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!


