with your kids, it goes fast!

Happy Birthday Jenna, we love you!

Pic A Day 13: Hear The Music



Many seniors this year wanted to bring their musical instruments to the shoot. There are so many talented young people who like making music. Who knows........ some of these talented kids could make it big in the business one day & I can sell these for millions!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Pic A Day 12: Galveston Vacation

One of our favorite family vacation spots is in Galveston. Chase spends most of his time trying to catch small crabs along the jeddy. The crab in the photo was actually given to him by a friend he made during the week . He did catch many of his own small crabs too. It wasn't only until the last day that we could get him away from his fishin' hole long enough for him to enjoy the water.



See Jenna & Mommy strolling through the crystal clear water along the white sandy beaches......Oh...well, thanks to photoshop the water was crystal clear. It's no Cancun but the kids don't know any different. This summer they will because we're headin' for Destin. Come on vacation!!

Pic A Day 11: Cassie

Cassie is a Senior at Millsap High. I did her session at Chandor Gardens in Weatherford. It was calling for rain that whole day but we were hoping it would hold off long enough for us to finish. As we finished the last pose it started to sprinkle.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Pic A Day 10: Man Babies

I heard something funny while listening to Kidd Kraddick In The Morning radio show. The show was talking about a funny web site called http://www.manbabies.com/ . The website is devoted to funny photos where the father and child's heads were swapped out. Some of them are very well done and some are pretty sloppy. Through the years I played around with this on various images. I've combined some of my family members together......they didn't think it was as funny as I did. This was a photo of my son Chase & I several years back. I basically just took the eyes, nose & mouth and swapped them out. My new face looks much more real than Chase's. I couldn't get my face to blend as well over his. Check out the web site to see more hilarious photos of this kind.


This is a customer I knew from my days working in the Winn Dixie one hour photo lab. She called me with a challenge. She told me that all her life people had told her she greatly resembled her Grandmother. She wanted to see if it was possible for me to take a current photo of her and digitally combine it into an old photo of her Grandmother. Well... If I could change out our faces surly I could do the same for her. Here is what I came up with. The lighting is much more flat in the new photo but I think it went together pretty well. Remember this was about 6 years ago, without much photo shop training at all. They really do look alike.

June Dates Are Going Fast

We are now booking into the last couple of weeks of June.
If your needing to set an appointment for June call today.
We only have 7 more weekday time slots available until
June will be booked up.

Jake

Pic A Day 9: Alison & Andrew

This is a few shots from an engagement session I did last week at Chandor Gardens.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Pic A Day 8: Never Cross A Cross Dresser!

This is another group of photos from our New York trip. When we stepped out of our taxi there was a street fair happening next to our hotel. We stayed at The Wellington hotel which was the same place Borat stayed. Anyway, as we made our way down the street fair we saw something very strange. We noticed a bearded man wearing a dress with very colorful accessories to match. As if that wasn't strange enough, he had some kind of a bird sitting on his head. Of course I pulled my camera up and began taking photos of this man. He saw me and raced over to us and loudly demanded I pay to photograph him. In shock... I just shook my head and looked away. Then his head started bobbin', finger waving in my face with his Cuban accent "you have to pay to take my photo"! Cari & I just kept walking. We had just been in New York for 1 hour & I almost got my butt kick by a cross dresser. I knew it had to get better as we made our way down to see the naked cowgirl......she wasn't nearly as aggressive.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

What A Challenge

It's only been a week now that I started our Picture-A-Day-Challenge. It definitely has been a challenge trying to remember anything that was interesting I would want to blog about. Hopefully I will continue being able to dig up some older images to include daily. We hope you are enjoying what we have posted so far.

Jake

Pic A Day 7: Seeing Double

Lately is seems we have been seeing double! In the past year alone we have photographed 11 sets of twins. 11 sets in just 12 months! That's more than I think we've done since we started in '97. The locations most used for our "twin sessions" have been downtown & Chandor Gardens in Weatherford. 

Pic A Day 6: Charis & Ben

This collection of maternity photos were
done on-location in Fort Worth.
Jax...what a cool name!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pic A Day 5: Hannah, Garrett & The Bird

Last summer while Hannah & Garrett were having their first dance as husband & wife, a funny thing happened. A bird flew down and landed right on top of the brides head. It just stayed there until the groom took it off.

A few minutes later durring the father/daughter dance, the bird came back for round two. This time it landed on her shoulder. Dad took it off and it flew away. That was the first time I've seen a wild bird do this


Pic A Day 4: Emma

We have been doing Emma's photos since she was just 6 months old. A few years ago Emma & her family moved to south Texas but still continue to make it up her to visit friends, family and squeeze in a photo session with us. Lots of new customers have been through our studio thanks to referrals by Emma's Mom. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pic A Day 3: Reba

If you know me, you know that Reba is my favorite country artist. We have seen her many times through the years, and this was one of the best shots I have been able to get in concert. Usually we're in the nosebleed section, but had some great seats for this 1996 benefit concert in Denison, Texas. I'll have to miss her & George when they debut the new Cowboys Stadium in June.....I have a wedding.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Pic A Day 2: Birds

Outside of our bedroom window we noticed this nest with 4 bird eggs inside. A few day later I checked & two of the birds had hatched. I took a quick shot of the newly hatched birds & thought I would share.

I guess they were hungry.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Pic A Day 1: New York City

Almost exactly 2 years ago for my 30th birthday, my wife Cari surprised me with a trip to New York City. I had always wanted to go there, but didn't see it anywhere in my near future. The first couple of days I was really in tourist mode and just in awe of the overwhelming amount of people and concrete. Then I got in photo journalist mode. I wanted to photograph people in their everyday actions. The thousands of people in the city each have a story to tell just by looking at them.


I photographed this lady sitting outside of a store. She was obviously upset and crying. What was her story & why was she so upset?

This was during lunch break. The poor guy in the back needs some friends.


I did many shots of the unusual architecture too. There were so many different styles and textures to the buildings. At first glance you just see 20 stories of building & windows, but each window is someones home. Each floor has a family, a newly married couple, a single mom who can barely pay the rent. Each window has a story inside it.



OK.... and the story through this window is that someone can't afford a dryer!

Picture A Day Challenge

Beginning tomorrow I will start my picture a day challenge. For the next month I will post a photo with a brief description or behind the scenes story about it. Some professional and some personal. Check back daily to see what will be next.

Jake

Happy Mother's Day

Today we had a great day with our Moms. Sometimes we take for granted everything our moms & wives do for our family. They truly are the gears that keep everything running smoothly in all of our busy lives. We appreciate everything you do. I hope every mom had a great day with their children.

Jake

Why we don't offer your images on a disk.

A question that we often get is, "do you put all of our photos on a disk?" We do not offer a printable disk for a few reasons. You may notice that our sitting fee & enlargement prices are well below the average cost of most individual photographers. We have such reasonable prices that our hope is that you will like your images enough to purchase enlargements. All of the images from your session are edited & ready to order via our online ordering system. We take pride in the quality we present to our customers. If we gave a disk, customers would be forced to make homemade copies or less than perfect reprints from the local photo lab. The photos you give to mom or hang on the wall represent our business and we want to make sure they are the best quality possible.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Meet Demi

Demi was one of my recent senior sessions. We started our shoot at Chandor Gardens with some traditional poses in my favorite spots. Demi was very easy going with a fun personality.
We finished up in the studio & noticed she had brought a funky hat & glasses. Many of our studio shots we did with the hat and glasses to show off her zany side.









Senior Class of 2019