Meet Justin!

Alright, Lantern Tree Fans!  Allow me to introduce you to Justin VanDuyn (That's Van-Dine if you're wondering).  He's a great friend, and an awesome musician!  And he's SINGLE, ladies!!!  Sorry, Justin--had to throw that in there.  :)  And yes, he has already made an appearance on LT's blog--he's a couple posts down in his brother's wedding pictures!

Anyway, we had such a fun time taking some promo pictures in Broad Ripple.  Justin's sister, Ashley, came along and was a huge help carrying changes of clothes and tripods, fetching us coffee--you know how it goes for these celebrity photo shoots.  Just kidding, Ash!!   The night turned out to be pretty crazy, that's for sure!  You ready for some story-telling?  Here we go!  It all started at the Arts Center . . .

Next, we thought it would be great to get some shots on this bridge we'd seen from afar at the Arts Center.  So we jumped in the car to hunt it down.  Ten minutes later we finally pull in a parking lot near the bridge--and then we realize it's the same parking lot we'd just left at the Arts Center!  Sigh.  I always claim the "sense of direction" part of my brain doesn't work.  Just another example.  Bridge pictures, coming right up!

After the bridge, we headed into the Broad Ripple Starbucks for a quick break.  It turned out to be a really great spot for some pictures.  We played around a little with some ideas while annoying some of the other coffee drinkers, until one of the drinkers next to us suggested we use a tripod for some of the darker light shots.  Next thing we know, he's running to his car to let us borrow his tripod that he just happens to have with him.  Now it turns out that inside of the most photogenic Starbucks in Indianapolis sat the nicest photographer in Indianapolis!  How crazy is that?  So I got a much-needed lesson in using a tripod and even some camera tips, right there in the coffee shop.  ;)  Here are some of our favorite shots there: 

Long story short, the next thing we know, we are leaving Starbucks with the tripod.  Our new friend gave us some suggestions for outdoor night shots, and insisted we take his tripod out on the town.  Seriously.  He was such a nice guy.  So we headed out, loaded up with the tripod and my new lesson, and got these fun shots:

We never could have captured these shots without the tripod, so we were so thankful for that random encounter!   I will say that I now have a tripod in my photographer's toolbox (yes, we returned the tripod when we were done--it turns out my father-in-law had one he's not using)!  And hopefully we got some promo shots that Justin will be able to use very soon!!  I promise to put some of his awesome music up on my page for you all to hear.  Stay tuned!