I have found an amazing makeup artist, Rachael Elise Walker of Elise Artistry. She is absolutely DA BOMB! I don’t care if we’re working with our high school seniors or with women who have attained a certain um…. er… level of wisdom and maturity. She can make a lady shine… and simply adjust the lights and capture her magic.
So… I tell all my girlfriends that they should take the time to have portraits created NOW while they are in their (insert decade here) and not wait until they are the age their mothers currently are. Hey what the heck! If they are fortunate enough to still have their mothers around, I think they should bring their mothers in for a very special session together …. but …. I digress.
Here’s what Rachael did for my friend and neighbor, Linda.
If you are already a client of mine, chances are that you’ve met Linda. She lives at my address but one street over. For some reason an uncanny number of overexhuberant GPS systems tell people to turn before my block and… there they are… at Linda’s door. If you haven’t met her that way, you still might recognize her from a session I did with her and her sisters nearly a year ago when she was celebrating a particularly important milestone birthday.
My goal is to show a woman at her very best. Nothing crazy or pretentious — unless she wants to be crazy and pretentious — then all bets are off. But, Linda’s got it going on… don’tcha think? AND she’s not afraid to let it shine.
How about you? Are you up for a little bit of studio magic to create a special heirloom treasure for your family? You’ll love it, and so will the people who love you the most …. and they are plenty.
Ashley, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, porcelain-skinned beauty, graduated last spring from Taylor High School. Her senior year was so incredibly full that the senior portrait session before graduation just didn’t happen. Next next thing we knew she was off to a summer studying in Paris — and NOW she’s living the dream as a Freshman at New York University. Just because we missed the traditional pre-graduation time frame, it ABSOLUTELY DID NOT mean that she and her family would have to go without some gorgeous portraits to commemorate this eventful year in her life.
Because of weather issues, we shot the entire session indoors at my studio. I tucked my own canine studio mascots, Addie and Lucy, safely into their kennels with pillows and chew sticks so that Bluebell, the adorable Shi Tzu, could feel right at home.
To top off our session, Ashley’s parents, Steve and Angela joined into the action for a few extra images.
Christmas cards? Check! Heirloom Wall Portrait? Check! Gifts for grandparents and a touch of home for the dorm? Check!
I had Sooooo much fun photographing Ashley and creating some gorgeous wall portraits and albums for her and for her family. Yeah… I really do love what I do!
Not too long ago I got to take part in a VERY clandestine top-secret operation. As my neighbor, Linda, approached a milestone birthday, her husband started planning the most amazing and elaborate surprise birthday party I have ever seen. He flew Linda’s two sisters and their husbands into Houston from across the country and planned an entire week of entertainment, dining out, shopping, baseball games, and BEST of ALL a photography session with me.
Now, I’ve known Linda for about 11 years, and we play Bunco together once a month. That made keeping the party a secret extra hard.
In fact, the secret-keeping became laughable. Since Linda’s husband is retired and spends a great deal of his time in her company, he could phone me, but I couldn’t call him back in case she saw my number or answered the phone. When he came over to drop off his retainer payment, he had to turn left off his own block first and then come back to my street because we’re in a cul-de-sac development and you can’t get out by turning right.
But . . . we were completely successful. Linda didn’t have a clue that anything was up until the car arrived with her two sisters and their husbands. The next morning the guys went golfing or shooting or something and sent the ladies out to shop for clothes that they thought would coordinate in their photographs. On the day of their appointment, the sisters all arrived accompanied by Linda’s soon-to-be new daughter in law whose job it was to keep the ladies from misbehaving. Yeah, Right!
This post may mean a little extra to some of my clients, because many of you (and I do mean many) have accidentally met Linda before. She lives one block west of me at the very same address, and our street names are similar.
Yeah… if you knocked on the wrong door when you were coming to meet with me, you’ll remember her. It’s a good thing she’s a VERY nice lady.
We made a party out of our session, using very simple studio settings. Some of our images were traditional, but we had more than our share of silliness too.
Sisters are a treasured gift, and so are husbands who go to the great lengths that Bruce did to craft a celebration that will not soon be forgotten.
For a fun music-video of the proofs from our session, just , click on this link: Sisters Celebration.
Well, here’s to an exciting first at SPCcreative Photography.
Hannah is my very first Senior Portrait client to also become one of “MY” brides, and I can hardly WAIT to watch the next chapters of her sweet life unfold.
I still remember her senior session. She brought her ultra-handsome and oh-so lovable new boyfriend, Jake, along for part of the shoot, and we included him in a few of our images. While I could tell they had something very special between them, logic tried hard to convince me that I was just being a sucker for young love.
Who would have thought that Jake really was going to be THE ONE? I guess they both knew a good thing from the get-go.
Hannah and Jake were married in the chapel at The Brookwood Community where, as it turns out, I worked as a development officer for the first three years that we lived in Houston. Brookwood is a beautiful campus with a fascinating mission. It’s located just outside of Brookshire, Texas.
RATZ my link didn’t seem to work, check out www.brookwoodcommunity.org for more info.
I love it when a bride has a special idea that she wants incorporate into her session, and Hannah wanted to create a special gift for her father. Ahhhh the sentiment!
You can’t tell here, but we all shared a few tears while she wrote this note on a slate.
Best wishes Hannah and Jake — for a LONG and HAPPY life together.
It’s DEFINITELY NOT your mother’s wedding portrait.
Oh my! I can’t believe it’s already been a whole year since we ROCKED the Vegas Strip at the 2010 WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) conference and trade show. Thinking back made me want to resurrect some of the photographs I took a year ago. I made some fantastic friends that day and just thought it was about time to share these never-before-seen images.
A photoshoot sponsored by the Chicago Trash the Dress group was probably one of my favorite activities of the whole week.We met at the pedestrian overpass near our hotel before splitting up with our gorgeous models for two whirlwind hours of traffic-stopping fun. Trash the Dress is not just for models. Every day more and more brides are scheduling after-the big-day sessions with their photographers to go out and PLAY in their super gorgeous dress. The end result — yummy, sexy, sultry, playful, joyful and daring art. Contrary to the name, we don’t actually “trash” or ruin the dresses, but they might get a little dirty or wet., but most wedding dresses today fare very well in the wash. This is nothing like your mother’s or grandmother’s wedding portraits.
Here are a few of my favorite Trash the Dress images from that afternoon — I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Want to put on YOUR dress again and go “trashing?” Give me a call and we’ll set you up.
