by Shelly | Jan 11, 2013 | senior portraits |
It’s no secret that graduating seniors are my absolute FAVORITE subjects for photography. These kids all bring their own personality and spirit to their sessions, and we have an amazingly fun time together.
Juliana, who will graduate from Katy Taylor High School this spring was so much fun to work with. Is she not ADORABLE with her flawless skin, big brown eyes and DAZZLING smile? Words fail me today, so we’ll just let the pictures do the talking. I think this is going to be a GREAT year for SENIORS!
2013 — BRING IT!
Even though we love love love to venture out to fun locations throughout the Greater Houston area and into some nearby smaller communities as well, Juliana chose to complete her entire session right at our studios. Here we’ve got a great assortment of background sets that are totally unique to SPCcreative Photography, and more are being made ready at this very moment. The class of 2013 will get to be the very FIRST kids to use these new versatile settings, and they’re not like anything you’ll find elsewhere. I am so super-duper excited to spend a few more days with with work-gloves and paint brushes because it’s going to be AMAZING!
Be sure to scroll through our blog and Web site for more senior portraits. If you like what you see and think that YOU might want what they got, don’t wait. Give me a call with any questions you may have, and let’s get to know each other. We run a small studio and our appointments are very limited. The best dates are already filling up. Don’t miss out.
by Shelly | Jan 6, 2013 | men |
This was probably one of my most unique sessions ever. How many people can say they’ve conducted a portrait session for a motorcycle with his own persona and Facebook Page.
Well, I have, and Tecumseh Smith the Indian Motorcycle ROCKED his session.
His owner, Herb Collier of Midland, Texas didn’t do a bad job either. After all, we needed a human element for more than just to get us around to our great West Texas locations.
There’s something exciting about scouting a shoot away from home. As always when planning a new location session, I started out with a very loose plan and then started driving. This abandoned Sonic drive in didn’t just call to me… it SCREAMED and jumped. I was so excited I could hardly catch my breath … and then I started praying that no corporate honchos would show up with bulldozers before we could get this nailed down.
We had so many great images that we almost had no choice except to design an album to hold them all… with a few of the more striking reserved for wall canvases, of course.
How about those sexy tailpipes. Gotta love FINS … to the left, FINS to the right!
I didn’t want to bid my abandoned burger joint adieu. After all, I had spent more than few hours there in my younger days, and I felt a real connection… but alas, I tore myself away with a wistful promise to return again. We were, after all, chasing the sunlight, and wanted to stop downtown before heading to the countryside.
This series still makes me smile. Herb looked down at the ground and found a pirates eyepatch, probably dropped after some kid’s birthday party. I double-dog-dared him to put it on . . . and he did. We LAUGHED so hard, especially after I showed him the back of the camera… but I loved the effect. 
Naturally, Nobody does sunsets better than God in West Texas. Oh how I miss those blazin’ skies! 
by Shelly | Jan 2, 2013 | family |
Talk about HISTORY! Kim Stowers and I go back a very long way.
Like, back to Brownies and Girl Scouts at Rusk Elementary, High School Band, Family Water-Ski and Camping Trips, and a High School Graduation Trek across Europe, one that we started planning in fifth grade. We called each other “Sis” and we called each other’s parents Mom and Dad… But all that was a very long time ago.
Fast forward through college, kids, marriages, achievements, heartaches, illnesses, the untimely deaths of half of our parents, and in general… LIFE. While we never actually lost contact with each other, we didn’t stay in touch as well as we should have either. The last time I saw Kim’s girls, Liz and Katt, they were about kindergarten/preschool age. Now they are are just about grown.
My, how time FLIES!
What an honor it was to get to photograph this amazing and fun-loving bunch not so long ago when I was back in Midland.
Still, the things they say about old friends are true. You honestly do get to pick up where you left off — and it is OH SO SWEET!
Yeah… Time Flies, but we won’t let so much of it get away from us from here on out, will we?
LOVE YA SIS!
by Shelly | Dec 30, 2012 | senior gals, senior portraits |
It’s nearly the end of 2012 and now that the holiday craziness is settling down, I’ve started cleaning up my desk and sorting out some files.
While I’m going to be the first to admit that I’m a delinquent blogger, you’ll probably wonder like I do how I could have POSSIBLY missed a chance to blog this beautiful senior from… YES… I’m SO EMBARRASSED to have missed it… the class of 2012.
By now, Rachel has already finished her first semester at my own Alma Mater, The University of Texas, and is probably getting ready to go back. In any case, here’s a look back at a super sweet and oh-so cute Seven Lakes graduate from nearly a year ago.
For What it’s Worth… My New Years Resolutions include taking the time to attend to details like BLOGGING MY SESSIONS so that you don’t miss any of my favorite images like these in the coming year.
by Shelly | Dec 27, 2012 | senior gals, senior portraits |
Okay… so yesterday I shared a post with images from a portrait session that we did with Ashley.
What you didn’t get to see was how we built a custom album for her.
Sometimes — oh, okay, nearly always, a session produces more images than you can feasibly hang on the wall, and it’s oh so hard to make a decision.
Fortunately, with our gorgeous professionally-produced hard-cover books, you don’t have to decide! Just pick your favorites and we’ll do the rest.
If there are meaningful quotes that are important to you — as Ashley did — we can include those too.
Pithy quotes, Bible verses, song lyrics, or even just a private joke that makes you smile. Every book is individually customized.
So… Here’s Ashley’s album! I hope she enjoys it for years to come… as for you?… Enjoy today!
by Shelly | Dec 26, 2012 | family, senior gals, senior portraits, women |
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!
by Shelly | Dec 12, 2012 | event |
Well, the delinquent blogger is going to try to get back on track! There’s lots of good stuff coming if I can just sit down long enough to make it happen. Anyone want to take bets?
Celebrations are always a TON of fun, and I was so excited to recently cover a special birthday party for my dear sweet friend, Janice Havins Hamric.
I’ve been out and about in Katy with Janice, a few times, and the truth is she knows EVERYBODY! Because of her involvement in KISD and her church, I don’t think this lady can walk into any place in town without running into several people who are always thrilled to see her.
I believe that if she had her choice, the party would have filled the entire Merrell Center, but instead, she settled for playing hostess to her family and a few close friends at one of her favorite hangouts, Hasta La Pasta.
Her dad, Bill, along with musician/humorist Doc Blakely entertained ROYALLY with down-home jovial music. I could have listened to them all day long.
Even Janice’s boss boldly braved the highly female throngs to come wish her a very happy next decade.
These are just a few of Janice’s life-long friends. I would have loved to be privilege to some of their youthful antics…
and while we were at it, I had to pop into a pic with a few of my own besties… just to prove that I was there.
Happy Happy Birthday Janice… Here’s to another SEVERAL fabulous decades. You are LOVED by many!
by Shelly | Aug 27, 2012 | senior gals, senior portraits |
Well… it’s the first day of school for most of the students in Texas, and we’re still playing a little bit of catch-up with seniors from the class of 2012. What’s a better way to celebrate Holly’s first day at Texas Tech than to share some of our favorite images from this session — not so long ago but still back when she was a Senior at Katy Taylor High School.
Rockin those red boots, Holly’s bound to be ready for anything that West Texas has to offer. 
Love these? Click on this link to see all of our proofs from this Holly’s Session in a music video: Holly Thompson – Class of 2012.
Best of luck in Lubbock, Holly. In the days ahead, may you learn new things, make new friends, and create memories to last a lifetime.
by Shelly | Aug 19, 2012 | family, SPCcreative, women |
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.
by Shelly | Aug 16, 2012 | senior gals, senior portraits |
Time to share another album that I designed for one of my Taylor High School seniors this spring.
This one is Alyssa’s. She graduated in June from Katy Taylor High School.
Have I told you how much I ADORE “MY” seniors
The first thing I always notice about Alyssa is her mischievous EAR TO EAR grin, which makes me wonder what she’s going to be up to next.
When we put this album together, the one quote that she really wanted to include was her Confirmation verse, Hebrews 13:5, a timelessly wise scripture for anyone stepping out into that big ol’ world of ours.
All of our albums are customized specifically for the individual client, and this one was no different. I guess that makes it DIFFERENT.
Alyssa has served as a trainer for the Taylor High School Athletic Department throughout her entire high school career.
As a sideline photographer for the booster club, I had several game-time images of her in action. When she asked if we could incorporate a few of those photographs into her album as well, I thought that was a BRILLIANT idea. These are my own images, so neither of us had to track down another photographer to secure copyright use licensing. That made it very easy for me to say YES to her request
— and isn’t YES the answer we all want to hear?
Alyssa is headed to Sam Houston State University this fall where she plans to major in education and become a math teacher for junior-high and high school students. 
Best of Luck to you, Alyssa. Keep on smiling sweet girl. You’re off to a great start, and you are destined to do great things and to touch countless lives. I just know it.
And here’s a video with all of Alyssa’s session proofs:
Alyssa — Class of 2012.
