We were featured recently in the Patriot Talon’s latest issue of their newspaper, which is pretty awesome! Click here for the full online article!

Two photographers… One Audrey… A crazy old barn… My grandmother… This Summer, one image gets previewed on the blog!

In all seriousness, this shoot was crazy awesome. Stay tuned for the full shoot in the near future!

What can I say about this shoot… Other than the fact that it was probably the most epic of our shoots, as of lately. We have quite the story behind this one, which I’ll leave for the full post, hehe. Thanks for looking!

The title says the bulk of it; we did indeed go to SXSW and shoot pictures. We hit the ground running in 2012, averaging 3 to 4 shoots per week, as well as all the post processing and whatnot that comes with it. We were tired, unwired, and afraid of becoming uninspired – so what better way to recharge than by going down to Austin in its busiest, loudest, and most restless time of year?

SXSW ’11 was the best weekend of my life, so it was safe to assume that ’12 would deliver, and deliver it did! Our friend Aaron let us crash at his casa for the duration of the trip so we could have a place to brush our teeth and recharge our camera and flash batteries.

It all started with an awesome night of fajitas, epic car photography, and sushi.

We kicked off Thursday with some toast and a visit to the Lomography store. A call to our friend Alexis, who works with Filter Magazine every year, scored us a pair of much-coveted gold VIP wristbands. First up: Filter’s Showdown at Cedar Street, featuring Reptar, Band of Skulls, Kaiser Chiefs, and Keane. Did I mention the part about VIP? Everyone was super nice and we scored tons of free swag.

We re-energized with some delicious buffalo burgers and a power nap, then hit the streets for our next event. This time it was the Dickie’s/Filter party at the Lustre Pearl, featuring Drop the Lime (awesome fusion of rockabilly and electro), YACHT, and Miike Snow.

We eased into Friday morning in style with a stack of Kerbey Lane pancakes, and a quick visit to the Mondo gallery. We then made our way over to the Austin Convention Center where one of the expo halls was hosting Flatstock 33, a gathering and showing of the best rock music poster designers of our time. It was great getting to meet and chat with a lot of artists that we’ve admired for a long time. A highlight was meeting Tara McPhereson, who’s work has been featured in countless art publications the world over. (Note by Matt: The first three art shots are from my cell phone, so sorry for the temporary drop in quality)

It was finally time for the main event, the show we had anticipated our whole trip – The Third Man Records Showcase, featuring Jack White himself and several of the artists on his label. This was a badge-only show, meaning you had to have official SXSW credentials to attend – which we did not have, and those badges are several hundred bucks a pop. The line of badge-holders hoping to get in was over 2 blocks long. The “how” and “why” we got into this show are details best told in person, but after skulking around for several hours and meeting some of the artists on their way in, we eventually found ourselves inside too. There was a strictly enforced “No Cameras” policy, so we weren’t able to get any pictures of the performances, but I’ll summarize: Jack White played for nearly 2 hours, chugging through tons of White Stripes classics, as well as selections from his other bands, the Dead Weather and the Raconteurs, and a healthy dose of his new solo record. Bill Murray stood next to us in the crowd before dancing up on the bar, we had a nice chat with John C Reilly, Matt met Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde, and we also met several members of the other bands on the label like the Raconteurs, Black Belles, Pujol, etc. Also of note was a long conversation with Rob Jones, the man responsible for almost all of the artwork that has graced the White Stripes’ album covers, concert posters, and merch. Really cool guy.

At around 2 a.m. we finally left the coolest party of all time (and what many in the media said was the highlight of the SXSW weekend) only to come upon Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine, having a singalong and Occupy rally in the middle of the street. Fun times. We finally made it back to the car, slept for 2 and a half hours, and drove back to Tyler to shoot a wedding.

Well. Played. Austin.

Now, they’ve got a new addition on the way. Ryder, who is due soon, will seriously have the coolest parents ever, hehe. With that being said, I thought that there wouldn’t be a better way to bring in our new blog, than with an image of a soon to be new person.

Stay tuned for their full post, which should be up sometime soon. Soon, we leave for what will probably the the coolest senior portrait shoot ever. As in for real. Thanks, as always, for looking!

By the the way… Her and Charles were married last night, so stay tuned for their amazing wedding in the near future. Thanks, as always, for looking!

We were in Louisville, KY, shooting our friend’s wedding. Actually, it was’t just any friend, I take that back.

It was the weekend of the wedding for the people responsible for giving us our amazing Alaska adventure. Which was pretty much the best group of memories that Daniel and I have ever had up to date.

While we’re no strangers to flying for our shoots, this trip had definitely taken the cake. How, you might ask? We flew from Dallas, to Kansas City, to Chicago, and then to Louisville. And I’m not done. One the way back, we went from Louisville, to Tampa, to Houston, and then to Dallas.

But back to Louisville. During this week/weekend, there was much hang-age! Our friends were also in town for the wedding, from all over the US, so we all had quite a good time just relaxing, and catching up. I decided to make a post on some of my favorite images of us doing exactly that…

Hanging out, all shot with my small X100.

In black and white, even.

We had a great time. And their wedding was beyond amazing! We’ll be showing it off on our blog in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks, as always, for reading!