Our shoot with Joyce and George was a lot of fun. We were all over the place in downtown Corpus Christi. I remember using Joyce as a practice subject when I was first starting out in photography. Every time I learned a new technique or just practicing with new equipment, I would always call Joyce to see if she was up to letting me shoot her. Now I have the pleasure of shooting her engagement and very soon, her wedding.

 

Here are a few previews. We will release the full engagement album soon on our Facebook page.

 

Another 20 member family shoot. One thing I can definitely say is that we are getting better at these large family shoots. Today we shot the Chapa Family. The energy was flowing and never was there a dull moment during this session. When I was first contacted about doing this session my first thought was, "Man, this is going to be tough." I always get nervous when doing a large family because the hardest part is getting them all to look the same way while keeping their eyes open. Over the past years I have learned a few tricks that work for me, but when many children are involved it's still tough. Well, today was a great session. All the children cooperated. The weather was great and everyone just had a good time.

 I believe this was a family get together for their father who was celebrating an age milestone. To that I would like to say Happy Birthday Thomas. To the Chapa family, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your celebration in taking your family photos. It was fun.

 Be sure to check our Facebook page for more from the Chapa family shoot. You can also go to our MySpace profile to view more of our work. Don't forget about our website J&P Photography. There you will find all the information about how you can set up your family shoot.

These are Priscilla's grandparents, Perfecto & Macaria Tey. Yes, his name is Perfect, and he always reminds us of it. I have known grandma and grandpa Tey for a very very long time. They are two very loving people. Grandpa Tey loves to pass out tracks and crack jokes. Every time I see him he has a new joke. I always wonder where he gets them from. We had a lot of fun with they on this shoot. Mainly because grandpa Tey is always making us laugh. He is such a comedian.

Also on this day we shot Lydia and Matthew Tey. They are Priscilla's aunt and cousin. I might also mention that Matthew is my daughter's favorite person. She always asks for him. Lydia is also a blessing to our family. She is the one who always encouraged my wife to do good in school and to work hard to accomplish her goals. These two will always have a special place in our hearts and family.

Below are the two behind the scenes videos of these shoots.

Just yesterday we did a shoot of two great beautiful children. These are the children of two good friends of ours. You may recognize Domonic & Dezerae from a previous shoot we did about a year ago. These two kids were fun to work with yesterday despite the very very cold weather. Little Domonic was focused and ready to shoot. He has a serious look on his face in most of his pictures but don't be fooled, he was having a great time. Dezerae was having a good time just picking flowers while we were out there. But when it was time to shoot, she wanted to take her jacket off and be right next to her big brother. You can really tell that these two kids have a great bond and love each other very much.

The weather was very cold so we tried to hurry things up. Never did any one of them complain about the chilly temperature. They were both ready for the camera. The final products from this shoot will be a little more artsy rather than traditional. Here we have posted two sample photos but you can see the entire album of this shoot on our Facebook or MySpace profiles in a few days. These pictures will also be featured on our Website. Stay tuned and check back they are looking great.

This past Halloween we went to San Antonio to spend it with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. While we were there we did a Christmas shoot for them. Sorry for the late blog, but this is the first chance I have had to post a few pics of their shoot. We went to the River Walk to shoot and it was a challenge trying to find a spot that didn't have so many people walking behind or even in front of the camera while we were shooting. We found a few places that were nice and free of people.

Every time we go to San Antonio our daughter Lauren always looks forward to playing with their two daughters Lily and Emily. They have a beautiful family and we are glad to have them in our lives. Jon and Sarah, take care, God Bless and we'll see you soon.

Love you guys

Just yesterday we did a family Christmas shoot for the Lara's. There were 15 people altogether and yes it was challenging. However, it was so much fun as the whole family was very funny, welcoming, warm and friendly. Even though we shot them as a whole and then as individual families we still moved quickly. My wife and I had pre-planned this shoot for about 2 weeks. We knew every location we were going to shoot at and in which order we were going to shoot. All days before and after the shoot were looking to be great sunny days, but the forecast for the day we were shooting was set for 50% chance of rain. Of course, that would be my luck. We scrambled to look for alternate indoor locations as we did not want to cancel or postpone. Someone upstairs must really have mercy on us because on the day of the shoot it rained hard and heavy all morning right up to about 2 hours before the shoot. The weather forecast called for clear skies after for the rest of the day. The weather cleared up and even left us with great ambient lighting. The weather was beautiful for our session.

To the Lara's: Thank you for the opportunity of allowing us to be a small part of your Christmas this year. We hope you will have a blessed and wonderful Christmas. May God Bless you all. My wife and I enjoyed the time we spent with you.

You can see the behind the scenes video below or go to our YouTube channel to see more videos. J&P Photography YouTube

Don't forget to pause our music player to the upper right side of our blog page so that you can hear the music from the YouTube video.

On November 22, 2009 we did a shoot for a friend of mine. I have known LeeAnn for a long time and I am happy to hear of her recent engagement. This engagement shoot went very well. Again, we moved quickly through several locations in the downtown area of Corpus Christi. It still amazes me how every shoot is so unique even though we may reuse a location for several shoots. When we met up with the couple we asked if they had any suggestions before we got started. They had complete confidence in us to let us be creative with this shoot. With that we moved to our first location. We shot there for awhile before we decided to move due to many mosquitos. LeeAnn and Phillip did so well that I didn't even know they were getting eaten alive while I was shooting. They did not want to interrupt me so that they could scratch or just swat the mosquitos away. I felt bad, but beauty is pain, right?

We moved around and tried some locations that we had recently scouted and had never used before. LeeAnn and Phillip were fun to work with. As we walked to our shooting locations a passerby asked if we were with the Associated Press. That was a little weird for me. I mean, when you see a photographer, who really thinks, "Hey, I wonder if they are with the Associated Press?"

LeeAnn and Phillip, you were a delight to work with. My wife and I had a great time with your engagement shoot. We would like to wish you both the best of luck in the future and all the blessings in the world. May God continue to bless your lives and your upcoming marriage. Hope we get to work with you again in the future.

Congratulations to you both.

Well, we are a little behind on our blog. On November 15, 2009 we did a shoot for Sandra and her son Matthew. We had a lot of fun on this shoot. It is always fun and a challenge to shoot small children. They are so unpredictable. Matthew was great and was all smiles for the camera.

We shot at several locations and little Matthew hung in there for every second that we shot. At one point he wanted to see every picture that we took and then wanted to take some pictures of his mommy himself. What do you do when a small child wants to borrow your camera because he wants to take pictures of his mommy? Well, you give him your camera, of course. We let him take a few pictures, with us helping him hold on to the camera. He was having a blast. Then I looked over at Sandra and she had a very nervous look on her face. I told her to relax, our camera would be fine.

The shoot went very well and we all had fun. Sandra, thank you for giving us the opportunity to shoot you and your son. Hope you enjoy your pictures and look for you video to be posted on YouTube soon.

My wife and I both agree that Eunice has such a natural beauty, talent and passion for being in front of the camera. We had a lot of fun and we hope we get to work with Eunice again. Watch for her photos to be posted soon on our Facebook and MySpace profiles. And of course the behind the scenes video on YouTube. 

This past weekend we went to San Antonio to spend Halloween with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We had a lot of fun as we always do when in San Antonio. My wife and I decided that we were going to take one of our Family Christmas Card Photo's there this year also. Every year as we look for a place to take our Holiday Photo we are challenged with the task of taking the photo ourselves. It wasn't very hard the past two years as I would just place the camera on a tripod, set the self timer and then run around and sit next to my wife and baby. But now Lauren is bigger and won't sit still very easily. The good thing is that we were also taking pictures for my sister-in-law and her family for their Christmas Picture as well. This was beneficial to us as my brother-in-law could just take our picture while they were there.

We thought about locations where we could take pictures and finally ended up at the River Walk Downtown. The challenge was finding a location where the shadows would be minimal. There are a lot of trees on the River Walk which in turn makes a lot of leafy shadows on your face. We were all dressed in winter-like long sleeve clothing. The thing is that in early November here in Texas it isn't very cold yet. In fact the temperature was 89 degrees. Everyone walking around was staring at us like we were crazy for wearing winter-like clothing. Once they saw us pull out the camera they understood what we were doing. All in all it was a lot of fun.

I have posted one of the pictures taken that day and will update this post with more pictures if and when we decide to take more photos for Christmas Card possibilities. Thank you Jonathan for taking these pictures for us. You did a great job.

Yesterday we worked with a model from Edinburg, TX., named Desiree Ashley. We spoke with Desiree earlier in the week and decided that we were going to do a tropical themed shoot. We scouted and scouted locations around town and finally decided on one. Of course the shoot was going to be outdoors as we generally like to shoot. On the day of the shoot we had all gear cleaned, batteries were fully charged and media cards were empty and ready to go. We set out for our destination and decided to leave early to find a second shooting location in the downtown area. That is when we came across The House of Rock in downtown Corpus Christi. I walked in to ask the owner if we could use one of his outside walls as a backdrop for our shoot. He said "Sure, and if you'd like you can use the inside as well, you are more than welcome." I walked around inside and saw the nice bright red floor and immediately knew this was the location. We canceled our original location and decided to shoot at The House of Rock. One problem, I left all my lighting equipment at home, clear across town. I generally don't take my lights when we are shooting outdoors. The shoot was scheduled for 4pm and it was already 3:45. So what do I do? Yes, I jumped in the car and made a quick run home. I called Desiree and luckily they were lost in town and still needed to book a hotel room. This gave me the extra time that I needed to get my gear. I made it back with enough time to set everything up before Desiree got to the location. The shoot went great inside The House of Rock and then we moved outside and down the street for the second half of our shoot. So needless to say I will always carry my equipment even if I think I may not need it because you never know. Desiree was great to work with and took direction very well.

Desiree, thank you for your time and driving up to Corpus Christi for our shoot. It was a pleasure working with you. We wish you all the best of luck in your future ventures with your modeling career. We hope that our shoot will help you in some way.

You can find Desiree's album on our MySpace page next week and of course her behind-the-scenes video on YouTube and Vimeo soon.

We would especially like to thank The House of Rock for allowing us to use their venue for our photo session.