When Blithe and Scott brought up the idea of shooting their engagement session at Ikea, I was incredibly excited about the possibilities but not too hopeful that it would ever come to fruition – getting permission to shoot on private property is always a hit-or-miss affair, and when it comes to large retail chains, my hit rate so far has been 0%. Surprisingly, the folks at Ikea in Round Rock were incredibly inviting and allowed us to go throughout the store at our leisure, even though it was INSANELY busy that day. The funny thing was, all of the shoppers seemed to be so involved in searching for deals that not one single person even asked what we were doing or gave us strange looks, even when we had multiple lights going off – they just walked right past us to look at the merchandise! I guess when you’re in Ikea you’re on a mission…
So, I went to a portrait session and a wedding broke out! Jess and Justin’s session was without a doubt one of the most unforgettable shoots of my life – not because of the awesome location, Austin’s own Hotel Saint Cecilia, one of my absolute favorite settings, but because of the unexpected way in which the day unfolded. This requires a bit of backstory – Jess and Justin are both in the military and were due to ship out in about 10 days, with plans to get married when they returned. They were originally going to two very different locations - Jess to Spain, and Justin to Alaska. However, they discovered that if they were married prior to shipping out that they could be assigned to the same place, so plans were made to have a small private ceremony at Mt. Bonnell, officiated by Justin’s best friend, with a full-sized wedding taking place when they return from their assignments. When someone is willing to give up living in Spain to come live with you in Alaska, you know you have something special! Anyway, our original plan was to spend a couple of hours shooting around the South Congress area, and then for Jess, Justin and friends to head to Mt. Bonnell for the ceremony. Well, mother nature didn’t like that plan, so we headed back to St. Cecilia for the shoot in order to avoid the rain. As the rain continued and plans for a Mt. Bonnell ceremony began to look bleak, the decision was made to have the ceremony on the patio of their room at St. Cecilia and, since I was there with my cameras and all, well, of course I photographed the ceremony as well! It was such a change of pace not having hundreds of guests watching, and I felt very lucky to be a part of something so unique and intimate. Congrats guys, I hope you enjoy Alaska…you can always go visit Spain on your honeymoon!
Friend and fellow photographer Annie Ray was just selected by Rare magazine as a 2010 “Up and Comer,” and I was asked to do the photographing honors. What an awful gig, I thought – photographing a friend and her cats. And then I remembered that I like friends, and I like cats, so I graciously accepted. You can check out the January issue of Rare online (page 62!) or throughout our fair city in the time-tested and always classy printed format. BTW, the orange guy’s name is Cowboy, but I’m not sure about the other one…what can I say, I’m partial to the orange ones.
I know, I know – I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging lately. In my defense, I have a hard time justifying blogging when I’m trying my best to spend most of my waking hours editing the many, many thousands of images that can quickly pile up during a busy busy busy fall wedding season. However, as the last couple of weddings of the season approach completion, I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some of my favorite images from my November and December portrait sessions. Everyone, meet Trisha & Joe, Mairin & Chris, and Alison & Matt, and stay tuned…in the next few days I’ll be sharing two of the most unique portrait sessions that I’ve ever shot. Unique how, you say? Well, one takes place in the only furniture superstore that sells lingonberry juice, and the other started as an engagement session on South Congress and ended, two hours later, in an unexpected but 100% legit impromptu wedding ceremony at Hotel Saint Cecilia. It’s been a very interesting 2010 so far…
by Jake H
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