This is a post on a more personal note, though there is some very important and exciting wedding photography related info contained within. To the left here you will see the picture that was once my bio picture for my information page. It's of me and Zach who is my very good friend, my second shooter, and as I described him to some relatives who I was visiting this past weekend, my little baby. Sadly since I'm moving to the UK and leaving Zachie behind, I had to change my bio pic so that people wouldn't get the wrong idea. My current bio pic is one that Zach took actually, and I'm very pleased with it as I think it captures the essence of Lauren McGlynn the ninja wedding photographer.
I met Zach while we were both doing stints working at Fresh Plus, the local Hyde Park kinda hippy dippy mixed with a little old school Texas grocery store. I was 25, fresh out of grad school, and going through my cliché mid-twenties over educated and making $7.00/hr existentialist crisis. Zachie was just a wee sophomore of 19, living in a one room trailer in Hype Park, and sporting (sorry Zach) a REALLY bad haircut.
I think it took all of two weeks for me and Zach to become good buddies, though I'm sorry to say that it took me over two months before I could convince him to let me give him a haircut. The first time we hung out we went for a walk around the neighborhood and talked about our mutual love for My Bloody Valentine, we talked about books, we talked about how he was planning on decorating his trailer with fake flowers. By the time this walk was over I was almost half in love with him until I reminded my self that he was only 19, and that he had a really really bad haircut.
After the haircut, I also convinced Zach that he needed to get a bike, and then that he needed to get a real bike, and I convinced him to be my model/slave for my photography projects. This is long before anyone had entrusted me with their wedding pictures. At the time I had a digital camera, but I didn't have a computer, and so all of the pictures where I bullied him into dressing up like a cowboy and pretending to be in love with a Raggedy Ann doll are lost... Alas. It was to be a photo comic about unrequited love (I was feeling bitter), and our very good friend Austin Waters played the bad cowboy who stole Raggedy Ann away... I wish I still had those pictures, but perhaps poor Zach is relieved that I do not.
Anyhow, I guess the point is that Zach was instrumental in me coming into my own as a photographer. He always supported and encouraged me. He always let me make him my guinea pig. He always pulled me aside and talked to me about books that he had found, and showed me the pictures that he loved. It has always been profoundly important to me to have Zach, and our friend Austin to geek out and get excited about photography with. What am I going to do without them you ask? The answer is that I don't know.
Look above and you will see Zachie at the Fresh Plus where we met. This also happens to be where I met my husband, and Zach was there for that too. We called him Scottish guy and it was months before I knew his real name. Poor Zach, after listening to me go on and on about my various stages of broken heartedness now had to listen to me go on an on about Scottish guy. He weathered it like a champ.
This is wee Zach at Zilker Park in January of 2007. You gotta love Texas light in January, as it turns everything so golden. I realize that Zach kind of looks like a bad ass in this picture, but don't let that scuzz stash fool you, he is very tender hearted.
I guess about a year ago now Zach and I were eating at Mothers, our neighborhood vegetarian restaurant, and I floated the idea of him joining Lauren McGlynn photography as a second shooter. LMP was just getting going at that point and he shot his first wedding with me for free.
With every successive wedding that we shot together I became increasingly impressed with his rapid improvement. He not only easily picked up on my documentary approach to weddings, but within that discipline he has developed a whole style of his own. Zach knows how to creatively get the money action shots, but his true genius lies in his ability to evocatively capture unexpected images of quiet moments. His photographs seem so simple, and yet they stab you in the heart.
I am excessively proud to announce that Zach is starting a photography business of his very own! If ya'll know anyone in Texas who is getting married tell them about Zach! He is funny, smart, and kind, and as I mentioned he is a crazy good photographer, AND by the time your or your friend's wedding rolls around he is going to be even crazier and goodder.
Oh, and did I mention that for a limited time that his prices are seriously seriously affordable? Yep since he's just getting going with his own business he has a highly enticing price list, but I expect that he'll be raising those prices very soon, so you should definitely book him now. I'm just saying.
This is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. It's of Zach and his lovely girlfriend Amelia, who actually took the pictures of Zach & I that are at the top of this post. Fortunately when Zach got himself a lady friend, she also allowed me to exploit her good looks for my portfolio. We took this picture in Zach's little Hyde Park trailer, and it is how I will always remember him: young, in love, and absolutely beautiful. In this picture he does after all have a very good hair cut. Now go show Zachie some love!