TexasGirl Photography

I don’t share much about client work here on my blog, but then again I do very little client work. In fact, in spite of last year’s influx of Actual Paying Work, and my enthusiastic plan to start my business back up and make it happen for real this time, I have done zero client work in 2024. According to Next Door, there are 57 other “professional photographers” in my neighborhood, so it’s hardly surprising. (I also haven’t done a dang thing to try and get any new clients, so there’s that.)

False starts aside, today I am here to talk about one particular client of mine that I was fortunate enough to meet last year, and who has had a book published recently! She is incredibly talented and incredibly inspiring: please check out her website , which just happens to feature photographs from the fun session we had in her lovely bright studio.

In addition to making color digital photos, I took along my Ondu pinhole camera and made a couple of exposures that came out great in spite of the expired film I used accidentally. Sari is a blur in them, but then again she is a constant motion of positive energy and life, so it seems legit to me.

Photographs from our session are also inside her wonderful new book: Modern Still Life. I pre-ordered it ages ago, and was thrilled to receive it on the day of her book launch. I am no artist, but I have every intention to follow the steps and give it a go anyway. Sari teaches art classes and leads workshops all over the world, so she knows what she’s doing when it comes to sharing how-to. In fact, aside from helping spread the word about her book, I’m here to talk about how she inspired me to mess around with art and color even before it arrived.

My daughter always tells me that I could be better at art if I would just practice. She is undoubtedly correct, but I have little inducement to improve with drawing and painting. Between life, photography, writing, and cyanotype, I feel like I have too many processes already. BUT art is fun. And we went to Jerry’s Artarama because said daughter needed supplies for a project. I came home with a big set of oil pastels: grown up crayons, sort of, but as I quickly discovered they are so much more than crayola.

Please feel free to laugh at the attempt I’ve shared above! I laughed at it, showed my daughter, and she kept it. This is not a post about how I photographed a couple of artists in their studios and suddenly became Matisse! This is a post about inspiration, and being willing to play whether you think you are any good at something or not. This is a post about how everyone you meet has the potential to add something to your life – hopefully a positive thing.

Here’s another attempt of mine, working from a photo on my phone and not caring about color accuracy or too much realism. I think it’s silly and really not good at all, but I’m sharing it anyway, since nothing can live up to the original except that orange boi himself.

Between Sari’s book and recently reading Meyerowitz’s A Question of Color I am ALL ABOUT COLOR right now. And it’s summertime, which is perfect for color!

What are you working on? Who’s inspired you lately? Do you play around with processes even if you think you are terrible at them? Happy, playful summer, friends!