Heather and John married!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing Heather and John's nuptials (the slideshow is here)!







Because of our crazy schedules - me being in Australia and them moving Heather to Austin - we didn't meet until the day of the ceremony. Now, keep in mind that this event is only the small pre-event to the much larger destination wedding event that will take place in Cozumel in a few months. Apparently, before an American couple gets married in Mexico, they have to first be legally married in the States. So, my wonderful assistant and I drove to John's hometown, Brady - The Heart of Texas.



When we drove in, they were still getting ready. Everyone was staying in the (only?) hotel in town, including John's sweet dog, Abby.



The theme was sunflowers. These were on each of the tables. They are packets of sunflower seeds! Great idea, aye?







John's mom was to thank for all the decorations.






The ceremony. You can see John's granddad, the county judge, at the left-edge of the frame officiating.









Heather and her son, who thinks kisses are for sissies.



After the ceremony, the guys played golf and smoked stoggies.

Newest website: Breathtaking Blooms

A few hours, yes hours, before I left on the plane to visit my sister in Australia, I was doing some finishing touches on this website. I'm just getting around to posting it. My latest logo and website: breathtakingblooms.com, local wedding florists.

Australians don't have pennies

My first day in Sydney I noticed that everything I bought was sold to me at a rounded-off price. $3.96 for a train ticket only cost me $3.95. Or $9.43 for some food, and they only asked for $9.40. I sort of noticed it, but just thought people were being generous.

Nope, it turns out that Australians don't have pennies.

If you're paying cash, you're paying by some increment of 5 cents. That is their smallest coin. I even asked the bank. (Not really, but I forgot to take a picture of their money)



My Sydneysider sis informs me, though, that if you're paying by credit card, you can expect to pay the actual (cent-derived) price.

Moreover, their money bills are not only the brightest colors you've ever seen (hot pink, lime green, purple, etc.) but they come in various sizes. Makes it very easy to pick out a $5 bill versus a $20 bill!

You can check out the entire slideshow of my week as a Sydneysider (yes, that's the actual term for Sydney residents) in which my sister and I tried to pack as many things into 5 days as humanly possible.

My trip started with an unexpected 24-hour layover in San Francisco. Plus side was that I got to visit Mandy and Justin! Cousin and highschool classmate, respectively.



After a (sigh) ...long... 15 hour flight straight to Sydney, Moke and I

hit up Sydney Harbour to see Harbour Bridge at sunset...



...and do a tour of the famous Opera House



And even though it was winter, we made it to Sydney's famous Bondi ("Bond-eye") Beach, where signs that warned "Dangerous Currents... no swimming" didn't deter dozens of surfers from hitting the frigid water.



Other Sydney highlights can be seen in the slideshow!

Fireworks at Auditorium Shores!

Got to attend Austin's "official" 4th of July event at Auditorium Shores yesterday. Reports said that over 100,000 were in attendance! As usual, the Austin Symphony Orchestra played and the Texas National Guard delivered their Salute Battery with the shooting of the cannons during the 1812 Overture.



Very patriotic, very Austin, very-very hot. A kiosk near the symphony displayed the following temperature information as the night wore on:

Wind Gust 02 MPH
Humidity 30%
Temp 105 F

Yipes! 105-degrees at 9:30pm! And to think that the orchestra played non-stop for an hour.

But, backing up, that morning our neighborhood held a 4th of July Parade and neighborhood celebration. We got to enjoy red-and-blue snowcones...



(the syrup is still red-and-blue at the molecular level)

...a balloon lady who made a cutlass and hip holder for lil 'lution...



(You might notice that the cutlass even had finger holds. Great attention to detail, balloon lady!)

...a moonwalk with no wait-line!...

...and meeting lots of neighbors.

That afternoon, Jessica and I rode the bus to Auditorium Shores to meet some other dear ones. The festivities kicked off at 8:30pm with the National Anthem.

That lady in red was feeling especially patriotic, heh:



Mary and Jeremy:



And thousands of others:



And the crowd kept growing:



We couldn't get too close to the Symphony, due to a chain-link fence surrounding them and due to millions of people all up in the way (see above picture for reference), but here they are! Playing mightily in 105-degree humid heat. News 8 Austin later reported that the Symphony said the event is its gift to Austin for the support the community provides throughout the year. What a wonderful gift!



And finally, the show began. It was larger than life...







You may notice the fireworks being reflected off of a building to the right. I believe it's Spring Condo's that are currently under construction. Cheapest one is $500M if you're interested. You'd have a great view of next years fireworks show...







The finale:







Evening ended with a veggie burger at P.Terry's with the Kingdom's:



Notice the traffic!

End of a long evening. Happy 4th of July, Moke. Sorry you missed the fireworks. Aussie's don't care about our silly American freedom celebrations.

Testing a new lens

Considering buying this new lens. Have actually been considering it for several months, but finally got around to renting it! Will be using it for work tomorrow, but this afternoon, took some shots in my backyard to get familiar with it. This thing weighs almost 5 lbs! For comparison, the actual camera body weighs less than 1 lb. You can't imagine how lop-sided this rig is!

But it lets in lots more light! These photos were taken at 8pm and look how bright they are!

Luna loves baseball!


I was trying to get sun glare here, and I saw it in the viewfinder, but the lens took it out! I guess that's a good thing for most situations, but not when someone is WANTING glare...


Texture.


This was actually taken last week at night time. I have never seen the bug that leaves these exoskeletons everywhere, so I had to snap a shot. This little creature was drying off after his recent metamorphosis, I suppose.


Ok, back to the backyard. Here's the rope for the tree fort. Loving the short depth-of-field. Also loving the bokeh in the background.


Ahh, love relaxing in this hammock!


Lens is pretty sweet, no?