Thursday, August 11, 2011

Parese and Brandon

Posted in Wedding

Parese and Brandon are a wonderful, fun couple to work with.  Addison Myrick was the photographer for this wedding (and for the engagement and bridal shoot) as I was already booked for that weekend.  Addison is simply wonderful to work with and has incredible talent as a photographer (just see the images below).  I am always amazed at the creativity in the composition of her images.  We worked together with Parese and Brandon to plan their wedding.  I performed the post processing including the fine art creative effects you can see in some of the images below.

The wedding took place at Wesley United Methodist Church in Austin and was presided over by Gaylon Clark, pastor of Greater Mt. Zion Baptist Church.  Gaylon is a great pastor and I have had the privelege of shooting several wedding he has officiated (be sure he tells you his explanation of the origin of the word “whoa-man”!).  Looking at Addison’s images, I feel like I was there.  The reception took place at the DoubleTree Hotel on North IH35.

Beautiful couple, beautiful wedding, beautiful colors and beautiful images!  Congratulations Parese and Brandon – I wish I had been there.  And Addison – your photography is incredible!

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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Jennifer and Jesse

Posted in Wedding

When you see these images, you have to love a traditional church wedding.  Jennifer and Jesse were married at St. Richard’s Episcopal in Round Rock and it was simply beautiful.  Everything was on schedule and with the help of my 2nd shooter, Amanda Cook, we captured some stunning preparation and bridal party images.

Church weddings are often dark to shoot in, but that is no problem for today’s modern cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II that I use and the Nikon D3 that Amanda uses.  Along with good lenses, we can get beautiful images in low light that would have required a tripod and very slow shutter speeds before.  This wedding was a perfect example.

After the ceremony the guests headed over to the Austin Marriott North (also known as the Marriott La Frontera) for the reception.  Amanda went over right after the ceremony to capture reception details and the arriving guests while I did the family, bridal party and bride & groom shots.

The reception was fun and high energy complete with mariachi band, groom toss and dancing.   We did a staged exit right in the atrium area of the Marriott which provided for a set of unique exit shots with no wind blowing the bubbles and well lit surroundings (rather than the pitch black of a traditional exit).  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Taylor and Blake

Posted in Wedding

What an honor it was to shoot Taylor Blackwood and Blake Cervenka’s wedding at the Thurman Mansion.  Blake played Little League baseball with my son Ryan and we have known the Cervenka’s since as Taylor and Blake and my kids, Ashlee and Ryan attended Anderson High School.

We started with the rehearsal dinner at the Headliners Club on the 21st floor of the Chase bank building.  This is definitely one of my favorite places to shoot.  The views of the Austin downtown skyline are stunning!

The wedding day started with shots of Blake and the groomsmen having some fun around the mansion.  I love the bridal preparation room upstairs and we got some beautiful shots of Taylor getting ready before the wedding.  The ceremony and group shots were wonderful with the sun setting right behind the ceremony.

I had picked out a spot with great light under some trees with the vineyards in the background for bride and groom shots.  The reception was energized by the live band and of course, incomparable Salt Lick barbeque.

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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Jessica & Roddy

Posted in Engagement

Jessica and Roddy were referred to me by a prior client and had booked me almost a year ago.  Finally, it was time for our engagement session and I was excited.  They showed up ready to go with 2 outfits – formal and 50’s.  We had fun with both of them.

Jessica selected the Arboretum for this session followed by sunset images at the 360 bridge.  The Arboretum has a number of great places to shoot all within close proximity.  We got started a bit late, but the session went smoothly finishing down by the Arboretum pond where my car was parked and off we went to the 360 bridge.

This is where things got interesting.  Jessica only had her high heels to hike up the trail to the Northwest ledge of the 360 bridge.  With help from Roddy and I she made it to the overlook.  I overheard a father telling his son “No son, she walked up with different shoes and changed into those up here…”    Hah!  If only he knew.  Well, it was worth the effort as we captured a number of beautiful downtown Austin, Lake Austin and 360 bridge shots in a short 15 minutes.

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Posted in Engagement
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Jessica & Roddy Wedding » Patrick Motola Photography Blog - August 21, 2011 - 3:31 pm

[…] congratulations to Jessica and Roddy!  They were so much fun to work with.  You can click here if you would like to see their engagement […]

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Ashley and Kevin Engagement

Posted in Engagement

Ashley, Kevin and I met over at the University of Texas at Austin on a hot July Sunday evening right at the UT Tower.  If you look at the images below, yes, this is the Ashley Lindsey of UT basketball fame.  Kevin, her fiance is looking to play in the Puerto Rico league.  Having played basketball for 4 years at the University of California at Berkeley in the 70’s, we spent a good 20 minutes catching up on all thing basketball.  However, not wanting to lose the daylight, we started our shoot.

To keep things cool, we shot inside for the first 20 minutes using some beautiful window light inside the UT Tower.  The rest of the shots were all right in the same general area and we did manage to keep cool.  I love, love, love the blue door at the building just west of the UT Tower.  And of course, we have the amazing murals at 24th and Guadalupe.  All in all, a beautiful couple and another fun engagement session.

My thanks to my good friend, Kandi Cook of KR Creations and Events who is Ashley’s coordinator and who referred me to Ashley.  Kandi is a pleasure to work with and 110% professional.  I know when we work together, we are going to create amazing images for the bride and ensure her wedding is perfectly planned so she can relax and enjoy the day.

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Posted in Engagement
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Ashley & Kevin Wedding » Patrick Motola Photography Blog - September 15, 2011 - 12:39 am

[…] time for Ashley and Kevin’s wedding had come (see Ashley & Kevin Engagement for our engagement shoot) and I knew it was going to be special from the beginning.  First and […]

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