More family portraits

Mother's day was an excellent opportunity to take some portraits of my nieces and nephews running around at my parent's house. I then gave the portraits to my mom for her mother's day gift. Portraits of kids and grand kids is always something a mother loves.

Chloe

Grabbed some shots of my niece Chloe. Kids with this much personality are fun to photograph. :) Her parents will really dig these.

JAlbum

Just discovered a really simple but elegant online album service called Jalbum. It's completely free and there are no ads. Very simple to create and post albums - just chose your skin and drag and drop your desired photos. It takes just a few minutes and the albums look very nice. Here's my first one: http://mikeharris7.jalbum.net/Automotive/

Riding on a Ghost Train

A while back a gallery asked me to display this image in their gallery. When I delivered the print they asked me to sign it...and to title it. I don't usually title my pictures and was kind of stuck for a second. The owner suggested 'Train of Fools' due to the clown. I thought about it but I didn't like how it suggested everyone on the train was a 'fool'. Even the clown didn't seem 'foolish' - he was more of a 'guide' leading the train on a surreal journey. Today I was listening to a song by Marc Cohen called 'Riding on a Ghost Train'. I like that better. If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. :)

The Lonestar Round Up Car Show

Alright, as promised I'm posting some pics from the car show. It was a lot of fun - there were too many cars to shoot. I didn't have enough daylight to shoot them all - or even come close. Afterwards my friend Paul invited me to the party at the Austin Speed Shop. Grabbed a lot of really awesome pics there too. I'm still working on editing them all, but here's a few I really liked. You can see all of them at http://harrisphotography.zenfolio.com/p1058355619

Loved this 39 Ford

This is from The Paladin's set. Great music at the Speed Shop party!

Switching gears

I'm going to spend this weekend 'switching gears' from my usual wedding routine. One of the biggest car shows in the country is going on at the Travis Country Expo. The Lonestar Roundup draws thousands of the hottest of the hot rods around the country. The paint jobs on some of these cars cost more than my house (I kid you not). It's eye candy galore and they are a complete blast to photograph. I'll post some here when I get done. Stay tuned!

What the customers want...

I came home to a pleasant surprise today. One of my wedding customers placed a rather large print order. What I love about print orders is looking at them and seeing what images the customer liked. Here are some of the images they ordered from Randy and Carolyn's wedding.

Wildflower Portrait Special

Around this time every year in central Texas the wildflowers just explode. You also see dozens of folks squatting in the middle of them getting their pictures taken, so I am offering a professional option to take advantage of this photo op at a discounted price. From now until 4-9-2010 I'm offering $99 (+ tax) wildflower portrait sessions. This includes a 1 hour photo session with up to 5 people and a CD with edited high resolution images on them. The shoot doesn't have to happen before 4-9-2010 (although you want to do it soon to take advantage of the wildflowers), it just has to be ordered and a 50% deposit paid. Contact Michael Harris at 512-767-9929 to set up your appointment.

Paul and Cammie's Wedding

Paul and Cammie are two friends of mine. Paul used to run a bike shop near my house and since I'm constantly breaking stuff on it we got to know each other pretty quick. :) They actually had me shoot everything from their 'Save the Date' photographs to the bridal and engagement portraits and, of course, the wedding. Paul is into hot rods too and has been killing himself building a Model A street rod up in time for the wedding. One of the coolest weddings I've shot by far - loved the hot rod convoy leaving the church! (btw - note the bullet holes in one of the cars leaving the church. I need to ask about that - these aren't the sort of folks to put fake bullet holes into a car. Wonder if the car belonged to some 1920's gangster - wouldn't that be cool!).

Randy and Carolyn's Wedding

Texas weather in spring is a fickle mistress to say the least. You can experience all 4 seasons in a day, and a powerfull cold front that dumped half a foot of snow on Dallas was showing us that winter wasn't done with us despite what the calendar said. The same calendar that showed I had Randy and Carolyn's wedding shoot at the Villa Vista - an outdoor wedding venue. The day started to the sound of rolling thunder and sleet pelting my window before dawn. I winced in my bed. I had never seen an indoor wedding attempted there. This should be an adventure.

I made sure to arrive half and hour early as I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. The furniture had all been cleared out inside the Villa and very nice white folding chairs were lined up in neat little rows. Flowers and blue LED accent lighting had been placed strategically. The sustained 30mph winter winds howling outside were now an after thought. The very tight quarters did make photographing the event tricky, but I managed. The wedding came off top notch. Randy and Carolyn were very kind and generous. Very laid back - they took the weather and the problems it caused in stride. It didn't ruffle a feather.

Mike and Chrissy's Wedding

These are some images from a recent wedding I photographed at La Villa Vista on Lake Travis. It's also the first wedding where I used a wireless flash. I loved the results. Mike and Chrissy and their families were wonderful - very laid back and very friendly. It's so fun to be a part of something like this. I wish them a long and happy marriage.

Cammie and Paul Engagement photos

Hi all - I got to take some engagement photos for some friends of mine this last Sunday. I played with some new post processing techniques and some cool Austin locations to give the photos a vintage, dreamy feel. At least that's what I was going for. Hope you, as well as Paul and Cammie, like them. ;)