• Welcome to my blog!

     

    Hi I'm Caroline, photographer and owner of Sweet Caroline Photo. Here you can find various posts about weddings, bridals, engagement sessions, vacations, and personal work that I have photographed. I also enjoy writing a post or two about camera equipment and photoshop techniques. If you'd like to skip straight to my recent weddings click here!

    I am based out of Austin, TX but I do love to travel and am passport ready! If you are looking for a particular post, feel free to use the search tool. I would love to hear what you think!.... so don’t be shy, leave a comment!


     

{Austin Engagement Photography} Kathleen+Ryan

One Saturday morning Kathleen gave me a call asking me if I could shoot her and Ryan’s engagement portraits this coming Monday, MLK day… Ryan is such a busy man owning a restaurant in Dallas and what not that he doesn’t get to come down to Austin much. I’m glad I was available! The original plan was to head to the Wild Flower Center, but we didn’t realize it was closed on Mondays, so we went to the next best park, Mayfield Park, then head to South Congress for a more fun and edgy environment. Low and behold I ran into THREE of my other wedding photographer friends while we were there, small world. South Congress is such a common place for me, and many other photographers, that I am constantly trying to find ways to make it new, different, and exciting-which wasn’t a problem with these guys :)
As always here are some of my favorites!
couple hugging and smiling amongst trees
couple laughing at mayfield park
couple kissing by creek at mayfield park
couple looking off during engagement session in Austin
couple sitting on rocks smiling
couple kissing at park, brenizer method
Brenizer Method^
couple in alley way on South Congress
close up of couple looking off in black and white
couple kissing with engagement rink, holding hands and in the middle of South Congress with city skyline
couple kissing in reflection behind Amy's ice cream
couple sitting against red wall on South Congress

February 1, 2010 - 2:44 am

paul von rieter - the car reflection is just plain money. It is the most unique use of a reflective surface that I have ever seen. I am totally blown away by how cool it came out.

February 1, 2010 - 7:57 am

Cheshire wedding photographer - Beautiful images. Love your style and the shot with the red wall!

February 1, 2010 - 8:18 am

Daniel Dunlap - They are all great! My fave would have to be the one just above the Brenizer Maethod shot. Awesome!

February 1, 2010 - 10:24 am

Vida Carson - They’re all so awesome.. I love the different color backgrounds! Great job making this session stand out from all of your other wedding photog friends ;p

February 1, 2010 - 6:25 pm

Natalie Gibbs - Caroline, these are so fun and colorful! I really like the one of them reflected on the car.

February 1, 2010 - 6:34 pm

Alen Abdula - Great session with beautiful couple! Loved it!

February 1, 2010 - 9:10 pm

Calgary Wedding Photographer - Beautiful, beautiful images… great choices of locations, too! Kudos.

February 2, 2010 - 2:33 am

Timothy E Kaldas - Great shots Caroline. I love the foreground blur in some of the first couple of shots and the reflection in the car with them blending into the bokeh is a really cool idea. Good eye.

February 2, 2010 - 6:25 am

Matt Stanton - Great shots, I bet they’re thrilled with these. Your processing and composition are both excellent!

February 2, 2010 - 6:03 pm

Shyann - Great session!! Love the photo with the car!! I always hate cars in photos! But that is a great idea!

February 3, 2010 - 1:43 am

Mark - That car reflection shot is freaking cool!!

February 3, 2010 - 12:14 pm

Amanda Basteen - Great session! I really love the perfect car reflection shot!

February 3, 2010 - 11:48 pm

Lyn Ismael-Bennett - Lovely set! My fave is the one with their reflection on the car. Well done!

February 8, 2010 - 6:42 pm

Kyle - Her second outfit is divine. I love how the colors pop out, especially against the red wal!

{Austin Engagement Photography} Sonya+Brian

A couple weeks ago I got to shoot at Sonya & Brian’s engagement session at Mayfield Park in Austin, TX. They’re pretty darn cute :) They’re getting married on what has to be the most popular day of 2010, Oct 16! I can’t wait to shoot the wedding out by Enchanted Rock!

It was my first time shooting at the Mayfeild park and I will definitely be shooting their in the future.

couple smiling and kissing at mayfield park

austin engagement session at mayfeild park

couple holding hands at engagement session

couple holding hands on rock

couple kissing in black and white

couple kissing at mayfield park

couple kissing Brenizer method

couple holding hands in forest

couple kissing in pond reflection at Mayfield Park

couple head to head at engagement session

couple laughing by peacocks

January 28, 2010 - 11:28 pm

Sam Le - The black and white one with her looking to the side is ace.

January 29, 2010 - 1:08 am

Ben Godkin - Amazing… I was the peacock wrangler…

January 29, 2010 - 4:57 pm

Clayton Austin - So. Much. Goodness. And ben, I could go so many places with that comment…lol

Austin Wedding Photography Slideshow: Jessica & Chris

Last night I shot Jessica & Chris’ wedding at Vista on Seward Hill in Austin, TX. I knew after shooting Jessica and Chris’ engagement session that it was going to be a fun wedding to shoot. The lighting was gorgeous and so was the weather, despite the incoming cold front. The dance floor was packed the whole time and Anthony (the manager/DJ for VOSH) helped make that happen.
Cake credit!: Austin Cake Studio
Enjoy some of my favorite photos below as well as a slideshow at the bottom!

groom getting ready at vista on seward hill

little boy sitting in guest chairs at wedding

guest taking photo of people walking down isle at vista on seward hill wedding

bride and bridesmaids during ceremony

bride and groom kissing under sunset

groomsman making speech at toast

father daughter dance at vista on seward hill

black and white of mother and son dance

bride and mother of groom dancing

bride throwing bouquet for bouquet toss

CLICK “PLAY” to start the slideshow!

Sincerely,
your friendly fine art Austin wedding photographer- Sweet Caroline Photo

January 25, 2010 - 5:37 am

Alicia Kennison - This is the first time I have visited your blog and the first word that comes to mind is. “WOW”. The photos ALL have an understated elegance. Simple and beautiful. I love this work. :)

January 25, 2010 - 7:14 am

Daniel Dunlap - Fantastic, and the shot of the bride getting ready to throw the bouquet is superb!

January 25, 2010 - 8:21 am

Toni Clemens - ditto on that bouquet shot! totally awsome!

January 25, 2010 - 8:31 am

Kelly Ry - Every single image shows a moment captured, complete with movement and emotion. Well done, Caroline!

January 25, 2010 - 8:49 am

Dana Goodson - Beautiful wedding! Love your processing.

January 25, 2010 - 10:01 am

Sam Le - Awesome photos, and I love you slide shows. I love the framing of the first photo.

January 25, 2010 - 11:20 am

Karen Monken - Hi Caroline, this is the MOH Karen. I have to thank you for doing such a beautiful job capturing the wedding! It was gorgeous and you made it look even more so. I hope you had fun! You really got some amazing shots that show Jess and Chris’ love. And I freaked when “Real Love” started on the slideshow. Perfect song.

January 25, 2010 - 11:52 am

Mark Gregory - Long time photo viewer, first time commenter. I love your style. Diggin’ the bridal party shot!

January 25, 2010 - 12:36 pm

Amanda Basteen - Great job! I really love the one of the bride with all the bridemaids.

January 25, 2010 - 1:24 pm

Shyann - Great wedding! I really loved that slideshow!! Awesome work as usual!

January 25, 2010 - 4:57 pm

Mariana Maya Photography - OMG! I Love the shot of the bride getting ready to throw the bouquet! SO FUN!

January 25, 2010 - 5:25 pm

Manchester wedding photography - Beautiful photography. Love the bokeh in 5!

January 25, 2010 - 5:40 pm

Dorrene - Beautiful pictures. I love the purple color theme all throughout.

January 25, 2010 - 5:49 pm

Drew - Dang girlie, I really like the slideshow. Very nice work. You rock! Also you really make me want to push to get my 5D mkii and go all primes this weekend :-)

January 25, 2010 - 8:23 pm

Robb Duncan - I love the first image, I am so feeling that kind of style right now. And I love the bouquet toss shot too, just awesome.

January 26, 2010 - 5:55 am

Marianne Taylor - Loving the one of bride and the bridesmaids. And the kissy one, seriously gorgeous bokeh! Gorgeous wedding.

January 26, 2010 - 1:22 pm

Ben Godkin - Man, I love those first three shots on the Slideshow! ;) Great job as usual!

January 26, 2010 - 2:26 pm

Rowan Sims - Beautiful work, Caroline! I love your style!

January 28, 2010 - 4:47 am

Timothy E Kaldas - Caroline, gorgeous photos as always. I really love the colors and post work on the shot of the bride and groom kissing. It’s a stunning image.

A post about edits: before & after

Okay, since some people don’t really know the difference between a straight out of camera (SOOC), standard edit, premium edit, and black and white edit- I thought I’d go ahead and share. The image I used for the examples is actually a ‘Brenizer method’ photo in which I used multiple photos (in this case 37 of them) to create one bigger one, similar to a panorama it helps create a telephoto lens look while maintaining a large view of the scene.

first image of brenizer methodThis first picture in the post is the first picture I took for the Brenizer method.

complete brenizer method straight out of cameraThis is the entire Brenizer method photo put together, unedited, and straight out of camera.

brenizer method with standard Llightroom 2.0 editThis photo was edited in LR2 and is my standard edit for color, contrast, exposure, vignette, curves, and white balance.

engagement session with premium photoshop editThis photo has a premium edit where I used a various sort of actions (mostly TRA) and a good amount of dodging and burning to help the couple pop a little bit more.

All photos on my blog and slideshows are edited this way, (as of fairly recently), the client will receive all premium edits that I do for the slideshow which usually consists of around 60-80. They will also receive a file of all the standard edits as well. I edit photos to black and white when I feel that the photo calls for it.

e-session photo with black and white edit

This photo has my black and white action applied to it in Photoshop (which again is mostly TRA)

Photographers have anymore questions? Feel free to ask me here.

January 18, 2010 - 10:56 pm

Magan - The method is really awesome. I *love* your premium edits. The color is amazing. Your work is simply gorgeous. Thanks for sharing!

January 19, 2010 - 7:04 am

Daniel Dunlap - Your editing style rocks! I really like how you grab color wich almost seems nonexistant and make it pop. The ‘Brenizer method’ works really well for this shot too. I can’t wait to give this technique a whirl.

January 19, 2010 - 7:20 pm

Dorrene - I love the color in the 4th picture.

January 19, 2010 - 8:35 pm

Drew - Nice walk through Caroline. I like the wide Brenizer shot!

January 19, 2010 - 11:28 pm

Kathleen - It looks great so far! I can’t wait to see the rest of them.

Blue October Wedding Slideshow: CB & Betsy

I am one lucky girl. Today was one of those rare Saturdays that I didn’t have a wedding planned…. I recieved a call around 11am this Saturday morning asking me to shoot at Austin’s wedding venue, Villa Antonia, for Mr. Ron Parks wedding photography- at first I wasn’t sure I wanted in until I found out it was for one of my favorite bands, Blue October’s, guitarist!! I, of course, could not turn the opportunity down. I am soooo glad that Ron invited me along (huge huge huge thank you for inviting me, did I mention that he’s also a really nice guy?), I also got to shoot with the recent newly wed Amy who I was anxious to shoot with anyway. Ben was a little jealous of the situation since he was already scheduled to 2nd shoot another wedding, so he showed up about 20 minutes before their departure. I tried not to act like a giddy school girl in front of the guys but on the inside I was really excited. I had a blast shooting the fun crowd. The live music by Taxi & Danny was awesome, not to mention I like them even more because they played my song… you know… ‘Sweet Caorline’ by Neil Diamond. ;)

CB & Betsy Hudson were super sweet and the wedding was gorgeous! I wasn’t planning on making a slideshow but I simply just could not narrow the images down to 20 or so… Is it really cheesy that I wanted to use a Blue October song to go to the slideshow pictures? Oh well, I did anyway.
I can’t wait to see the rest of the photos by Amy, Ron, and Julie.


Bride + Blue October

I love cute flower girls!!

My favorite picture of Mr. Justin Furstenfeld himself. :)

We had to take them away from the party for a little bit to get these more intimate portraits.

And of course, CB sang to Betsy, soooo sweet!

They knew the whole dance to “all the single ladies”, again, awesome.

CLICK “PLAY” to start the slideshow!

Sincerely,
your friendly fine art Austin wedding photographer- Sweet Caroline Photo

January 17, 2010 - 5:47 am

Ben Godkin - Those guys are soooo awesome!!! I have met them a few times before but never anything like this. GREAT JOB on the photos… they will be proud… ;)

January 17, 2010 - 9:57 am

Kristi Wright - These are beautiful. I love the first group shot and the b&w of the B&G is really nice. The processing is perfect.

Yeah for you!

January 17, 2010 - 1:27 pm

Jamie m Swanson - LOVE it! Great job capturing the event. I love the lighting setup you used at the reception. Looks like it was a rocking party!

January 17, 2010 - 4:04 pm

Chelsea R. McMurtrie - Awesome shots! Good job. Fast!

January 17, 2010 - 5:43 pm

Dana Goodson - Awesome, awesome job Caroline! Love the images!

January 17, 2010 - 5:48 pm

Edric Morales - This wedding is so rock-n-roll, awesome!!

January 17, 2010 - 6:36 pm

Vida Carson - Oh my gosh the slideshow is so freaking awesome!!!! Some of those bride+groom dance shots are amazinggggg!

January 17, 2010 - 9:00 pm

Kirsten - HOLY COW awesome!!!!! Looove these!! Love them.

January 17, 2010 - 11:43 pm

Stefano - These are absolutely amazing Caroline, congrats!

January 18, 2010 - 3:54 am

Tobiah Tayo - Great fun photos! Enjoyed your work!

January 18, 2010 - 6:52 pm

Teresa K - Oh yeah, you rocked it.

January 19, 2010 - 12:07 am

Paul Von Rieter - What a rock and roll wedding! It looks like a blast and I love the way the photos look… almost 3d… do you have a magic camera or something??? Very nice work!

January 19, 2010 - 8:40 am

Phill - Your photos, somewhat appropriately, are rocking.

February 5, 2010 - 2:44 am

Cheri - Wow. These are gorgeous photos. It was a beautiful wedding. It was such a private ceremony, I’m really surprised they allowed you to post these! Nice work!

January 17, 2010 - 5:44 am

Austin Wedding at Villa Antonia: Betsy & C.B. Hudson | Austin Wedding Photographer Ben Godkin Photo Blog - [...] the whole wedding along side Mr. Ron Parks and his crew… It must have been a blast! Check out her slide show of the wedding here. I LOVE MY JOB!!! Below is the only good shot I got as Mr. Hudson and his new bride as they exited [...]

January 17, 2010 - 12:35 pm

Presenting Mr. & Mrs. Hudson | 78Triple6 - [...] boards himself, there was an engagement announcement posted in the local paper and the photographer posted these on the web so I’m sure she had permission to do so.) Leave a Comment tags: C.B. [...]

Austin Wedding Photography Slideshow: Diana & Keegan

This past Saturday I shot Diana and Keegan’s Austin wedding ceremony at Covenant United Methodist Church and the reception at Mercury hall. Since we knocked out all of the group photos before the ceremony Diana, Keegan, and all 16 bridesmaids and groomsmen, immediatly headed to the party! Mercury hall is now one of my favorite venues, not to mention the whole group was a blast! There were so many people on the dance floor that I had to squeeze my way through people to take photos (thanks to Justin from Complete DJs, he played a great mix of music). Also, I love me some same day slideshows! Since Ben and I had a good 20 minutes to drive between the ceremony and reception site, while I drove Ben uploaded images to create a little slideshow for everyone to see at the wedding, fast uploading card readers are one of the best inventions ever :)
Special credit to Becky from Stress Free Events for constantly keeping me updated with what was going down.
Well what can I say, 2010 is off to a great start, enjoy!

flower girl sitting in church chairs

bride looking out at guest through church blinds

mercury hall Austin venue at night

bride and groom looking at each other in vintage mirror on wall at Mercury Hall
I didn’t get to spend too much time getting a good portrait of the couple since it was FREEZING cold outside and it was dark by the time we had a chance, so I found this cool little mirror in the hallway to the bathroom, pointed a tungsten gelled strobe towards them, and here we go :)

kid at wedding looking over mom's shoulder

bride and groom dancing and grandma and groom dancing in black and white

mother and groom dancing to mother/son dance

flower girl standing in crowd of people

This is one of my favorite photos ever taken, I just love the calm and collected look of the flower girl while everyone is laughing and talking around her- I spent a lot of time in photoshop to get the images just the way I wanted it.

bride hugging mother with grandma near by

CLICK “PLAY” to start the slideshow!

Order prints from the slideshow here- the rest of the photos will be uploaded within the next 2 weeks.
Sincerely,
your friendly fine art Austin wedding photographer- Sweet Caroline Photo

January 12, 2010 - 3:21 pm

Kayla Molnes - Very Beautiful and elegant wedding. The flowergirl was absolutely precious. Wonderful Job!

January 12, 2010 - 3:40 pm

Tasha - Beautiful set – I especially like the one with the bride peeking through the blinds. I want to know what she was checking out!

January 12, 2010 - 3:42 pm

Razvan - Love the picture with them in the mirror!

January 12, 2010 - 9:24 pm

Regina - My absolute favorite photo was the black and white shot of the grandmothers blowing bubbles which was taken after the ceremony. I didn’t see it on the blog, but during the slideshow at the reception, which was a great touch! Loved it! Great job.

January 15, 2010 - 4:57 pm

Drew - I love that slideshow Caroline. Aside from the beautiful ceremony it looks like a fancy party! Great work capturing the action.

January 17, 2010 - 2:27 am

Chris Lin - Wow, that first image is powerful. Nice lighting there.

f a c e b o o k