Last week Betsy turned the ripe age of 21 in Lubbock, Texas. Many secret phone calls and some dollars later…. I stepped off a plane and into the Amarillo heat and made my way to the baggage area. As I rode the escalator down, I saw the person I was looking for…. Trevor. Standing with him was Betsy who was holding a sign that read “Bob Canniglia.” She stared at me trying to figure out how she recognized my face, then as recognition filled her eyes, she dropped the sign… and her phone… and made a beeline for me with a smile the size of Texas. While I wasn’t Bob Canniglia…. I’m almost positive I was the next best thing to pick up at the Amarillo airport on the day she turned 21. That afternoon we left Amarillo without my bags (because they hadn’t made it onto a plane yet… and were still in LA) and thus began our 2010 adventures.
Just so ya’ll know, (ha… I said ya’ll) I haven’t seen Betsy in real life since March 2009 when she flew to California to shoot Daniel and Heather’s Wedding with me (you can also view the portraits I shot of her last year.… here). And before that, we hadn’t seen each other since March 2008. We were YWAM buddies in Herrnhut, Germany… and when we came back to the states, we both started the process of becoming wedding photographers. Betsy’s one of my besties…. lifers…. someone I know would take a call from me at 3am if I needed her. And this trip to Texas was nothing short of just what I needed. I got a good dose of Betsy, got a good dose of Nathan, (another YWAM buddy who drove all the way up from Fort Worth to surprise her for a few days as well) a good dose of small town, lots of good food, and lots of good friends. I like Texas.
Mah gurl’s now all grown up. She’s a rockstar photographer in Lubbock…. and she’s getting PRETTTTY popular over there in her neck of the woods. While I was there, we spent a whole evening shootin’ up a storm with her and two of her beautiful friends, Hannah and Claire. Here’s some of my favorites from the night…. there were A LOT! I wonder if you can guess what well known and deliciously creative catalog I had been looking at prior to the shoot… I’ll give you a guess…. it starts with an “A” and ends with an “ologie”…
Self Portraits…
This was a fun part of the shoot…. Bets and I experimented with some off camera flash in a wheat field. And yes, for those of you who follow me on Twitter…. this was the wheat field I decided I should walk into with 4 inch heels on. Brilliant on my part…. not.
I also spent some time putting together a video and photo mash up of my trip…. Enjoy!
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Texas from Kate Noelle on Vimeo.
