I have to throw a HUUUGE shout out to my longtime friends Kandis, Jerry & Tina. This past Saturday they hosted a wedding shower/party for Kylie and I, and - as usual - they went above and beyond. See the invitation Tina designed below using a photo Kim Boyd took of us as evidence of said above-and-beyondness.

Given my last name - which, by the way, besides my big eyebrows, family tree, and insatiable craving for pizza is the only way someone would actually have a clue I'm Italian - they ran with the Italian theme. From the red and white checkered table cloths to the rockin' Maggianos catered food to the Italian vocabulary lessons playing in the bathroom, my ancestors would be proud. And there's no way I can forget to mention the ridiculously tasty Italian Creme Cake Leanne made for the shower. FYI, if you live in the DFW area or anywhere close to it and need a cake or pastry for an event, Leanne's your girl. And what would a party be without the paparazzi? Tina had an idea to set up a little photo booth to capture images of all the friends that would be coming, so the night before the shower I took a few lights and a backdrop over to their house and we all pitched in to get it set up. Then while the rest of us wedding-showered-it-up at the party, Tina was a trooper and took pictures all night. I'll post more later, but here's a couple fun one's of Kylie and I doin' our best to avoid the camera.

Thanks so much guys! Oops... I mean grazie. You're the best. Really. Much love comin' your way.

It's not often I have the privilege of photographing 4 generations of a family. In fact, this was a first for me, and it was such an honor to create these timeless memories for the Watson family last weekend. I've known Paula for several years through my work at TI, and it was easy to see in our first conversation about doing a photography session a couple months ago how important these images were going to be to her. She, Kylie and I had talked about ideas and locations for some time, and so it was exciting to finally make it happen. So without further ado, I'll stop talking and start showing the images. Let me introduce the family starting with the image below. [Great][Grand]son Trevor anchors the upper left position followed by Paula in the upper right, Paula's husband Darrell below her, Paula & Darrell's daughter Tracie in the lower left, and finally, Paula's parents Paul and Ruby are center stage.

Paul and Ruby were such a joy to photograph. You could tell by the way they still looked at each other that their history had only drawn them closer together. Truly an inspiration to see a vision of two that have become one.

I bet these hands have a thousand stories they could tell.

Ruby still looks at Paul with respect, reverence, and admiration.

Paula and Darrell are on their way to following in the footsteps of the example Paul and Ruby have shown them.

Like so many men from his generation, Paul served our country in WWII...

... and he still has authentic weapons that he's managed to hang on to. Amazing stuff, and some of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

If I'd have thought about it for more than 2 seconds, I probably should've been a little nervous about having Paul bring out his WWII rifle while sitting on a bench in a public park with people walking by. One lady was stopped in her car, looking our way, and making a call on her cell phone. We thought she was probably calling the police, but we didn't hang around long enough to find out, and it all worked out. Whew!

Was pulling into the garage the other day while coming out of my "huh, how'd-I-get-here?" mode from the ride home [this is what I call the state I'm in when I make this drive home every day and apparently just turn off my brain and don't remember any of the actual drive] and noticed the moon coming up at sun set. Ran inside to grab my camera before the light in the sky was gone. { image shot with a 70-200 lens. I used off-camera flash to light up the moon. }

Okay, I was kidding about the flash part. Please don't email me asking how I got my flash to light up the moon. Two words... Not. Possible. (unfortunately)

Yesterday the guys at UPS brought me one of my favorite things... a rather plain-looking, sizable white box from Simply Canvas. Lately with all the holiday orders coming in, it's been like Christmas almost every day with box after box magically appearing by the front door. I can't hardly tear into these boxes fast enough (and when I say tear, I mean with the utmost care and precision, of course) to see the awesome canvas gallery wraps for my clients inside. I think the part I get most excited about is looking forward to seeing the expressions on my clients' faces when they finally see the their images come to life and captured forever in such a stunning way on a timeless canvas piece. Ahh... that moment never gets old. Ever. Well, yesterday I was especially excited because I knew the box I got that day wasn't for one of my clients. This one was all mine. A while back the über-talented Kim Boyd came into town to create some engagement photos for Kylie and I, and I finally got around to ordering a few canvases for us. It's a small step toward balancing out the 12:1 ratio of client images vs. Matt & Kylie images currently on the walls in the new house. So, here's a quick photo showing the the first thing new house guests/clients will now see when they walk in the front door... 2 24" canvases of the soon-to-be missus and I. She dresses up the place pretty nicely, doesn't she? Thanks again, Kim, for the fantastic images!

Maybe Chuck has caused me to be a little bit overly-sensitive towards birds lately, but has anyone else noticed our feathered friends just might be subtly plotting to overtake us humans. Maybe it's just me - in fact, I've convinced myself it's likely only me - and I can't prove it, but I'm fairly certain we've had a recent bird population explosion. I had a family photography shoot downtown yesterday, and as we were headed outta the city, I noticed this herd of birds having a block party in Big D. (Herd? Pfft. Is that right? School? Flock? Pack? Consortium? What do you call a large group of like birds?)

Anyway, they were ever.y.where. Even Hitchcock mighta been spooked. I can't blame the birds, though, really. I mean, it is mid-November, and the weather is ridiculously pleasant this time of year, so maybe they've all just come down from the north to visit their buddies on winter holiday. In any case, I think Bob Barker needs to amend his famous closing statement... "This is Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pet [and your local wild birds] spayed or neutered."