It’s time to announce the winner of the Fall Harford and Cecil County Wee Cycle Child Portrait Contest.  It was a very difficult process to narrow the 1,241 entries down to 33 and then again down to 14.  Once I had the images narrowed down to 14, I solicited input from friends and family and I asked them to select and rank their top 5 images.  I counted up the votes and when all was said and done, we had a tie for first place.

To be honest, I wasn’t really prepared for a tie.  I didn’t have a plan as to how to break the tie.  Initially, I thought I would just look at the two winners and make an executive decision as to who the champion would be but when I looked at them, I couldn’t decide.  They were both cuties and they were both such a blast to work with.  Then I thought I would open it up to more voting but it could be a while before I ran into some people who hadn’t seen the images yet.  When I looked at the photos, I noticed that one was taken on Friday and one on Saturday and a light bulb went off, I would just have a first place winner for each day.  I emailed Blaney, organizer of the Wee Cycle event, and asked if this would be acceptable and she said it was a great idea.  So here are your winners, both will receive a $150 session with us, that’s a 2 hour session and $50 in prints.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by our booth and talked to us.  It was a lot of fun meeting you and talking with you.  I hope you enjoy your child’s portraits.

Friday’s Winner

Saturday’s Winner

The 2009 Harford and Cecil County Wee Cycle was a great event. It took place at the Perryville Outlets and I hosted a child portrait contest.   I took portraits of almost 100 children in two days and shot over 1200 frames! Thank goodness for digital. It was so great meeting so many people from Harford and Cecil county and working with their children. There were a lot of smiles, some funny faces, some sleeping babies, and a lot of cuties. A lot of the sessions felt too short because the child was making great expressions and I would have loved to spend a full two hour session with them.

The portraits from the event are available for purchase at the links below.  There is no obligation to buy but to do so you may order them directly from the website and please use the coupon code “wee10″ to receive 10%  off a la carte prints.  The photos have had basic touch ups performed on them and all orders will receive a more thorough touch up prior to being sent to the photo lab and then will be mailed directly to you.

Friday’s Sessions:
http://www.shawngrimesphotography.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=1042

Saturday’s Sessions:
http://www.shawngrimesphotography.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=1043

I have narrowed the entries down to two babies (highlighted below).  After all the voting took place, they were tied for first.  We are still deciding amongst ourselves how to handle the tie but we will post a separate post announcing the winner (and the winner will of course receive an email from us).  The winner will receive a free two hour session and $50 in prints (a $150 value).

I made two videos, one for each day that I was taking portraits at the event, containing some of the highlighted portraits from the day. These are similar to the DVD slide shows we will be offering with our packages in the future.

Friday’s Video
Saturday’s Video

I also wanted to highlight a few of the portraits from the event:
I loved the tongue sticking out on this little guy.  He was such a funny little guy.

This little girl had one of the best personalities of the day.  She was sooo much fun both on and off the set.  Plus she was a great help getting her brothers to smile and interact with us.  After her portrait session, she was playing peek-a-boo with us outside while we were in the studio area.  She had us laughing so much.

This little guy was so cute sleeping in the leaves.  He was just so pleasant and peaceful sleeping.

How cute is this guy?!?!  His hat was great but then his expressions were fantastic.  He is also one of our portraits currently tied for first place.

This little guy’s Mom bought this outfit at the Wee-Cycle event just for his portraits.  I thought it was a great idea!  He just giggled and laughed at Mom and it was easy to see the close connection they have.

This guy had some of the funniest looks of the day.

She was such a sweet and happy little girl.  She is our other entry currently tied for first place.

I loved this guy’s outfit and his matching hat.  It went really well with the scene we had.  Oh, can’t forget his great smile too!

How much fun is she having!?!?

I am proud to announce a new monthly newsletter from Shawn Grimes Photography. This newsletter will include useful tips to help you create better snapshots of your family, fun things and projects to do with your photos, and tips to manage your digital files.  I will share my experiences as a professional photographer and offer ways to help you with your home snapshots.

In addition, each month I will share a special discount or coupon for services from Shawn Grimes Photography.

Feel free to forward this message on to your friends and family who might benefit from photo composing tips, fun projects with your photos, and tips to manage your digital life.

Rest assured that I will not sell or give away your email address.  This is list will only be used by me and will be a low volume email.

The Howes family came to our Aberdeen, MD studio from Columbia for portraits of the latest addition to the family, 6 month old Matilda.  Matilda was such a photogenic baby, even when she was unhappy she would smile right before she started to fuss (she didn’t like being on her belly much).

Matilda was all girlied up for this portrait, one of my all time favorites.  She loved the fluffy tutu and pretty necklace around her neck.  This portrait shows her lovely chocolate eyes.

Another girly portrait, Matilda takes a moment to smell the flower.

Matilda is a very happy baby and I think at least part of the reason is because she has such an awesome big brother.  Simon is almost 3 and he is so smart and so helpful with Matilda. He loves his baby sister.

Simon is a really smart kid and very well behaved.  Mom and Dad are doing a great job raising him and I can’t wait to see how Matilda turns out.

One of my favorite things about Simon is all the random facts he knows.  At the portrait session, he told me that the heart pumps blood through our veins.  How cute is that!

I can’t wait to see more of these two in the future.  They are an awesome family and so much fun to have in studio.

Unfortunately, the video camera was pointed to the side during their session so I didn’t get any video from the session.  I did put together a slideshow of their portraits though so you can see everything we got from the session.  In the future, you will be able to purchase DVD versions of these slideshows as part of your print package.

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.

Aaron, Xavier, Ezra, Serapine and Niobe, aka Carla and Glenn’s Crew, cam over to our Aberdeen home studio for some quick family portraits during our model search weekend.  The five kids were an absolute breeze to work with because they are all well mannered and they look after each other.  It’s great to see them taking care of one another but still enjoying themselves.

We did a few individual shots of everyone before we crammed them all together on a bench to get a group portrait.  I loved how a similar pose on all three boys presents three different personalities in the portraits. Take a look at this shot of just the boys. You can clearly see the different personalities in the boys.

Aaron, the oldest, was very interested in all the studio equipment and had lots of questions for me about how it all worked.  I love when kids take an interests in their surroundings so I was more than happy to answer all of his questions.  I hope they come back more and maybe I will even have him take a few photos of his siblings.  Aaron is very mature and is very intelligent.  When talking with him, you tend to forget that he’s still a young man.

Xavier had some great emotion in his photos.  First, he has a mohawk, which is so much fun! And it totally matches his personality.  He’s very much a straight shooter and he says what he’s thinking, which I love.  I love the complete honesty that comes from his lips and wish I could just spend the day with him and see the world as he sees it.

Ezra was full of giggles the entire day.  He had to wear his baseball shirt because he wanted me to know his team is named the Orioles just like our local pro team.  Ezra loved the funny sayings I had them say and would crack up giggling before he get the whole phrase out.  I loved his giggle, it just lit up the room.

The two youngest, Seraphine and Niobe, are both girls and I wanted to get some pictures of them together.  With so many big brothers, I think they share a special bond of being little girls.  Seraphine was quiet but listened to all the instructions we gave her.  She was a great listener and I loved the innocence she brought to the scenes.  Niobe was interested in just about everything except getting her picture taken   She loved the toys we had, she just didn’t love them on the paper backgrounds, she wanted to play with them on her terms   Luckily, her big sister was there to help us.

After the individual portraits, we got everyone together for some group portraits. First, I grabbed a picnic bench from outside and we crammed all five kids onto it for a “feet portrait”. Our feet portraits have become very popular and I think this is one of my favorites. I like the way all of the feet are staggered just like the kid’s ages.

For the final group shot, I had an idea pop into my head and I was frantically searching for some duct tape but to no avail. Luckily, Carla made a call to her husband who was able to find and deliver a roll to us. It is very convenient having them so close. I imagined a scene where Aaron was being over taken by his younger brothers and sisters, a la Gulliver’s travels. Everyone was on board, even though Aaron was a little apprehensive, I think he was afraid I was giving his siblings an idea to try at home, I know Mom was paying close attention

I had such a great time with this family. They are all great characters who have a really strong bond between them and I loved trying to get that to come across in their portraits. I recorded a video of their session and I’m happy to share it with you below…

Antwon and Tony came in to our home studio in Aberdeen as part of our model search program. From the moment they walked in, they were fun, polite, and charismatic. Since school had just ended, we talked about their summer plans. They were both excited to have a fun summer ahead of them.

Both boys are very good looking and just have a great look about them. They took direction so well and I was able to get a variety of test shots in a short period of time; I was very impressed.

Antwon was done getting his picture taken until I pulled out the crate. Then he jumped right up and wanted a picture done with the crate, he said it looked cool. Antwon had a great confidence about him and I love how he swaggered on and off set knowing how good he looked the whole time.

I am really looking forward to working with both of them again soon so I am sure you will see them around the website quite a bit.

Kyan and Kady came back for some birthday portraits. This time though, they came to the studio in Aberdeen, MD and we had a few surprises in store for them. I first went to their home for Christmas portraits last year and I was very excited to get an email saying that they wanted to come in for another session.

Kyan just turned 4 and Kady just turned 1. Their birthdays are actually only a few days apart and they have this great chemistry together. Kyan is very patient with her and he can make her laugh on command, it’s great! For the portrait above, we were trying to get Kyan and Kady to sit together but she was having nothing to do with it. Instead, she was running around Kyan and tapping him on the head, I think she was playing a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. It was really important to me to capture their interaction with each other. Kyan is a great big brother and Kady really adores him.

Kyan has great expressions. He has a great smile and is a great giggler. One of my favorite things to do with him is have him make serious faces and silly faces, he’s just so great at it.

I had a concept for this scene for a while now and finally had all the props to pull it off. Kady was a great model for it and she LOVED the bubbles. Her big brother was off to the side being a big help and manning the bubble machine.

Apparently, the bath was very comfortable

Mom said that she wanted to do a scene where Kady was getting to eat a birthday cake and was a complete mess. I think she nailed it (with a little help from Mom, watch the video below to see what I’m talking about). We had such a great time with this scene that we are currently working on a special cake smashing/eating session as a stand alone session or as an add-on to our Small Wonder program. More details to come.

It was great getting to work with Kyan and Kady again. Kady has grown so much since I saw her last in December. Back in December, she could barely situp on her own and now she’s walking all over. I love to see the progression of so many children coming through my studio. It’s important to capture those moments.

As I’ve done with many of my sessions, I made sure to record this one and I’m glad I did. While you watch the video, watch how many times Kady walks off the scene and Mom and Dad have to bring her back. Almost every time she walked off, she would give me “five” and slap my hand. It became a little game. Another fun thing to watch is the cake scene, you don’t generally see parents encouraging their kids to get messy

I’m currently looking for children ages 0 to 7 years old.

Shawn Grimes Photography is in the process of testing new backgrounds, props, ideas, and techniques. We are looking for fresh faces to aide in this process and…We want you!

We will be conducting 15-30 minute TEST sessions on:
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Please call or email for more information or to setup an appointment for your child’s test session
410-734-2770
shawn@shawngrimesphotography.com

Models may be called back for a free photo session. Images from the free session may be used for studio samples and marketing materials. All free sessions include a $20 print credit toward any photos ordered from the session. Additional compensation may be paid to models based on image usage.