During the month of September I had to travel two times for work so I have been away for two weeks from my own house and routine. The hardest time for me is when I arrive at the hotel room at night, that moment of sudden silence in a pitch black room, when you realize you are away from your own bed, family and longing for something familiar to remind you of your own space to help ease the unfamiliarity of the new space.
I did two wonderful things this Labor Day, I went on a picnic and also visited Perfecto Cat Lounge which is a new space that offers ready to be adopted cats to interact with the public. I took some video footages and can't wait to edit them to post :)
We finally booked a trip riding an old fashioned antique steam train and I am here to tell you all about it! First off let me say I can't promise if this is experience is for everyone, but if you are into vintage and reminiscing the past, you would most likely enjoy it.
The train station is located in City of Cedar Park and for this particular ride our destination was City of Brunet which is an hour away with car but with the train took us two hours each way. We booked the most luxurious locomotive they had a beautiful 1949 built with an open lounge and 5 compartments called "Rippling Stream", it was an Ault-Only first class lounge and allowed pets with promise to be kept in a carry-on during the trip. We had a guest service during our ride and provided with variety of soft drink beverages and snacks during the ride. When we arrived at Burnet we were greeted by actors dressed in cowboy attires and before our departure they performed a theatre piece which was wonderful. The train station in Burnet was just a couple streets away from the downtown which from a quick glance looked like it had 2 restaurants and couple antique shops and a courthouse. Lucky for us they had an open market that day with vendors selling handmade items under a canopy on the side of the street, from the market we bought some homemade cookies for the ride back home. As for the lunch we tried the "Trailblazer Grille" Restaurant it was an all American cuisine and we really liked everything we ordered. I got catfish with coleslaw and side of a sweet potato fries. If you end up going on a ride, definitely let me know how you liked it. Here is their website for more information: https://www.austinsteamtrain.org Editing is the most time consuming part of the videography, and I find having a set routine and organized system can definitely help to make it go much smoother. I am now officially done with editing all the wedding video work from the Spring and Summer wedding seasons. I will have a short break before jumping into the fall and winter wedding season and that end in January and February for a long break.
Over the weekend we attended a wedding for Josh's friend in San Antonio. The ceremony was in the beautiful Sacred Heart Chapel at Our Lady of the Lake University and the reception was in McNay Art Museum which now I have a more special memories of this wonderful place. At the reception hall, the rose floral center pieces were super fragrant and gave the dinner special experience, I don't typically notice a fragrant from flowers or fruits like old days so this was very special.
in the recent years I have found myself rarely taking any photos on my phone anymore, for me somehow the iPhone shots felt not special and pretty generic. It wasn't until I came across NOMO CAM that I suddenly found the excitement in taking digital photos on a phone again. What I love about this app is that it mimics the most well known film cameras and it give such a unique texture, feel and color to the everyday mundane items sitting around my desk. My favorite camera is "Swirly 2", I also really like 503CW that is inspired from a medium format camera.
Spring this year took a busy turn with pandemic slowing down, nice weather and amazing wedding video opportunities that were presented to me. Starting the wedding video journey, has caused my photo editing schedule back quite a bit. So I have been looking for new locations for my editing marathon, one that preferably allows to bring our dog along.
We have not passed covid entirely but there is a shift now with life coming back to normal. This year I have focused on photographing weddings and that has been such a wonderful experience meeting so many lovely couples and documenting their love stories. Some of our wedding packages comes with free engagement session that allows us to get to know our couples before the wedding and get familiar with each other to make sure we are the right fit , which I find incredibly helpful. I have also started filming wedding videos, so far I have filmed 2 weddings and I am excited about how much I am learning in the videography with every job.
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