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Actually, I do have a wedding on the books for September. I am so excited! I can’t wait to share Katie and Micheal’s special day. But, as far as a direction that I want to pursue, I haven’t been a 100% sure. Today I attended a local workshop with a fabulous Austin wedding photographer, Dustin Meyer. I got to go to an amazing vineyard in Florence Texas. We braved the heat and got some great images. I really enjoy group shooting events. Getting to meet other photographers and getting to inhale all of the creative energy around really feeds my soul. Most of the shooting information was all information that I already pretty much knew, which was actually a confidence booster for me. The shooting was fun and I learned tons on the bus ride home… business stuff… the area where I really need to focus my learning energies. Not near as fun as shooting. Here is one of my favorite images of the day… I might post more later, but it was a long day and I came home to mommy-deprived children, so that was my priority of the evening.

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I am looking for some great teens in the area to help spread the word about GBlair Photography.

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Look what I stumbled across this morning… Being a graduate of a CY school (I graduated from CyFair, CyRanch wasn’t around at the time), I had to watch this. It was is a fun, impressive video. I wonder if participating in this production really made an impact on these kids and it there is an decrease on some of the drama that is all too typical in the high school scene. It is just really cool to see such a huge portion of the school come together to work on one project. It gives me the warm fuzzies! Feel free to share this.

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Lucky YOU! I am letting you in on part of the little conversation going on in my brain…

As a parent, my primary focus in this world it to ensure that my kids turn out well. I have been thinking… How do you define whether or not someone turns out okay? We all have massive dreams for our children and as parents we see enormous potential in our children, even when they don’t see it themselves. We all get frustrated when they don’t live up to that potential, but who does? What then do you use to define your child’s overall success? Is it how successful they are in academia? ….so they can get into a good college? …so they can have a successful career? … so that they can be a financial success? Our culture, probably man in general, is so status driven and I think historically people have always wanted their children to have a better live than they did. What does that mean in today’s world? Does that mean that your child has failed if they don’t achieve a family income similar to that in which they grew up in? That seems ridiculous when you think of it that way, so what IS the determining factor?

Sometimes I revert to the opposite end of the spectrum. If all of my children are functioning, law abiding citizens, well then I have done a fair job. Right? By that standard the bulk majority of society does okay. That doesn’t really seem right either. So what is the ruler to use? What do you want for your children? Really…

I thought about it and came up with some of my criteria…

-I will consider my children successful if they are honorable. Fraudulent people are prevalent on every rung of the societal ladder and can be revered in our society.

-I will consider my children successful if they are secure in who they are. It breaks my heart to see grown adults so insecure that they are always on edge and second guessing themselves.

-I will consider my children successful if they have a passion that they follow. I don’t think that many people are really fortunate enough to pursue a passion as a career. I do think, however, that you have to have a passion that you feed. If you have a passion for music, you don’t have to be in a world touring band to feed your passion. You can be an insurance agent who likes to play guitar for friends and family.

-I will consider my children successful if they are sharing their lives with others. I would love for all five of my children to marry and never divorce, but I wouldn’t see a divorce as a life failure. Life should be shared, ideally with a spouse and children, but not everyone gets ideal. God meant for us to be in communion and there is a level of compromise and selflessness that can only be found in leading a family unit.

I don’t know. I might be crazy. It is late and I am rambling… But I truly believe that we all see our own children as these amazing beings with unlimited beauty and potential. I do believe that the inner beautiful spirit is hard to catch in a still photo. I want to be the person who captures that for people. Especially for teen girls. I want to show those girls who struggle with identity and body image how beautiful they really are… how beautiful they always are in their mother’s eyes… It is my passion and I am lucky enough to be able to follow it.

I would be so interested to hear what other people think will be an indicator of how successful their children are…

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Young… Adorable… Successful… Accomplished… Ashley Fiolek has made her mark in the world of Motocross. This month she even has a spread in Vogue. How awesome is that? But her real beauty isn’t found in her multitude of medals, titles and trophies. It isn’t even found in her contagious smile. Her true beauty is found in her determined spirit. She is accomplished in an arena that most would say that she shouldn’t even be competitive in. You see, Ashley is deaf. As a parent I can only imaging the juxtaposition of the protective mother instinct that would try and redirect a desire to compete in a sport that has an element of danger that is amplified with the hearing loss with the inspiring mother who wants to help her child accomplish her dreams and conquer the world. I don’t know if I would have had the strength or the courage to help my daughter pursue such dreams. I tend to be the mom who tries to bring her child back to reality by pointing out how few people really make it as professional athletes, professional musicians, actors… and that it without the safety concerns. I wonder how many people told her that reaching her dream was crazy… but she continued on… and look… she is doing it. BEAUTIFUL!

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Do you have big plans for Spring Break? Our family doesn’t have any big plans… just a lot of small plans. We might run up to Dallas for a couple of days and we might have some company from Houston. But when you hear of other people’s extravagant plans, sometimes you just feel like you are the only one.

Austin is such a cool place to live that staying in the area doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. I came across this cool scavenger hunt. Grab a camera and check it out! There is NO reason to be bored just because you aren’t leaving town! It is a little ambitious with 50 items, so I don’t think that we are going to be able to hit them all, but we are definitely marking some of these off the list.

The Ultimate Austin Scavenger Hunt

I would love to hear what you guys find and I would love to see some pictures!

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In Washington I had a couple favorite locations to shoot my seniors. For seniors, I love locations that have color and an urban element. My favorite locations have a several distinct looks within the same area. My number one favorite in Washington was a roadside park in Renton. It had the graffiti wall that you will see in a lot of my pictures. It also had an awesome railroad trestle bridge, a river, and great greenery. Tons of looks in one little area. Well, I haven’t really found an area like that down here. If you know of one, leave a comment because I would love to find one. However there is this one place that I drive by almost daily. Lots of color… A fair amount of variety… It is an old restaurant that has moved to a new location leaving this building just sitting there with a for lease sign. Well, I had arranged for a trial make up session with Lauren Davis of Hint of Shimmer to come by for a trial make up run. We finished a little later than I had originally expected (primarily because it was so fun to watch Lauren work), so with our last remaining bit of daylight we decided to head to this colorful locale. What is a little trespassing? I LOVED the location… but I don’t think I will ever use it again. I am such a huge rule follower that I was paranoid that the police were going to come any minute now with lights and sirens and haul us off to jail. (Okay, maybe I have an over active imagination… and watch too many crime shows) But, really, it affected my shooting. I was a little too flustered to do my best posing. Good news… The cops never showed. …and I still got beautiful shots, despite the fact that my models were only modeling for me out of love… or maybe just to appease me.

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I went up to Salado to meet up with this adorable red head and her sweet fiance. Having never been to Salado before I was enchanted by this sweet little town. The cold front, on the other hand was not welcoming. That was the same cold front that would bring the rare snow flurry to Central Texas the next day. Despite the chilly temperatures and the bulky jackets, I think we got some great images.

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In the process of rebuilding my brand here in central Texas, I have done a lot of deep thinking and some soul searching. In Washington I didn’t think a lot about marketing. I knew a move was in the near future and didn’t think it was worth while to put time and money into building a name in a market I was about to leave. All of my jobs were word of mouth… friends and friends of friends. I was so blessed to have such a great group of amazing friends.

Now things are different. Now I am in a place where I am hoping to stay… for a long time and now my network of friends is much smaller. Now I have to think about marketing.

I have been thinking about which of my previous shoots were the most meaningful for me and what type of shoots I have the most passion for. Newborns will always have a special place in my heart because… well… have you ever cuddled a newborn? Do I need to say more? I love capturing the love within a family. My favorite family shots aren’t when everyone is looking at the camera with perfect smiles, but when I catch some of the interaction between them.

That being said, the types of images that I am the most passionate about are teenagers. I had one senior portrait session last year that the mom sent me an email saying that she cried as she looked through the gallery.
BEST… COMPLIMENT… EVER…
I want to do that for everyone. I want every girl to see the beauty that she has been blessed with. I want every mother to get excited because they finally have a picture that captures their gorgeous girl. You don’t have to be a professional model to have stunning images.

I might shoot an occasional baby, family or wedding, but my focus will be on high school seniors. I am looking to pair up with an awesome Austin area make up artist and offer full service, high energy, fun photo sessions to provide high school seniors with amazing images to document this unique time of life.

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I just wanted to share some more of this little guy. He was so awake for the first part of our session, but then we did get some pretty good sleep time out of him. He was such a pro and his mom and dad are just so in love with this little guy. It is just adorable.

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