This is the official blog for William Bay, Wedding Photographer extraordinaire and all around great guy.

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Archive for May, 2009

The Wee Ones

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009


me-swimming


I thought I’d post a few more of my favorites from this weekend camping trip. The one to the left was taken by Nana Akins while I was swimming over to the other side to get a few shots of Seasha going off the rope swing.
Mind you, this was after I had drowned my iPhone the day before!

The other photos below are of Laura and Seasha’s wee ones. The little ones were playing in the mud puddles right after a big lightning storm passed through. And I was lubed up enough with beer to go and play and photograph them.

Enjoy!

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Posted in Portrait Photography | 4 Comments »

A Weird, Watery Weekend!

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

I’m not even sure I can present a story that fully illustrates the crazy roller coaster of a weekend I had, so I’ll keep it to a simple narrative.

Friday:

I was very excited to start heading out to Krause Springs, where myself and some fellow photographers from an online photo group were going to get together and do a TTD (Trash The Dress) session with a couple models for portfolio type work, and just to have fun and meet each other.

On my way out for a pre-trip errand, I noticed that I missed a call. I check the voice mail, and chills begin running down my spine. The voice on the message said, ” Hello William, This is Grace Ormonde… Give me a call back. I’d like to talk to you.”

It was all I could do to keep the car on the road! For those that don’t know, Grace Ormonde is the woman behind Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style, a high-style wedding magazine. I had submitted a wedding I had photographed a few months to just get a gauge for where my photography matched up to everyone else that was submitting. And she just called me… I had to collect myself for a few minutes, and then made the call back.

We talked for at least twenty minutes about the funny post I wrote about my odds of getting published with her, how much she loved my fine art portrait work, and that she wants to see my next submission.
*Note: Some of the work below may be part of that next submission

After I got off the phone, I had to call my photo BFF here in town Maria Bernal and I made her guess who I just talked to… She wasn’t very good at that game, I had to tell her. I could barely walk my knees were so weak! I also called my Mom, and I posted to my Flickr group of wedding photographers.

And I was still excited about camping and the TTD session!

I am the first one out to Krause Springs since it’s just a short 40 minutes from Austin, and Laura Burlton and her family were coming from Houston. The others weren’t coming until Saturday. I set up my own camp, and then began a recon mission and found some amazing places to photograph.
Laura and her family arrived, and I went to meet her and Alex her husband and two little girls. We got their camp all set up and then ran down to jump in the swimming hole to cool off.

And then…

I jumped into the swimming hole with my keys and my iPhone still in my pockets!!!

I did not realize this for 10 minutes!At which point I could only hope that it would dry out and work again.

After speaking to Grace Ormonde, there was not much that could have dampened my high, but drowning a phone that I had paid $400 for came really close.

Saturday:

After a great nights sleep in my tent, I woke up with the sun. Laura had slipped off and came back with some coffee to share. Our model Seasha (who Laura and myself both know separately) arrived shortly after with her wee ones, and one more photographer from the group, Nana Aikins, showed up, and we went off to shoot.

We photographed for about an hour (photos below) and it began to rain. I hadn’t put my rain fly on the tent the night before, and when I got back I had a soaked sleeping back and a puddle on the downhill side of my tent.

The four of us gathered under a metal cover and drank beer as a lightning storm began to pass through (no one said it was smart). We polished off 4 beers each, while the kids played in the mud puddles, and then decided it was time for a BBQ lunch at Opie’s Barbecue in Spicewood. It rained while we ate delicious brisket and sausage and chicken.

Then it was time for another round of photos in a different dress. We had another model lined up, as well as a couple other photographer friends that had planned to come out, but the rain ruled them out. Our afternoon session was a lot of fun.

Nana had to leave a little early, and when we wrapped up photographing Seasha invited us over to her house where she found us places to sleep, I threw together a big stockpot of chicken soup and we all sat around, chatted, looked at some of the photos, and enjoyed everyones company until we all fell asleep.

Sunday:

Sunday was a lazy day. We all had to leave, but we delayed that as long as we could. After a delicious egg and sausage scramble that Seasha whipped up, we all went down to her parents pool, and watched the kids swim and play. Slowly, we all got ready and headed off to our separate lives once again.

I had a great time, with some great people.
I took part in a kick butt TTD session.
I lost my phone, but not before Grace Ormonde called me.
This weekend may have been my strangest/weirdest/funnest ever!

Enjoy the photos.

Bridal, Trash The Dress (TTD) Krause Springs, Austin TX

Bridal, Trash The Dress (TTD) Krause Springs, Austin TX

Bridal, Trash The Dress (TTD) Krause Springs, Austin TX

Bridal, Trash The Dress (TTD) Krause Springs, Austin TX

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Posted in Wedding Photography | 9 Comments »

Rain, A Blessing For Weddings

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Jacq & Chris - Courtesy of Table 4 Photography

The last time it rained while I was at a wedding, I was in a little town called San Juanico in Baja California on a surf trip. San Juanico is just a dusty, and dirty fishing village about 800 miles south of San Diego, and is renowned for it’s very long right hand point break. The break is called Scorpion Bay and has attracted a small American ex-pat community. On this particular trip I was honored to be invited to attend the wedding reception for one of the surfer ex-pats and a local girl roughly half his age.

The day of the reception was hot and lazy, just like all the other days in San Juanico, but the breeze off the ocean helped – so did beer. I made my way from the camp, down the lunar dust dirt road, right along the point where you can look over the 50 or so concrete block houses and corrugated roofs that made up the town. They all seemed to be held together with mortar, wire and will. On the right was the bay which was usually teeming with whales or dolphins and surf, today there was neither, so no one was missing anything as a result of the wedding.

I was greeted with smiles, open arms, and a Tecate at the home of the bride’s parents. Everyone was pitching in, preparing for the new couple to arrive. I kept asking in my broken Spanish if I could help with something.
“Necisitas ayuda?” I would ask various people.
“No, no. Sienta te, toma una cervesa. Relaja” They would all say.

So I spoke with some of the other surfers, learned a little bit about the town and history. Tried to talk with the family occasionally and took the advice. I relaxed, drank beer and ate carne asada.

The evening came and the bride and groom made their entrance. This was a poor town, but they went all out with the dress, and I think there were a few broken hearts that day, she was beautiful! The band struck up and people started to party and offer felicidades. It was still hot and people sweated while they danced and moved around under the tent even as the sun made it’s way past the glowing Mexican Pacific.

Then, just as the couple started their first dance, and without any sign of warning, the heavens opened up and dumped buckets of rain right on top of the town!

We all looked at each other for a short astonished moment, then our collective gaze turned back to the bride and groom still mid-dance. They seemed so much more vibrant and alive and in love with each other than before, if that was even possible.

The band began playing louder and more powerfully. The beer and tequila began flowing more freely. Dozens of guests, from the young pretty nińas, to the old leather skinned abuelos began dancing and shouting and hollering. Members of the brides extended family ran into the house and came back out with large glass jars and lifted them into the sky to collect the rain which had then turned into a deluge.

It took some investigation by all of us surfers to understand why the rain had made everyone so loco and happy and excited. We finally got word that San Juanico was in the middle of a three year long drought! And the marriage has now become a blessing to not only the families, but now the entire community. The people collecting rain in jars planned to pass the water down to future generations!

I thought of that couple from San Juanico this weekend as I stood at Chris Elders’s side during his wedding. Standing in line with his brother-in-law Chris and Derrick, the other groomsmen, I could see outside the church that it had begun to rain heavily. In that moment I knew that the rain was a powerful binding force, that was beyond my understanding, but it was clear that it would hold a great symbolism for both couples forever.

I looked back over to Chris and his beautiful new wife, Jacqueline, at the altar, and couldn’t help but think about the stories that probably still circulate in that little town about the wedding that ended the drought.

And then I thought that we would talk about Jacqueline and Chris’ wedding day too.  We would all have our own touching moments and stories. And, while the rain did not end a drought it was most certainly a blessing upon both families.

P.S. I would like to give Jason and Andrew of Table 4 Photography props for doing such an amazing job. The photo of Jacq and Chris above was taken by them.

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Posted in Wedding Photography | 7 Comments »