Filed under: Friends, custom invitations, engagement, photoshoot, wedding
The cute 20-something daughter of a family I know & love is getting married this Friday! A few months ago, she asked me to take some pictures of them for their wedding invitation . . . and then asked me if I could put together their invitation for them, based on one she really liked that she’d received from a friend. The end-result is below (click to see larger)!
The bride, Annie, is a sweetheart and impressively relaxed about the wedding plans and such. She’s just excited to be married to Michael and for their honeymoon to Disneyland! : ) The two of them are a neat young couple … obviously very in love, but unlike some young adults they are also very aware of the hardships of others on the other side of the world. In an effort to help those in need, they chose to use some of the money from their wedding budget (how impressive is that??) and donate it to a wonderful cause: International Justice Mission.
In order to let their wedding guests know that a donation to IJM has been made in their honor, Annie asked me to create a “fun and funky” bookmark that they can give to their wedding guests. Below, is what I came up with, and thankfully she loved it! I went with a worn-French-wallpaper look. I was really pleased with how it came out – especially once it was printed on creamy card stock(click images to see larger!)!
Front of bookmark
Back of bookmark
I don’t have plans to create a line of cards or invitations, but if anyone is interested in a custom card or invitation I’m happy to chat with you to see if I can be of help (pricing determined per individual project).
BUT . . . if you’re in the market for a cute line of holiday photo cards (and she also makes cute baby photo announcements) you ought to pop over to my sister-in-law’s etsy shop and check out her 2008 holiday photo cards!
Congratulations, Michael & Annie! I had so much fun working on these projects for you and I am looking so forward to your wedding! : )
This is Ben (a.k.a. “Benners”). I’ve known Ben and his family for coming up on three years, and I am blessed to count them among my friends. Ben’s mom has been one of a few people in my life who have been instrumental in building my confidence in my photography abilities. Thank you, Jen!
Next week, Ben and his family are moving to San Diego and I will miss them! I took several photos of Ben when I was at his house on Friday, and here are a few of my favorites.
Ben is cuter-than-cute and has an even cuter personality, if that’s possible! He has a great sense of humor … he cracks himself up regularly as well as entertaining everyone around him. He has come a long, long way in the time I’ve known him, and I am going to miss watching him grow and progress, but I’m sure going to look forward to visiting him and his peeps and taking their pictures on the beach (which is less than 10 miles from their new home)!!
Yay for friends who are going to be living near the beach! : )
Enjoy!
This is Ben’s “cheese!” face he pulls when he sees a camera! : )
Reading the “Good Night, Gorilla” book I brought him as a going-away present … he seemed to really like it!
This is “D” … I have known him since he was 6 years old. He is now 16 and an Eagle Scout! His mom asked me to shoot a few pictures of him for display at his Court of Honor which is being held in 2 weeks. We did a quick shoot in front of their home, and I think we got some good ones!
Congratulations, D – achieving your Eagle Scout is no small task! It’s been fun to watch you grow up into such an impressive young man!
Every year, a day or two before Patriots’ Day, “The Healing Field” rises from the ground at the Tempe Beach Park. I have visited it for the last two years.
This year, I had my young niece and nephew with me, and was touched that they were both aware, at a level appropriate for their ages, of the 9.11 tragedy. As we strolled through the sea of flags, we looked at some of the photo tags that were attached to each one; they were especially anxious to find flags with stuffed animals attached to them, as those were in remembrance of children who lost their lives.
My 6 year old nephew is tall enough to reach the photo tags, and he looked at each one of them as he found a flag that stood in memory of a child. I’m not sure why I didn’t take any pictures of any of the children’s photo tags, but I did take a few shots of the tags of adults.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 7 years. As I’m sure everyone does, I remember where I was the morning of 9.11. I’d fractured my foot a few days prior and I was in bed … and in pain … with nothing to do but watch television. My sister-in-law called me in the morning to alert of me of the situation, so I turned on the TV and then due to my housebound and mostly-bedridden circumstances, I watched … and I watched … and I watched. I remember the sadness I felt for those who lost their lives so unfairly. I remember the anger I felt at those who caused this tragedy of unbelievable proportions. And, I remember the eerie silence of the skies over my condo, which is usually in the path of incoming airplanes at the Phoenix airport which is only 2 miles away.
I’m proud to be an American. I know I am extremely blessed to have been born into a family that lives in The United States of America. I am ever-grateful for those in uniform who fight and risk their lives every day to keep this country safe.
May we never, never again know the heartbreak of 9.11.
I live down the street from the Tempe Town Lake. I love my location and I love it even more during holiday celebrations! Tempe shoots off fireworks from the traffic bridge over the lake at least 3 times/year: New Year’s, the annual APS Fantasy Boat Parade right before Christmas, and, of course, on the 4th of July!
The traffic around the lake and my neighborhood is crazy during these events, but especially on the 4th! At no other time am I more grateful for my location than on nights like the 4th … I just walk myself down the street to the Tempe Center for the Arts and have a street-light-free view of the fireworks display.
This was the first fireworks photo op I’ve had since I received my DSLR, and I had fun shooting – especially loved the very fast continuous shooting of my D40! I don’t have a tripod yet, so all of my fireworks shots were handheld. I really like how fireworks look when they are photographed using a tripod, though, so I hope to have and use a tripod for the next batch of Tempe Town Lake fireworks toward the end of this year.
If you click on this photo it will take you to a few of my other fireworks photos on flickr. Enjoy!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I am finding that I love photographing little newborns … in all their softness and sweetness. What a treat it is for me to help a family document the early days of their newest child!
In an effort to expand the Newborn section of my portfolio, I am offering a Special Newborn Photo Session package for a total of $50* ( begins July 1, 2008 and ends August 31, 2008 ) which includes:
- up to 60 minutes of my time photographing your newborn babe(s) in your home
- post-processing of images
- a CD that contains at least 15 high-resolution images of the very best photos of the shoot in color and those same hi-res images in your choice of black & white OR sepia. The CD will be mailed to you no later than 2 weeks from the date of your session.
- a signed copyright release from me giving you permission to print all photos on the CD as many times as you’d like and through whoever you’d like
* There will be an additional $10 travel fee for those who live more than 15 miles from my home (I live down the street from Tempe Town Lake).
A few more tidbits about this package:
- In order to qualify for this special package & pricing, you will need to sign a model release form for me at so that I may have your permission to use one or more photos from your session as part of my portfolio on my future website.
- Session fee of $50 is nonrefundable and due as soon as possible after you book the date & time of your session with me over the phone or via email. Please note that the date & time of your session is not guaranteed until I have received your fee and it has cleared. I will provide my mailing address to you when we book your session.
- Forms of payment I accept: cash (in person only), personal checks, money orders, cashier’s checks, and Paypal.
- I do work full-time as a speech therapist, so most photography sessions will be scheduled for Saturdays. I can also schedule for the occasional Monday morning.
I can’t wait to help you capture the sweetness of your newborn! : )
If you are interested in scheduling a Special Newborn Session for your newborn or soon-to-be-newborn baby, please contact me at sarahephoto (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as possible! I look forward to hearing from you!
Filed under: inspiration
My sister-in-law, who sews and embroiders beautiful items for babies and home, posted on her blog a picture of her inspiration board, to which various fabrics, designs, etc. are attached. My inspiration board is more virtual than tangible …
Through the “share this” feature on Google Reader, I often add photographs, posts, and tutorials that inspire me. I sometimes add a note at the top of a shared item commenting on why I shared it … what about it caught my eye or touched my heart.
To see my virtual inspiration board, click here.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Although it wasn’t part of the original plan, I ended up creating the birth announcement Sarah’s parents are sending out to family & friends. Initially, they were going to have a collage of pictures, but decided on a single photo. I had lots of fun putting it all together! The announcement is 4×9, so the photo is 4×6 and could easily be cut off of the announcement and framed.
Here is the completed announcement (family names have been changed):
To see the large size, click here.
Filed under: babies and toddlers, girlie girls, natural light indoors, newborns, photoshoot
A week and 1/2 ago I had the privilege of taking photos of little Sarah Emily the new daughter of my dear friend, Lori. She’s gorgeous and I have to admit I am partial to her name : ) … and we share a middle initial!
She could not have been more of an angel for this session, and her big sister, Lucy, dutifully watched TV and let us get through our photo shoot. She joined us for a few pictures, which turned out really cute.
Here are a few of my favorites from Sarah’s session.
Today I had the opportunity to take “after” photographs of a bedroom and home classroom that underwent “extreme makeovers” thanks to a local non-profit organization, Room for Joy.
Room for Joy provides extreme makeovers of sorts for the bedrooms of children in the Greater Phoenix area who, due to illness and/or disability spend a lot of time at home. Their cool new bedrooms make it a little more fun to be at home all the time! This particular project I photographed today included a home classroom as well, as the child in the home who is ill is currently unable to attend school, so a teacher comes to her home. The bedroom had a Disney Princess theme, which was done beautifully, and the classroom had a fun Paris theme using pink, green & black – darling! Both rooms looked like they came straight out of a magazine or from a celebrity’s home!
This photoshoot was such a fun way for me to provide service … capturing the moment is what I love so much about photography and there were lots of beautiful, colorful and sweet moments to capture today! The experience was a very uplifting and inspiring one – the energy in the home was so positive and it was evident that all of the volunteers cared so much! Once the photos from this project are posted on the Room for Joy website I will post the link.
If you live in the Greater Phoenix area and are looking for volunteer and/or charitable giving opportunities, check out the Room for Joy website via the above link and contact them if you can help out!
