Never Boring, Never Quiet

What a wonderful time of year it is to live in Austin! Everyone is out running, biking, dog walking and playing in the parks. The weather has been wonderful (70's and 80's), the oak pollen is down and there is lots to do and lots to eat. For anyone who has never been here, not only is the TexMex worth waiting in line for, but also the Vietnamese sandwiches made with all fresh ingredients; the Crepes that are a meal all unto themselves: the Thai food so spicy that tears roll down your face: the Sushi places that the waiters no you by name; SnoBeach (the best snow cones around); and we haven't even talked about the BBQ for you meat lovers. The absolute best places are the trailers in an empty lot. Some times you can wait an hour for your food because they are so popular but the weather is so nice this time of year that nosone is complaining about getting to sit outside. I love it!

This was also our kids spring break but Chelsea had soccer practice everyday so that limited her ability to leave town ~ not great for a senior! SXSW (south by southwest) was the same week and all the out of towners took over the city. Every where you went there were crowds of people in $500 jeans and $400 sunglasses (Austin is the home of the hippie so these other people really stand out). Metallica, K'annan, Cold War Kids and Kenya were just some of the artists that were here.   Chelsea was able to attend the Cold War Kids concert, the Austin Music Awards where she got to see her friends The Fire Ants ( link below) perform with Bob Schneider (link below), and a private taping by MTV of several of what they thought were the best SXSW bands this year. Chelsea and her friends also flew kites in the park, had BBQs and shopped; so all in all she had a pretty good break from school. 

Jordan spent a week in Telluride CO snowboarding with 4 of his buddies one of which owns a vacation home there. The exciting part for us was that Jordan managed not to hurt himself or anyone else and catch all his flights. Our little boy is growing up! He kept telling me that all would be well as "he knew his limits".  Apparently hitting a tree on a 4wheeler enlightened him as to where those limits were! He had a great time and even met some girls from St. Andrews (a private Austin school) that he has been keeping in touch with. Tonight he is going to dinner with two of them ~ maybe this will motivate him to get his license since the other option is to share the girls with a driving friend.

I had two wonderful shoots ~ one with James' cousin's son Gus and one with a friend of mine for a school assignment.  James was sweet enough to come be my assistant on both of them. He is so great a carrying all the heavy things, navigating traffic and fixing any technical issue that I might have. If I ever start a business he will have to quit his job to follow me around!

I love this picture I found on a website. I dream of a home/furniture like this in a location like that ~ think my ship will ever come in?? The warm light in this picture makes me want to curl up on the white sand that I know is right outside that door and just be still, enjoying the ocean... well, maybe the still part would get boring quick. It just sounds good because I stayed up too late last night watching Spurs basketball and talking to James. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk-8OmasBkI

www.bobschneidermusic.com

But what an amazing experience it was for us regardless of our politics (Ron Paul was robbed!). The celebration was held in their ballroom and was wall to wall people ~ all so happy and hopeful. There were projection screen tv's and drink stations set up in each room and Obama paraphenalia for sale. At first I just went from room to room taking portraits of individuals like this gentleman who happily posed for me. I love his posture, he looks so empowered! (This picture is going to be entered in a contest at our school.)
Right at the perfect moment James and I happened into a room that turned out to be the main room where all the speakers were. The tv cameras were set up in the back of the room and all the photographers were lined up in front of the stage snapping away. As soon as we walked in our Senator walked up to the podium and started speaking. About the time we pushed our way thru the crowd to the middle, the Talking Heads on tv started announcing the results for Virginia and the crowd went wild ~ screaming, crying, jumping around. I just held my camera up and started laying on the shutter (that's how I got the picture that ended up in the paper). James dragged me up front and I got several great shots of some lady who talked a lot about her father but the crowd was so loud when they introduced her that I didn't catch her name. I just liked all the emotion she was showing. When I got to school and was editing them my teacher couldn't believe that I didn't even realize that I was taking shots of Lucy L. Johnson in the very room that her father gave his acceptance speech! But here is the learning experience that I had. I'm standing there taking pictures up by the stage. I've taken hundreds of pictures that night. Obama has won, the crowd is giddy and I'm thrilled with how well my assignment is going to turn out, when the Executive Director of the Travis County Democratic party steps off the stage and asks me to take her picture with the woman who turned out to be Lucy Johnson. Of course I said yes and hold my camera up to take the shot only to have my camera do nothing! My battery died!! And being the rookie that I am, I had no backup batteries with me. So what do you do in this situation? You press the flash and announce that you got it...and then run!

James and I decided to go to the Travis County Democratic Election Party in downtown Austin Novemeber 4th so that I could take pictures for my class. I got lucky because our class was a week behind everyone else, so that week our assignment ended up being News Stories. We thought we would go where the excitement and the crowds would be and off we went. When we arrived there was line to get in the Driskill Hotel and we had to wait about 30 minutes to get in. Only being able to see a long line in front of us and not knowing how long the wait was going to be, I start chatting up everyone around me trying to find out if anyone knows more then I do about what is going on. The girl infront of me starts asking me questions back and pretty soon has taken out her pad of paper and is writing all my answers down. Just when I start to think that she is a little crazy she tells me that she is the editor of a college paper and wants to quote me in it (whatever Crazy-One!). It turns out that we attend the same college and her photgrapher didn't show up so she asks if I would mind sending her my pictures. I do and they use one. So I got my first credited picture (on page 3) in the ACC school newspaper. They also asked me to join their staff if I'm interested. So... now ya'll will have to call me Sheli-the Staff-Photgrapher!