The stars at night.. are big and bright. Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Sure, the stars are bright at night in the middle of Texas. In fact,  I have never seen the sky so speckled with stars as I did out in West Texas.

BUT.. what about the other lights in the sky? The Marfa Lights.

I hadn’t really ever heard of these things before. And then Josh and I researched a little bit and decided we had to go out to at least try to see them. Apparently, there are lights that appear in the sky and kinda move around and not in any certain pattern. Seemingly too unpredictable for car lights. So we tried to go see them.

First, we went out at night. It was so weird driving out of the town onto a super-dark road. There is an actual structure set up on the side of the road specifically for viewing. It was creepy when we got out of the car and it was pitch-black. I was so glad there were other people out there, because if not… I would have been extremely paranoid and scared out of my mind. And we looked. First up at the beautiful stars. And then at the lights. And we think we saw them. We certainly saw SOMETHING and the other people there thought the same thing.

On our way out of town the next day, we decided to stop by the viewing structure to see what it looked like in the daytime. Much less creepy, but cool to see where we had been the night before.

Daytime:

And Nighttime:

There’s just something appealing to me about driving out to the middle of nowhere and finding something. Whether that be beautiful scenery, a surprisingly quaint town, or something new about myself, it’s nice to have that possibility.

Maybe that’s why Marfa has been on my mind lately. I wanted to drive out to the middle of the desert. I’ve lived in Texas all of my life, minus a couple of years, and this was only the second time I’d been out to West Texas. Josh and I packed a suitcase and our puppy last week and drove. And drove. And arrived. Here’s some of what we found in Marfa:

What happens when you get a bunch of food bloggers out for a potluck? A delicious lunch filled with variety, inventiveness and genius, that’s what. It was so nice to see some of the bloggers I’ve already met, and talk to a whole bunch of new bloggers whose blogs I have been reading, but hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet.

I didn’t really plan on taking so many photos.. but with all the amazing food (and drinks).. I couldn’t help myself!

It wasn’t too long ago that I discovered a business here in Austin I was dying to shoot photos for. Retro Bizzaro. And then.. it seemed they were everywhere.. so active on Twitter, showcasing their goods at many of the local farmer’s markets, and the Bacon Takedown at SXSW. And I had the pleasure of meeting Michael and Amanda Joyner and their two adorable kids when I picked up some treats from them to photograph. And seeing the sweets? I was drooling. Many pictured below are chocolate, coffee and cinnamon based, but when I talked to Mike and Amanda a few weeks ago they mentioned that soon there would be more spring flavors. I can’t wait to pick up some of those to photograph.

I teamed up with Kathy Phan for styling, and we got to work setting up shots, ironing fabrics, figuring out lighting, and then.. shooting the sweets and taking turns taking bites out of them! I mean, isn’t that one of the best parts of food photography? Getting to eat the delicious food? I say yes.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot–

I went on vacation with Josh and my puppy. Road trip to West Texas!

Many, many photos and blog posts to follow.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of shooting a story for the Austin American-Statesman on… what else? Cake pops by Kathy Phan! They did a whole story on how to make Easter cake pops, complete with bunnies and chicks. Sooo cute. I got to watch her make them and take photos of the whole process.. the finished cake pops.. and then eat some! Yum. I think the strawberry ones might be my fav, so I am so glad she made those for this story!

The story was in the paper last Wednesday. There was a little photo on the front page of the paper, then a big photos on the front page of the food section, and more inside. Why am I describing this? Just look below to see what it looked like if you didn’t get a chance to see. Also.. if you didn’t see the paper and get to read the fantastic article by food writer Addie Broyles, check it out here.

Photos of the newspaper:

Some photos from the article: