Angel Baby

Some babies smile all the time, some babies smile only for people they know, parents, grandparents, people close to them.

This can present a problem when you are a children's photographer.  Since Mom's see their children so happy and smiling, when they are paying to have portraits taken they want to see that same smiley face.  Unfortunately there is not recipe to get that smile.  This little girl and others I have in my Bella Baby Club right now stand strong in their determination NOT to smile at ME.  Sometimes I feel like their will not to smile is greater than my determination to get a smile and let me tell you some times its a circus in the studio.  The lengths I will go to are nothing short of hanging from the ceiling. 

Sometimes what we end up with is even more beautiful than a smile ever thought of being - this sweet angelic face is one of those times and take a look at those toes!!!  I just LOVE it!!!

Why Should You do a Beautiful You Session?

When was the last time you had your photo taken professionally?  I've been asking women that a lot lately and the answers have been anything except recently, "when I got married, my senior portrait, my maternity are some of the answers".  And then they make this face like "why would I want to do that?"

Well the reason you would want to do that is because as women we NEVER do anything for ourselves, we nurse and feed and love and take care of everyone else and look in the mirror and run away as fast as we can.  Wouldn't it be nice to get your hair and nails and make up done, put on something you are comfortable in and take some gorgeous photos where the focus is only you and walk away feeling better about yourself and have a keepsake of a time in your life?  We have so many images of everyone and where are we?  Behind the camera!

Take a moment to think about the legacy you are leaving behind of yourself, how will you be remembered?  Its not about the clothes, lingerie or gorgeous dress, whatever it is that makes you feel beautiful....its ABOUT YOU!

Its New Year, Renewal of Blogging AGAIN!

I think I said enough with my title there, yes I will try again, if at first you don't succeed then try try again, I always say.

This post is about my new friend Pinterest. If you don't have one, let me know I will send you an invite, for me it is the greatest thing since the internet itself. You know how you are always on the internet surfing around and you find a recipe or an outfit you like and you get side tracked and lose track of what you were looking at or just think you will one day have a miraculous event and remember where you saw that awesome turkey burger recipe, well now you will, cause you can "pin it". With Pinterest! You click the little "pin it" button you download to your bookmarks and magically it goes to a board where you have categorized the things that interest you. This is where I am saving recipes I want to make, clothes I want to some day buy, ideas for my photography, my photography itself to share with others and just today started a board for ideas of what to wear for your family portrait. Its my archive of the internet and all the the world wide web has to offer. I just LOVE it, made a whole meal this past weekend using recipes I found there AND found some awesome food blogs along the way. Believe me you will love it!

I am warning you it is highly addictive! Happy Pinning!!

Santa is Coming Once Again!

Last year Santa came to the studio on a Saturday. He flew in and like a little girl I was in awe. He was so magnificent with his large presence and quiet voice. The whole day was like magic for me and all the children who came to sit on his lap and talk with him. Once again our day with him approaches and I am so excited to see him. When he left my business last year I felt so honored and blessed that he took the time to come and see my clients children and us and now I am even more excited that he decided to return. This is the time to give your children the magic of Christmas by not sitting in some line at the mall but letting them talk with him and read a book with him, share in that special magic he brings. Call today to reserve a spot, I promise you won't be disappointed!

Doors and New Outdoor Sessions

We've taken it outdoors lately...well not really outdoors but to our new natural light studio. When we rented our space one big selling point for us was the warehouse space in the back, not only for the storage but also for the overhead door and possibility of using natural light. We started out there with a red door last year, this year we've added a bunch of different old doors and hard wood floors and now we are shooting seniors, children and new babies on it and loving the results. Contained natural light is the most beautiful light, better than being completely outdoors. Its amazing how eyes pop when you put them in this environments Having this new studio though HOT here in SC has completely renewed our creativity and we have been loving the results. Enjoy a couple of the images we made using it.

Baby Town!

Recently we had the privledge of attending and being a vendor at Baby Town which was sponsored by Parkside Pediatrics and Park Place Childrens Center. It was a wonderful time for all expectant and new Mom's to talk with vendors who can help them solve problems or give them solutions to things like nutrition, clothing, day care, health care, photography and more. Here are a few of the images from the event.

Last night we watched "Social Network" which is the story behind Facebook. Many things surprised me about the story and it caused me to think about life before Facebook and life after. I had no idea going in what actually transpired with the birth of Facebook, but I gained a real appreciation for people with an anatyical and their creativity. Being creative is different for everyone who is creative. I had no idea that someone so left brained could be creative but Mark Zuckerberg was just that, according to the movie he had some inspiration and didn't solely dream up the idea of Facebook but he did have the ability to see a blank space and create something using coding. He was depicted in the movie as someone without alot of social skills, which if true probably helped him find a way to be social from behind the computer. I did not know there were so many people involved and that one of them was Sean Parker founder of Napster. I remember when Napster came into being, I was one of the users of his site, being a photographer I hate to admit that, but I was new to the computer, home with babies, and just killing time. I tried to remember when I first knew about Facebook, I know I had a MySpace at the time which I didn't love using. I know that Facebook had an ease of use I really liked. Its taken time to learn all the uses and misuses of Facebook, as it is an ever changing anomaly, once you get used to using it, it get changed. In our business we spend alot of time learning how it can help our business and I am always amazed at the amount of people in my life, past and present I've reconnected with through Facebook. How could I ever know what my best friend in Boston's dog ate this morning for breakfast if not for Facebook....lol?

Here's a little trivia for you to think about and ask yourself it applies to you, the average person logs on Facebook 4 times a day and is on for an average of 55 minutes a day. Are you one of them?

Valentine's Day and Winter Be Gone!

Finally we are through January, thank you! How I wanted to see January come in December when we were in the middle of the stress and the parties and the present shopping, cooking, eating, drinking, excess, excess...January looked so lovely sitting on the horizon with its quiet nothingness. We all rest, hungover by December, breathe and then wait. Wait for life to start up again, for us all to recover and then February arises out of the smoke and arrives and we see red and love and roses and see that Spring will come again.

I have come to love Valentine's Day...not for the gifts of chocolate and flowers as much as for the promise of the newness that is coming after VDay. January is gone, February the short month is here and life is back to what we know it to be with its routines and schedules and sameness. I will be happy for that sameness for now.

Valentine's Day!

We are really excited to let you guys know about our Valentine's Day special for kids and pets! These portraits make great gifts for Dad's, grandparents and kids will love handing out Valentine's Day cards featuring their faces at school! These special edition sessions are limited and fill up very quickly. Reserve your space now for a time and date that works for you!

Sessions start at $39.95 and includes 2 5x7's and 8 mini Valentine cards! Call 248-6146 to book!

A new year committment again.........

I am pretty sure that I've committed to better blogging in past years but this time I mean it!!!

I will blog more. I promise. If anyone cares.

Its been a wonderful 1/2 year in the new studio and lots of "gonna do this, changed to that" we have had alot of adjusting to do. This was our first year here in the South with a high school contract for seniors that had a required number of portraits that needed to be done by the end of summer. Lots of fun was had here with the teenagers, we loved making the girls feel like models and the boys who came in expecting to hate every minute of the process ended up having fun too.

We also found some really cool outdoor locations along the way.

From there we went into a fundraiser for JL Mann's track team something we fell on completely by accident, which led us to get to know our neighbors here on Feaster, Carolina Zoom, at the helm is Mario de Carvalho and Jane Robelot. As it turns out Mario is famous as a camera man for network news and Jane was the anchor for many years on Channel 6 news. Both Emmy award winners with much insight. We heard many stories and learned alot about video from them. They created a video for the kids at JL Mann to help raise awareness for their need of a track. This program led us into a Fall of family portraits. Here we discovered the beauty of families in Rock Quarry Garden. We created a whole host of images that carried our families into the Christmas season and

then there was Santa..........

Santa, came to us again by fate he arrived at the studio on one Saturday in November to delight our children and he not only did that but touched our hearts too. He was everything Santa should be and more and we can't wait to have him back here again next year and hope we can create a much larger event for children. It was a wonderful start to our holiday season.

So now Winter is officially here and 2011 has begun, we will soon be working on Valentine's Day images, hope to master the art of the silhouette, bring in Easter and before long be celebrating our one year anniversary. Look for more posts this year, I promise....follow me here it might help motivate me! :) Happy New Year to all !

Happy 2011!

We've been making family portraits outside lately!

Family Portraits

We all want that family portrait of our smiling childrens faces, the one that shows how happy we are deep inside to have our children, but we don't always get it. Even as photographers, with children like mine who have been photographed extremely regularly (and I mean to the extreme) aren't guaranteed that. This image for me, is about something more, its about freezing time....not happy faces, but where they are right now in their lives. You don't have to think about it much to see what their faces might look like, its almost like you don't need it.

Upstate Women's Show - 3 Days of Excitement!

This past weekend was the Upstate Women's Show and it was an awesome experience for us! Three days of all things women, talking with other vendors, shopping and sharing our business with all the people out there who don't know we exist was both exhausting and exciting. It was great to hear the feedback from people who had never seen us before and were excited about the "different" style of our photography. Many things we brought with us generated attention and the two sweeties above did a great job talking with people and bringing people into the booth to visit.
Enjoy the images and make sure that next year you attend - it really is alot of fun!!!

Jewelry, Purses and Shoes!

I have always wanted to add jewelry to the products we carry at the studio. I think I may have finally found something I think fits the bill. I am a sterling silver lover and so the idea of putting my images on something I can wear really thrills me. This is not going to be a huge money maker this is more like a passion. The passion of merging my love of jewelry with my love of photography. Up next some new purses! Its time to put some of the beautiful images of your babies and children on bags we can carry, while our children will still allow it (well mine won't be I might torture them anyway) Jewelry, shoes and purses make me giddy with excitement! The shoes I will just indulge in on my own, pretty sure you can't get an image on a strappy sandal
yet. I won't drag the whole world through it.

Dog (and other pets) Days of Summer

Today we announced our Dog Days of Summer fundraiser with the Greenville Humane Society as our partner. Its really exciting that now we are in our new location we are able to bring dogs and cats and other pets in to make memories for their owners and help the Greenville Humane Society. We didn't really know this until we called them to ask if we could partner with them but they are a no kill shelter. Our conversation with Rhonda at the shelter helped us to understand their needs so that we can pass that on to our participants. Though they love and want food and treats for the dogs and cats their largest need is in newspapers, bleach and paper towels. All items they go through constantly. Anyone who wants to join us on August 21st just calls to set up an appointment. We will be conscious of pets that won't interact well with others in our scheduling. Our whole day will be taken up with these furry friends so we will open all our doors to accomodate them. Set up an appointment and pay your $20, then bring something we can give to the Greenville Humane Society, either food or treats or their urgent need items. Bring your pet in for alot of fun and help us create awesome memories and give back to a great cause.

Brashier Seniors

So as usual we haven't been present blogging for a long time, we do have an excuse this time though and that is that we have been very busy with our high school seniors. We are so thrilled to have Brashier Middle College and all the awesome kids we have met here in our new studio. We are having so much fun photographing musical instruments, sports, and clothes. Thanks guys for giving us this great opportunity. Let's see what else we can create.

The Move is OVER - well almost!

So, last week we made the move to our new studio, it was quite the undertaking and definately an eye opening experience in seeing just how much crap we have collected over the years, holy cow, the stuff we didn't know we had. So now we are in and working there every day, keeping regular business hours (9:30 to 4:30 daily, saturdays by appointment) but we arent quite there yet. Our internet is not hooked up yet and neither is the phone, our phone still rings at our old location and internet is due on Tuesday, but knowing what we know about that process it won't be complete, there will be a router that needs to be installed and wiring that we will need help with. Networking solutions are NOT our strong point. So expecting a difficult time ahead but we are closer now than ever before.

So now you are looking for photos.....well, you'll have to come visit for now. Next up is our opening party, which will be a facebook party. Come and share some wine and cheese and have a cool facebook photo made. Date to follow. Stay tuned and become a follower here to be on our list to see everything we are doing.

350 Feaster Road, Suite D, Greenville, SC 29615

New Studio!!!!!!!!!!! Finally!

Well here it is the unvailing of our "before" version of our new space.....we will keep updating as we make more progress!

Easter Sessions!

Third annual Easter Sessions begin March 15th! We have flowers and benches and a bird bath, birds, and houses and eggs and even our bunny Thumper! Now all we need are babies and children all dressed up for Easter to come and play in our set. Proceeds from this event are going to March of Dimes. Call today to book your appointment! 864-248-6146

Time goes by so quickly

How did it happen that I have two teenagers? Wasn't it yesterday that I was taking one to kindergarten and the other to preschool. When I see or talk to parents in that mode of life I can see it so clearly in my minds eye, its like yesterday. Apparently its not cause 10 years have past since Zac was in preschool. This past weekend he was confirmed in the Catholic Church. Thirteen and in seventh grade already.

Yesterday I spoke with an old friend, and he didn't even know I had left New York, now here it is 5 years already that I've been gone from there. Time.......where does it go?

Our search for a new home!


For about a year now we've been contemplating a move from our home studio to a retail location. One would think that might be an easy decision and considering all the empty spaces an easy find, but it hasn't been.
Every time we think we have deal we can live with, we see another sign that things are not as they should be for such a big move in the life of a business. Small businesses going under right and left. At first we wanted to be right where we are now, Five Forks, in a space that people could see without looking too hard, but the landlords though somewhat willing to budge on their rents still require large sums as the lease ages. More for them, less for us. Hard to sign on for that.
Yesterday though we finally starting to think outside the box and realized we only need to get out of the home studio we don't necessarily need to get on a main street or strip mall location. Today we will start looking for something a little more abstract, warehouse-ish maybe.
Today is another day with different possibilities.........maybe just maybe the right thing, is right around the corner!