by Shelly | Dec 21, 2018 | business, family, special project |
I simply MUST share my favorite new Christmas Tradition with you. If you do something twice during the holidays and you enjoy it, it becomes a tradition, right?
THIS is how the Wallace Family of Katy, Texas rolls!
Seriously, they’ve got to be the FUNNEST Christmas Family in Texas.
You see, It all started when Mom, Jenny, called in 2017 looking for a fun and unique family Christmas card. They had a general concept in mind, but needed a pro to help them pull it off. Oh my goodness! It was exactly the project that had been bubbling in my own brain for quite a while, and suddenly these people just called me to create it! How does that even happen? Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE my job?
As we began planning for our session, I reached out to one of my photography instructors and friends, Dan McLanahan. Dan is very well-known in professional circles for his amazing skills and talents, but my brain at this time was all-consumed by the reknown “Friday Night Food Fight” composite that he had created a year before. Click on this link to check it out! Dan gave me some pointers to help make our session go smoothly, and he also offered a gentle but extremely helpful critique during the post-production stages of Christmas Kitchen Chaos 2017.
The magic of a project like this comes in compiling several photographs until one composite image is complete. I don’t know what part of this scenario I enjoyed the most.
It could have been Scott’s flaming skillet. (Yes we used real fire).
Or Jenny’s flying flour which looked so realistic because the sons hid behind the island throwing flour and mashed potato flakes into the air until we captured our perfect messy cloud.
Maybe it was Braden’s athletic skills catching a football mid-air with his LEFT hand so that we could still see his face –HOW MANY TIMES?
Josh’s feigned boredom with the whole scenario absolutely cracked me up because it couldn’t have been further from reality. In fact, he offered keen thoughts, insight, and even served as a voice-activated lightstand throughout the session both last year and this year.
However, the story I LOVE to tell about this shoot is about the family dog, Brinkley. This dog is so well-trained that he absolutely refused to steal the lasagna off the counter. In order to make that scenario happen, we had to send dad to another part of the house while Jenny and the sons coerced and tempted him.
This was my first ever attempt at a relatively complex composite image, and it was so much fun. The Christmas card recipients started asking what this year’s card would look like, and the Wallaces quickly realized that they couldn’t ever go back to a traditional smiling family portrait card.
When they called me this year, we sat down together and brainstormed until we came up with a new concept.
Deck the Halls — Wallace Style
The family has actually experienced a couple of real-life falling Christmas tree incidents, so they knew that their friends and relatives would understand the significance.
Everyone maintained their basic persona from 2017. Jenny’s tripping over her own enthusiasm, and so surprised that she’s practically juggling the ornaments as they smash to the floor. Josh is once again absorbed in his technology and light untangling mess. Braden’s adding Santa to the top of the tree — Elf Style. And of course we’ve got Scott, once again about to burn down the house with his Griswold-inspired electrical connection.
We even included last year’s card on the television screen at the back of the room.
Best memory from this year’s photography session? The pure thrill on the guys’ faces when they got to actually throw glass ornaments up into the air, allowing them to smash on the ground. Josh said it was the one thing that you’re always told not to do.
“Don’t drop the ornaments, don’t let them break, be careful with them. Don’t make a mess.”
But on this one day we shattered ornaments on the floor and made a royal mess.
Merry Christmas from SPCcreative Photography via The Wallace Family.
I will let one little secret out of the bag.
We’ve already started planning for 2019.
What will it be? I’ll never tell.
by Shelly | Mar 17, 2017 | senior guys, senior portraits |
This is Garrett — Class of 2017 at Cinco Ranch High School.
When we initially set up his Senior Portrait session, I knew right away that photographing him with his shiny red pickup truck would become a major part of our plan.
He showed up and there wasn’t a speck of dust on that vehicle. If his mom hadn’t told me during our pre-session planning consultation that he and his friends love to take it out mudding, I never would have guessed it.
That mudding sounds like so much fun! I really wish I could have gone along to experience the adrenaline-rush they talked about, but we kept the vehicle clean during our time together. 
We saved the truck for the end of our session so that we’d stand the chances of a good sunset or at least low, directional sunlight — and when we saw that angry cloudy sky, we knew we were in for a killer perfect image — and we certainly got it.
Garrett’s also an accomplished athlete who has enjoyed playing LaCrosse with the Katy Cavaliers for the past seven seasons.
And he’s smart too. With National Honor Society membership credentials to his name, he’s looking to study Mechanical Engineering in Colorado after graduation.
For fun, he also enjoys snow skiing, water skiing, hiking, and riding his dirt bike on trails. He and his friends like to wrap up their fun adventure-filled days building bonfires and just hanging out.
Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, Garrett. I have thoroughly enjoyed photographing you and getting to know you and your mom this year. Send me a post-card when you get to Colorado, won’t you?
by Shelly | Feb 7, 2017 | senior guys, senior portraits |
Meet Nicholas. He’s a Senior at Taylor High School here in Katy, and an all-around great guy! He’s got so many unique activities and interests, and it was fun to capture the essence of this very special time in his life. C’mon, let’s get to know a little bit about him. You’re going to like him almost as much as I do.
I’ve been able to photograph Nicholas several times over the past couple of years, and am always impressed with him. Every time we meet I learn something new about him and his many interests. Of course, I’m a sucker for horses, so when he first introduced me to Smokey I knew I’d be smitten with just one rub on that soft velvet nose …. Oh, wait … this is supposed to be about Nicholas, not Smokey.
But oh… SMOKEY!
And then, there’s his gorgeous Australian Shepherd, Chief. That dog is going to truly miss Nicholas when he leaves for college. 
Only four percent of the Boy Scouts earn their Eagle Scout Award, but Nicholas was one of them. He fulfilled extensive requirements in leadership, service, and outdoor skills to achieve this high honor.
And to top it all off, Nicholas is also a very creative artist working with multiple media. His favorite works include a stiff-cast shirt adorned with soda-pop can tab chainmaille, a golden sculpted hand, and a truly intricate cutout book. 
One more thing– Nicholas is a fabulous big brother!
Naturally some of his younger siblings wanted to pop in for a moment or two to be photographed with him. None of them are getting any younger, so it won’t take long before they realize how very special these treasured prints will be.
Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, Nicholas. You have so much going for you. I can’t wait to see what you do in the years to come. 
by Shelly | Nov 29, 2016 | musician, senior gals, senior guys, senior portraits, sports |
“They are all so amazing! I just don’t know how I’m going to choose.”
It’s something high-school seniors and their parents say every time they come back to the studio for their senior portrait reveal and ordering sessions.
I love that! Really, I do! It means I’ve done my job. At least part of it.
The images are awesome! If they weren’t, it would be time for me to find some other way to earn my keep. Now the fun really begins. While some photographers simply send out an online gallery with forty-eight bazillion images for the clients to sort through on their own, that can be terribly overwhelming. I absolutely love love love the chance to sit down together with my seniors and their parents as they see their images for the first time. Watching their reactions has always been one of my favorite parts of photographing people.
Sometimes it gets downright emotional for parents who suddenly realize the impact of their child transforming from a teen to a young adult ready to leave home for the next big adventure. That’s okay. We have tissues!
The image selection appointment is an added level of personal service that helps set SPCcreative Photography apart from the rest.
In these appointments we talk about where the artwork will ultimately be displayed and we put favorite images side by side to facilitate the selection process. Wall art, albums, and tabletop/gift prints and CUSTOM GRADUATION ANNOUNCEMENTS all come into consideration, but one of my favorite products is the signature storyboard that we include in a number of our senior collections. These boards can be as big as the wall will allow or as small as 10 x 20 or 16 x 20.
They are a collection of images blended into one piece of art.
Sometimes we select several images from one specific set, while other times we pick from a variety of wardrobes and backgrounds like we did for Jonathan last year.
Our Shabby-Chic Window always makes for a fun composite of images…
As does the famous BOX!
Here are a few more of our favorite examples. The important thing is that we select images that work together and tell a story about a student’s high-school experience.
There’s something magical, whether we look at athletics…
MUSIC
DANCE
OR THE COLLEGE PLANS TO COME
Creating these custom composite images for my clients is one of my favorite parts of my job. I would love to create one for you too. They look great in living rooms, hallways, offices, and dorm rooms, and they make fantastic gifts for grandparents, aunts and uncles, and best friends.
Call today for details about our specialized portraiture services. The senior will feel like a celebrity, and Mom and Dad will have the special memories preserved artistically to tide them over between holidays and vacation breaks when the kids come home to visit.
by Shelly | Aug 16, 2016 | family, women |
THIS post is about my copper-head soul sister, Jessica, and her Total Woman Portrait session.
Hair and makeup: Brandie Seifert – Hollywood Hippie Cosmetics, LLC
There’s a special sisterhood that we redheaded women share. It can’t be described, but if you are one of us, you know it well. You might catch a glimpse of it in our eyes as we give each other a silent high-five at the grocery store. We connect because we understand. We know sunburns, and freckles, unruly curls. People always ask us if our hair color is natural. Our perfume of choice is SPF 30-plus. If two of us are in a room at the same time someone will inevitably ask if we are related. In a sense, we are because we truly know how hard it is to be so blinkin’ awesome. I LOVE my redheaded sistah’s and when I’m fortunate enough to have one walk through my doors, good stuff is bound to happen.
Just a phone-pic selfie: Here we are hanging out on my front porch with my highly prized Redhead Barbie! — She looks just like us, doesn’t she?
Because women are so fascinating and multi-dimensional, I developed these Total Woman sessions to capture many different facets of an individual. We are more than just a pretty face. We are powerful. We are fun. We are joyful. We are intelligent. We are mysterious. We are strong. We are sexy. We are compassionate. And through it all, we are BEAUTIFUL — but sometimes we forget that part. Total Woman sessions bring a woman from the BOARDROOM to the BOUDOIR and capture that special beauty forever. These sessions are good for a woman’s soul. The images we create also warm the hearts of our husbands and children, whether they are still young or have already grown up.
Jessica is one amazing woman. She’s a cross-fit trainer. She’s a wife and the mother of five fantastic sons. That’s just one more reason to adore her. Red Heads who can raise five sons could rule the world if we wanted to.
It was beyond fun working with her to create these heirloom images.
Can you imagine her sharing these with her grandchildren in the year 2046? Won’t they love this? What a TREASURE!
What would you give to have lovely photographs of your mother at the age that you are now?
And … as we often do after these sessions, we met up at the park with the loves of her life, her husband and boys —
because — well because we just HAD TO create a portrait of the family on the same day we put together Jessica’s heirloom collection!
We only had about 10 minutes before the skies opened up and rain started pouring, but that was enough.
These images have been translated to a canvas collection for their beautiful home.
These kids will grow up, but this precious moment in their lives has been frozen in time and they will cherish it — because they will always be able to see it.
