Big News!

Hello! I know it's been forever since I posted, but I promise I have had a good reason! I haven't been able to say anything until things were official, but I do have big news. My husband and I will be moving back to our hometown of Auburn, AL! We've been in the Conyers area for 7 years and will miss so many things about this area and so many friends. My husband will be teaching outside of Auburn and I'll continue doing my full-time job, working from home.

I do plan to continue photography on the side, but plan to totally revise everything! I have a new business name and fun, new branding in mind. It's been in the works over the summer, but has been on hold these past few weeks as we worked to sell our house and find a new one in Auburn. Life has been crazy and will continue to be until we're moved at the end of August!

I'm looking forward to getting started in Auburn with photography, but it will probably be late fall/early winter before that happens. We're looking forward to getting settled in our new home and into the swing of things with jobs and things there! I do promise to update this blog with the new address I hope to have in the fall. And I have several recent pictures I'd like to post if I can just get some time- ha!

Thanks to you all for the kind comments on here and I can't wait to update you on the new blog/site once I get set-up in Auburn! Will be in touch soon - until then, take care!

Hi everyone! I only have a minute, but just had to share some others from my session with the "A" family! Their precious daughter is just too cute not to share more of! What a gorgeous family and we had a lot of fun doing these. Anyway, here are a few more for you all to enjoy!

Thanks again y'all - I had so much fun on these!

Happy Friday! I only have a few minutes, but just had to share a recent session with this gorgeous family! They were the sweetest and Miss H was a doll - the absolute sweetest child! We had a great time and beat the heat and bugs in the fields near the Horse Park. We had the most amazing field to work with!

Anyway, here you go guys - I hope you love them! This is only the first few and I have so many more great ones to go through! I'll be sure to share others here later. And don't worry K, I got so many cute ones of you and Miss H! I couldn't even begin to pick some of the precious ones of Miss H picking flowers - it was the cutest thing. Enjoy!

One minor disclaimer - I just moved all of my editing software and things over to a new computer. I'm still working out the kinks on color and all that good stuff. Give me a shout out if these look funny to you :-) Hopefully I'll get it all sorted out soon here! Have a great weekend!

Hello Long, Lost Blog!

Hi there everyone! My apologies for not posting in forever! Things have been hectic - busy with my full-time job and lots of family stuff going on. The end of the school year is always a chaotic time for my husband and our family (he's a high school band director). Thankfully, graduation is this weekend and things will start to settle down around here.

In the meantime, I just wanted to post really quick and say hello! I have some big changes on the way and I can't wait to get those all together and share them. Part of that includes working on a new web site! I can't wait to begin sharing some of my new ideas with you!

I do promise to have some new pictures up soon. I'm looking forward to a family session coming up and also an engagement/bridal session for a friend (I have absolutely no desire to do weddings, but I'm definitely up for having some fun doing a couple session and bridal pictures!). More to come on those soon!

I hate to leave without posting a picture or two, so here's a quick couple of pictures of my Harrison (decked out in his fireman gear :-). I think it's also very fitting - given all this rain we've been having! Have a great week!

Hello!  Hope everyone had a great Easter last weekend.  Between Easter and our Disney vacation, I have not been in town much at all!  It's nice to be back and enjoying some pretty spring weather here.  In honor of spring time and how beautiful the Atlanta area is during spring, I wanted to post a few flower macro portraits I've been working on.  Hope these brighten your day (as this rain decides to move back in - enough of the April showers already!).  Enjoy!

I've had several recent inquiries about flower prints.  These are available for purchase in the size of your choice (please use the print prices listed here on my blog; portfolio building discount does not apply).  To see a sample of additional flower portraits, click here.  I hope to have a gallery of floral and nature art prints incorporated into my future web site.  Feel free to let me know if you're interested or have any questions!

s.w.e.e.t

Awwww - look who's back!  My niece (now at 4 months)!  Her shirt just sums her up perfectly :-) These were just a couple of impromptu pictures we did in the back yard this past weekend (when the weather was so beautiful - not like the rainy mess we've had these past few days!).  In the first one, you can see her mind was not on the camera - she was thinking about food!  I love seeing babies were their cute little fingers in their mouths though - it's so s.w.e.e.t :-)  I'll have to try and get more so you can see the incredible cuteness of this bunny hat I had made.  It's so precious! Happy Friday and enjoy!

Hangin' in Old Town Conyers

Happy Friday!  Just wanted to pop on and share a few of my Harrison :-)  It felt so great to pick the camera back up and hang out with him to do some pictures. These were done in the super cool Old Town Conyers area.  I just love all the colors and "shabby" looks there!  It's a great place for fun portraits, that's for sure.  Harrison brought one of his favorite bulldozers and of course we had to incorporate "him" into a few pictures!  I think I'll be putting a storyboard together with some of these and a few others I have of him playing "bulldozer man" (as he calls it!). Enjoy!

Snow!

Ok, so I know it doesn't look like a lot to those of you further north, but to us it was a lot!  We were in Auburn, AL this past weekend at my parents house and had the strangest weather.  We woke up to tornadoes on Saturday and then it was hot that afternoon.  It was so odd to wake up Sunday morning to snow! And lots of it!  In Auburn, it started around 6 that morning and went on through the afternoon.  I think there was at least 3 inches at my parents house before we had to leave (the snow is pretty to look at, but a mess to drive in!).  

We drove back through the snow and ice to Atlanta and it snowed here well through the night.  I know we got at least 4 inches at our house - it was so beautiful!  Anyway, here are just a few quick shots from Auburn when Harrison first went out into the snow.  His makeshift "snow boots" were some old garden boots my mom had that we slipped over his shoes - ha!  Enjoy!

Not quite sure what to think!

Deciding he likes  it after all...

My mom made the cutest little mini Auburn snowman (War Eagle!)

Getting Back in the Saddle...

Hello everyone! I've been away for quite some time now with the death of my Mother in Law and a few other things that have come up. I just wanted to pop on here quickly and let you all know we are doing ok and trying to get back to a normal routine.

Unfortunately, when we arrived back in town last week, we took our 9 year old dog, Mattie, to the vet for a bad cough. We found out last Monday she had lymphoma and would have 1 - 4 weeks to live without treatment. Shawn and I decided we couldn't put her through chemo and we (and our vet) had a feeling she would not even be a good candidate. If she were extremely lucky and the chemo was successful, the remission would most likely only last 7 months - 1 year. We decided we wanted her last days or weeks spent home with us instead of in a vet school.

We made the trip to our hometown of Auburn, AL last Friday and she was well enough to come with us. We wanted her to have one last trip here and some last days of running off her leash in "her" woods. She was able to do that during the weekend and she had a good day Sunday. Our whole family went down to the woods and she ran one last time. Her condition had gone downhill since that diagnosis. We had to put her to sleep yesterday - one week from receiving her diagnosis. It's been an extremely tough time for us all. I had my Mattie since I was in college and Shawn helped me pick her out as a teeny puppy at the Montgomery Humane Society in 1999. She was an amazing dog and full of energy! We miss her tremendously.

Anyway, due to all that's gone on with our family these past few weeks, I have not had much time for my camera. I promise to get back to posting very soon! My schedule may be very chaotic for the next few months while we continue to handle Shawn's mother's affairs, but please contact me if you'd like to arrange a session. I know photography will be a great source of healing for me!

In the meantime, I'd like to share one of my last pictures of Mattie. Harrison had just gotten out of the tub and was wearing his dog hooded bath towel. We saw Mattie sitting at the top of the stairs and I had him run sit with her. I knew my days of pictures with her were limited and I'm so thankful I got a few snapshots! They are so very wrong technically, but they're just perfect to me :-) Oh - and you can see Mattie's eyes may look funny. About 4 years ago, she lost her eyes due to a terrible case of glaucoma. She adapted so quickly and got around as well as any dog with sight did. Truly amazing! Enjoy this sweet snapshot of my two "babies" - she will be so missed.

Away for a Family Emergency

Hello everyone - I just wanted to make a quick update and let you all know what was going on. My husband's mother passed away very suddenly over the weekend. It's come as quite a shock to us all, but we're managing through it. I just wanted to make a quick note so no one would think I just disapeared all of the sudden.

We appreciate any prayers you would like to send our way. As we make it through this sad time, I'm reminded how valuable pictures of our loved ones really are. I'm so thankful for the ones we have, but so heartbroken for the ones we never took. We will treasure those we do have and pass them down to our children to help keep her memory alive.

Anyway, if you could please keep our family in your prayers, it would be most appreciated. My mother-in-law was one of my biggest photography supporters (maybe the biggest!) and she just loved cameras and photography, too. I promise to get back to posting soon and sharing pictures - as I know she would want me to. Thank you all,

Amy

Took a trip down the road to Newnan!

I was lucky enough to get to go to a local photographer group meet-up this past Sunday in Newnan. I've been to a few of these before, so I knew a few photographers, but it was amazing to meet more! Several of them were kind enough to bring their kids and friends to model for us all. I've brought Harrison to one of these things before, but after he "fell" into a mucky stream on purpose and got soaked, I decided I'd hold off on bringing him again for a little while!

I've only had a chance to edit a few, but I just had to share a few of the sweetest engaged couple that modeled for us! They were friends of one of the Newnan area photographers and were the sweetest couple. We all braved the cold for most of the day and had a great time! Katie, if you read this, thanks so much for getting this lovely couple to pose for us! Here are just a few of them from my day:

Thanks for the pose ideas, Aubrey and Ashley!  Don't you just LOVE this location?  It was awesome! We have some little pockets like this in Old Town Conyers, but this wall was the absolute coolest. Good times!  Will share more (including some beautiful kids!) soon.  Take care everyone!

Sleepy, squishy newborn preciousness!

Hello!  Thank goodness it's almost the weekend - doesn't this week feel like it's just drug on and on? Well, I just wanted to take a few minutes to share the newborn photos I got to do of my new niece!  I had to keep these under wraps since I did them in November and it's been killing me not to be able to share them online.  But, I didn't want to ruin the surprise for my Sister-in-law!  

Have I mentioned I LOVED doing a newborn?  This precious baby was my very first and I had so much fun.  For one, it was awesome to have a subject that didn't run away - ha!  And who can resist that sweet little face?  My Sister-in-law probably thought I was crazy when I told her I wanted to get the baby good and tired so she'd stay asleep for me (I made her leave the room while I took them so it would be a surprise later!). The timeframe when you get the super sleepy newborn shots is so short, and I wanted to capture that before she started to become more and more alert.  I figured I'll have plenty of chances to take pics of her with her eyes open, but how many chances do you have before they leave that sleep-filled newborn stage?  So, I accomplished my goal of sweet, sleeping baby shots :-)

Watch out ladies, these just might give you some "baby fever" :-)  Here you go!

So ladies out there who are expecting, give me a call!  I'd love to do another newborn session and am looking for new babies :-)

Trying to get back into the swing of things...

I hope everyone had a fabulous and wonderful holiday season!  I'm so sad that it's already over and once again, it felt like a blur.  We had a wonderful time with our family in Auburn, Alabama! We also made a side-trip to Birmingham to visit my sister-in-law and her beautiful family.  I had fun giving them a few photograph gifts (surprise, surprise!) of their new baby.  And I'm excited that I can finally share some of those pictures here instead of having to keep them hidden and under wraps!  I promise to post those soon.  And if anyone knows of someone expecting a baby, please send them my way!  I had the best time doing my niece's pictures and can't wait to get my hands on another baby!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say hello and let you all know I'm back to work (both here and my full-time job)!  So, if you're waiting on an email from me, I promise I'll get to it very soon! In the meantime, I thought I would share pictures of our family's Christmas card from this year (I also had to keep this one a "secret" until they were all mailed out!).  Here it is:

Front:

Back:

These were 5x7 cards (with a front and back) printed on linen paper - they came out great!  If you're interested in birth announcements, event invitations, note cards, etc, let me know!  I'd love to put something together for you!  In addition to designing a few of my own items, I have many beautiful templates created by wonderful designers.  This beautiful card is part of a collection I purchased which was designed by an amazing fellow photographer, Stephanie Morvant.  Let me know if you'd like any information on cards - I'd be glad to help!

Until next time, I hope everyone has a smooth (and relatively painless) transition back to work this week! Thanks to you all for making 2008 such a great year and for letting me capture your family and children - I truly appreciate it.