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Busy May

It never fails, the month of May is always busy. End of the school year is coming, the clients from the spring weddings have chosen their pics, so now we need to print, design, create, deliver photos and books. I will upload the photos from the previous three weddings engagement and a quinceanera. Soon.

Jessica and Matt’s wedding in Laredo Texas.

Laredo is just a two hour drive from San Antonio, but I went ahead an left early, around 10am. Everything went well, except for that SA cop. So, around 2pm, after I had met Jessica at Roels Images where she got her  hair and make up done, I drove around Laredo, to the Reception hall. I am used to driving in San Antonio where to go from one end of the city to the other, usually takes about 30 min, here in Laredo was maybe 10 min. which made my schedule a little bit easier.

So, I got hungry and decided to stop at Taco Palenque which is a mexican restaurant. Since Laredo is a border town,  spanish is the name of the game. No problem for me. The cashier and the person that announces that the orders are ready spoke in spanish, since 99%of the patrons spoke only spanish(i Guess).  After I sat down to eat, two “americanos” or gringos or anglo persons (whatever the politically correct term is)sat behind me. I could not help but overhearing them saying that how were they going to know when they called their order since they were calling the orders in spanish. So I turned around and asked what their order number was that way I could keep an ear out for their order. They finally got their order.  When I was at the reception and saw the grooms men and couples, I recognized the man from the taco place and his wife. They also recognized me. The thing is that I never found out his name, I just called him the taco palenque guy, Well, I thought that was funny. Anyway, the ceremony and reception went smoothly, the weather was NICE, a bit windy though. The reception hall was a very elegant place with a big chandelier and a second floor for additional tables. The ceremony was held in the second floor, so that meant going up and down the stairs several times. So by Monday morning, my legs were SORE.

The  atmosphere was awesome, guests were having fun, Matt and Jessica danced a lot and certainly enjoyed themselves. Here are some photos from the wedding day.

Maribels Quinceanera

Maribel is an ex-student of mine. She is a very fun and easy going girl. I usually dont get hired to do the preparation shots of a quinceanera(debutant) girl, it is usually done for brides. But Maribel wanted to get some shots of her getting ready. Since I know most of the kids that came out in her quinceanera, it was twice the fun. It was also nice seeing them too. These kids can party and know how to dance! Their Dj was a local radio station dj from 94.1 the Beat. He even had a fog machine, so it looked really nice. So here are some photos from that day.

Jessica and Matt

Hook ‘em Horns.  I met Jessica where I work as a teacher. She is a recent graduate from The University of Texas at Austin. As a new teacher, Jessica can certanly handle those hormonally unbalanced middle school kids. When you talk to Jessica, she has a real sweet voice and a cute laugh. But don’t let her small frame and stature fool you, she can definately take charge of a room full of 6th graders.

We went to my favorite place to do engagements, downtown. Always Different. I was glad when they both showed up wearing soft colors, light blue and dark pants. The soft color did not overpower the picture.  Both of them are very nice people. They were easy to direct and very willing to try those middle of the street jumping shots. Their wedding is on March 21st in Laredo Texas. Here are a few pictures of their engagement session, I will post some of Jessicas bridal session and from their wedding next week or so.

Ashley and Zachary

January 30th, 2009 Boerne Tx

Even though this was just a three hour gig and the guest barely totaled sixty five guests, this wedding was full of action. I met Ashley on the Bridal Extravaganza on Jan 4 and told me she needed a photographer in two weeks. So we worked out our deal and she booked me for that day. Before the wedding I had only met Ashley but not Zachary, very unusual,  but not rare. The wedding was held in the Boerne Convention Center.  The ceremony lasted only about fifteen minutes, tops.  Usually right after the ceremony, the bride and groom leave the church or ceremony and then come back to take portraits with the family, but the first thing that Ashley and Zachary did was to smoke a cigarrette outside the building.

Now that I had met Zach, I saw his witty and extravagant personality, as you can see in some of these pictures. Both of them had so much fun at the wedding being playful with one another and with their guests. Never a dull moment. To see the entire wedding, log in to their album at the following address

http://www.raulsalazarphoto.com/proof

and use the passcode of gluckman to enter the album.

Paige

Most times I get to meet my clients before the photo shoot. This time, I had only talked to Paige’s Mom Laura. One day before the shoot, I told Mrs. Bishop where we were going to meet and she described Paige to me, as a tall cute girl. Well, she was right. Paige as you will see on the pics, is a tall blondish athletic build and cute girl. Paige was a natural when I asked her to pose. She knew how to “work it”. We walked for several blocks downtown and which was almost empty on a friday morning.(9am) The mprning was a cool and overcast. Good lightning for portraits. Paige had several wardrobe changes along the way. I encourage this to my clients that way there will be some diversity to the session. She had a couple of cute blouses and a cute dress(OMG, did I just say cute on my blog?) Well, anyways.
One time during the session, we wanted to make Paige laugh, so her mom told me to ask her about her boyfriend that she has not seen for two weeks. I think his name is Bartolo.(Paige, when you read this, make a comment at the bottom and give me his correct name) I made her laugh when I asked her if her boyfriend was bringing her a pinata from Mexico.
On a different occasion, we were shooting in the middle of the street, but the traffic was kind of difficult, there was time when we only had 10 sec to shoot but we finally got the shots that we were looking for. We continued walking through downtown and then we headed down to the river walk. I then found a waterfall by some restaurant but I needed to shoot from across the river which was a better angle. By the time we finished, it started drizzling, so it was perfect timing.  Well, I really enjoyed this photoshoot with Paige, she was a natural. Thanks Paige.

The Puckett Sisters

On Monday December 15th, just a few days after coming back from the sunny Bahamas, The Puckett Sisters, Lacy andJodi(in Blue), met me in downtown San Antonio Texas for a sisterly photoshoot. But contraire to the beautiful weather in the caribbean that Lacy and Jodi had just experienced, the highest temperature for that day was 37 degrees F.  But hey, Lacy and Jodi are from Colorado, so they must be used to this type of weather, NOT, well, Lacy told me that after three years of being away from Colorado and living here in San Antonio, you get used to the weather here in Texas. So, if you are from Texas, you know that the weather is here is like Austin, WEIRD.

Lacy is a fourth grade teacher at a northside district where in fourth grade they focus on writing(by the way, my wife is also a fourth grade teacher), so most likely several teachers will be reading this blog. So read my blog, but don’t pull out your red pen and start correcting  this blog. (I’m LEP, OK?…Teacher joke) This is a 3, cause I’m focused.  Ok, back to the photoshoot.

Not only it was it cold, but it was also windy! At the beginning,  we felt the coldness, but after a while, Jodi wanted to take off her jacket, so I told her to take it off!  But after fifteen minutes, she put it back on. I can tell you that this photoshoot was a bit challenging. Why? Well, because I’m always doing engagement sessions downtown with couples, and they I have them kiss and hug and the romanticism always comes in one way or the other. With Lacy and Jodi, it was different(that’s why I like this job) they are sisters and I could not have them kissing and being romantic…..(that’s a diffferent website hahaha)so I had to think differently. How can I capture the personality of the two sisters together while its almost freezing, my brain did start to freeze, but I kept thinking starbucks, starbucks! so it did help.

We walked around downtown for several blocks and then went down to the riverwalk hoping the wind would cease which it did, for a bit. We passed by the hotel La Mansion which happened to be the hotel where their parents stayed during their honeymoon. So we took some shots in front of the hotel. By this time the natural light was almost gone, the good thing was that during the holidays, Christmas lights are hung throughout the riverwalk and it looks spectacular. So I knew that the Christmas lights needed to be in the picture.

After several poses,  we started heading back to the cars, it was now dark  and getting colder and a little bit of drizzle and I did not want to be sick during the holidays and I did not want for them to get sick either. On my way back to the parking garage, I was so cold that I needed to get some coffee just to warm up. The closest place was the Haagen Daas  Ice Cream shop next to the Alamo(of all places).

Well I hope I made sense.

During the slow wedding season, I stay busy with family portraits since they want to send out Christmas cards or some of the past brides order their pictures and order them during this time. In late November I had the joy of taking portraits of two families.  The firs one is the Libson family. Veronika Libson the second eldest of three siblings called me to set up an appointment. The only available slot was a saturday morning, since that afternoon I had small wedding in New Braunfels at 12:00pm.  I met Veronika and her family at the popular McNay Art Museum at 9:00am. The sky was overcast, which is great lighting, nice and soft. The group consisted of the parents the older brother and his family(one son and one daughter), Veronika, and the youger newly married brother and his beautiful wife. Since we arrived early at the McNay, it was just us and another photographer. But before the Libson family arrived, the other photographer(Robert) and I were waiting patiently in the parking lot. Neither of us had met our clients before this day. So every car that came by we were both wondering if it was our customer or not. When I first saw Veronika and her family, I didn’t know if she was married or not, so when I approached her, I thought that her brother was her husband since he came over to greet me. oh, well. Veronika is such a nice girl like the rest of her family. I only mention her name because it is the only one I remember right now and she is the one whose name appears on my email.  I spent about one and a half hours with them taking their pictures.

Usually the first 15 min of each session the people feel a bit awkward getting their picture taken and getting directed, but once they feel relaxed, their personality cames out and you have to be ready. During one phase of the session we wanted to take the picture of the two little kids by the fountain, bu that proved a little easier said than done. Once the parents of the little kids and I saw that they were more interested in the water and other things, I decided to follow them and let them do what ever they wanted.

Brandon and Marisol

Like they say, LOVE will come when you least expect it. For Brandon, it came while he was falling asleep many years ago.  As for Marisol, she never thought that making up a phone number will lead her to the LOVE of her life.  Hanging around with her best friend and bored, Marisol, just a teenager in middle school, decided to make some crank calls. For that fateful call, she made up a phone number and dialed those digits. Meanwhile, somewhere in San Antonio, a young man, was about to go to sleep when he heard an unexpected ring on his phone. He answered and of course nobody answered. Somewhat disturbed by this he told the caller to “at least say something”.

Well, I guess she did. Soon they both started talking and one day they decided to meet. That was about 15 years ago. Hopefully, I got the story right. Well, if not, Im pretty sure they will call me to correct it. Today sunday Oct 12, I’ve met and got to know Marisol and Brandon a little more. The first time we met was at the bridal show in September, and it was only briefly while we signed the contract. So when I asked them how they had met, they told me the story, it was amazing that they could have met that way.  To those who dont know Brandon, when you first see him, he is a towering figure, but the way he interacts with marisol, you see a nice, simple, quiet guy that loves his girl.

Marisol, on the other hand, is full of laughter and joy. She kept us laughing and would always do something funny when I had the camera down. I knew now that I needed to keep an eye out for her. Marisol and Brandon were a joy to work with on our first photoshoot. I gave them some pointers at the beginning and took off with them. They neede a little direction at times, which is normal, but other than that, they seemed like they had done this before so I had to adjust to them and be on my toes. They were ready!!! So here are some of their shots. I will post the rest of the gallery in about a week or so. Their wedding is on Friday November 28th, I guess I won’t be watching the Texas and A&M game that day, Thanks Marisol and Brandon.