I am looking for a few senior photography reps for Austin/Dallas high schools, but that will be on  different website/blog.  More on that later.

I have just received my set up of a new lighting rig for outdoor portraits on Friday which includes a beauty dish and a flash head that can pump an incredible amount of power which I need for outdoor use (bright daylight, whatever).  My usual test subject, my wife Hazel, is in Dallas so she wasn’t available, but my parents who are 82 and 72 respectively, are.   I guess it’s called, “senior” senior photography  It was a quick 5 minute shoot and it was also hard because, well, they’re my parents! 

Then my dog starts to get into the fun…

Dogs are more fun outdoors, so took the rig out and hook up to a battery and did another image 5 feet from the house with harsh daylight.   The flash power is sweet – I can pump enough out of it to overwhelm the sun and darken the sky…

It was fun! (and annoyingly fun to get my dog to stay still)    We have an incredible number of weddings and portraits (engagement, etc) in April and May (9 weddings and 5 sessions so far) so it was fun to take a small break at end of March and try out new ways of using light for outdoor/indoor purposes.  We’ll be using this rig for outdoor weddings or portrait session that doesn’t require moving around (the total weight is about 60 lbs or so on a cart, so it’s not very portable).  

Last saturday we drove 1000 miles to Aspen from Dallas for a week of hanging out, skiing, shooting, sleeping, drinking, etc.  To make a long story short, my wife Hazel won the University of Texas MBA’s raffle ticket at the end of her school year for a week at Aspen.  The raffle tickets were $300, she was only able to afford ONE ticket.  There people in her class that spent probably 30 tickets in a group trying to get it (after all, it IS Aspen…)   The house belongs to one of her friends’ family from school (at the time she didn’t know that). 

Anyway, Hazel invited her friend whose family owns the house, Tatiana, and her boyfriend Ben, and bunch of people and we ended up with a small groups of friends and had a blast in Aspen.

Some photos:

I have no idea what I am doing with this image – #1 Jayhawks, perhaps?

Hazel is thinking about something while Tatiana is painting….

It’s funny, drove all the way from Texas to check out some boots (with her friend Kate from school as well)

So all of these images are taken in the first day we were there… planning the ski trails, i think, that’s what everyone was doing.

The whole week, for me, goes like this:

Wake up at 8 am, eat breakfast.  Ski from 10 am to 12 pm, lunch.  Ski from 1 pm until 2-3 pm. Back at the house.  Hot tub with Kate, Matt, Hazel, Tatiana, Ben and whoever

We did take some time off on Thursday to photograph Tatiana and her boyfriend Ben (that will be the NEXT post….).  But pretty much the whole week goes like that.  And as the week goes on, the more painful my legs become.  Matt went snowboarding for the first time with Kate and they were hurting afterwards – if you have ever seen a new snowboarder, well, you either land on your head or on your butt.  I was fairly cautious due to the number of weddings I have in March and April as the wedding season is about to swing into full gear in 3 weeks and only went to some of the blues and the greens.

I have spent all of my time on Buttermilk mountain, out of 4 different areas.  Hazel took a couple of skiing lessons (she’s fairly new) in the week.

The next fun series of pics is Friday when all of us got together to make some dumplings and what not and Hazel’s other crazy friend Kira arrives later in the evening….

So this is basically pyromaniacs Tatiana and Ben trying to start a fire while Hazel trying to get the wrapper going.

Matt wanted a pic of himself making the wrapper so that his mom would believe that he actually did it

Speaking of pyromaniacs…  Kate is a fire dancer and so she did a show for all of us after dinner (WARNING: don’t do this at home….   Kate is a trained professional)

Kira and Matt shared a moment (and wine)…  (I can’t post it, it’s rated R…. )

Not sure why all three girls got into the same bed….

Funny shirt…  ”How’s your Aspen?”

Goofing around in Aspen…

The bear got abused by Tatiana,

Thank you Tatiana, Ben, Matt, Kate and Kira for the fun times…

Hazel & Tony

We went to EMO’s the first night on Thursday, I believe this is Be Your Own Pet band….

The “official” photographers of the SxSW.

The next day we went to the UT Art Museum on campus….

Matt the wise man…

Matt wanted to visit the FROG, the famous frog mural next to UT.  So we went there (and after another trip to a barbecue place….), a couple of girls came up and wanted Matt to take pictures of them in front of the frog with their polaroid, so Matt obliged.  Matt was telling them that they need to get it signed by him cuz he’s awesome!  :)   I actually like this picture a lot, i don’t know why – maybe it’s because the girls were so camera unaware and the expression on their faces as they wait for the polaroid to develop…..

Matt doing the Asian pose….

After two days of that, we went to Nadia’s wedding – here’s Nadia (her award winning images from WPJA this year):