One of our favorite parts of our 'job' is when we get to hang out with other photographers. The longer I am involved in this industry the bigger I feel our world is getting. By 'our world' I mean mine and Luke's world. And that's just the best way that I know how to describe it. The world of photographers is so big, and I'd venture to say no matter where you are located at, there's a photographer who could be a perfect fit for you. Just the other day, I had a Facebook friend (never actually met her in person) message me and ask if we were ever coming to West Virginia. While the answer was, "No, not in the immediate future" (booo) I did have a wonderful photographer that I could refer her to that I knew who was almost in her backyard.

Add another photographer to my list now who I'd be happy to refer, if anyone is around either Wyoming or Missouri. Kassi is originally a livestock photographer. For my non-agriculture related friends, YES there is an actual profession for that. And it ain't easy, either. A lot of people view wedding photography as a tough genre just because of the different situations you can get into (dark churches, rainy outdoor weddings, etc.) while the show must go on. Imagine photographing a moving 1500 pound animal who may or may not like you being there in the first place, in lighting situations you might not have control over, and having to 'pose' an animal who you can't easily communicate with! Posing a couple doesn't sound that hard, now does it? :) So... I came into this mentorship with a tremendous amount of respect for Kassi.

So Kassi has relocated her business from Wyoming (yee-haw) to Missouri and is building a senior-focused business. I love that! Being a specialist is the way to go, and Kassi has a real knack for working with seniors. She already had an awesome senior portfolio, so we knew this was going to be a great mentorship. Kassi has a really sweet personality and is easy to be around - we had a great time with her. We spent most of the day pouring over her business and talking through where she is now and where she wants to go, and then in the afternoon we had our trusty model for the day, Abby, all dolled up and ready to help us teach Kassi how we shoot our photos.

Here at the beginning of the shoot Luke is showing Kassi how we use a custom white balance to make sure we get our photos as close to perfect straight out of the camera, because Photoshop = time waster! Can I get an amen?

Here Luke was changing a few of the custom function settings on Kassi's camera to help her get the images she is wanting!

Plenty of laughs were had, of course. You know us.

One of the specific things that Kassi wanted to know about as far as how we shoot is how we shoot our photos that have a sun-flare. These are our favorite images of any shoot and we may or may not be a little pouty if it is cloudy and we don't get a sunset.

We did take a few photos of Abby ourselves that evening while we were teaching, and here's the results!

Like I said earlier, we believe Photoshop is a time waster and therefore shoot our photos so they are ready to go as soon as we download them off our cards. From downloading cards, importing into Lightroom for minor tweaks (mainly just bumping up the color just a little bit), to uploading to our blog, the only thing we had to do in Photoshop was run our little blog action that puts our logo on the picture. In the words of our preacher friend, "Shazam!"

Here's what Kassi had to say about her mentorship experience with us:

"After making a good name for myself as a livestock photographer, I found my creativity being stifled and, for me, the answer was to start focusing more on "people" pictures, specifically targeting seniors. I've been watching Luke & Cat's work since they started and it was a no-brainer for me to partner with them on a mentorship session. Even though I don't have plans to be a wedding photog, Luke and Cat are business savvy photographers and helped get me on the right track to expand my business into a new market. It was a day filled with laughs, planning & questions, and I couldn't be happier with my experience!"

Did we mention Kassi is also a Luke and Cat bride!? We can't wait for her wedding in Wyoming next summer, and keep an eye out here for her engagement blog post coming up.

I know we shouldn't have a favorite and all, but shooting bridal portraits is like, totally... our favorite. Picture me saying that all "Valley Girl" from Saved By The Bell and flipping my hair over my shoulder. Because that's how I said it in my head. I should amend though and say that bridal portraits are Luke's favorite. I am not sure that I have a favorite, because I love different parts of each session we shoot. For example, I love the nervous giggles during an engagement session (you know who you are! and by that, I am pointing at each and every one of our couples we've ever shot.)

One of my favorite moments of a bridal session actually happens before we actually start taking photos! Luke and I always sequester (big word!) ourselves in our office and close the door while the bride-to-be and her partner in crime for the day, usually her mother, use the rest of our house to get ready for the pictures. I love love love the moment when we hear a tentative knock on our door and then a bride's voice say, "We're ready!" When we open our office door, all of a sudden, there's a bride there. I say "a bride" because chances are when she arrived at our house just a few minutes earlier, she was wearing one of Dad's oversized button down shirts (as to not mess up her hair) and yoga pants and flip flops. Just a few seconds later, there's a bride.

So Krystal arrived in similar fashion, driving all the way to our place from Corpus Christi with her mom and dad. And if you want to get all technical about it (I do) she actually came all the way from Louisiana because that's where SHE actually lives. So it was a long trip, but once she got here and got all gussied up, it was worth it! We'd hung out with Krystal and her mom over coffee and breakfast one day, so we were already excited to see them, but as an extra treat we got to meet Krystal's dad too. The lady of the hour was ready to go and boy, did she look stunning!

Lately it seems like our life is a rotating schedule of this: get up early to meet someone here to work on the house (either painter, carpenter, or electrician), move furniture around to help them do what the task is we need them to do, work from wherever I can find the space to do so (since the house is being worked on), wait for 5:00 when the painter/carpenter/electrician leaves, tidy up the house, move furniture back in a rush before someone gets here, all leading up to my favorite part of the day: the evenings! The evenings are my favorite time of the day because we're either getting to sit on our deck and grill out while the bulldogs play in our yard, OR, on days like this one a few weeks ago, hang out with cool couples like this one and photograph their engagement session.

Megan and James are cool people. I know we say that a lot, but they actually ARE cool people, and the type of people that while we were hanging out with them, I would find myself realizing that, "Oh, hey, stop visiting. We're here to take pictures." They are both Aggies, as are we, so we already have something in common. Aside from that, they are also getting married at Briscoe Manor, which is where we got married. When we first heard from Megan and James, we were at WPPI in Vegas (the photography conference) and we couldn't wait to get back to our hotel room so we could visit with them. Fast forward six months later, here we are!

This session was one of my favorites because we're still in the "fall is new" time here in south Texas. By that, I mean, we're still *not* used to *not* sweating our hineys off all the time. Yes I just said hineys... and I laughed to myself. It was hard to pick "Luke's Favorite" and "Cat's Favorite" because we honestly had quite a few. I hope you'll leave us a comment and let us know what YOUR favorite is! :)