Friend being the logo you see up above the top graphic. I finally bit the bullet and had Robin Ott (Graphic designer extraordinaire) do my logo and brand identity. She is an amazing artist with a great vision and for those who really want to take their branding up a bit should let her work on your marketing materials a bit. The logo is a perfect representation of my style a mix of the new world with a nod towards old school (Hey gotta keep the mom’s happy ya know).

I was sitting tonight and reading a book and this tought came to my mind – It’s ok to reap, just don’t forget to sow the fields for those that are yet to pass should find lush fields instead of barren land.

This is pretty much my philosophy and mentality with everything I do. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it. I also feel like I’m here because certain individuals gave me the support when I needed it the most. Now it is incumbent upon me to do the same to new talent in the industry and bring them up a bit.

I challenge each and everyone of you who reads my blog to go out and help someone today – give back a little and see how much you gain from that.

As always love and peace to you all.

Well today I met up with Mike and Ann for their engagement session and man what a GREAT afternoon.  These two are troopers in the real sence of the word and I am absolutely looking forward to their wedding in Banff.  We started the day with a nice lunch and a wonderful chat, talking to them is so easy because they are so down to earth.  Once lunch was over we decided to walk around the Dallas historical West End, from there to the Dallas Museum of Art and then on to Joe Pool Lake for a quick walk down a bike trail for some really cool shots.   Here are some from what we shot today…

Today I had a blast with Binish and Shayan while shooting their engagement session.  Their wedding is on 7/7/7 which is a HUGELY popular date for folks to get married.  Recently I found out that some are even having their ceremony at 7:00 to add that extra bit of good luck.  Binish and Shyan are fun to hang out with and really fun.  Binish wanted to have the session in a botanical garden so we headed over to the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth.  Here are some photos from the session…

More to follow in a week or so…

This year I have a TON of weddings out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area..   Listed below are my travel dates just so you guys know where and when I will be travelling.

June 20th – June 24th – Detriot – Fashion Shoot
August 30th – September 2nd – Cabo San Lucas – Wedding
September 14 – September 17th – Banff Canada – Wedding
October 26th – October 28th – San Antonio – Wedding

Take care guys, stay inside, it’s hot outside and what’s up with the gass prices?  YIKES!!!

My web hosting company had a server crash today and wouldn’t you believe it that my e-mail account was on that server.   As it stands right now, I have lost one months worth of e-mail and currently the ability to send out e-mail.    If you had sent me something today (I got all the e-mails replied as of yesterday) please resend to my h@yasinphoto.com e-mail account please.

Thanks…

Now to go kill me a server administrator………………..

is Nature and all that comes with the territory.   When i’m not photographing things or people and not working on albums I like to get out in my garden/orchard (a VERY small one) and tend to the plants and the garden.   We’ve been having some strange rain patterns lately and it has been raining sporadically for the past 2 weeks.  I actually love rain and we’ll need the water we get now when it gets really HOT in a month or two. 

 Here are some photos of (yeah I know i’m still taking photos i’m horrible) of some of the things growing in my garden…

The skies before the rain moved in… lately we’ve had some pretty crazy skies here.

The elephant ears and the mint growing in my garden.  I need to go pull the grass growing in between.

My nectarine tree is bearing fruit, in a few weeks these will be ripe enough to enjoy.

My walnut tree came back to life late, I had almost pulled it out of the ground until the first rain breathed life into it and now it’s BACK!!

The dwarf lemon tree is bearing fruit, again two to three more weeks and these will be ripe enough to be harvested. 

Firewood waiting to be chopped up prior to this winter. 

I just love textures and this texture is kinda neat..

Ohhh must breat that in the morning before someone accidentally falls on it.

This cloud formation reminded me of the Time Warp ribbon from Star Trek Generations..  

More mint, I tell ya this mint is growing like crazy in my garden and I’ll run over an occassional stalk with the lawn mower and you’ll have a minty fresh garden

My buddy Randal Stout (amazing DJ by the way) posted a fun trend list for 2007 on his blog..  You guys can take a look at it here http://www.djrandal.com/blog/ in a bit, however it got me thinking of all the funny trends we have gone through in the photography industry… 

Let me see if I can recall some of them….

Fog filter – puts a layer of fog on the entire image, nothing says romance like fog…  
Star filter – I once knew a photographer who wanted his students to use a 6 sided star filter as it looked better than the 4 sided one..   i’m like ummmm  okie!!
Bride and Groom in the brandy/wine glass – this was cutting edge back in the day now it’s just plain silly
Bride with the marriage liscense around the grooms neck with a wink and a thumbs up – One word – silly.
Dad with his pockets out – come on dude we know you got the money, I mean this check you gave me is gonna clear right??

I’m sure there are more that will come to mind but I found these quite funny and out of these I have only done the Dad with his pockets out and that was only when the dad jumped in front of me and pulled his pockets out..  Rather strange behavior in the middle of the dance floor but hey whatever…

Ok now go to Randal’s blog and show him some love…

A lot of photographers that I know often go to some ridiculous measures to get industry recognition….   I have always believed in that if you do good work and treat your clients right that the work will follow and that the recognition that matters the most is the referals my clients send to me.  That is why I always go above and beyond on EVERY SINGLE wedding.  So far the praises and the accolades that I have recieved by my clients have been wonderful.  One thing I had no idea was that you guys were telling other folks including the brain trust over at the KNOT.   I guess what was told about me must have been good because I just recieved an e-mail that they have picked me as one of their top picks in the Dallas area..  This is quite an honor because I was picked on the basis of comments the KNOT recieved by my clients…   I love you guys!!  (just imagine a small tear drop rolling down my cheeks….) 

Well, my client appreciation party is being planned as I type this right now I just want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU….

This is the logo I get to put on my site now…  I just wished they had it in another color scheme…

Yesterday after 7 days of non-stop rain I was nervous if we would be able to do Katie and Brad’s engagement photos in Dallas.  Well I think Katie has connections in some higher places cause it stopped raining (sure it was humid as heck but no rain!!!) and we even had the sun peak out at times from the clouds.  We had a great time and I am looking forward to their wedding as these two crack me up and are totally into each other.  Here are some shots from our session yesterday, more to follow including a slideshow..

Shooting in Deep Ellum, I absolutely love the variety of backgrounds and extures we can get there for our session.

Katie and Brad were so easy to work with, we ended up getting some killer images right in one spot.

Ok I think he looks like Bret Farve…   She has a very contagious smile, makes everyone so happy just being around her.

A nice romantic shot and I love the light that I found in this front porch of a bar.  Sometimes the simple things make for the best photos.

The windows add such a nice separation and oh the kiss is not bad either….  LOL!!!