Senior Pictures | Senior Photographer in Roma, Rio Grande Valley, Mission, McAllen, Zapata, Laredo

I know it’s a bit wordy, but please don’t scroll down to see the image until you have read the whole story.

When I started liking photography back in high school, then loving it, one thing I used to do is that I would collect pictures that I liked from magazines.  They were all images of beautiful people, mostly models, in beautiful places.  I always wondered if I could ever do something like that, create amazing images of beautiful people.  When I started doing photography professionaly, I have always looked up to others in the industry, and more times then not, I wonder if I’ll ever be as good.  Every year I also go through a period of struggle, doubt – a period when I am just tempted to sell all my gear and throw in the towel.  That time of year, for some reason, is alsway around winter time, and this year, my rut, was particularly long and quite brutal.  We moved to a house we bought and we moved the studio to our house, there were no jobs coming in and I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever open up the studio again.  A couple of days after I started getting into my head that I wanted to just sell off everything and be done with photography for good, I talked to an old friend that mentioned that she needed help photographing her new pageant.  I told her I could help and decided to “see what happens”.  I met some of the most wonderful people from the Miss America Organization, the contestants, and group of high school kids running the coolest lighting and sound show I’d ever seen.  I then got to photograph the contestants and there was this young lady that just irradiates joy, happiness, confidence, and such a positive attitude that it was truly remarkable to see.  She was very playful with the camera and she was just having the time of her life.  After a wonderful singing performace, boy can she sing, Allison ended up winning the Teen crown for the 1st ever Miss Central South TX pageant.  I also met one of the most amazing dancers I’ve seen, Paloma Limas, and she put on the most amazing “on the fly” performace (due to delays in the judges scoring), and to see her dance was truly inspiring.  By the time the pageant was over, after meeting all the wonderful people I met, I felt more and more positive and the thoughts of quiting began to fade.  In the weeks that followed, things began to look more and more positive, I start to get calls, my studio got featured at the Business of the Week deal at IBC bank, I started to shoot seniors, and it seemed like out of the blue people were calling.  Next thing I know I get the opportunity to photograph the winners from the pageant for their publicity pictures and for their headshots for the Miss Texas competition coming up in a few months.  So here I am wondering if I should go with what I know or try something new.  I am going back and forth and with only a few days before the shoot I decided to venture out and do something I had never done before, at least, it was something new to me, and so challenging that I wasn’t sure I could pull it off.  Long story short, for days I go over everything I’ve learned in my head, and when finally the day of the shoot arrives, I was able to create an image that has re-ignited my passion for photography and has completely “kicked” me out of my rut.  I am very grateful to all the people that helped me along the way, most especially my wife, that she never stops believing in me.  To Vicki, thanx for the opportunity to work in the Miss America organization.  To Paloma, thank you so much for allowing us to “take over your studio” for a day.  To all the girls, Alex, Geles, Victoria, and their families.  I also want to thank Allison and her mom, for driving all the way from Austin for the photoshoot.  So today, my wife made me realize that what I had wondered back in high school, if I’d ever be able to create beautiful photographs of beautiful people, she said, “remember when you used to collect those magazine cut outs of all those pretty girls, well, now you are creating those images.”  Needless to say, I am out of my rut, but it’s hard to say if I’ll go through it again, but for now, I’d like to share the image that inspired my wife’s comment, and for me, “the image that touched my life”.  Thank you Allison for the priviledge of capturing a little bit of your joy, your personality, your life.!