Maternity Session

Last week I had the honor of photographing these two wonderful parents-to-be who are due later this month with their first precious baby -- a girl! I can't wait to meet their sweet little bundle!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

A few days ago, I was blessed with an incredible opportunity. I was notified that I was accepted to be an affiliate photographer for the "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" Foundation.

A little about the Foundation:

When we learn that we are expecting a baby - whether it be a first or sixth - we have a range of emotions - from happiness, to excitement, joy, and sometimes fear and uncertainty. For some families, the fears become a reality when they find out that their baby may have have a life-threatening condition through pre-natal tests. Most of these families will take the journey through the entire pregnancy not knowing what lies ahead for their precious child. Some parents may not find out about a life threatening condition until their baby is born and some will know immediately because their baby was born still. These families aren't thinking about the outfit they will bring their baby home in, or of the future events that will be recorded in scrapbooks. They are forced to think about the very worst because they are told that they must do so.

This is where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) Foundation can help with the healing process when a precious baby passes on. The thought of having photographs made of the baby may not be at the forefront of the family's mind when facing all of the decisions that they have to make, but soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

At the request of a family, myself or another local affiliate photographer will go to the hospital or hospice location and provide you with a private portrait session. This service is offered to any family suffering the loss of a child as early as 20 week gestation, as well as children as old as several months. The portraits are then retouched and provided to the family as a DVD slideshow as well as a CD that will allow them to print the portraits of their precious baby. All affiliated photographers graciously donate their time and talents to our families and are proud to offer this service at no cost.

I am honored and blessed to be one of their affiliated photographers. To be able to give these families professional photographs of the precious moments with their baby.

To learn more about the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation, contact an area coordinator, or make a much-needed donation, please visit www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org

Holiday Specials

We're pleased to offer two holiday sets for your holiday portrait needs! And, a special price to go with them!

The Holiday Special is $99.95 plus tax and includes your choice of either 4-4x5 prints or 24 custom designed slimline Holiday cards. Additional portrait prints, custom designed folded cards, and packages are available at special pricing.

Our first set is "A Visit from Santa". We have an all white set, complete with white Christmas tree decorated with white ornaments, white packages with white bows all against a white backdrop. As your child sits for his/her portrait, "Santa's Feet" will appear next to your child as your child looks up at "Santa". Santa won't be here, but Mom and Dad can help us out by putting on our Santa costume as one of Santa's helpers.

The second set is "Winter Wonderland" complete with a winter backdrop, a 4 1/2 foot tall soft snowman, "snow" on the ground and it's not complete without snowballs to have fun with!

These are short 20-minute sessions, so please come dressed and ready. To schedule your appointment, please call the studio at (904) 403-9553 or contact us through our website.

NEW! Email Subscription added to our BLOG

You may notice something new about the BLOG! In the upper right hand corner, you'll see a place where you can enter your email address and receive notification when our BLOG has been updated without having to check the BLOG all the time! You'll receive a snippet of the day's post so you can decide if you want to click through to our BLOG to read it in full or ignore it if it doesn't interest you! This is a great feature as we'll be adding information and specials to our BLOG. We will be offering some special deals that will only be found on our BLOG, so be sure to subscribe to the email alerts or check our BLOG often!

Baby Gabe and Big Sister Kate

Earlier this week, I had the wonderful pleasure to meet this precious 5 week old bundle of joy, Gabriel, and his beautiful and energetic 2 year old big sister, Kate, along with their mom and dad. Although this handsome little man was the main subject for the session, we did get a few of Kate, as well! My heart was taken again by these two sweet children! Can't you tell why?

Baby Carson

When you have kids, it seems like time just flies by so fast. Today, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet this handsome little man and his mommy and daddy. Carson is just four weeks old, and the joy of his parents life. He certainly stole my heart and he was wide awake for most of the session -- he didn't want to miss a thing! Just as we were finishing up, he closed his eyes, so we did get a few beautiful sleeping baby images. Quite the handsome little man, don't you think? Oh, how I miss my kids being this small!

The Arena Record

Today I received a call that an article about the Bull Wear catalog photo shoot and several of my images were published in the September/October 2007 issue of the Arena Record - a one stop publication for anything and everything rodeo related. The editor of the Arena Record had contacted the owner of Bull Wear who asked me to provide a few sneak peek photos for the catalog to be published. The catalog is due out late this fall! If you look carefully on the top of the page, there is another image of mine being used by the SSBR - the cowboy in the tan colored chaps.

Part II - Catalog Shoot for Bull Wear Clothing Company

Whoa! What an interesting weekend this has been, to say the least. The owner of Bull Wear Clothing Company had arranged to have the second half of the inaugural catalog photo shoot at a 3,000+ acre ranch in Arcadia, FL. The beautiful ranch- partly used as a commercial orange grove and the other half raising stock bulls (Peace River Rodeo Company) - was the perfect setting.

We arrived in the small town of Arcadia on Friday afternoon and met Chris Stewart, the owner of the Peace River Rodeo Company, who gave us a tour of the ranch. I was a little nervous at first as we were riding through fields with bulls staring with us. Who could have asked for a better location for a company named Bull Wear?

After a few hours, we had an idea of where we wanted to photograph some of the sets, then it was on to the hotel to do the rest of the planning.

Saturday morning, we headed down to the ranch to meet up with our "models". I put models in quotes because the owner of Bull Wear wanted a true relationship with those who would wear the clothing so instead of hiring models, our models would be a professional bull fighter, a professional bull rider, and the Florida High School Rodeo Queen.

We had several pick up trucks as part of our entourage, and we pretty much photographed set after set in the 90 degree heat...UNTIL....we got a cry for help over the radio - one of the trucks in the group decided to take a short cut and got caught up in a stream. Completely flooded it's engine. Since our driver was the owner of the land, he went and pulled out the vehicle, then on to the last few sets.

One of the last sets included getting up close and personal with some of the stock bulls! There was nothing between us and the bulls. Thankfully, it was feeding time so they were a little occupied. The models were appropriately wearing "Got Attitude?" shirts for this set! I thought it was very appropriate location!

We finished up around 4ish and headed out for a very late lunch and to clean up for the big event that evening! What was the big event you ask? Why, it was a hog hunt. Yes, I did say hog hunt. All of the cowboys from the Southern States Bull Riding association (SSBR), were getting together for a hog hunt where the hogs had to be alive at the end. It was definitely an experience. No, I didn't hunt the hogs, but I rode in the vehicle with the "moderator" who was checking in on all teams and their dogs. Now, I can officially add that to things I have done!

After getting back to the hotel at nearly 1am, we crashed and then started on our 5 hour journey home the next morning.

Whoever said commercial assignments couldn't be extra interesting?!