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Last week I had the delightful privilege of shooting with my very first BFF Sarah from Sarah Bunch Photography. Our photography plans changed at the last minute and we found ourselves heading to Huntsville, Texas to shoot some long over due bridals.

Caitlyn was perfectly sweet and beautiful.

Thanks to a recommendation from May (thanks May, you rock!), we found a cluster of bamboo that was the perfect ending to Caitlyn’s session. These are now some of my favorite bridal images ever. I mean look at her!

Caitlyn and Zacj! Thank you so much for being available last minute and for giving us SO much of your time.  Zacj, you were a perfect reflector and light-holder.  All your work and help was so appreciated.  Caitlyn, thanks for being so excited and enthusiastic.  You made it way too easy.  You were both so much fun to work with and  I hope you love the images.

I would love to have this session ready to blog but I am having such a hard time narrowing down a bloggable amount of images. So far I have close to 100 “Favorites”!

So until I have made up my mind, here is one of my favorites from Caitlyn’s After-the-Wedding-Bridal-Session.

I seriously need to come up with another name for these types of sessions. Trash the Dress does not suit them. Maybe, Bridals After the Wedding Session or One Last Chance Before You Get Your Dress Preserved and Packaged Session.

I have been wanting to go to the the Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon with a bride ever since I  did the hike a year ago. When I approached the newly married Anna about it not only was she excited and enthusiastic but also totally willing to tackle any obstacles to make it happen.

Her uber-cool husband Ryon had the honor of rucking her 9-million pound dress the almost three miles to our location.

Dustin hiked down to the bottom to get the epic landscape shot while I stayed up top. Yes, Dustin did the harder work but I got pretty close to the edge, that should count for something…

Can you guess which is Dustin’s and which is mine?

I have been forcing myself to shoot outside of my comfort zone and these pictures are proof of that. Direct sunlight on a white dress leads to blown out spots and loss of detail but I still think the images were worth it. Sometimes my rebelliousness shocks me.

Looking back I probably should have re-schedued this shoot. I knew I would have to leave the location at a certain time and I knew that time would be right in the middle of the most beautiful light of the day. but I was eager to finally get to the location. We had a blast but my mind keeps thinking about the pictures that got away. The ones I never took because of our hasty time line.

See wasn’t the light pretty?!

I lamented about our missed pictures on the hike back and Ryon assured me several times that we  got some great pictures. He reminded me to think about what I had and not what I didn’t have. Darn him. It is really hard t o pout when you are walking next to someone who refuses to dwell on the negative. Grrrr.

So this is my last picture of the night. The light was gorgeous and I was in denial that I had to stop shooting. Dustin scolded me about putting the camera away so I could walk instead of breaking my neck while capturing the perfect shot.

Best thing about this session is that Anna and Ryon are going to join us again for a couples session in another awesome location. I so can’t wait and you better bet that I will have things worked out so that I can be there in the “good light”!

Anna and Ryon we loved hanging out with you! Thanks for all your hard work and for being so easy going. You seriously rock. Next time we owe you drinks.

*Warning Biggest post ever: I know I said I was going to narrow it down from my top 128 but by the size of this post, that turned out being harder then I expected!

I may or may not have hounded Kristen since early spring about this session. I admit, I wanted it to happen. Bad. I am so glad we finally had a day that worked for all involved and I just loved working with Kristen!  She was a bit nervous about her performance for the shoot, which I thought was sweet and funny. Funny because umm, look at her, I really wasn’t worried about if she would be photogenic or not. Kristen is a personal trainer and fitness instructor at Zachs Club 54, which is a great gym here in Amarillo. I love taking her classes and having my booty smoked by her during training. If you are in need of a personal trainer I would highly recommend her! I could go on about what a great job she did, or I could just let you see for yourself…

Now I have a confession to make about this session that I am quite ashamed of. I really didn’t treat my sweet husband that well. I gave him no opportunity to shoot for himself and I basically ignored him except to ask him to run back and grab my flash, or bag, or batteries, or whatever-you get the idea. I love having him on sessions with me so you think I would make the extra effort to be especially kind to him to make sure he comes back. Alas, in this case I failed. Big time. And I feel terrible and he has heard my apologies several times. Maybe he thrives with no wife hanging over his shoulder and checking his exposures because the few images that he did take were his best yet.

The next set is an ode to my Husband who rocks. I love seeing images through his lens…

I title this next picture group of images “My inability to make decisions collage”. I liked them all, don’t make me choose!

She is ge-ORGEOUS!

We put a little friendly pressure to go ahead and walk through the little alien life forms, snails perhaps?

This next image was taken with my lumopro 120 flash held by my husband, who sometimes doubles as a walking light-stand (which I appreciate, of course!). I thought it turned out kind of mysterious and cool…

Sooo just maybe Kristen was being poked by a evil sticker at this point and maybe I did not help as quickly as I should have but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make!

My PFF (photographer friend forever-duh!) Karyn, drove all the way up from Sweetwater to partake in the picture taking fun. It was great having her there with us to share her knowledge and expertise. Plus she let me let plug into her Alien Bees flash, which I LOVED! These images are sooc (straight-out-of-camera), so cool!

For those interested in the technical specs of an image. This next shot was taken 5 minutes before the  two above at an ISO of  8oo and no flash with my Canon 5D Mark II. It was minutes from 9pm and we had very little light left. I love my camera *happy sigh*

Big thanks to everyone who helped out for this shot, especially to Star (and Brenna) for coming to the rescue at this last minute with the kiddos and to Lesa who was so gracious to offer and show me around the amazing property .  I can not wait to do this again! If you are wanting images in the Palo Duro Canyon get in touch because I would love to go back!

I wanted to give a sneak peek of yesterday’s Trash the Dress session. More to come as soon as I can narrow it down to a bloggable amount of favorites (I have it down to my top 128, yikes)!

I admit it. Sometimes I make stupid decisions.

I had been looking forward to Lauren’s trash the dress session since the moment she said “I do”. I could see it in my mind, big beautiful live oaks draped with spanish moss. The sun setting behind her as she strolled through golden grass. Perfect. Whimsical. Enchanting.

So when time came for the session, I knew the ideal place would be Brazos Bend state park . However, timing and location would have put us smack-dead in the middle of Houston traffic. Not a fun place to be.  So in order to save time I searched for a suitable alternative. Lake Livingston became our location for the day. While researching the area, I found that it was close to a ghost town. Wow, how cool would shots be of a bride in a ghost town?! When I asked the Park People about it they actually laughed at me. Because it seems this was no ordinary ghost town but a submerged ghost town. Yes, submerged as under water. Why a town under water is given the term ghost town is beyond me. Who, besides people owning scuba gear, would even see the “ghost town”? Crazy.  I think pictures of a bride in scuba gear in a submerged ghost town just might top a regular ghost town.  I’ll put it on my to-do list…

So along with Lauren’s little sister (who, by the way, has uber photgraphic skills) Hannah, we drove, and we drove, and we drove. When we got there and it was nothing like I had imagined. No spanish moss, no ghost town, no scuba gear.  Just one ridiculously beautiful friend, her crazy-talented sister, and a camera that I am obsessed with. So do you know what we did?  We made beautiful pictures…

Every bride needs a picture of herself in a random telephone booth in the middle of nowhere. So, of course we had to pull over when we saw it. However, Lauren did not seem especially interested in stopping at the biker bar or the abandoned houses we passed on our way home. (I am positive that any of those bikers would have let her take some cool shots on their Harleys. Who says no to a beautiful woman in a wedding dress?)

I love it when I have a session that I don’t want to end. This was definitely one of those sessions. Lauren is such a awesome person to be around; she is  fun, smart, interesting and lively. She is a talented writer and  has an incredibly witty and entertaining blog.  I read her regularly. You, too, should check it out.

Lauren, I had such a great time hanging out with you and Hannah! Don’t pack up that dress just yet. Let’s do it again!

We will be returning to the Houston area in late July and  have sessions available. If you are interested please email me at leah@thesaltedimage for more information  as our Houston spots are limited and fill fast.

We photographed Katie’s bridal session back in September and I have been eager to post them since. She was SO easy to take pictures of!

Katie is a student as well as a ballet instructor and dancer. She carried herself so gracefully that I felt like a one-legged pony next to her. Really, it was ridiculous. I mean look at her…

I will be posting Katie and Jess’s wedding pictures over the next day or two, so check back to for more.