Photoshoot ideas

  1. The “urinal” shoot
  2. Long Center garage city shoot
  3. “edgy” shoot with someone, punk-ish
  4. Lots of low-key
  5. High-key
  6. Film noir
  7. Corporate 1 light,1 reflector portraits
  8. Aliens on Earth shoot @ IBM

  9. … more to come.

Dunvegan Keep

And now, dear readers, we interrupt the (apparently) usual house buying conversation with some photography news.

Esther

Last weekend, 25+ photographers and myself descended upon a location in the far reaches of south Austin known as Dunvegan Keep.

A gentleman took his rather large backyard and converted it into some prime sort-of medieval themed photography backdrop. There’s all sorts of gorgeous things to shoot people infront of, behind, through and in.

The day of shooting was a success – I spent the majority of the time experimenting with natural light – diffusers, reflectors and several other tricks – and had a great time.

As did the other photographers, from what I’ve heard.

Rebekah

Edit: You can see the rest of the photos here.

Buying a house, step 3 – sorrow.

A bit of backstory:

I’ve lived in my current apartment for over 8 years. Prior to that, I lived in the complex “next door” for 18 months, and before that, I lived in a complex off Duval and Mopac (different part of town but nearby.)

It struck me on my way home tonight, that I am going to miss this part of town. In many ways, 78759 and it’s surroundings, has been my “stomping grounds” while in Austin. I’ve always lived in that zip code, but now that’s going to change.

It’s a bit sad to think about. 10 years in the same part of town—and whereas I’m not moving far way, it’s far enough to where the “local grocery store” is a different one.

I won’t be able to walk to Amy’s Ice cream, or Barnes & Noble, or Thundercloud… I don’t know. In many ways this part of town as been my “universe” for so long, it’s hard to think of any other place being “it.” (Of course I know this is wrong—in due time I’ll be used to living at the new house, and things will subtly change.)

Having said all that, it’ll still be a sad day when I no longer drive down Jollyville, take the turn onto Great Hills Trail and hope for the lights to be green until I U-turn for my apartment entrance….

Buying a house, step 3 – inspection.

Friday the Inspector and termite guy went to do the inspection on the house.

It passed – nothing major was wrong.

A few small things were sent to the seller to ask that they take care of – we’ll see if they agree or not. Most of the list is things that aren’t up to code, et cetera.

Buying a house, step 2 – paperwork.

So you’ve made an offer, perhaps you’ve even sent several counter-offer letters back and forth.

Now comes the next big step: paperwork. And phone calls.

You have to call mortgage brokers/lenders, you have to call insurance agents… it goes on and on.

And don’t even talk about financing.

Here’s the list of what I was asked to provide to my mortgage broker:

  1. Copy of drivers license
  2. Cpy of social security card
  3. Copy of last 30 days pay stubs
  4. Copy of last 3 months financial records (investment and retirement)
  5. Copy of last 3 months bank statements
  6. Tax return for the last 2 years
  7. W-2 form for the last 2 years

Ho boy, it makes for quite the stack of dead trees. (It’s no match for the POA documents though. PHEW.)

Things are calming down – I’ve spoken and gotten insurance, I’ve gotten all the paperwork to who needs it.