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Don't miss the grand opening of Space Studio + Hal Samples Birthday!!
2814 main street, dallas, tx 75214

For your listening pleasure: Aton, Future Sound Soul, and Black Heart Society!

Get your free Hal Samples portrait!
Bring your santa hats, dogs, mistle toe, twizzlers and other happy-holiday accessories.

BYOB. Art. Slideshow. Good. Fun.

*Donations accepted.

grateful

i love my job. a lot. never in a million years would i have guessed that i'd be attending weddings once a week. in a million years. but here i am. totally in love with what i do.

last night, after shooting a wedding, i caught the end of sarah janes kickin' halloween party whose attendees are usually brilliant-ish arty types who usually don't talk about whoever won whatever on a prime-time television reality show. (no offense, people, but i totally don't care or have a clue as to what you're talking about. i have little talent for sitting still and unproductive long enough to stare at a box. going out to a flick excluded. computers *staring**unproductive* most definetly *sigh* excluded.)

yet another brilliant sidetrack that insulted at least one of you.

so, i'm usually a listener, content to let someone rock me to woozy in the super semrad porch swing. but i enjoyed the talky talk this time and in the context of the conversation revealed that i'm rarely satisfied with my work. the somewhat-perfectionist who's always too far away from the goal. i've always seen this, slightly, as some sort of morphing fault. something not to be revealed to the general hiring public. i'm saying, i'm not exactly getting what's in my head out of my camera. there is so much more to learn. this can't be good, right?

and then i was given another perspective. (paraphrased due to memory loss) "oh, you're one of those real artists with the passion and stuff. not being satisfied is a good thing. moving out to the suburbs and settling for whatever you can easily accomplish and not learning new things, well, you might as well hang yourself then because you're already dead."

love it. not settling. very much alive.

as for learning, the above photo is a technique i picked up watching hal. see the smaller version of the couple dancing inside the larger version? (click photo for larger size) so amazingly cool i had to stop myself to make sure i got some "real" photos, too.

good times.

more bad guys

i can't believe i'm about to say this.

someone broke into my car again.

last break-in was only two weeks ago.

yes, i did get a new stereo. but that faceplate will never ever be in my car without me ever ever again. ever. i suppose that's what they were looking for when they dumped my glovebox everywhere. i'm starting to feel like i might ought to bring the carseat inside too. no one informed me that parking on the street meant i would need to open a savings account to replace my stuff every so often.

i think theives are an evil bunch. i find them especially evil if they take from those clearly marked "poor' with carseats and diaper wipes and jelly beans on the floorboard and sippy-type cups in the cubby.

for humor's sake i want to put a sign in my car that says something to the effect of "stop being so f*ing mean!" i'm taking suggestions as to what that sign should actually say. it would totally make me happy to make a theif stop and think about himself as he's ripping my radio out of the dashboard.

i opened a quote book of mine tonight to this page and thought it appropriate: "Have respect for yourself; find respect for others; take responsibility for all your actions."

out of curiosity, would someone steal a radio without a faceplate? what precautions can i take?

zenday

today was this really super-lady, amazing, balence of a day. efficiently and simultaneously i somehow managed to incorperate attentive mothering, lots and lots of work, lots and lots of errands, chinese dinner out with the kiddo (at his charming request!) and even the domestic endeavors of laundry and dishes and baby baths. on top of that, well, my email content has been rather fantastic lately too.

one of my larger accomplishments was a total necassary overhaul organization for paperwork.

backtrack: for the price and location, our new place is cheap and huge. my favorite things in a living space. *grin* there's one hallway in here that houses only hallwayness and two big closets. when i first saw it i thought, "weird." then i thought, "work room!" i'm pretty anal when it comes to organization. but my paperwork, that i need access to every day, has never been stored in a truly easy to access place. and by "easy to access" i mean, all-kinds-of-out-in-the-open. with a big shelf, this weird hallway has provided my paperwork to be open, and stores my equipment.


but, after having to fill out some financial forms recently, i realized that clumping things into such large categories. . . .for example: 2006 . . .made finding specifics difficult, despite having all of the information. not to mention i had everything crammed pretty tight into two file boxes. taxes next year are going to be a little scary for me, so i'm trying to get prepared beforehand instead of that last minute paper crunch and curse.

today i got it together. turning two tight file boxes into EIGHT larger bank boxes. yearly, and then monthly, invoices, contracts, reciepts, blah-de-blah. i have my trusty "paid" and "unpaid" board next to it all, 'cause I often forget who's on what side and for how much.

anyone got a better way to express gratitude at the end of an invoice besides a hearty "Thank You!" i'm lucky enough to really like my clients. a lot. and i totally hate sending out bills and usually don't until the bank account demands it.

perhaps today's what i get when i don't go to bed at 6. in the morning. working. 'cause that totally has to stop.

when you have no concept of time, it tends to escape you.

christmas card ad test shoot

today was superfantabulous, for a myriad of reasons. but one of the highlights was having kristin and her lovely beans, judah and brand-new killian over while their in town from san fransisco. i've been planning on doing a shoot for a christmas card shoot and sale soon and kristin was wanting to give her camera a workout, so i figured today would be the perfect day to use those santa hats.

despite the sort of halphazard way i went about it, i think we really got some great stuff. this was the part where killian got sauced on boob juice and passed out. heh.

i love the intensity of judah's gaze. my son inherited my blank look. you know the one i get where i get lost in my head and my eyes glaze over and everyone starts asking me if i'm okay, or if i'm confused about something.


maybe i can study judah's eyes and practice a more focused countenance.


this is totally penn's christmas card. and by the way, i just finished crocheting that scarf last night that i had started last winter. comfiest, warmest, softest thing ever.


thanks so much guys for coming over! we had a blast!

click here to see more photos.

sarah and ruben

this wedding was so darned perfect i don't even know how to describe it.

some of my favorite things about it were all of the great details. the great pink details *wink*

*everyone was calm and beautiful. i'm not accustomed to such a lack of chaos.

i loved watching the guests file out into the sunlight.

every time i see a rose petal on an aisle i'm commanded to take this shot.

there's something to be said for getting married at sunset on a really really, really nice golf course. one of those things is, "no heels on the green."

the other thing is, "kissing and sunsets and lens flares are an awesome combination."

* i have a new assistant now who i am so happy to be working with! for several reasons on this wedding in particular, plus i'm really happy with this shot since mine was from the feet angle.

one of my favorite final touches was the "incredibles" cake from the animated pixar film!!! the couple is, without sharing their personal life on the internet, involved with pixar, just so you know it's relevant. and, well, i have a two year old. and the movie "incredibles." and, of course a buzz light year. and, i could go on . . .

*an amazing wedding, not because it was, again, can i say perfect?, but because this couple, and whole family for that matter, are truly amazing. thank you so much for letting me be part of your day!

*by allison slomowitz for carissa byers photography (c) 2006

high 62/low 44

had to light a heater tonight! ringo seems to be feeling the nip too and has decided that the bed and couch are warmer places to attempt a nap. the bed? okay, sometimes, at the baby's loud and lengthy insistance. the couch? no way jose.

dude. his bed is so comfortable that penn and i laid on it (while it's still clean and doesn't smell of dog yet) and played his computer games.

ringo also got a 20ft. lead (frowny groan) for the front yard in fear of any more neighbor complaints.

mine wins rudest neighbor award! + an afterschool special

11p.m.-ish tonight my dog ringo and i were sitting on the porch. my neighbor across the street opened her front door and began some strange primal dance of whistleing and patting her legs, singing, "here kitty kitty!"

my dog responds to whistles and primal dances and thus made haste the short distance across the street to the 'kitty kitty' lady. yes, i'm sure it's unsettling to have a dog run across the street at you with a small amerasian lady running behind him yelling, "sorry! ringo, come here! he's a nice dog! ringo! nice dog, i promise!" especially if you're a neurotic cat lady. and sure, the front yard isn't fenced so the law does say a leash is in order.

but---- you know what? it just wasn't cool to be cursed at more in the span of 30 seconds than i have ever been cursed at in my whole entire life. (now that i think about it, i don't think anyone has ever cursed at me . . . .) so, it was kind of shocking for a strange women to get really IN my face, INCHES!, and find that the word "g-damn" is maybe the only word she knows. and find that she is incredibly comfortable screaming that in her neighbors face.

takeback: she knows the word "leash." and she's full of f-bombs.

this is also the woman who put a sign on my car saying, "do not park in front of my house." because her name is public property, maybe.

i wonder if she knows that her cat is really mean and totally stalked and beat up my dog when we first moved here.

felt a tad jittery inside, but am more concerned with the gigantic levels of anger in her. i mean, her reaction was grossly out of proportion, not to mention incredibly mean. i'm concerned with the levels of anger in all people. i catch random glimpses of it sometimes and the misery of mad inside them and the misery it cannot help but create as they litter the world with the baggage they make is so awfully sad.

i'm okay with anger for motivations sake of making our world a better place and for being emotionally well-rounded. but i don't understand the excess of really serious, hate-filled anger at the minor inconveniences of life. i don't understand why it's so easy for some people to make life so hard.

where is the essence of the bigger picture? where is the gratitude and celebration for the basic idea that we exist and can create and grow and live? hell yes that sounds like a big ole new-age-hippy-cheese greeting card. maybe i should start writing for oprah.

*sigh*

i saw a lot of angry people today. all yelling about some ridiculous material injustice done to them. and they all seemed to think that when they got whoever to do whatever they wanted, everything would be okay. instead, they all just moved on from their sowing of muck into other peoples lives and found something else to be angry about.

what else? i'm pretty darned happy. for whatever reason it's my constant and i wish like everything i could bottle it and send it out as christmas presents.


listening to: "always love" ---nada surf

To make a mountain of your life
Is just a choice
But I never learned enough
To listen to the voice that told me..
Always love… Hate will get you everytime
Always love… Don’t wait till the finish line


**i'm listening to the acoustic version, 'course, available on itunes, but you can hear the other for free on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf

carissabyers.com

carissabyers.com has a new look. there are still some details to add, but this will be the basic idea. i can't believe i allow some of the things i do on my own site. perhaps i should start proofreading and fine-tuning sloppy design sometime before the 3 a.m. mark. i can't believe i had time to actually do this with over 4000 (FOUR THOUSAND!!!) fantastic (FANTASTIC!) images on deck to edit and deliver and an email box that weighs more than i do.

(brag alert) for the record, i think i still deliver faster than most photographers in town.

it seemed necassary to start updating my portfolio with something more than a couple years old. my print portfolio is so old it's almost embaressing.

*sigh* i can't wait until penn starts school. heh. i'm totally in love with my little man, but this staying up until 4a.m., (not my most productive hour when the early rise *which is unfortunately getting later and later* looms ahead) to process, edit, upload and package is really wearing me out.

suitcases under my eyes.

the funnest fun

after shooting the self-proclaimed and officially proven, "funnest wedding ever" in fort worth, i buzzed back to dallas because hal listed off a string of events and promised it was going to be, "so much fun i can't stand it." for starters there was cool parking and the happy bullets at dada, which i was really jazzed to see since i seem to always have to work when they're on.

next was a quick walk to the gypsy tea room for a little ppt. now. i'll be honest. i'm probably one of the very few in dallas that's not a fan of ppt. i do like good hip-hop, but sometimes . . . . just sometimes. . . .i feel like rapping over a dj'd beat isn't much different than the everyman in his car singing with his cd playing too loud. i like real-live instruments. i like seeing that connection everyone makes on stage.

saturday night might have made me a believer, though.

click here for a few more pics.

this is not a music blog, but

back when i was foot loose and fancy free, i made a road trip to dallas from little rock, arkansas with the astounding gaah(n), whom i met in london at the changing of the gaurds. (best friend meeting story ever.) my memories are a tad more than fuzzy, but i think it was on that trip that i met darius holbert and the phenominal band dr. teeth. (his myspace says the website might be coming soon?)

i've never been more heartbroken that a band quit playing together. luckily darius put out the solo album "open letter."

six years later, "open letter" still goes down as one of my most favorite albums ever. Ev.Er.

i swear to you it is 13 tracks of absolute musical/lyrical/vocal/inspirational perfection. (see: track 11, stupid parade)

as my world gets smaller (by every unbelievable hour) in two days and a lucky moment with gaah(n) in denton i heard/saw darius' name three times and discovered that he has another album, "tothethingsthemselves" which i promptly downloaded from itunes. also discovered that i tragically missed his recent dallas show.

not the least bit afraid to say i think darius is not only one of my favorite musicians, but potentially one of the best of our times.

can't believe i caved

if you've spoken at all to my son lately then he has given you the hearty greeting, "i've got crabs!" to which everyone smiles nervously and looks at me for verification. "yes. he has crabs. the hermit kind, and there are two."

they sell them at a store in the mall where we often hit up the awesome indoor playground. and every time we go to the awesome indoor playground we end up spending at least 20 minutes looking at the crabs and then crying when i make us leave because watching crabs for 20 minutes is 19.5 minutes too long.

i don't think he ever asked for one. i don't think he understood that they were up for grabs.

but his dad said he was going to get one. you know what that means? (no offense, dad) it means he would have totally come home with the humongo giant crab bigger than my fist painted up like spongebob with glitter and google eyes glued on willy-nilly by some manic crab shell decorator in ohio. spongebob crab probably would have come home in the giant neon orange tank with the plastic palm trees and blue sand. the very thought of a giant spongebob crab living in my house pushed me over the edge and suddenly, from a distance, i heard myself say, "hey penn. you wanna take a crab home?"

the angels they did sing as penn set aglow with happiness.

we now have small yellow "daddy crab" and tiny little "baby crab." they live in a plastic house with a white handle and THEY HAVE TO GO EVERYWHERE PENN GOES OR THE EARTH WILL FALL OUT OF ORBIT AND BURST INTO A THOUSAND FLAMES.

so, he likes them.

swc

so, i did get to see her. after all these years. surprising long lost friends is fun.


and she's still amazing. i don't even know how long she played. sitting in front of her is like being at storytime again. every song is a detailed description of someone's journey. go buy a cd. (i hear she's finishing up another one this week!)

click here to see more photos.

"those are bad guys!"

true statement: i have the most unappealing car on the whole block. this is true of most blocks. so why do i keep waking up to this?


even better, this passenger window has been broken for the longest time. it refuses to stay on the track. it refuses to stay even on a new track. and since it doesn't affect my ability to get from point a to point b and i have more important things to spend my seventy five dollars on, i taped it up and have let it be. wanna break into my car? this window is the easiest way to do it. i should know. i'm rather fond of locking my keys in my car.


so of course, my happy burgler went for the other window that actually worked. so now i have two broken windows.

you can just feel the joy in my heart right now, can't you.


the past three times my radio has been stolen, it was at least a neat job of it. this happy burgler had to rip out all kinds of goodies. he went through the whole glovebox but didn't seem to notice the laptop in the back seat.

when penn overheard me telling someone what had happened, he wanted to know a little more. i told him someone took mom's radio. he instantly got it and said, "those are bad guys! i've got to tell those bad guys, 'don't take my momma's radio!' and then they'll go away."

soundtrack

i think i'm allowing myself to be brainwashed by lisa loeb. sometimes an album gets stuck in my car and it's all i can listen to for days. there are side effects.

i don't know what it would mean, really, to be a lisa-bot. i imagine it would have it's perks. everything would sound like acoustic butterflies and breathy back-up singers. but it would take a global effort to pick up all the broken hearts she's tripping over.

the track "hand me down" is my addiction. it's that simple guitar bend that just pulls pulls me in. but the silliest thing that i adore is the moment 3/4 into the song behind the line "so now i'm in this hotel room i'm free i'm droaning on. the music's way too loud. i wanna skip to the next song," and there's this more audible off-beat that makes me so strangely happy. i just want to hear that measure over and over.



fearing a traumatic overdose of loeb, i switched to duncan sheik. i double dog dare you to drive for an hour and a half into the rolling prairies of texas with the windows down, the world full of sunshine, and this album on as loud as your dusty old honda speakers will go to compensate for the noise of your broken, package-taped window and non-existent muffler, and not find something that you might need to have a good interstate cry over. even if you're me.

i didn't, for the record.

i think "little hands" might be one of my favorite unrequited-love-story-meditation-songs ever. "her indifference fills the room . . some weak seduction the morning after, how it slays me every time i touch her. she just wants to sleep." you know i swoon easy over any acoustic guitar and/or piano. unrequited love stories also seem to be something i'm (heh heh) in love with. i've also noticed that the longest track on the album is always my favorite.

in an effort to wipe away some of the far away longing fog from my eyes i've merged into the pixies "surfa rosa" today. "where is my mind . . . .?"

bummer

it's been a busy week. the whole month of october has me working around the clock. so much that i didn't get to see my son for two entire days and nights. i barely even had time to call during breaks to hear his voice shouting "i love you momma!" over the roar of go-carts and bumper cars his dad took him to while i worked. social obligations and the loving volunteering of momma mary's babysitting skills even kept me from putting him to sleep tonight.

missed this little bum.

skinny white chick in dallas!

when i moved to memphis around 2001, i didn't know anyone.  seriously.
so when i struck it off randomly in a bookstore with this fabulous girl named 
susan tucker who invited me to her show that night at an awesome downtown
memphis dive (name escapes me now) i was more than happy
(and available) to attend.  par usual for me and good musicians, i totally fell in love
watching her bring an entire room to standing silence and eager encores.

it would take a whole other post and a little more time to explain just how
happy that night made me.

we became friends, she brought me cd's to where i worked, i wrote an
article about her for a memphis mag, never got to know her as
well as i really wanted, and then, like always, i moved away to another city where
i didn't know anyone. there have been attempts to keep in touch, but despite all
good intentions we all know how that goes.

something told me to check my junk email account tonight.   .

lo and behold, the lovely skinny white chick is playing in dallas THIS
SUNDAY!  6-8 at Betwixt n Between Community Center.
and only a couple miles from my house.

i don't know how i'm going to do it, but i'll be there.  highly suggest you
join me.

excerpt from review:
With her own combination of deft guitar work, stunning original
composition, and crystal-clear vocals, this Skinny White Chick garners
frequent comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, and
Jeff Buckley. Like these artists, but with her own memorable intensity,
S. J. writes and performs for the soul, giving all she’s got to songs
of fairy tale characters and goddesses come to life on top of the usual
journeys of love, loss, and daily survival. Reviewers describe S. J.’s
sound as “Celtic Blues, folk rock full of fire” (Green Man Review) and
state that she delivers “a surprisingly energetic set” (Playback St.
Louis). S. J.’s most recent bit of press comes from smother.net, where
her newest album, Tangles, was Editor's Pick, and where reviewer JSin
had this to say: Singer/songwriters, take note--this is what you should
be doing and how you should sound.

leftovers

was formatting cards tonight and discovered some "leftovers" from the democrat/gypsy tearoom night. click here to see more. i'll update the album when the rest make it off hal's computer.

amerasians rawk

when i saw this photo i laughed so hard i immediatley googled it, found it and purchased it from blacklava.net.

i'm not really a fan of shirts plastered with screen-printed generic opinions. but i have a bottemless pit of semi-humorous banter about my issues with racial ambiguity and stereotypes.



made apparent, i should not leave my wallet beside the computer, vunerable to online impulse purchases.

and to sidetrack for a moment, i loathe the clothes that say anything along the lines of "sexy bitch." i'll do cartwheels the day young women stop referring to themselves as such and feeling hip about it. worse with sparkles. worse across the butt.

other items i liked read "check other," "mixed well," "i speak english," "i love north korea, it's kim jung i dont' like, " and "i am not a terrorist."

shameless nudge: i totally have a birthday coming up.

texas democratic revolution resistance rally: photos

the texas democratic revolution resistance rally was just all kinds of political, musical, photographic fun.

hal, sarah jane and i set up a light in the only booth of the tea room , conveniently clad in non-reflective black velvet, and took people's "policital mugshot," which was them holding a sign noting why you should vote, or why they were there, or why they were a democrat. or for the kids, their myspace page. because that's important. *sigh*

we also shot the venue and bands and periodically fed our cards to hal who projected the photos re-heally big on the wall for everyone's viewing pleasure. real-time stuff is so damned entertaining.

why do i think we should vote? seriously, in part, because we can. because it's important to me that i have decent human beings making the decisions that affect me and the city i'm living in. because my vote may be as close as i can get to influencing those decisions. and *groan* i am so tired of elections being centered around personal rights. you know what? a candidates opinion on gay rights, prayer in schools, abortion, and stem cell research just aren't the the opinions i care about when it comes to the war, crime, economics and planet this country has created. because everything effects everything. this includes you.

i want my leaders to tell me what's really going on. what's really on the table. i need them to, because i don't know. in a perfect world i'd like a standard piece of regularly updated information available to everyone that tells me everything. all the bills in office, all the problems, all the possible solutions, what we're doing, what we've done, etc. campaign slogans and fancy graphics are not information and, let's face it, although it's all probably out there somewhere, the majority of us, myself included, just aren't taking/don't have the time to find it.

also, of course, zac crain for mayor.

click here to see more.

spectacle

mary got new glasses which called for a new portrait. good thing i've been lazy about taking the lights and background down, heh.

when we sat down to see what we'd gotten i kept coming to the above photo. it just looks like something. i have seen this picture in a tri-fold brochure somewhere. or in the testimony section of a website.

and then something along the lines of the following conversation, and way more funny than i can remember to put here, occured:

me: A TAMPAX AD!
mary: CANCER RESEARCH! c'mon. you totally beeelieeeveee anything this woman tells you. you trust her.
me: GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM!
mary: GET TESTED FOR SOMETHING!
me: OHMYGOD! it's all true. it's the universal photo for all feminine advertisements. perfect.

click here to see more.

serious

seems even the simplist of things aren't as simple as they used to be anymore.