Hello friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!  Andrew and I would like to take a moment and thank you, our readers, clients, friends, parents, and families…for an incredible 2009.  Without the support of all of you, we definitely would not be where we are today.  You trusted us with what we consider one of the most important days of your lives.  And, we weren’t just trusted with the food coming out right, the decorations looking perfect, or the schedule going smoothly (note: those things are ALL incredibly important as well!), we were trusted with preserving your wedding day memories; those little moments, those big moments, the “I love you” whispers throughout the day, the loud joyous laughter when old friends came together, and most importantly, telling your story through photographs that your family will keep for generations.  And to our clients (past, present, future), if you didn’t already know, you should know just how honored and blessed we are to not only be part of your day, but be invited into the intimacy of your lives.

So, thank you. Thank you for letting us love what we do so dang much.

About a year ago, I stumbled on this video made by This American Life’s radio host, Ira Glass.

Here are a few lines from it that have stuck with me over the year:

• … Nobody tells people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me, is that if you’re watching this video you’re somebody who wants to make videos (take photos), right? And all of us who do creative work like, you know, we get into it and we get into it because we have good taste. Do you know what I mean?
• Like you want to make TV (take wedding pictures) because you love TV (weddings). You know what I mean? Because there’s stuff that you just like love, OK? So you’ve got really good taste and you get into this thing that I don’t even know how to describe but it’s like there’s a gap. That for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good.
• But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? Like you can tell that it’s still sort of crappy. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.
• And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short, you know, and some of us can admit that to ourselves and some of us are a little less able to admit that to ourselves.

Over the last year, we have seen the “gap” between our taste and our ability slowly close.  One key thing that Ira says is:

…your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit…

He goes on to say:

…the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.

And this is where we have been so thankful this past year.  We went from photographing 17 weddings in 2008 (our first full year, with a season starting in May 2008), to booking 39 this year (with our season starting in February and going through December).  Thanks to you, we have done a lot of work. A ton. And, thanks to you, we have gotten better with each wedding.  To be quite honest, if we weren’t striving to get better with each session, we probably wouldn’t want to keep doing this.  So, again, thanks.

And now, we will leave you guys two images from two weddings we photographed recently, both in Austin, Texas.  First up, our good friends, Esther and Jeff:

And, secondly, Kelley and Andy, who were willing to risk their lives (and the lives of their wedding party) on Austin’s very busy highway 360 for this photo.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  We hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

-Jason & Andrew

P.S. What are you getting for Black Friday this year?
P.P.S. Should we have a Black Friday sale?? 

Two photographs from the beautiful wedding we photographed aboard the SeaDream Yacht in the Caribbeans last week.  We have the best clients in the world.

Let us introduce you to Nicole.  Chic, modern, vintage, fun; these words can’t even begin to describe her dream that we now call her wedding.  We had no idea what to expect until we saw Nicole in her wedding dress backdropped by the urban PM Lounge at the Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas.  Her vintage lace dress had a modern and perfect fit that just felt right inside the lounge.  Check out some of her smokin’ hot bridal photos!  We’ll have more once her wedding is edited.

On top of the Joule Hotel at their popular rooftop pool deck.

Those incredible chandeliers complemented Nicole’s detailed lace perfectly!

Talk about an oasis in an urban jungle…

Sweet mirror at the entrance of the PM Lounge. Sorry, not a fun house. 

Thanks to the amazing Jordan Payne for arranging her bouquet and hooking us up with such a sweet spot!

We at Table4 are only good at taking photos of people.  We are not great looking people ourselves, but occasionally, you’ll see one of us throw a hip thrust or toss up vogue hands in attempts to look good (or give our clients something to laugh at). Well, at Leah and Preston’s wedding the only hip thrusts and Blue Steels were coming from the oher side of the camera.

First, let’s take a look at Leah’s bridal photos from the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas.  Does she not look so gorgeous and natural?  She promises she’s never modeled before.

The birdcage veil was perfect for Leah’s vintage modern dress!

Can you say…DETAIL?

The view from Off the Grid is definitely one of a kind!

Then check out their beautiful wedding at the classic Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX.

Kristen Wolchik of Haute Floral put together one of the most incredible bouquets we have ever seen.  It doubled as a workout weight.

Their First Look. We love these. So. Much.

There’s a ton of good stuff going on this photo.

A candid from their family portraits.

Us locals call it the “Baptist-dome.” Can you see why?

Leah didn’t have a wedding band…or wait, she didn’t have an engagement ring…er…she just had bling. And lots of it.

Preston’s brother pointing at the garter, which was tossed into the ceiling and got stuck.  What does that mean…?

Gorgeous white ‘vette for their sendoff.

I have a blue house with a blue window.
Blue is the colour of all that I wear.
Blue are the streets and all the trees are too.
I have a girlfriend and she is so blue.
Blue are the people here that walk around,
Blue like my corvette, it’s standing outside.
Blue are the words I say and what I think.
Blue are the feelings that live inside me.

I’m blue da ba dee da ba di…da ba dee da ba di…da ba dee da ba di….da ba dee da ba di…

A sneak peak from Melody and Ted’s engagement session in New York over the weekend.  We hit up High Line Park, a really cool above ground park.  If you can’t tell, we got a little crazy at the end with some mind bending camera tricks & techniques.  No photoshop!  Can you guess how these were taken?  (hint: it involves us looking like idiots)