recent portraits...

This has been a wild summer, and I'm watching it slowly come to a close. It's been one full of incredibly important memories--thrilling, hilarious, and devastating. Particularly of note is the recurring theme of people entering and exiting my life. So, though I'm excited to eventually share photographs of my various travels and photo shoots, here is a brief catalogue of the portraits of the summer... ladies and gentlemen who are in my life daily, who were there for less than a minute, who are soon going away and will be missed.

(And also a preview of more elaborate posts to come...)

This is Amy. She traipsed all around Mexico with me. From the capital city to Mazunte to Oaxaca to San Cristobal to Palenque to Tulum. We drank more wine than tequila, we danced in the jungle, we hiked all over ruins, we got sunburnt.

This is Lola. She befriended us within minutes of being in Mazunte. She accompanied us to the beach and took afternoon naps in our hostel cabana. Lola almost got us into trouble when she almost started a dog fight on 5 a.m. hike and woke up a whole house of sleepy, annoyed locals.

This is Elsa Cross, a badass Austin musician, originally from the Northeast. She's taking over this town and let me photograph her doing it. Also featured here is her badass dog Stella.

I don't know this man's name, but he was awesome. He was also into me photographing him, which made him even cooler in my book. Probably one of my top favorite photos from the last few months.

This is me and Emiliano, one of the coolest guys I've ever met. I only knew him for a few days, but he took good care of us and openly shared the crazy stories of his youth. I don't think I'll ever forget him.

These are some of my favorite people ever. From the left: Matt, Deblina, Andrew, Nick. Not enough words for the antics we get into.

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kim + issac...

I recently had the pleasure of photographing an engagement session for Kim and Issac, two lovely Austinites with a penchant for vintage furniture and sharp dress. We found a beautiful park, and proceeded to move them in.

















This was such a fun shoot. I mean, can't you tell? Both Kim and Issac were super easy going... absolute champs about playing outside on a cold day at sunrise. Thanks again guys, and many thanks as well to Kendall for helping out as my assistant on that day.

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dos lunas cheese...

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. It's December, you tell me?! How did that happen so fast?

A lot has been happening in the past few weeks, and life got a lot busier pretty quickly. The most exciting development has been working with Edible Austin , helping to organize the awesome series of food-related events that is Eat Drink Local Week. Since it started this past Saturday, I've hung out at the beautiful Springdale Farm photographing a delicious pig roast and shot candids at the VIP reception for a talk by Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson at The Paramount Theater in downtown Austin. While the reception was tons of fun (particularly because I got to eat tons of delicious hor d'oeuvres by the good people of Dai Due), I'm most excited about the photos from the pig roast. So many happy folks and so many tasty treats, surrounded by chickens, gardens, mason jar lights, and fire pits. But you'll all just have to WAIT AND SEE, because those photos quite ready yet.

The photos I'm posting today are also related to Edible Austin in that they were for an article on Joaquin Avellan of Dos Lunas Cheese in the winter edition of the magazine. You can check out the article here and also read more about the delicious raw dairy product on the Dos Lunas Website. Buy it, put it on everything, eat it. It's the yummiest, creamiest cheese ever, and puts pasteurized cheese to shame. Also, Joaquin and his nephew Javier (who runs most of the Dos Lunas farmer's market stands) are some of the nicest people around... both genuine and fascinating. On top of making delectable cheeses, Joaquin is a photographer himself! I had a truly fantastic time chatting up a storm with him while shooting some portraits and product shots. Only one photo made it into the publication, but here are the best that came out of the whole day.

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slow and sunkissed...

Hello nice people out there.

Austin is treating me wonderfully. So wonderfully that I am slacking off with posting photographs and sharing news, but I've struggled with that since I started this thing. There's something about Austin that slows everyone down. It's easy to forget that months have passed here. Time gets muddled and forgotten about. It's both a glorious and kind of frightening thing. But I'm giving myself some fun new projects, so they will definitely be making it to the blog soon!

Some lovely opportunities have been coming my way recently, and I don't know if they're all definite, but it's certainly an exciting time. It feels like things are starting to come together in a way that I've wanted for a long time, but who knows. I'm hesitant to say anything in detail as things are still very much up in the air!

Aside from all that, I've been having a few grand adventures here and there. One of the most recent was a trip up to the highest point in Austin, Mount Bonnell, to watch the sunrise. It was glorious! These photos don't even do it justice... the quiet, the stillness of the water, the birds flying so much closer to you. Everyone should watch the sunrise whenever possible.

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hope farmer's market...

Well it's almost October, and autumn has failed to scare away our three-digit temperatures here in Austin. The hottest day of the summer was a Sunday a few weeks back. I think it hit about 115 degrees, though my car thermometer claimed 119 at one point! However, I'm a firm believer that fun can happen in any temperature.

On that insanely hot day, I was out at one of my favorite weekend spots, the Hope Farmer's Market, having a blast. It was their End-of-Summer East Side County Fair--it boasted all the staples of a good carnival, but with a focus on fresh, local veggies! Kids had a great time getting soaked at the vegetable bobbing station by Johnson's Backyard Garden, everyone enjoyed free deep-fried-veggies by Hope's resident fryer Phil (I sliced those beets and sweet potatoes, though!), and all the while some quality music was played by local band, Whiskey Shivers. So, despite the month long delay on these photographs, I thought I would finally share the images of all the fun and food had at the County Fair. And also remind folks that while it isn't making anyone happy to see 105 degrees in Fall, well shit, at least it's not 115 anymore.

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grapes and grapes and grapes...

Here are lots more photos of those grapes! And other things you might find on vineyard adventures. Like a giant harvesting machine. And a bunny. And Bill. Hey, Thanks again Bill and Chris (of William Chris Wines) for letting me spend a morning out exploring your land.

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