Sally Brown on the cover of Austin Woman

I got to do a cover shoot for Austin Woman last month-Sally Brown at The Lake Austin Spa and Resort. A great location and a beautiful, sassy subject to boot. The weather was not so cooperative though, it was actually raining when this shot was taken. A little digital retouching and...Check out the sky I added (below).

One of my favorite things about Austin

Is the Wyld Wood shows. http://www.wyldwoodshows.com/ My friends Amy and Andrew are huge music fans. So they put together these shows in their back yard (they have a huge back yard). Everyone brings a blanket and picnic dinner for the event, gets to listen to great music and enjoy the evening. 

The End of Summer in Austin

One of my favorite things about Austin is the Greenbelt, a huge swath of wild land (809 acres) that snakes through the middle of the city, surrounding a seasonal creek. For much of the year the creek is dry, not a drop of water there. It's still a great escape to wilderness when it's dry, but when there is water in the creek, especially in the hot summer months, it makes an amazing secret oasis.

This September has been very mild, days often in the low nineties, some have even been in the 80's and we've had rain, which means, you guessed it, water in the creek. I went for a walk there the other day with my sister. We were wondering if we would see water as we started out on our hike. A few minutes later, through the trees, a stranger (who we never even saw), says "Water at sculpture falls, about a 20 minute walk up the trail." Ok, that was our goal. A few minutes later we were on the path that is next to the creek bed, but no water there. After at least a half an hour (the 20 minute report was very optimistic), we finally came out of the trees at sculpture falls. And there was our oasis. A small gathering of various types of people had found the place and were making the best of a Tuesday afternoon, so we joined in.

See more photos at http://www.smcintyre.com/

Austin Monthly Style Shoot

I pitched a story to Austin Monthly in April for a style shoot. The concept I pitched was for how the photos should look and a rough idea of what the models might be wearing. I had wanted the shots to be all outside, showing the beauty of early spring. The crew at Austin Monthly does not want to travel far, so I scouted all over the city for wild places of beauty-places that would you would think were out in the country (which there are many).

The weather was not looking good though, it was dark, dark, dark, and rain seemed imminent. So I began to look at indoor spaces to shoot in for a back up.  I found this cabin near lake Travis that looked like it could be a good back drop, went out there and shot a lot of potential backgrounds and matched them up with a rough shot list I had put together. On the day of the shoot it gets very hectic; getting in six shots between the hours of 9-5 with out an assistant can be challenging, (especially when you have to factor in time for hair and make up and choosing clothing) so I was really glad I had done a lot of prep work. The magazine came out two weeks ago and the spread looks great.

See the layouts in the InPrint Portfolio http://www.smcintyre.com/

Bad weather makes good photos...

On our Bay Area Christmas trip this year we decided to go the beach one day. At that time of year the weather at the beach is a very hit or miss-that is if you're looking for sunny weather. On this day we had very heavy fog, it wasn't quite what you would call rain, but it might as well have been, everything, including my camera was getting soaked. I put it under my jacket in between photos (until I got smart and went to get an umbrella out of the car). Despite, or maybe because of the weather, I loved this day. It wasn't just that it was beautiful. I looked around and saw all of these people completely enjoying themselves; kids playing in the sand, families playing soccer, groups huddled around fires, who cares if it's wet and cold? An authentic Northern California day. 

see more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

 

Hipstamatic love it or hate it?

It's crazy how easy it is now to create interesting imagery now. I used to carry a Diana camera around, complete with a changing bag, a light tight bag that I would use to load and unload film with. I couldn't do it in the day light because the paper backed rolls of film wouldn't wind up tight enough, so the film would get exposed when taking it out of the camera. I would process my film, none of it straight, usually cross processed or pushed 3 stops. After getting the rolls and contact sheets back I would go to the dark room and print the ones I liked the best. Because this whole process took a certain amount of knowledge, time and money, it was somewhat unique. And I loved it.

When I got an iPhone and started seeing Hipstamatic imagery about, it was not just annoying, it kind of made me angry. Making plastic camera images was now available to just about anyone, you didn't even have to care about photography to do it. For the first year of having my iPhone, I wouldn't even buy the app. I was happy with my Shakeit Polaroid and a few others, intentionally avoiding the Hipstamatic, like it was developed just to be my menace.

In an effort to make peace with new technology, I've started using the Hipstamatic recently. It's far from perfect, I always want to tweak things and I don't like most of the lens and films. But the ones I use, I really love. I must admit that I don't have time now for dark room, and for the most part, even shooting film. So it makes me extremely happy to take these quirky little keepsakes.

Most of the time I use these:

Color: the John S & Blanko film 

Black & white: Lucifer VI and Black Keys

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

These were taken with a Diana for a book I did on New Orleans.

I always took my Diana on my travels. The photos above and below were taken in Spain.

Found that country feeling in middle of Austin

At the beginning of August Austin Monthly contacted me about shooting a cover for their 'Weekend Trips' September issue. They had a good idea of what we would shoot; a family with a Wagoneer and a canoe on top, but we needed a location. I wanted to shoot out of the city, but logistically it's a little difficult to coordinate so many elements; kid, couple, car, canoe, us, did I mention a dog? I suggested an empty lot in middle of the city where I had shot in the past, which turned out to be just the trick for a easy shoot. The grass had grown up nicely and caught the afternoon sun beautifully.

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

THE MAN SHOOT

I just finished shooting Austin's 10 most eligible bachelors for Austin Monthly. It was a lot of fun and also challenging. The magazine doesn't have a budget for an assistant, hair and makeup or a stylist. The images they showed me for examples were highly styled, and great images, but tears from magazines with very large budgets. My approach was to make the images more about the guy in it, while having some fun with the atmosphere of the pictures. The ladies from the magazine (Cory Rivademar and Jessica Power) did an excellent job making it all work.

See more in InPrint Portfolio: http://www.smcintyre.com/

My favorite outtake.

Life With a Three Year Old

I have a three year old daughter, her name is Josephine. I wish I could have as much fun as she does,  but it's a little hard to have her exuberance when you're older than three. I do try. Otherwise, I try to capture it with my camera. She's been a very good subject so far. I've only heard 'don't take my picture' a couple of times in her life. Sometimes, when I'm really busy working, I feel like she knows how to be especially cute to get my attention. Like the time recently when I was trying really hard to finish some images for a deadline and she picked up her ukulele and starting strumming and singing. I successfully ignored it, although, now I wish I hadn't. Another time recently she picked up this hat, which she will NEVER wear and I think is really adorable, and started posing with it. Luckily, I did stop what I was doing to enjoy the moment with her.

See the Kids Portfolio at http://www.smcintyre.com/