ILLUMINARE | photography + cinematography

the sun is shining, and it’s raining too

Annie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:30:51 +0000

We had some nasty thunderstorms here in the Dallas area today. Around 5:00 pm I noticed a strange orange glow coming from the window. The sun had made it’s first appearance of the day! My neighbors were outside and they were all pointing at the sky. I had to go see what was up. I was not disappointed! There in the dark grey/blue sky was one of the most gorgeous, vibrant, perfect rainbows I have ever seen! I just had to run inside to grab my camera!

Meredith & Raun

Annie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:54:21 +0000

Many of you know that Dallas was hit a week or so ago with a record snowstorm that covered us in about 12 inches of the white stuff! It was beautiful but it did cause a ton of problems the main one being that 40,000 people lost power for a while. Bret and I were among them and we were out for about 4 days. We are super blessed and have family close by that we could stay with until we finally had heat again, but it was an interesting few days, coming home to our freezing house to pick up a few things for the next day, rummaging around in the dark using my cell phone as a flash light…Well, it so happened that our power was still out on February 14, Valentines day. I had an extra special session scheduled that day and I wasn’t about to miss it. Meredith and Raun are about to be parents. What a better way to celebrate Valentine’s day than to have artistic photos taken of your beautiful belly. We had a great session and I’m so excited about how the photos turned out! Meredith and Raun are naturals in front of the camera and made it easy to get beautiful images!

logan and mommy

Bret — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:58:57 +0000

As a follow up to their pictures, here’s the video of Katie and her new baby, Logan.

logan and mommy from illuminare on Vimeo.

Kristin + Austin Highlight Video

Bret — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:10:14 +0000

In addition to shooting the still photography and crazybooth at Kristin and Austin’s wedding, we also shot video throughout the day. Following their ceremony, the wedding party loaded up into a bright green bus and toured throughout St. Louis, stopping for a few photo locations along the way. It was way fun and quite nostalgic to be sitting on those old faux leather seats again as we bumped along the road. Despite being freezing outside, everyone did a great job of toughing it out. Congratulations again Kristin and Austin!

Kristin + Austin from illuminare on Vimeo.

Katie & Logan

Annie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:30:05 +0000

I’ve known Katie for a few years since she and Cindy went to college together. She came down for a little visit and I love that she wanted to get some mom&baby shots of her and her little sweetheart, Logan. I wanted to keep it really simple and clean, using just a white backdrop, and simple clothing. Bret did a video as well and I’m super excited to see what he’s going to come up with! I am in love with the simple beauty of these photos and I couldn’t have asked for better subjects! The gorgeous Dr. Grantham and her beautiful bright eyed little boy. Have a look!

bmw 328i

Bret — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:08:48 +0000

My friend Kevin recently went through a series of unfortunate events: An ice storm + an eighteen wheeler = a totaled car and a missed Christmas with the family. From all of that chaos and misfortune he was able to turn years of hard work and an end of year close-out into the car of his dreams. He got his new car with something like 14 miles on it, and wanted to get some pictures of it while still in pristine condition. Here are some of my favorites…

the modern

Bret — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:57:56 +0000

Last week at the office I was able to catch a viewing of a documentary about Tadao Ando’s Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. It was simply amazing to learn about, and inspired me to take Ann out there on Friday afternoon. It was bloody cold, but still an absolutely beautiful day. I can’t believe that we’d never been to see it! I got a few weird looks from different people at the museum as I spent as much time looking at corners, joints and lighting as I did looking at the art inside. The care and perfection that went into the design and construction of The Modern is breathtaking. I don’t really need to talk it up, it needs no explanation or defense, just check out the photos below. And be warned, there are a lot even though I trimmed the set down as much as I could. Enjoy.

get your crazy on

Annie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:22:47 +0000

We had a BLAST with the crazybooth at Austin and Kristin’s wedding! As if we need an excuse to get crazy.

Bret and I even had a chance to jump in!

A Rabbitt Wedding

Annie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:44:31 +0000

In December Bret and I had the honor shooting my cousin, Austin’s wedding in St. Louis. Austin and Kristin have been together for 5 years or so now so having Kristin become an official member of the family was a really great moment for all of us. It was a really nice Ceremony with some rockin’ music. Then, despite the wicked cold we traveled downtown in a big green school bus called “The Green Machine” and did photos at the Arch which is where Austin proposed to Kristen last year. My cousin Dayna, who is just getting into photography, grabbed our backup camera and joined the fun!

Oh, and have I mentioned that the Rabbitt’s seriously know how to have a good time!

Ice Skating

Annie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:45:10 +0000

In the hopes of getting a few photo pointers and having something really cool to do for New Years Eve, my cousin Dayna (who I like to call Daynamania cause she’s so fun) came down to Dallas for the weekend. It was beyond fun. We managed in just one weekend to stay up until 4:30 in the morning just talking the first night, celebrate New Year’s with the Jaggi’s the second, go see Avatar (in 3D) then go Country Dancing the third night and somewhere in there we found the time (and energy) for a few photography lessons, ice skating, and some Whataburger, and some Mexican food.

To make the weekend even more complete Renee invited us all to go ice skating with her and her parents. It was a perfect way to add in a visit with Hawk and Bean who I had not seen in wayyyy too long, and a great opportunity to get some photos of the kiddos getting on the ice for the first time. We all met at the galleria and skated around “The world’s tallest indoor Christmas tree”.

I was a little shaky at first but in no time at all I was able to glide around without holding on to the railing. Dayna brought her own skates so she is practically a pro.

It was wonderful getting to spend a little time with Hawk and Bean. They have been like second parents to me since high school and I have missed them very much. Bean said she was a little worried about getting out on the ice since it had been years and years since she skated but here she is breaking out the figure skating tricks and everything!

Harrison was so excited to go skating. Renee said he’d seen skating on some show that he watches and has been talking about it for a while. His little ice skates were so cute!

Not to be outdone by Harrison, Jillian got her skates on and was ready to skate around like a pro figure skater!