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Earlier this month Gillian came in to get her portrait taken and things didn't go very well. You can read about it here. Well today she came back and was all smiles. Dad''s going to have a tough time choosing one of these images.
It was fun Gillian, come back anytime!
This weekend while mommy was out of town, I took the kids to San Antonio to visit their Godfather, Chad. Because of my crazy schedule we had to plan this well in advance but it was well worth the trip. It was also the first road trip by myself with the kids.
Friday afternoon we got in the car and headed out of town. Just leaving Houston can be a challenge but eventually we got to cruising speed and kicked on the DVD player.
The kids did great until their movie was over. On the way to San Antonio the Buc-ees franchise has a sign about every 3 miles. Personally, I think the signs look awful but the kids wanted to go there because their uncle Stephen has a shirt with the beaver. So we stopped in, went to the bathroom, purchased a pulled pork sandwich (it was awful) and grabbed a couple of shirts. Yep, you guessed it...mass marketing at its finest.
We arrived in San Antonio and got a good night's sleep before a big day at Sea World. The kids were excited to see Chad and play with Nicole.
If you plan to go to Sea World this summer be sure and purchase your tickets online. They are cheaper and you don't have to wait in line to get in. It was a good start to a crowded day. Our other cousin, Bryan, and his son, Noah, met us in San Antonio too. Whitney and Noah were excited to see each other. So life was good at the Dolphin Pool.
We caught (get it) the Shamu show where James and I sat in the "Splash Zone." After the killer whales splashed everyone, James decided he wanted to move higher. Luckily we didn't get too wet. The show was cool but a little anti-climactic. This was the best part (below).
Everyone was hungry, so we had the tradition $350.00 Turkey leg. James and Chad were the best at chowing down.
After the food and shows we headed to the water park so the kids could play. It was pretty nice because the pool was only 2 feet deep and we could see the kids anywhere. We hung out in lawn chairs and watched the kids have fun.
The kids played until they could play no more. They voluntarily wanted to go home so we knew they had fun.
Before we left, I took Noah, James and Whitney into a candy store and told them they could get whatever they wanted but it could only be one thing. Its funny watching them struggle with a decision when there is so much to choose from. Noah and Whitney went with the cotton candy and James likes food on a stick.
We headed home and everyone fell sound asleep. After a couple hours the house came alive again just in time for a little yard fishing and backyard play. Chad has this little fishing rod that James played with all weekend.
Whitney and Nicole got cleaned up and were ready to play in the play house.
Nicole would do everything she could to avoid the camera. Finally I tricked her into looking at me and I grabbed a few quick smiles. She is such a sweet little thing that we don't get to see very often.
We took the beautiful lighting and cool weather as an opportunity for family portraits. We really miss these guys and wish they still lived in Houston.
Nicole was a real stinker and would taunt me with sweet smiles right before I put the camera to my face. So I just ran around her and took as many quick images as I could. We call this a shotgun method. 150 images are taken but only a couple hit the target.
Chad was very interested in modeling as a young man but decided modeling wasn't going to raise a family so he decided to get into real estate. As you can see here he probably made a wise choice.
To marry a Clark male takes a lot of energy and resistance to obnoxious behavior, stupid jokes and every day ballyhoo (I love that word). Stacie has settled in nicely with the Clark crew. I realized she has come full circle when she shot me the ever typical, "My Clark husband is an idiot and you better get that camera out of my face!" look.
And Lastly I grabbed a few images of the sweet puppy, Suerte. He is not real happy with me taking his photo. I think we miss seeing him trample though my backyard the most.
We had an awesome time and got home safely. I survived a trip by myself with the kids and it was great to see the family. Thanks guys for letting us hang with you and chill for a couple of days.
While recently shopping for baby gifts for our children's God Mother we were lucky to discover a wonderful baby and children’s décor and gift boutique in the Rice Village named Nest & Cot. I never stick to baby registries because I like to find cute, memorable, one-of-a-kind gifts. I found just that when I walked into the Nest and Cot.
You can't help but say, “aww” and “oh how cute” as you look around at all the accessories, décor and sweet baby clothes. On top of that, the specialty products, such as baby slings, baby wipe covers, and diaper pads are designed for fashionable moms in cool contemporary fabrics and colors. You won’t find the traditional standard boy and girl cartoonish patterns here.
I was so excited about this little shop of sweetness that we just had to feature them in our Small Business Segment for our May newsletter (soon to come out.) Danny and I stopped by to visit and get some great sample images of the wonderful products that they carry. Lauren was such a great host and gave us the ultimate tour.
Whitney Janke (beautiful name by the way) and Ramsey Miller are the owners. Along with the store manager, Lauren and staff, they provide custom design services for baby's nurseries and children's rooms. They can assist with every detail from, the custom and designer bedding, the handcrafted cribs and furniture (Bratt Décor), all the way to the chandelier. The room designs can take your precious baby from sweet nursery to toddler-hood and into their young teens. Many of the cribs have conversions to toddler beds.
Like us, they pride themselves on customer service and attention to detail. These ladies will sit down with you and help create a beautiful room that fits your style and personality. They have lots of samples and example room displays to help you select specific design elements for your room.
In addition, they carry many of the well known designer bedding lines to choose from. But if that isn't enough, there is an endless selection of custom fabric options for custom bedding and window treatments that they exclusively design specific to your needs. This allows you to mix and match fabrics, textures, and patterns to pull together a one-of-a-kind room that will surely charm the little one in your family. (These colors just remind me of a bowl of yummy sherbert.) Whether you want the room to be traditional, contemporary or shabby chic, the girls at Nest & Cot can help you pull it all together.
The store has a great feel of comfy luxury from its beautiful bedding to the little antique details that help combine the elegance of things worn with things new.
Our son, James is now 3 years old going on 15 and although he is completely past the "baby feeding" stage, sometimes when we want him to eat more of his dinner (especially the veggies), we will do the tried and true "airplane" move. You know, you take a scoop of food on the spoon and mimic a plane flying into the mouth along with all the typical plane sounds. Well I found this Babyplane spoon (below). Isn't that just too cute? What a great gift idea. Any of my close friends will tell you that I love gift packaging as much as I enjoy finding the perfect gift. Imagine this Babyplane tied to a wrapped gift for a baby boy.
In the studio we see a lot of Christening gowns. These are a few samples of the elegant silk gowns and rompers they have to choose from. The Nest and Cot also sells an array of clothing including bibs, onesies, and dresses.
Everything in the store has been carefully selected all the way down to the absolutely adorable Mary Jane baby socks. They now even have little baby boy versions that look like cowboy boots. I am sure a mom came up with these. Have you ever tried to get a baby under the age of 6 months into a pair of shoes? The baby will curl their toes making it literally impossible to get their little feet into shoes...besides why do infants wear shoes? To look cute. So these little socks definitely accomplish that. As you can see, they also carry plenty of sparkle.
In the last year Nest & Cot relocated to it's current location on Rice (near Morningside) after being on Bissonnet. If you are expecting or have a friend or family member that will soon be welcoming their little one into this world, you need to stop into Nest & Cot to see what's new. They love what they do and that shows through their helpful customer interactions and ability to cater to each of their clients. Truly impeccable service is what separates successful businesses and Whitney and Ramsey have definitely accomplished this. When you go in be sure to tell them we said hello.
The store is located at 2402 Rice Boulevard (near Morningside) Check out their website at www.nestandcot.com
713-429-5246
This week we had two out of town families come in for their family portrait. Alice Flusser wanted photos of her grandchildren so she brought them in while they were visiting from out of town. I love photographing families that can't stop laughing.
While we did manage to get great images I wanted to show a couple of the really funny and fun ones. This was the crew from Boston. They were not told they were having their portrait taken until they arrived at the studio. Talk about pressure. But these kids were keeping their parents young with their personalities.
The second crew that came in was from Jersey. We had a ridiclously silly time with these kids and the parents were just as silly. The next portrait cannot be planned. Dad is wondering why the kids can't hold still, mom is just trying to focus on the camera and the kids are pretty much in complete control.
we have these personality panels in the studio that are pretty cool for animated kids like these. I basically sit them down and get a bunch of silly faces from them and we put them together in a panel. It has to be planned out and Margaret wanted this for her grand kids. These kids were too goofy.
I hope these families get to come back soon. We hope you like your preview Alice!
Sunday afternoon we met up with Farrah and her crew to try out the new Discovery Green park in downtown Houston. Of course being a "green" family we decided to all take the Metro Rail to the park. The nice thing about the rail is that the adventure with the kids starts as soon as we get out of the car and get on the train.
We headed to downtown and were excited to play! This is a seriously rag tag group of misfits.
From the train you walk just 5 short blocks to the park. Its not that far of a walk and the kids had fun being downtown. Right up front there is this big water tree. Finn and Whitney were excited to play in the water.
Whitney had a great time running around. The park was full of people but it was a nice crowd and the weather was perfect.
James liked to play in the water but he was a little cold. This face pretty much says it all.
Here is the dynamic duo, otherwise known as Frick and Frack.
On the other side of the water tree there is another big water spout play area. This was pretty much a free for all. Whitney was all about running through the water.
Every now and then a sprinkler would shoot up and tag you right in the nose. Whitney had a great solution for that.
On the other end of the park there is this large art scape called Synchronicity of Color. James and I walked around and took a few pictures of it.
I took a photo of the whole thing just to give you a little perspective. They were quite large. I want to take a High School Senior portrait against this artwork.
I asked James to lean up against the wall and just be real cool. If this isn't a portrait of confidence I don't know what is.
He definitely has a look of impish intolerance to order and authority.
Lastly I took Whitney over to the walls but she was much to energetic for a picture. So I took a bunch of her running around. I wish I had energy like these guys do. It just seems to never end with them.
Yet again we had a perfect Sunday afternoon.
We just wanted to wish everyone a great weekend. Enjoy the day with great golf, great tennis or whatever makes you happy. And get plenty of rest.
Last weekend Farrah and I headed downtown to photograph Megan and Phillip's wedding day. The weather was beautiful and the party was a lot of fun! One of the first things I do when I get to the church is find the groom and find the ring. This usually results in the groomsmen getting together looking for the ring. Unbeknownst to everyone else, I am just trying to get all the guys together in one place.
Unfortunately for Phillip when he opened the box there was no ring. The look of concern was not something I had the heart to photograph. After a few phone calls and bag searches we found the ring and we were able to get the first ring shot of the day.
The wedding was at the Christ Co-Cathedral Church downtown. This is not an easy shot to take since I have to stand in the middle of a busy street to get the whole church. Look at that awesome sky! It was so crisp and cool too.
I headed back to the girls and grabbed a few of the dress prep. Megan was in great spirits and was probably one of the calmest brides I have encountered.
Phillip was pretty excited about the whole event. The church was packed with people that were busy guarding any exits (just kidding).
These two little flower girls were very sweet.
After the wedding we gathered outside for a few more shots and piled into the limo for the reception.
I went with the wedding party in the limo. I had to do a little Jedi mind trick on the driver to let me sit in the front seat. He was reluctant but realized we were not discussing it, I was riding in the front with him.
The reception was at the Majestic Metro. Around the corner is a neat little alley where we originally took Megan and Phillips engagement portrait. These types of portraits can really only be done with two photographers.
Phillip and his best man reminiscing about the days before marriage....
The Majestic Metro was all gussied up for the event. I snuck up to the balcony to take this image. The DJ and his posse were a little reluctant to let me hang over the edge but again I used my Jedi mind powers of persuasion.
The ever popular Better Together portrait with the bride and groom.
After we watched the kids party the day away, we had about an hour left before sunset. We hustled over to their hotel at the Magnolia and headed to the roof for a little sexy time sunset portraits.
At last the couple was married and partied out.
Oh and I think they were tired of us taking their photo too.
Farrah and I give each other little assignments during our weddings. We decided that we had to come up with a series of images that were "Sweet." Right before we left the rooftop Megan was busy showing us how she could touch her tongue to her nose. By the look on Phillips face I could tell all he was thinking that was "SCHAWEEEEET!"
And then a last minute sunset of the H-Town skyline.
So that ends another awesome rocked out wedding by the BT crew. We hope Megan and Phillip love their little sneak peaks. To check out what Farrah captured head on over to her blog and be sure to leave comments!
Yesterday my good buddy Tim came in all the way from Manhattan to hang with us for the afternoon. While he was here I put him to work helping me install a new wood floor in one of our studio rooms. Later this summer we are planning on having a ballerina promotion so I wanted to make a better presentation for the portraits.
Lucky for us Little Miss Landry came by this morning to be the very fist ballerina on the dance floor. For the month of April we are doing free sessions during the week. Landry was our first today and we had a great time.
I photographed her brother when he was the same age, and I can tell you these two kids are related. I love silly baby expressions and Landry was chalk full of them.
Kimberly and Bo are great parents and have the happiest babies I have seen. I hope you guys love your sneak peak!
The other day I taught Whitney how to ride her bike without training wheels. Her 3 year old little brother James is a lot like most Clark's when it comes to competition. We will not be outdone in ANY way. So naturally he wanted to take the training wheels off his bike. After a couple of tries this adamant little boy was cruising around without his training wheels.
Sometimes he scares me with his jack rabbit like agility and his high energy intensity. Here is a little video for you to enjoy of the kids riding their bikes.
Sunday morning after a wedding I get to rest while the kids and Denise go to church. Its only fair, I went to church on Saturday right?. Anyhow, when they got back we decided to head out to Hermann Park for a little play time. Apparently the rest of Houston was doing the same thing. The streets were parking lots and we could not find anywhere to park. So I decided to go park at the Metro Rail Station and we would just ride the train! The kids were excited about their first Metro Train ride.
James makes this funny face whenever you ask him a silly question. I don't know what his mother asked but basically he is responding "Naaawww."
James thought it was awesome we were going faster than the cars.
Whitney liked people watching.
It was actually pretty nice to just get on the train and head right to the park. The train stops right near the entrance to the Museum and the big playground. James and Whitney had never been to this playground before. It was like a whole new world to play in.
James Loved all the slides! The next few images are from Denise. She is wanting to learn more about photography so I am helping her out.
Whitney liked playing on the tug boat.
After some play time we got back on the train and headed down to the museum district for a bite to eat at the Museum of Fine Art. There we got to see a bunch of the Houston Art Cars on display.
This car ROCKED!
It was covered with metal and beads and all sorts of strange reflective stuff.
Then there was this other car with all these fish and lobsters singing. The guy in the car controlled some type of actuator to make the sea creatures dance and sing. The kids loved it.
There was even a conductor that got the crowd going.
The baddest car on the lot was this old Lincoln Continental that was patriotically painted.
The kids loved the Lego car too. IT was just their size.
And there was plenty of cool stuff to look at.
Across the street from the museum there were more cars to check out. I think this was my favorite.
Whitney liked the faces on this car.
I loved the bumper sticker.
The rat car was "really cute but yucky" according to Whitney.
One of the last cars we looked at was covered with toys. I thought about all this spare parts of toys we had at home and are now considering creating my own art car.
Farrah's son Sayer is in love with Star Wars. I need to find this toy for his 5th birthday.
Awesome hood ornament.
After the fun at the museum and the park we headed home. James was in need of a hair cut so we stopped to get that done. Whitney also wanted to get her hair cut. We gave her a book of pictures and told her to pick out the hair she liked. Her mother was having a rough time with her selection. Especially when Judy (the stylist) handed her mother this..
My little Punky got it all taken off. She thought she looked pretty good and I had to agree. Now we can bring on the summer.
With all these "big girl" decisions, Whitney was ready to learn to ride her bike without training wheels.
So we got home, grabbed her bike and headed to a parking lot to teach her how to fall ride. She was ready and now that she had this fantastic hair style her hair was not in the way.
I ran along with her for a little while and she was constantly asking me if I was holding on. I could tell she was almost there but just needed to feel it for herself.
Finally she broke loose and felt the freedom. This kid was ultra giddy. She just started giggling uncontrollably while asking me if I was still holding on.
I was so happy to see here having fun riding her bike like a big kid. She was proud of herself and having a great time. I told her she will never forget how to ride a bike and she yelled back, "OK Daddy Thanks!"
Sure she fell a few times but handled it well. I guess knowing she can ride makes up for the unintentional intimacy with concrete. She was proud of herself and so were we.
We ended the day on that note and I let her ride her bike for a while. James was super tired so we had to head home and get them ready for the night. I hope everyone else had as great a day as we did.
Saturday morning I had to run a few errands and we stopped by Roberts to grab a quick photo of Whitney's new street sign. During the school auction I purchased the circle drive sign and we designated it "Whitney Way".
Whitney was really excited about the sign. I'm sure it is going to be something she will let all her friends know about. I can't believe she is almost done with her first year of school. It's amazing how fast she has grown.
The weather was great and the kids were having fun but we couldn't stay. I grabbed this last shot of them looking into the camera with the stunning blue sky. There won't be many weekends like this in Houston for a while.
So I rushed back home and got ready to go work on Megan and Phillips wedding. Farrah and I were jazzed about this one and ended up having a lot of fun.
The wedding was beautiful, the weather was great and the couple was happy. Here is one more quick sneak peak of the happy couple on the roof of the Magnolia Hotel right before sunset.
Great combination. Keep an eye out here we will get more of the happy couples day blogged later this week.
Friday was a light morning with mainly paper work and phone calls but the real fun started at noon. I was asked by the guys over at The Hollywood Frame Gallery to photograph two dogs and a cat for an art piece Jim Tweedy was working on. I headed over to the house and found the funniest little white dog,
the toughest little red dog
and a black cat that could care less I was there.
After the shoot I had to rush off to pick up Whitney at a High School Musical 2 party. Roberts had let out at noon Friday and the Kindergarten Girls were having a little "get together" When I got to the party local Whitney and a bunch of other little girls were all standing in front of the television singing and dancing. It reminded me of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Whitney and I headed off to get groceries to feed the Charnquist/Braniff crew. Farrah and I were shooting a wedding Saturday so we usually get together the night before to go over stuff. As always, Farrah is a horrible influence and encourages my kids to jump on the furniture. She will be updating her blog with the events that evening but let me share at least one image with you. I title this "Total Loss of Control" by Farrah Braniff.
Everyone left too late, too tired, and too upset but all had fun and were ready for a wedding shoot.
Tomorrow the rockin crew of Better Together (Danny and Farrah) will be photographing Megan Barr's wedding day. I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty good party. They have gone out of their way to make sure this party doesn't get out of hand. Sounds like a Clark family get together to me...
Phillip and Megan are having their reception at the Majestic Metro downtown. If your not familiar with this local, it is an old theater that hosts parties. In front and inside, the Majestic has old movie poster containers that you can display photos. In the ever popular Better Together style we had to step it up a notch and do something cool for the party. I created these four posters with images that Farrah and I took of the happy couples engagement and bridal portraits. I kept the design a secret until Megan could see them in person. Megan came by yesterday to pick everything up and was very excited about her posters. I think she said "Oh my friends are going to think these are the coolest!" That is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear.
Below are small version of the posters. They are actually printed individually as 24X36 inch posters so the small digital image does not do this justice.
So keep an eye out here and over on Farrah's blog for updates from this PAR-T. It is sure to be a lot of fun.
I wanted to tell everyone about my hairstylist of 12 years now..(WOW)—Gerri Curtis at the Blue Mambo Salon, located at 8 Chelsea Street just off of Montrose near the Museum district. She not only is a highly skilled hairstylist, but she is an expert in color. I have her cut, color and highlight my hair and I would go to no one else (yes, I know I am high maintenance). She often travels to industry events to teach others, but also to learn about new ideas, techniques and products that she can bring back to her clients.
Gerri annually goes to New York to attend international hair shows and has been trained at the Deva Salon in New York to follow the principles of caring for and styling curly hair. In fact, she has clients that come from all over the state of Texas to have her style and care for their hair and she is now considered one of Houston’s Top Curly Hair experts. In addition to her busy schedule at the Blue Mambo, Gerri is also a mother of 4. So she understands how little time we mommies give ourselves to take care of our hair in the morning. It is true that your hair always looks best right after you leave the salon, but Gerri believes in giving you the tools and understanding to help you make it look that good when you style it yourself. She is absolutely fun to work with and truly the best hairstylist I have ever had. Most of my close friends and anyone I know with curly hair, I refer to Gerri.
Two years ago Gerri helped me discover how to fix my "hair problem" or at least what I thought it was a problem, until she showed me the truth. Here's a little background: I have always thought that my hair was straight. I used to describe it as "naturally frizzy” because unless I blow dried my hair, it never looked good. It wasn’t quite straight and not quite curly and definitely never smooth. A few years ago Gerri gave me a great book that I intended on giving to a good friend that has beautiful curly hair, called “Curly Girls” by Lorraine Massey.
I started to read it before giving it to my friend and realized, what I thought was my “hair problem”, was curly hair that needed taming. I am not the only one. According to the book, 65% of women have curly hair and most don’t know it or have been at a loss on how to care for it. Gerri has showed me the best way to manage my hair; from the right way to let it dry naturally to bring out the true curls to the best “curl friendly” products, with Deva. She sells the full line of Deva products as well as Chi, and others.
I was recently at the salon to get my hair done and asked Danny to come along to get some pictures. The cool hair dryer with the hand is also by Deva and is designed specifically for curly hair.
Last Sunday the weather was beautiful so we naturally spent the day outside. The kids wanted to go to the park at Roberts Elementary so we headed over to have some fun. Whitney went to the swings and adamantly wanted to show me something "really cool!" Little did I know she was going to do something completely foolish!
While I realize we all have done this before it is hard to watch your own child risk a broken limb. At first my stomach turned when she did it. Then I decided it was cool and wanted to get it on film. I guess we can't always be responsible.
This morning little Juliet came by and really brightened up my day. She was such a happy little three month old.
The best thing about Juliet was that she reminded me of Whitney when she was three months old. Big blue eyes, chubby little body and she smiled whenever I looked at her. Juliet melted our hearts like Whitney did not so long ago (Whitney still melts my heart though). We hope you had as much as we did Juliet.
Monday was a real disaster of a day. Denise was out of town and I was struggling to get the kids to school. The struggles from that made my delay to the studio even more devastating. One of our favorite families had a session at 10:00, I was caught on Kirby in that ridiculuos traffic and my assistant was MIA. Needless to say not even Little Gillian was in the mood for photographs.
We tried everything to get Gillian to relax but it just wasn't going to happen. I think the best of the bunch is the image of her chubby little toes. Even angry and upset this kid is sweet.
The best was when Gillian waved goodbye with big alligator tears in her eyes and said bye bye after an hour of avoiding any eye contact. She thinks she won but I got more tricks up my sleeve. Gillian has brought the challenge so let the games begin...
The point of all this is that it doesnt matter how many great cameras you own light equipment you have strung up everywhere, or countless hours of photography under your belt, if a 2 year old has your number on a Monday morning by gosh your gonna get it.
I just have to keep telling myself, it's a camera not a wand.
