Austin

I'd been looking forward to yesterday for a long time. My friend Nicole and I had decided to spend most of the day in Austin, shooting, exploring, and then going to the Sandy Puc 2010 Tour (a family portrait seminar). Well, turns out Nicole couldn't go because her sweet baby was sick. So sorry, Nicole! I was really bummed that I'd be doing Austin all alone. :(

I knew the drive up would be kinda long, so I called my mom to chat, because that's always nice. :) I wasn't sure where I was headed to in Austin. By the time I got up there, I only had an hour and a half or so to kill, so I went to SoCo (South Congress St.). It's kinda my default since I discovered it a couple years ago. I walked up and down the street, went in and out of shops, and sat down at a little Italian cafe and had a yummy Italian Soda and an out-of-this world cannoli.



My plan was to take a lot of cool, artsy pictures, but by the time I finished my cannoli and managed to shake off the Greenpeace reps on the street corner, there really wasn't a lot of time left.



There was, however, time for my favorite SoCo store, Uncommon Objects. It's just such an interesting antique store! What I especially love is that a lot of the objects aren't really all that uncommon (at least they used to be quite common).



I don't know why (or maybe I do) I am so drawn to old photographs. Always. They fascinate me! I could look all day through pictures of people I don't even know. It always makes me laugh, because I always see a lot of pictures of people in front of their homes or cars... and as a photographer I tend to shy away from that. It's just so common. I need to start remembering that someday they won't be. Someday, "common" photos like that will be a glimpse into a time that is long passed. Definitely food for thought.



The seminar was really great! Sam offered TONS of knowledge, tips, tricks, and ideas for when it comes to family portraits. I am excited to implement some of these things over the next couple of years as I ultimately begin shooting more portraits again. It was fun because it just made me fall even more in love with what I do. Not just the photography/art part of it, but even the marketing and business aspects were really exciting too! At each of the breaks, this is pretty much what things looked like... me pouring over my pages and pages of notes (and Tweeting... with a Diet Coke).