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Are You Lucky Enough To Still Have Your Dad Around?

(I originally posted this two years ago, but came across it this morning and thought I’d post it again, since Father’s day is coming up.)

What you see here is one of only two professional photographs I have of my dad.  This was taken in 1943, and the other portrait I have of him was taken about two years before he died in 1983.  He was suffering from cancer in that one, and looked pretty gaunt, but I still treasure it because it’s all I have.

My dad was my mentor, my adviser, my role model.  In my teen and college years, we worked together; times I treasure to this day.  He taught me much of allowed me to become the person I am today.  I miss him every day, and he’s been gone for 30 years now.

Yet sadly, I have only a few snapshots from early in my life that show the two of us together, and NOTHING that really illustrates the relationship that grew between us as I grew up.

I can’t change that now, no matter how much I wish I could.

What about you?  What do you have that celebrates your dad, and the importance he has in your life?

If you’re like me, and have nothing, maybe it’s time you scheduled something for your family.  Call us at 503-588-0902

Remember, professional family portraits aren’t expensive; they’re PRICELESS!.  And they only grow more valuable with time.

 

 

A Father’s Day Remembrance

My dad passed away in 1983, and he had the audacity to do it on my wife’s birthday.

He’s now been gone for almost almost 27 years, but I feel his presence with me every day.  I feel him in my heart, I see him in my eyes, I hear him in my voice, but most of all I see him in my children and my grandchildren.

Kennedy, my 15 month old grandaughter has moments when she looks exactly like his baby pictures. It can be a little startling.   There are also times when she makes the same expressions as my mother.  We refer to it as the “grandma Phyllis face”.  It’s a small source of joy to see them living on in these little glimmers three generations downline.

My dad was my advisor, and in some ways still is today.  In 1997, when I was making the difficult decision to jump out of the corporate world, and start the studio, I was sitting in our family room, pondering the decision, and found myself getting up and walking towards the telephone to call him.  At that time, he’d been gone  about 14 years.

They may not be with us physically, but I’m firmly convinced that we always feel the presence of those we love who’ve departed this earth.  They live on within us in many ways, and we each find our own way to make the memories of them a part of who we are.

Happy father’s day dad.  I love you, and I miss you, but know that because you were here, you made the world a better place.  You left your Footprints on my heart.

 

Outdoor Family Portraits in December? Why Not?

 

The weather people were right.  It was rather chilly that morning, but no one had said anything about FOG!

THICK FOG.  As I drove down into Wallace Marine Park, I could hardly see where I was going.

The cold I could deal with.  You can’t see cold in the pictures.  But the fog?  How to deal with that?

As I parked by the trestle, the fog was a little thinner, but it still obscured the trestle some 100 feet away.  But, as long as I could position my camera close enough to the subjects, they’d be clear.

As I waited for them to arrive, I set out to explore and see just what was left of our fall colors.  They’d specifically wanted to have a fall look, and the recent rain and wind storms had removed most of the leaves from the trees.  But, there were still lots on the ground, although they were a bit wet.  And we found the perfect setting.  Good starting light, great background, lots of color, and the fog wasn’t too bad.

Well, long story short, this is what we were able to produce.  The family had an idea of how they wanted to be arranged, so we worked with that.  Adding a touch of light from flash strategically positioned, we created something I’m sure they’ll love forever.

And the fog, which had originally worried me so much actually ADDED to the overall look, giving the results and almost an etherial “Into the Woods” look.

Funny thing was, as we walked the 500 feet back to the car, we looked back at the location in which we’d just photographed, the sun had in a matter of seconds burned away the fog, and we were left with bright sunshine which would have made this picture impossible.

Baby Steps – Newborn and Infant presentation

Welcome Groupon Clients!

If you’ve arrived at our website because of the Groupon offer – Welcome.  We’re glad to have you here, and we hope to provide you with more information if you’re considering purchasing the Groupon offer.

If you’ve arrived at our website because of the Groupon offer – Welcome. We’re glad to have you here, and we hope to provide you with more information if you’re considering purchasing the Groupon offer.

What you see above is the presentation we show each client when they first come into the studio.  It’s a bit long for the internet – 10 minutes – but because of all the interest in the program and the Groupon offer, we thought it appropriate to post here.

Our emphasis is on providing high quality, custom photography,  individualized to you, your family and your baby.  We start each process with a design consultation where we introduce you to the program and how it works, and then find out all about you and your family.  From this information, we design just what we’ll do at each session.

As you can readily see, this is not X-Mart or mall photography, so you’ll definitely pay more than you would if you got generic, unretouched, unfinished, ready in an hour type work.  Our goal is to create a family heirloom that will warm your home and your hearts long after this baby is grown and has babies of his or her own.

We offer an extensive catalog of products ranging from individual prints to custom designed story books to arrangements of gallery wraps.   We’ll go through all the details at your consultation.

To answer a very frequent question, we DO offer an option to purchase images on disk, but since we emphasize providing high quality finished custom work that you can take home and immediately put on display in your home, the CD option is based on a minimum print order from your session.  We are also looking at offering a CD only option, but the details have not yet been decided.

UPDATE - We’ve added two new CD options to our Baby Steps catalog. First, you can purchase a disk with the entire session (unretouched) for $1000. The entire amount of your print order applies to this purchase. So for example, order $600 in prints, and the disk with the entire session, INCLUDING the retouched images used to order your prints, would be $400.

The second option is to just purchase selected retouched and finished images on a disc.

Select 3 images for $450
Select 6 images for $750
Select 9 images for $900

To answer another common question, if your baby has already been born and it’s too late for the newborn session, we can schedule at different intervals such as 3-6-9 and 12 months.

There is an expiration date on the Groupon offer of May 1.  But all you have to do is contact the studio and schedule your consultation by them.  Even if your baby won’t be born until after that time, you can still take advantage of this offer.

If you have questions regarding the Groupon offer, or the program, we invite you to call the studio at 503-588-0902.  There’s also lots more information available by clicking on the Newborn and Infant tab at the top of this website.

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