Meet Jacklyn and Matt.
The minutes before I met them for the shoot they were buying pillows.
I know I left you hanging in mystery with the sneak peek last week, but now I’ll clue you in — Matt had finally convinced Jacklyn to include a pillow fight in their engagement shoot. And now that I’ve hooked you, the fight will be at the end of the post, so I guess you’ll just have to keep reading.
Somebody just TRY and tell me this girl ISN’T Mary-Kate Olsen. COME ON!
(Side note: I may or may not have, at one time in my life, owned every single Olsen movie ever made. I love me some Passport to Paris and Holiday in the Sun. Holla.)
Sigh. The almost kiss. Gets me every time.
Do you remember Hollye? Hollye and Jacklyn have been best friends since high school so Hollye lent us her fabulous vintage suitcase and some worn books to work into the shoot as well.
Definitely one of my favorites engagement shots that I’ve done. Possibly of all time. Look at those giddy-to-be-married faces.
A quick outfit change obviously produced some sass inside the two of them, but I certainly wasn’t about to object.
As cool as it would have been to find a random old window hanging on a nearby tree, the window is also Hollye’s. Seriously, Hollye is the wealth of all things nostalgic.
Jacklyn also expressed to me that she definitely wanted some wide-open field shots, so that was our next task.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooorgeous, Jacklyn. Just gorgeous.
They seriously just started having fun in front of my camera. I ate it up.
And now, right at dusk, segue into pillow fight.
Matt’s vision was to try something new and do something that set their engagement pictures apart — in the form of an all-out, no mercy pillow fight.
Words can.not express how ridiculously excited I get when a client tells me they have an idea like this. It’s like a little kid in a candy shop. And I looooove candy, so that’s saying something.
Bam.
There were feathers. everywhere. More than I could have ever imagined could possibly fit into two pillowcases.
It was incredible.
I love the mix of slightly blur-motion shots, like the one above, and the slightly sharper images like the one below. I like the different feelings associated with both of them.
Haha. Matt’s little boy face. Love it.
Who knew how super-romantic a pillow fight could turn out?
I get the feeling that Jacklyn and Matt even each other out. It’s not that one or the other is overwhelming on their own, but I guess it’s perhaps even in life Matt is the random pillow-fight to  Jacklyn’s field. Sure, it’s unexpected — but what they have and who they are in the end result is even better than any original expectation.
(The best news — this was only ONE of TWO engagement shoots that Matt and Jacklyn did. I’ll post their Sundance Square shoot soon!)
Meet  Caxcy and James.
The look on Caxcy’s face ALMOST represents how giddy I feel to be finally posting their pictures. Almost.
Caxcy had e-mailed me a couple of months ago telling me that she wanted to do a shoot that embodied Dallas.
At night.
After reading that e-mail I turned around to my husband and told him, “No way.” A night shoot scared me.
He made me do it. Well, he convinced me I should. And I’m so, so glad that he did.
Caxcy and James were a photographer’s dream. They came dressed to the nines, having a vision for their shoot and were ready to work. it. out.
I adore that smirk on Caxcy’s face in the picture on the left. It’s right before it explodes into that full blown grin in the picture on the right. She knew it was coming.
Funny enough, “Caxcy and James” began when James and his friend were scoping out girls at  church in high school. The two boys agreed, “I’ll take this one and you take that one.” Well James and Caxcy stuck. Caxcy joked that this means God wanted them to be together.
Waiting for nightfall, we started out in a nearby empty construction site.
I’ve recently developed an affinity for blurred motion portraits. Just wanted to let you know.
Even at the risk of sounding cheesy, I’m just going to say it.
Caxcy, you shine. Like, light-up-a-construction-zone shine.
At this point in the shoot we began to integrate the flash — the picture on the left is naturally lit and side-right lit with the flash.
I don’t know WHY they waited until this far into the shoot to whip out their secret handshake from high school. I was impressed.
Get it, James.
Next we went indoors for some shots at their wedding reception venue across the street from the Magnolia hotel.
Right before we were about to leave the building I spotted this light blue chair. I almost passed it up, but turned around and decided to try it out. It definitely ended up being one of my most favorite photo spots of the night.
Don’t they just look straight out of a magazine?
We finished off our shoot with some downtown Dallas street shots.
Caxcy and James, thank you for asking me to do something I had never done before. Thank you for trusting me.
And I couldn’t have done any of this without my husband, James. He was my flash-man. His intuitive, smart, artist abilities came to my rescue. James, thank you for knowing me and for knowing exactly where to be without me even having to ask you.
And TO thank him, I serenaded him in the car ride home with “Yooooouuu, light up my liii-ee-ife!” He totally appreciated it.
**Special thanks to Krista Jones of Bayside Bride for spending her time today explaining photo resizing just out of the goodness of her heart — it made the photos on my blog look the way they’re supposed to! I appreciate you, Krista!***
Meet the Loseke family.
(That big blonde to the right is not included)
Over spring break I had the honor of taking the Loseke family photos in this picturesque little town they knew of near Aubrey. Here is a peek at a sliver of the pictures from their session.
Right as we started posing on the tracks the train horn sounded in the near distance. We scrambled off the tracks (Alex took off running a good deal farther than the rest of us) before deciding to use what we were given and include the whoosing train as our new backdrop — I think it ended up being better than the original picture.
Meleena, you kill me with your gorgeousness. And girls, you had better watch out for that Alex-smile.
And Brent and Paula, having raised the two models we just saw, were naturals in front of the camera themselves.
(Okay, so they’re not ACTUALLY models, but they certainly could be if they wanted to.)
Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee???
I can pinpoint the exact moment to right here. Here is when my brain REVOLTED against me and started causing me to call Alex “Brent” instead. Not just one, two, three, fourteen times — no, for the entire rest of the shoot I could only call Alex “Brent.”
Embarrassment nation.
For some reason I just fell in l-o-v-e with the front of this antique shop, so we camped out here for a while.
Look. at. this. family.
The horse in the background of this shot is particularly fitting for the Loseke family because Brent (“Brent” meaning the father, NOT Alex, the son, whom I also called Brent. Continuously.) is a big-time horse trainer. All horses, all the time.
I’d love to tell you that I purposefully said something witty and hilarious, but I very well may have just called Alex “Brent” again. For the 42nd time. It really did cross the point of ridiculousness.
Okaaaayyyyy. That’s sweet.
Seriously. You guys ARE models. I CAN’T MAKE THESE FACES UP, PEOPLE!!
Loseke family, you guys are great. Thank you for being your great selves in front of my camera.
I love it.
Jacklyn and Matt’s engagement shoot coming soon.
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