A photographer friend and I were having a discussion about how much we love what we do and how great it is to have a customer/client/friend who is moved by your work.    I know that on more than one occasion, my work has moved people to tears of joy and disbelief and that is just an amazing feeling and really, the point of my work.  I want to produce portraits that invoke strong emotions of joy and really capture that moment in time so that whenever someone views the portraits on their wall or in an album, they are taken back to those memories and get to relive that time once again.

Then our conversation changed slightly and we were talking about some friends and family we knew who were having a rough time keeping their head above water financially, or had even lost their job and were having a tough time finding work.  As we talked, I started linking the two topics and thinking of these people who were having rough times and who probably can’t even afford a wal-mart portrait package, let alone custom portraiture from a professional photographer.  Their kids are still getting older, their wives are still pregnant, their sons/daughters are still being born but they lack the expendable income in their budgets for portraits to capture these important moments before they are gone.

This could have been a passing thought, but another photographer posted a timely post on his blog with a call to action, a kick in the pants, to help others and to do some work for people who were having a rough time.  To capture their memories in portraiture and to bring them some joy in these tough times.  I’m not letting this call to action pass me by, I’m standing up and taking action but I need your help.

I want to help by offering a completely free custom portrait session including a print package, totally free of charge to someone who is having a rough time.  The family will come to our Aberdeen, MD studio for a 2 hour portrait session.  After the session, we will review the images and they will pick their favorites and I will put together a custom portrait package specifically designed for their family including at least one framed wall portrait (16×20) at no cost.  If you know of someone who has lost their job or is just having a really tough time keeping up with the cost of taking care of a family, please let me know.

I’ll need the following information:

• Your Name and whether you want the family to know you recommended them
• The recipient Family’s name and who I should contact
• Contact information for the recipient family
• Why you are recommending them
• Some information about their family: number of kids, gender and approximate ages

Feel free to Email Us or Call, 410-734-2770, with your recommendations.

A few weeks ago, the lovely Alicia and her dear husband Mike came into the Aberdeen studio with her niece Lilly (whose session you can read about here). The intent of that visit was to have photos taken of Lilly, however, we were able to convince Alicia to have a few maternity photos taken while she was here. Here are some of the photos from that session:

Alicia decided that she enjoyed the mini, impromptu session so much and wanted more photos to choose from to document this time in the family’s life so she contacted us to schedule another session, for just maternity photos. Having Alicia and Mike in the studio again was so much fun. They are a wonderful couple and the delight that they share in this new adventure just beams across their faces.

Alicia is so excited to be a mom, but Mike is so thrilled to be a dad and it was so nice to see that play out in their interaction with one another. They are totally in love with one another and their baby girl, Adelyn, who is on her way. Alicia has said that she has enjoyed being pregnant so much, partly because Mike loves that she is pregnant.

Alicia is a beautiful Momma-To-Be, the camera just loved her and we tried a few new things with her during this session that turned out even better than we expected. The new red drape being one of them. She looks so elegant in these photos. I am so glad we could capture that for her.

Little Adelyn is going to be so lucky to have such loving and warm parents. We hope we will be able to meet her one day not too long from now!

Here is a slideshow of some of the portraits from Alicia’s session.

Well it has been a few weeks now, but with vacations and the insanity that they bring, we are still trying to get all caught up. This post brings you Susie and Sean. This young, lovely couple are expecting their first child in September, a baby boy. Obviously, Susie and Sean came into the Aberdeen studio for maternity photos before their little guy arrives.

Susie’s mom, MaryGin, came to the studio for their session with them. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but knew that she was very excited about the session and the photos it would produce. This woman is the epitome of beaming, proud, excited Grandma. This threesome brought a lot of fun an delight into the studio! Susie seemed so excited about the session and about her impending motherhood and it was written very clearly across her whole face and her wide, gorgeous smile couldn’t deny how happy she is.

She is so radiant, isn’t she?

I think Susie’s husband Sean was a little nervous and unsure of what to expect from this photo session, but he finally relaxed and opened up and showed us some of his true, wonderful personality. These two just radiate all of the love and excitement that two soon-to-be parents should and it made our job very easy.

These are the Thank You cards that I created for Susie and Sean to use after all of their baby showers to show their gratitude for all little baby goodies they are bound to receive.

So now, we all patiently wait, until we are able to meet Susie and Sean’s baby boy and hopefully we will have him in the studio sometime very soon!

Sean and Susie’s session was so much fun, here’s a short video from the session in our Aberdeen studio:

Lilly came into the Aberdeen studio with many members of her family for 18 month portraits. She was lucky enough to have her Mom, Grandma, Aunt and Uncle join her for her photo session. Lilly is a vibrant little girl; very energetic, and very cute. She brought a lot of energy into the studio in the middle of a very busy weekend of sessions.

We had a lot of fun with Lilly and trying different techniques with her. She wasn’t immediately willing to smile for us. so we had to work with her to find out what she enjoyed and what would make her giggle and smile easily. The bubbles were a hit with her, and she was very willing to play in the bubbles in her cute little bathing suit and sun hat, which Mom brought along with her.

Mom had a lot of ideas for photos that she wanted us to capture, and that was so helpful! It’s exactly what we want when parents bring their children in for a photo session. When we get this kind of input from parents, we end up with a nice mix of our ideas and their ideas. It makes for a nice collaboration. Mom wanted photos of Lilly in this outfit because she had just worn it in a Fourth of July parade and, well, she’s just so cute in it!

This next outfit was a total rock-star outfit! Lilly’s shirt read “No Autographs Please” and her jeans were “distressed” by Mom just for the photo session. They looked great! They had little holes torn in them and paint splotches on them; very rock and roll! And those pigtails are just to die for!

Of course, we had some ideas of our own for Lilly’s session and using our new petti-skirt was one of them. This is a prop we have been wanting for a while and we finally purchased one for the studio. Lilly was our first little cutie to try it out. I think it could be my favorite prop that we have in the studio! Little Lilly wore the colorful, fun skirt so well, and the flower clip adds just the right touch, also.

This is the art piece that was created for Lilly.

Lilly was a lot of fun to work with, and her family was also. We hope to see Lilly again in the future!

***Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see a video of Liam’s Portrait Session in our Aberden studio. ***

Well, this little man is growing so fast! Liam is a repeat client of ours; we are lucky enough to get to see this little guy every few months as he is a part of our Small Wonder program that covers the first year of your baby’s life. You can find more information about this program right here. As a part of this program, Liam has had a session as a newborn, at three months old, and now, at six months old. We can’t get over how much he has grown in three short months and how much of a personality he has developed.

Liam is a very happy baby and is also ready and willing to share his happiness with everyone!

We were so lucky to have Liam all smiles and giggles from the time he came in the door. His personality is so relaxed and easy-going. He was truly entertaining and complete eye candy throughout the entire session.

We had a few new things that we bought especially for Liam’s session, this hat being one of the cutest and one of our personal favorites. He wore it so well, too!

We also asked Liam’s Mom, Ashley, to bring along a hooded towel that we had a few ideas for. These turned out so much better than we could have even imagined. This series of photos so perfectly captures all of the sides of Liam’s personality at 6 months old!

Here again is a quick video of the portrait session in our Aberdeen studio. I hope you enjoy it.