About twice a month I work for the San Marcos/Buda/Kyle edition of Community Impact Newspaper.
They usually need a few shots for local business profiles, nothing too fancy or time-consuming. In fact, sometimes it becomes almost formulaic. Show up, shoot the outside of the building, a wide shot of the inside of the building, a quick portrait/mug of the business owner, and shoot a few details like food or products that they make there. Simple.
That is, until I show up to a place like Great Big Signs.
I got the assignment to shoot a business profile on a sign shop. I thought Kinkos. I was so delightfully wrong.
I arrived at a house on a dirt road in Kyle with a small collection of barns behind it. Each barn was decorated with old signs and other embellishments. I walked around to find reporter Brett Thorne, who was already in the middle of a tour with Great Big Signs owner, Lynn Wilkerson.
I was already pleasantly surprised with the shop, but then I walked in to find this:
For those of you who don’t recognize these emerald, hog-riding beauties, they’ve become a signature decor item in Freebirds burrito restaurants all over the world.
“Oh!” I thought. “This is that sign shop.” They specialize in unique, sometimes ornate signs like the giant pie sign at Texas Pie Co. in Kyle and the watermelon sign on Luling’s downtown Watermelon Shop.
Just like his work, Wilkerson was quite the character. While taking his photo, I couldn’t help but notice his likeness to music legend Willie Nelson. (You can’t see the long ponytail in this photo.)
It turned out Wilkerson and Willie had not only met before, but really hit it off. They share a mentality of always do what you love, and you’ll get what you need.
This is the kind of surprise I love. A great subject in a great environment. Even if the photos don’t come out the best, the company of good people always stands out.
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