Jake Holt Photography - Austin, Texas Photographer » austin texas

Julie & David’s after-session @ Design Within Reach | Austin, Texas

Jake H — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:22:12 +0000

Dear Design Within Reach – I want to own all of your stuff. How can we make this happen? I have a $2 bill and a Michael Jordan rookie card, can we work something out?

p.s. – The photos with the doggies and kitty were taken at Julie and David’s place, not DWR, although it would be easy to mistake the two. I just want to save you the trip down to the 2nd Street District if your only goal is to pet the animals. I mean, just look at them! Of course you want to pet them.

Julie & David | Austin, Texas | June 5th, 2010

Jake H — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:31:13 +0000

Hand-filled vials of honey = pretty much the coolest favors I’ve seen yet. Speaking of other “pretty much the best (fill in the blank) I’ve seen,” these two cake-cutting shots will immediately be inducted into my personal hall of fame. The second of the two is PERFECT material for comic book style thought bubbles, so feel free to post your suggestions.

Jess & Justin | Austin, Texas | January 3rd, 2010

Jake H — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:30:43 +0000

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!

Lizzie & Khanh | Austin, Texas | November 14th, 2009

Jake H — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:54:38 +0000

Lizzie and Khanh gave me the opportunity to shoot at two new locations – Emmaus Catholic Parish and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I left each of these places impressed but also with questions – first, how long did it take to assemble that ceiling at Emmaus? That thing is insane. Second, did LBJ actually use that quilt, and if so, did we violate some kind of unspoken Texas law by acting silly in its presence? I really don’t want to offend LBJ.

Lauren & Chris | Austin, Texas | October 25th, 2009

Jake H — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:39:54 +0000

Shooting at Barr Mansion is a great experience – it’s one of those rare places that has so many great spots for photos that the challenge isn’t in finding a good spot, it’s in narrowing down all of the options and choosing which locations are the most awesome. My favorite spot, as you can see, is the main room in the “original mansion” – and Chris, Lauren and her bridesmaids did an admirable job of looking every bit as classic as the room itself.

WPJA award winner – first place!

Jake H — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:05:39 +0000

My favorite photo from Amy & Gerald’s February wedding in Austin just scored first place in the Creative Portrait category of the WPJA’s quarterly photo contest! For those unfamiliar with the Wedding Photojournalist Association, it’s a collection of some of the most talented wedding photographers in the world, so a first place finish is quite an honor. If you take a look at some of the other winners, even just in the same category, you’ll see that they come from all over: second place – Singapore, third place – NYC, fourth place – NYC, fifth place, Poland, etc., etc., etc. Wow. I highly recommend taking a look through all of the categories, there’s some amazing stuff! Thanks so much to Amy, Gerald, and Hotel Saint Cecilia!

In other related news…the October issue of Rare magazine hit the streets today in Austin, and Amy & Gerald’s wedding is featured on pages 88, 94 & 95, along with my photos from East Side Show Room on pages 56 through 59. Check check check it out!

Jenny’s Portraits | August 13th, 2009

Jake H — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:37:36 +0000

My friend Jenny needed some new headshots, and I wanted to try out some fun new portrait ideas in a couple of new locations, so we headed out on a trek across south-central Austin. We started at Jo’s coffee and ended up at the awesome Lustre Pearl, where, somewhere between discussing the finer points of sidecar mixology and draining my laptop battery to 0%, we managed to somehow take a few photos. Sugared rim! Sugared rim!

The Austin Ice Cream Festival | August 15th, 2009

Jake H — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:49:13 +0000

The third annual Austin Ice Cream Festival took place last Saturday at Waterloo Park, and while I attended simply as a fan of ice cream, I always take my camera to events with such potential – and good timing, a friend in the right place and having a camera that looks the part got me front and center with the media for the ice cream eating contest. These guys and gals ate a half gallon in mere minutes, something I’m not quite sure if I admire or not. Nonetheless, it made for good photos…