The following is a visual recap of Day 2 in Austin over the weekend. We started off with a new experience for most of us when Monica lead us in a morning yoga session on the back deck of the house overlooking the lake. I felt like I was in one of those mid-morning follow-along-at-home fitness videos that are always shot on-locations with killer backdrops... except it was yoga... and I was that person you always saw kinda lookin' around to see what everyone else was doing to try and keep up. That person's never foolin' anyone, and neither was I... Yoga's a humbling - and ironic - activity. It's hard to find an activity that makes you realize how stiff and inflexible and uncoordinated you really are, but in a peaceful, soothing way. Anyway, it was a fantastic way to start the day (except that I wanted to take a nap immediately afterwards. Here are the yoga mats, our tools of the trade for Monica's session.

Next up, lunch at the well-known Hula Hut.

You can't take photographers anywhere without them, well, photographing.

Ahhh... here's Chad... our cheap and cheerful salsa boy.

A little painted table decor for our dining pleasure. [not pictured here: the ginormous tubular steak taco I inhaled]

Sharon, Michele and Kim by the door on the way out. It took us about 7 tries to get this image because people kept coming in and going out like this was a popular restaurant or something. Very inconsiderate if you ask me.

Fast forward to Saturday evening, and here you'll find a string of images from our pre-dinner shooting on or near Commerce Street. First up... Michele with some off-camera flash and another flash throwing a little light on the building behind her. I think this may have been then scene of the crime for the second wave of chigger attacks I was privy to.

Here's Karen in a parking garage with a light bulb above her and a remote flash providing a little separation from behind.

And here's Kim in an alley with a street light lighting her face and again an off-camera flash behind her.

And here's a few more random shots from streetside.

Love this shot of a this guy and his trumpet. Great suggestion, Chad, to have him put his opposite hand up to his ear.

And finally we finished off the evening with some late night shooting back at the house. karen had brought some studio lights, so we set 'em up, and fired away. Starting off... a group shot.

Then it just got ridiculous. For a little role reversal, the ladies donned some 'staches.

And then Chad and I, well, ... I dunno what happened here.

Sorry, Chad. I had to post this one because it's. just. funny. If you'd like to pay the amount listed in the anonymous ransom note I faxed over this morning, I'll gladly remove this image.

There we go. Finally... something a little more masculine from the guy crowd.

And somethin' a little more natural from the ladies side, too.

... or not.

Next up, our third and final day. Mostly images from the drive home... and a third attack of the chiggers. Stay tuned.

A few days ago had another session with the Morriss famiily. A couple years ago Janice, Christian and then-only-daughter Remi were one of the first families brave enough to trust me to capture a few memories as a paid photographer. In fact, they were one of the first few posts on my first blog. Things are a little different since I last saw this young, budding family; most notable is the recent installment of another beautiful baby girl. Riley is new on the scene and now chasing in the footsteps of her big sister, Remi. Here's a few images from our time at the new Croatian themed retail development complex called Adriatica in Frisco. First up, Remi looking, well, adorable.

And little Riley looked adorable with this bow in her hair...

... and with her hat...

... and she loved tickle-me Elmo.

Loved the Pebbles look Remi had goin'.

Love this image... both Remi and Riley are old enough to know "just one more" means nothing coming from my mouth.

Dad tossing Remi like a salad.

Other than our little brush with mortality, our trip to Nashville was fantastic last weekend. We went up to see Kylie's cousin get married, and her parents and aunt and uncle came down (or is it over?) from Indiana, so we got to hang out with them for a while, too. Nashville's a pretty cool town with a little bit of everything. Lots of rolling hills make for a picturesque backdrop, although, compared to Dallas where any mound of dirt three feet high is considered a hill if not a borderline mountain, it's easy to impress us Texans. Its got a little bit of grunge, a little city, lots of countryside, and oh yeah, there's the whole country music thing that's just a small part of city's identity. Here's a few images from our stay in Music City.

Saturday night we had dinner with a couple of Kylie's college friends. On the left is Missy & Roberto and their little girl, Amelia. And on the right is Greg & Cheri and their baby girl, Sarah.

This was at Journey Church were we went Sunday morning in Franklin. It was in an old factory that had been renovated, and the service was pretty cool. This was near where you walked in and they had a bunch of old windows hanging from the rafters.

Mores textures from the surrounding factory that had been turned into a cool shopping area.

This was the old Marathon Motor Works building that has now been partially converted into a residential building.

Views like this are a dime a dozen in Nashville.

Kylie and her Dad at the wedding.

Kylie's dad, Garry, and (from left to right) his sister Connie (who's son was getting married), Danny and Mick.

I gave the camera to Kylie's dad to take a photo of Kylie and I and he busted out his paparazzi stance and added in the tilt because "it makes it cooler, right?"

Kylie's parents, Garry & Tina.

... and daughter makes 3.

Here comes the bride... wait a minute...

The wedding was at the Carnton Plantation with a historic landscape that was the center of the Battle of Franklin during the Civil War. Beautiful grounds and an amazing garden.

We were able to tour the house after the ceremony. One particularly interesting story was about how soldiers from the battlefield were brought to the house during the battle of Franklin for medical care. What makes this interesting is that there's a room on the second floor where - during a renovation of the house - the carpet was removed and you can see in several spots where blood had soaked through the carpet and stained the original hardwoods.

Poster in a window down near Vanderbilt.

Fountains at Bicentennial Mall near downtown.

A farmer's market in Bicentennial Mall.

The have a loooong wall in Bicentennial Mall where the history of Tennessee and Nashville is carved into granite. Kylie went to college at Trevecca, so she wanted a quick photo. She blinked during this one.

Today is my sweetie's birthday. Thanks for being my best friend. Thanks for being my "ness". Thanks for being my wife. Hope you have a fantastic day, and Mia and I will see you tonight. We love you!!

I know, I know... the wheels haven't quite fallen off of the Project 365 wagon yet, but the hubcaps are surely gone and I think I'm down to my last lug nut on each wheel. I was out last week for my annual trek to Texas School, and I was having entirely too much fun during the few hours we weren't in class to think much about blogging. Play time is over, though, and I'm slowly getting back into regularly scheduled blog programming. To start things off, after dinner on Wednesday night, I went out with some photography forum friends to play around with some off-camera flash action. And with that, the answer to the age-old question 'What do photographers do for fun when they're not photographing?' that's been burning in the back of your mind has finally been answered... more photography. I was explaining to couple of people how I use off-camera flash, and here's a couple of the resulting images. Thanks to Lauren for being the lovely model in these images, to Erin for persevering through the burning in her arms to hold the flash with the softbox over her head I'm sure what seemed like an hour, and to Jamie for holding the second kicker light flash behind Lauren.

Love the feel of this one... reminds me of 1940's glam.

Thanks, ladies, for making Wednesday night a blast.