The Elrods!

WCS Pride Invitational
I recently had the
opportunity to photograph a wrestling tournament in
Weatherford, Texas and I absolutely loved it! I
honestly had never been to a wrestling tournament
before and only vaguely knew what to expect. But the
organizer and coach of the Weatherford Christian School
Wrestling team, Bill Ford, did an amazing job
organizing the event!
I love these images because of the emotion on the faces
of the competitors, especially the younger ones!
Enjoy!
WCS Faith Promise Dinner
A Rockin' Reception!
photo from Emerald City website
John
and Kate’s reception was one of the funnest and had the
highest energy that I have ever seen! In addition to
all the amazing flowers, food, lighting, and the venue
itself, the band Emerald City set
the tone and kept the mood rockin’ the entire
evening! There were close to 500 guests of every
age, and just about everyone hit the dance floor at
some point in during the party.
Emerald City is a Dallas based band founded in 1983 and
have several high profile clients! They have
entertained President and Mrs. Bush at the White House,
several Fortune 500 companies, and performed at the
weddings of Emmitt Smith, Mark Cuban and Angie Harmon!
I loved that the horns, with crazy hats donned, and
occasionally the vocalists got right in the middle of
the dance floor and performed while interacting with
the crowd.
And the BEST was how they led a conga line out of the
ballroom down to the “getaway” car! Then the horns
escorted the bride and groom out, while playing a jazzy
tune, which you’ll see in the video below!
Emerald City plays locally here in DFW at different
venues. If you are in the area, check their schedule
and go dance the night away!
Dallas, Texas
Ceremony: Highland Park United Methodist
Church
Reception: The Belo
Mansion
Photographer: Simple Moments
Photography
Reception Entertainment: Emerald City
Kate + John: A Presidential Event!
One of my very favorite local bands, Emerald City, entertained EVERYONE at the reception! I will be featuring part of the reception in tomorrow’s post and you will NOT want to miss that!
The beautiful Stacey Pinkney of Simple Moments Photography was so fun to work with and did a fabulous job!
More fun facts:
•I’ve known Kate and most of her bridesmaids since they were in high school. It was a fun reunion!
•John’s brother, Michael, and Kate’s bridesmaid, Lauren, were engaged and I was privileged to film their wedding in November! You won’t want to miss their film trailer coming soon!
*This video tells Kate and John’s story from their arrival at the church up to the reception. Check back for reception highlights!!
Ceremony: Highland Park United Methodist Church
Reception: The Belo Mansion
Photographer: Simple Moments Photography
Reception Entertainment: Emerald City
Aron Kay + Brandon
I was honored to film Aron Kay and Brandon’s beautiful wedding last summer! You may remember this super fun couple from their San Antonio engagement photo session here.
Aron Kay, with the help of the amazing Wendy Kidd of Each and Every Detail, did an AWESOME job planning and fun and very unique wedding. One of my favorite parts was the fact that the reception was at the Fort Worth Zoo!
It was also a pleasure to work with Dallas[in]Focus Photography! (Click on their link to see their amazing images of the day!)
Thank you Aron Kay and Brandon for letting us share in your special day!
Ceremony: University Christian Church
Reception: Fort Worth Zoo
Wedding Planner: Wendy Kidd, Each and Every Detail
Photographer: Dallas[in]Focus
Reception Entertainment: Drywater Band
Cakes: Crème de la Crème Catering
Make it a Perfect '10!
I LOVE this card I custom designed for the Garvin Family! If you are like me, you were late getting those Christmas cards out and have decided on a New Year’s card!
Contact me and let’s design one for your family!

Cute X 2 + A Bunch More
Here are just a few of these beautiful babies, toddling around in all their cuteness! I love it!
The Barnes, Part 1
I’ve barely scratched the surface of their images, but I couldn’t wait to share some of my favorites so far!! Enjoy!

All in the Family
While we were in Cleburne for the wedding, Becky suggested I photograph her growing family! They just recently welcomed Emma into the clan - the first granddaughter! We shot at the beautifully restored Liberty Hotel. If you are ever in Cleburne overnight, it is the hands down place to stay!
I had a blast with this special family I am proud to call my friends!

Lion Pride
Ella Grace
So, I’m thinking Jet the dog is a pretty big Ella fan
too!
Tyler
Brooke
Jared
I arrived to the location early to photograph the Mickles’s (club owners) four amazing longhorns. Jared arrived and we got a couple of shots with them in the background. Right after this image was taken, we started talking to them and Tonto the Bull did NOT appreciate that at all! He charged us! I don’t recall running that fast in quite some time!
After we finished at Canyon
West, we headed to some of my favorite spots around
town!
Alex
We
started out racing the ominous looking weather around
downtown Midland and then safari-ed around until we
ended up at the Midland Christian School
fieldhouse.
Special thanks our good friend Greg McClendon for
letting us use the facility!



What a wonderful day with my wonderful friends! Thank you for making the drive!
Baby Momma
In Case You Were Wondering...

Toughest
Cowboy is moving to Wednesday Nights on SpikeTV at
10:00pm CST - right after UFC! Don’t miss
it!
Football, Anyone?
Note: You have to stay with it until the “21 Gun Salute!” (3:30) It’s such awesomeness!!!
About to Rock
from Gravitt
Productions on Vimeo.
You
can see #99 Brandon Henderson at SMU and #7 Will Ford
at Texas Tech next Fall!
P.S. If any of you work for the Cowboys or the NFL, I
really want to work for you!
That would be uh-mazing!
Face Plants, Knock Outs, and Bull Wrecks

Bandy Murphy,
Toughest Cowboy of Tournament 2
(Poster designed by Matt Minnichsoffer of Grit Rock
Rodeo)
Okay,
this is a little different from the last post! I’m
bringing the cowboys back to remind you that you really
need to set your DVR for Toughest Cowboy tomorrow
night! I’m totally hooked! It’s definitely not for the
faint of heart! It’s exposed this really “gladiator”
side of me I didn’t know I had!
I photographed these guys back in December before they
shot the show, and I didn’t have a clue what they were
willing to endure to be the last cowboy standing and
win a ranch! Here are some of my favorite cowboys
(they’re really all my favorites!) and some highlights:
(CLICK ON THE GREEN LINKS TO SEE VIDEO!)

This
is Steve Woolsey from
Payson, Utah. He was the Toughest Cowboy in
Tournament 1 and has been doing GREAT! Plus, he’s a
super nice guy. And tough.

I
really liked Jared Green (Socorro,
New Mexico) and was really sad to see him go last
week. He was injured so badly here in
the first tournament, he just had a really hard time
coming back. And that wreck was after he had been
injured in his first ride and couldn’t lift either
one of his shoulders! But the dude went for 8 in the
knockout round on a bull - the fourth animal he had
ridden that night - to make it to tournament 2! I
didn’t think there was going to be any stopping him.

Ha, I love this guy! Erik Wolford (Adrian,
Michigan) would give you a beat down then eat a
lollipop! And you would never suspect it just
looking at him! He BROKE his collarbone
here in
Tournament 1, but he just kept riding and scoring
like nothing ever happened! I do not know how he
does it.

Well,
there’s a fine line between tough and just nuts, and
I’ll let you decide where this falls.
Charlie Barker (Terrebonne,
Oregon) got his face kicked in here in
tournament 2 on his first ride of the night. He
didn’t really know where he was, and he had a roll
of toilet paper up his nose the rest of the night,
but he just kept riding!
Okay, that’s all for this week, even though I haven’t
even told you how Chad Eubank (Cleburne,
Texas) nearly cut his finger completely off. Oh, and
Weatherford’s own Tommy Joe Lucia, Executive Vice
President of Grit Rock Rodeo, is the Commissioner of
this deal!
You gotta watch this show! Do you really need any more
reasons?
And then leave me some comments and let me know what
you thought!
San Antonio Love
We started out at where else? The Alamo! I am not really sure what all was going on that day, but I’ll tell you one thing, the Alamo is a happening place on February 14!
These ladies were all
decked out in their southern Civil War Era best and
were great to play along with us!
Aron and Brandon are both
studying to become dentists, and met at dental school!
We thought it would be fun to get some shots up at
school. This one was just for fun!
They are pretty excited to
graduate in just a few months!
I wonder how many times
they’ve passed each other in these halls? Bet it’s the
best part of their day!
Thanks guys for such an
incredible weekend! Your love is inspiring! I can’t
wait to video your wedding in June!
We Love Jack Bauer

Music Video
Born Again
Believer from Gravitt Productions
on Vimeo.
WCS Website
The Garvins
Jordan + Tim's Highlight
I
finished this project a while back but wanted to show
you one of my favorite excerpts from Tim and Jordan’s
DVD! It was a beautiful wedding and an amazing, FUN
couple! It was an honor to produce the wedding DVD’s
for Tim last year and his sister Kelly in 2006.
Jordan and Tim's
Highlight from Gravitt Productions
on Vimeo.
Toughest Cowboy!
Amanda + Josh
Election Day & Cougars
I have been super busy with editing, videoing, photographing, and building websites! So much fun and not near enough time to get it all done as quickly as I would like to! Over the next few days, I’ll give you a peek into what I have been up to!
Today, here are some snapshots of some (not all!!) of my favorite Abilene Cooper Cougars! I’m excited to announce that these as well as other player portraits are available for sale on my website!! Click here to see the galleries!

Jordan at Traci's
Tim and Jordan had a
beautiful wedding in Midland, Texas! Here is Jordan and
her crew at Traci’s Salon getting their hair and makeup
done for the big event!
Jordan
at Traci's from Gravitt
Productions on Vimeo.
I'm Still Here!
Here’s last week’s Cooper video!
Storm Saturday Night from Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
We started school since I last blogged, so here’s the obligatory first day of school pic! The boys aren’t really big fans of group photos the way they used to be. I think you will find that quite obvious!
It’s the first time all three boys have been in school together, and I have had a little boy at home with me for the last 12 and a half years! I am working on getting a routine established for myself.
Part of that routine for the last two days has been going to Boot Camp at 5:30 in the morning! I thought I would absolutely hate it, but I actually love it! I may feel differently later today when the soreness kicks in! Pretty sure I am not going to be able to make it up the stairs by tonight!

I Rocked the Desert!!! And some other Stuff!
Here’s one of the videos. He’s singing “Only In Time”
that he wrote last week after one of his friends
drowned.
This is Glimpse, one of my favorites out of his
original songs.
Check out the rest of the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/txlonghorn2314.
They include his amazing original songs and several
great covers as well!
August 7-8 I was in Midland at Rock the Desert, my
favorite! It’s hard work, but so much fun. The lineup
was great this year and it was fun interviewing all the
bands with Shigity Sean!
This is Mr. David Grosse and I love him! He is so
awesome at Op Camp and then he came to RTD to be my
boom mic guy. He was so nice to carry the huge camera,
drive me around and make sure I always had tape and
batteries. I could use someone like him pretty much all
the time!
This is Kevin Copeland. In a word, he’s
amazing. He can do anything in the world of video
production and pulls off the production for this
huge event every year! I am so thankful he calls me
to come out and help!
I grabbed this shot of the Newsboys on stage. I kinda
like it.
Here’s Jason from Hawk Nelson. They are so great! They
always end up signing autographs for HOURS after their
performance!
Mr. Soul Glow Activatur from Family Force 5! There is
no one who puts on a show like these guys!! He’s
looking rather tame here. Must have caught him in an
“off” moment!
After resting a little bit
from Rock the Desert, it was back to Abilene to shoot
my favorite Cougars on their first morning of
two-a-days! This is Cole who will be a sophomore this
year! There is so much talent on this team!
Funny story, the head coach’s son is in the Marines and
just finished working at the White House. Coach
Spradlin got to meet President Bush at some kind of
ceremony the soldiers go through after their assignment
is done at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. They walked into
the room and President Bush asked Coach what he did for
a living. When he answered that he coached the Abilene
Cooper Cougars, the President said, “Oh! Ya’ll just
dropped to 4A!” I love that! Currently, my coogs are
ranked 3rd in the state! Whoo hoo! It’s going to be a
great season!
These boys are ready to play some football!
I also met Monday with Donny and Randy Vaughn, the
Marketing Twins and was excited to hear about things
they are doing and how I may be able to do some
production for them in the future! So fun catching up
with old friends. I was a little tired that day and
forgot to take a picture of them, among other things!
But check out their blog - they have a lot of
exciting things going on!
Okay, Tim and Jordan Philbeck are up next! Stay
tuned!
Amanda and Nathan
Check out Amanda and
Nathan’s Highlight from their wedding day here.

It's Almost Here!!
Go to the website to see the whole lineup!
It’s gonna be HOT!!!
Little Boys = My Favorite
A couple of days ago, Elijah appeared in the living room dressed like this (Iron Man/Batman/Spiderman):
And don’t think these two
aren’t always up to something! You can pretty much see
it in their eyes! And yes, somebody always has a
chocolate milk mustache. I don’t think they would make
it through a day without the stuff.
And then there is their dad!
Ha ha! I love my boys! I will have Nathan and Amanda’s wedding highlight to post in the next couple of days! Stay tuned....
Op Camp Como 2008
First, a funny story. (Well, kind of!) My husband Van directs this camp and was the director of the same camp out of Midland, Texas for seven years, but this was a first! During the traditional “keep-away” game in the pool, he caught the back of Mr. Wes’s head in his eye. He had a fairly innocent looking, but very deep split near his brow bone.
Thank goodness for Dr.
Brown who was there to stitch him up! (The color has
been removed from this photo to protect the squeamish -
and yes, I videoed it too!!)
This is what that
“innocent” looking injury looked like 2 days later!
Carolyn Street, the business manager at the campgrounds
took this shot!
Here’s Cody doing his Mr.
Gravitt impression!
This is Tyler, who prefers to be referred to as the
best intern ever, as they all do! He was definitely the
best intern this year! He pretty much had a new
hairstyle every day! It started out like this, turned
into a mohawk, and eventually he was bald.
Here are Van and I with our
boys, Josh and Joe Norman! They were campers back in
the early 90s at the Midland Opportunity Camp and still
come back every year to help us out. We’ve had the
honor of watching them grow up and they are family to
us. BTW, today is Josh’s 28th birthday! Happy Birthday,
Baby! We are so proud of both of them! Josh played
football and was a National Champion at OU and went on
to play for the San Diego Chargers, New York Jets and
Oakland Raiders. He is now CEO of The Truth Records and
JLee Productions. Joe was the Texas Defensive Player of
the Year his senior year at Midland Lee High School,
played at Texas Tech, and was in the movies “Friday
Night Lights”, “We are Marshall”, and “Invincible” as a
football player. He is working in the oil business now.
Just a little Mama-braggin!
Josh ran a little football mini-camp for the boys at
recreation time one day! Pretty cool to have a former
NFL player showing you how it’s done! Byron, the boy in
the blue shirt, is a Hurricane Katrina survivor. His
brother was a counselor for us this year and did an
incredible job! We are so thankful God moved them to
Fort Worth!
We also had His Son (a.k.a.
Vince Carter, former OU center who graduated in 2004
and was drafted in 2005) perform. The kids loved him!
A couple of my favorite
shots:
There are no smiles like Opportunity Camp smiles!
Probably the best shot of the week was this one taken
by my friend Anda! You can tell we had quite a bit of
hair cutting going on in the boys’ cabins!
And of course there is video!
Op Camp Como 08A from
Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Op Camp Como B from
Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Op Camp Como 08C from
Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Op Camp Como 08D from
Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Op Camp Como 08E from
Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Meet Alyssa
Here she is with big sis
Callie and big bro Jackson! This is the announcement
for the church website and the bulletin.

Laedin

My New Favorite Musician
Timmy Dixon played for the Abilene Cooper Cougars last fall. He was #5 and you can see him making some sick catches in the videos here. He also happens to be a completely amazing musician! Check him out on MySpace or iTunes. He’s only 18 and writes his own stuff. I think he has a Daughtry kind of sound. I also saw that he has been compared to John Mayer and U2. Wow! I am pretty sure you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot of him in the future! Oh, did I mention I am going to see him in concert Friday in Abilene?
Here’s Timmy Dixon #5 from last fall rockin his best locker room face right before a game!

Helloe From Tahoe
I loved all the comments on the lightning photo! Thank you so much!
Julie and Brian from Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Brian Loves Julie
After the wedding, we took a two hour dinner cruise on the Bleu Wave. Talk about gorgeous views! We had a fun time celebrating the brand new Mr. and Mrs. Ponder! I sneaked into the cabin (I think that's what you call it!) and caught this quiet moment between the two of them.
Both families were so
sweet! I just loved Brian's grandmother. I took this
photo through some pretty misty eyes right after she
told Brian how proud her grandfather would have been of
him! She had us all in tears. It was such a sweet
moment.

Lightning Up the Skies

Babypalooza and Marketing Twins
And speaking of twins, I reconnected with my favorite
ones from my days at ACU, Randy and Donny Vaughn! I was
excited to learn that Randy and his family are back in
the US from their time as missionaries in Africa, and
Donny made a career change so the brothers could
fulfill one of their lifelong dreams to own a business
together. They are both incredibly creative,
resourceful, passionate, and hardworking! They are in
the DFW area and their marketing coach company is
called 1429 Creative. They also have a
very helpful blog at www.marketingtwins.com. Check
them out!

Airplanes are Cool!

Angie and Jose
Getting Ready from Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Beautiful Bride

Busy Busy!

Seniors '08
Cletus Take the Reel
Fishing for Pancakes from Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Julie and Brian
David
The Answer to the Question
Sooo, Op Camp
(www.opcamp.com) is this cool ministry that my husband
has been involved in since he was in high school and I
happily married into it. It's a faith-based free camp
for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade underprivileged kids from
Midland and the Lake Como community in Fort Worth. The
unique thing about it is that the counselors are high
school and college aged kids and there is a 2:1 camper
to counselor ratio. After camp, the counselors and
campers get together at least once a month and develop
a really powerful mentor/friendship relationship.
Character traits are reinforced, and the counselors
become role models for them. We had the counselor
training retreat last weekend at Camp Butman, the
campsite. It's really intense and the kids always amaze
us with their commitment and love for the ministry!
I love this pic! Matt is a
former-camper-turned-counslelor from Midland and
Dynecia is a counselor from Fort Worth.
Claire and Kayte - another Midland-Fort Worth
friendship!
What is Op Camp?
Sooo, Op Camp
(www.opcamp.com) is this cool ministry that my husband
has been involved in since he was in high school and I
happily married into it. It's a faith-based free camp
for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade underprivileged kids from
Midland and the Lake Como community in Fort Worth. The
unique thing about it is that the counselors are high
school and college aged kids and there is a 2:1 camper
to counselor ratio. After camp, the counselors and
campers get together at least once a month and develop
a really powerful mentor/friendship relationship.
Character traits are reinforced, and the counselors
become role models for them. We had the counselor
training retreat last weekend at Camp Butman, the
campsite. It's really intense and the kids always amaze
us with their commitment and love for the ministry!
I love this pic! Matt is a
former-camper-turned-counslelor from Midland and
Dynecia is a counselor from Fort Worth.
Claire and Kayte - another Midland-Fort Worth
friendship!
Exciting Things Coming Your Way!
Pregnant!
Sister Wedding
Cassi in her boots at the rehearsal.
College Roomies: Candice, Cassi, Val, Chelsea
Twins and Hubbies! Matt, Candice, Cassi, Nick
Love those eyes!
Me and the beautiful bride!
"I Break for Snow" & Clip
Twin Brunch and Golf from Gravitt Productions on Vimeo.
Auctions and Showers
We had a great turnout! I
love Weatherford! Cowboys and Cowgirls everywhere!
There were very talented artisans in the audience who
donated handcrafted, one of a kind items. There is
always such a great variety of items to bid on!
Here's one of the wranglers
with Van's sister and brother-in-law while they were
bidding on Dallas Cowboy tickets! They didn't get them,
but had a good time trying!
The very talented auctioneer, Ross Bandy.
Okay, I am really sad this
is blurry! We haven't had a picture of us in a long
time, guess we'll try again sometime! Anyway, this is
what we look like when you're not wearing your glasses.
Sunday afternoon I went to
a baby shower for our friends Stacey and Shane. Wow!
They got a ton of stuff! I love little girl things and
all the pink - probably because there is none of it in
my house with all my boys! Stacey was glowing and
beautiful as always, and Shane looked a little
overwhelmed! Here are the pics!
The food was as tasty as it was beautiful! I was blown
away by Jan's baking skills!
The happy little family and Stacey's sister!
They are probably going to have to add on a wing to get
all this stuff in their house! What a blessed little
girl!
Exciting Project

15 Years!
Candice and Matt
Skateboards and Twins
I also added a "Wedding Film" page for you to view
samples from weddings I have filmed. I posted Gaylen
and Nicholas' Highlight today and hope to get her
sister, Ginna, up tomorrow. It was the most incredible
day! A set of identical twin sisters married identical
twin brothers! I have never, and probably will never
again, see anything like it! I will write more about it
coming up in the next few days as I finish production
on these amazing weddings! In the meantime, be sure to
check out Gaylen and Nicholas' highlight!

Miracles

Football and Weddings
Close Up on Kee
New Website, New Blog
Until then, I figured I would go ahead and start blogging! This weekend, a dear friend came into town and wanted me to take some photos of her 15 year old daughter before she cut off all her hair to donate to Locks of Love. I have always thought that was the coolest organization and had major respect for the people who donate, I had just never met anyone who had - until now! Keeley was awesome and made my job so easy! I am going to be working on a few of her pics between editing weddings and I will do my best to blog about both. Here are a few previews of the beautiful Keeley that we shot at nighttime!












