Lafayette, Louisiana

I went on a week long habitat humanity build in Lafayette, Louisiana this summer. It was definitely hard work, but at the end of the week it was such a great feeling to see how far we came. The house started off with being mostly built, but not siding or the stuff that covers between the roof and walls. That is basically what we did all week. I went with a group from Gateway, a church in Austin. A group of students from St. Paul in Philadelphia met us in Louisiana to work on the house also.

Our week wasn't all work and no play though. We worked from 9-3 each day, but after that we were free to do whatever we wished. So my group went and did some touristy stuff: go on a boat tour, go to a local bar (The Blue Moon Salon), and eat out (McGee's Landing and Artmosphere). Each place had it's own charm and definitely showed the best of Lafayette.

Michael and Yvette Bluebonnets

I used Michael and Yvette in a previous shoot with a whole bunch of friends. In that post, I mentioned how I met them. I first met Yvette at this weeklong leadership camp called LeaderShape. We were in the same small group. It was during the last week of winter break before spring semester started.

When classes started up again, I started my new position as Student Government's Communication Director. I was trying to figure out who everyone was in the association when I met Michael. He was a senator at the time (he will be the new Vice President in the fall). After meeting Michael it took a few weeks to realize he is Yvette's boyfriend. Since then, I became friends with both of them.

Yvette loves bluebonnets and always wanted bluebonnet pictures. This year she got her pictures. They asked me to take the pictures, and I jumped at the chance to do it. They chose to do a mini session, which was perfect timing because we finished just before it started raining. It was a great start to the Easter weekend. St. Edward's give its students a long 5 day weekend (Thursday, Friday, and Monday off). I was able to do the shoot Thursday before I left for Easter in Dallas with the family. St. Edward's also is gifted with the hills on the school filling up with bluebonnets, so we were able to have the shoot on campus!

Those kind of friends

I recently did a shoot with some amazing friends that I've met here at St. Edward's in Austin. I met most of these people through LeaderShape. LeaderShape is a national organization that has offices at different universities. These offices work with LeaderShape at the national level to create "camps" for university students to attend. The camps allow students to meet new people and to help build leadership skills.

This experience was extremely important for me cause I got to make so many new friends. Being a new student and especially a transfer student, it was hard finding me niche at first. I finally found it with meeting these people through LeaderShape, and joining Student Government Association, and being Vice President for Transfer Student Association.

Michael, Yvette, Anna, Ryan, and Fox looking adorable! I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. So if I were to lable each of my friends based on which HP characted he/she would be this is what it would be:

Michael would be Ron Weasley

Yvette would be Fleur Delacour

 Anna would be Cho Chang

Ryan would be Neville Longbottom

Fox would be George Weasley

 

I would like to note though that Michael and Fox are not related in any way.

 

Can you guess where this is originally from? It was just by coincidence that there were three guys and two girls. It kinda just hit me to do the Breakfast Club pose. I never actually saw the Breakfast Club (it's on my list of things to do) but I saw Pitch Perfect so I feel like I know enough to make the reference and take the picture.

 

Aren't these two just adorable? Yvette and Michael have been together for almost 3 years now. I first met Yvette at LeaderShape. We were in the same small group. I met Michael when the semester started during a Student Government meeting. I had only officially been in the association for a few weeks and I was still trying to get figure out all the senators and members. It took me a little bit to make the connection between the two.

The guys were talking and laughing while still on pose. These guys are so funny. I can't even remember exactly what they were laughing about because the whole evening we were laughing about tons of stuff.

 

This is a concept piece about how your friends are always there to keep you from walking into deep waters. I asked everyone who would like toe take off their shoes and Yvette was the first one to say anything. She even started taking off her shoes when I said it. Anna wanted to be at the very end, it's funny that the smallest and the girl is pulling back all the guys. 

 



 

 

Fundraising Mini Sessions

From December 14-January 4 I held free mini sessions for clients who wished to donate to my mission trip instead. After the mini session, clients will get 3 free photos. My mission trip is this May and I'll be going with a church group to work with Habitat for Humanity in Lafayette, Louisiana. I am really excited for this trip because I have never been on an actual mission trip before. Thank you to everyone who donated and supported me in this fundraising process.



Ryan and Cathy took up on this offer and had me shoot them in a completely new place. We went to Perry Homestead and it is now one of my favorite rustic places. I loved how there was a gorgeous barn to shoot with. I will definitely recommend this location to clients in the Carrolton area!

The Thomas's have an annual Christmas party and asked me to be the party photographer for the evening! It was a lot of fun because I knew a lot of the families attending and everyone was fun and silly. There was amazing food served, including my mama's famous mushroom rice. 

Two families of the Thomas clan!

Megan and Adam

Brown family including newly engaged Lauren Brown and Nelson Simpson

Mr. Martin has a very large hat collection. He wanted to some how document it and catalogue every hat. Then he plans on making a slideshow and putting it to music. Here are just some of his hats.

The entire collection!

My cousins also wanted some pictures of themselves!

My cousins Joe and Mallery, and Mallery's husband Josh

Mallery and Joe coordinated so well 

Austin K

I met Austin through my church. We went to this park with outdoor public pool (there's a few of those around Austin). I have never been there before, so it was a new experience for me. When we got to the site, I learned from Austin that the place was actually where the church held baptisms a year ago. There was a dock leading out to the river. While we were shooting, UT rowers were practicing and came by. They were practicing for a regatta and actually asked us who won because it was so close. Sadly we weren't paying enough attention to it. I now found one of my new favorite places to shoot in Austin.

Holly C

Holly is in my Photo 1 Film class. For our final projects we took portraits of each other as part of it. It's a tit-for-tat thing. When I asked Holly to not smile and just look serious, she jumped right into the character! Most others that I shot for the project kept laughing and could not stay serious, which I understand. When Holly took my photos, I kept laughing. We walked around campus for a bit and she took me down to a place that I have never been before. It was a little alcove with a cross and some candles. It was like a little prayer area.

Everyone in class sees the photos during the critique. This will be interesting since they know one of the models in my project.

Ashley R

Sunset provides the perfect lighting. Sadly sunset is always changing, and you have to adjust in order to shoot in that perfect light. Luckily, I was able to shoot Ashley in this light. We met during Transfer Student Orientation and just started hanging out. She became one of my closest friends here in Austin. Ashley is a photo major, so being in front of the camera was a little different for her. :D I wish I could post some of things we say and joke about, but they're too random to try and organize it into this post.