Sep
12
2016There’s something about pregnancy that simultaneously makes an expecting new feel simultaneously gorgeous and ugly.
I think feeling of ugliness comes from so many unmerited comments from friends and strangers. “Gee! You’re huge! When are you due?!” can steal the joy of growing new life from any expecting mama.
When I do a maternity session, I want mama to feel pampered and gorgeous. I recommend that mama invest in hair and makeup from my friend Katie at Cotton Rogue at Taylors Mill.
I also provide mama with an extensive maternity wardrobe to choose from in the studio. These light and airy pieces are sized to fit a variety of shapes and sizes. Each item is pinned to fit mama perfectly.
We do sets on our bed, with backlight, and lit from the front. I love the effect that simply moving a light can have on each image.
This mama’s name is Chelsea. As this baby was number five, she was already tired of hearing the “Are you sure you aren’t having twins?” comments. She felt so unlovely that she told me that she was sure she would “look awkward” in front of the camera, but this was her last baby and she wanted to remember the miracle of carrying life.
I’m so glad Chelsea chose to have this time memorialized despite her hesitations. Mama loved the images and couldn’t believe how good she looks!
Chelsea, it was a joy to serve you!
Sep
09
2016Meet Parker.
Parker’s mama refers to her affectionately as a Threenager.
Parker is sassy and she knows everything. And if you’re not enlightened enough to know everything, she’s happy to teach you free of charge.
The funny thing about Parker is that she’s been in the studio before and wanted NOTHING to do with having her picture taken.
But on the day of this particular photo shoot, Parker was in charge.
No, literally, Parker was in charge. She told me when and where to take each image. She was the shoot director and the model.
Parker rocked it, don’t you think?
I love working with the unpredictability of three year olds!
Sep
06
2016Six years ago the owner of this sweet face, Lydia, jump started a dream buried so deep in my heart. A dream I thought was forever lost to me.
You see I had been a 16 year old with a camera and a dream…. but that dream had be deferred. The Lord provided a full ride to North Greenville University and they didn’t have a photography major. So I had tucked that dream deep within.
Even so, I had a camera in my lap when I met my husband at NGU the first week of school. Fast forward 7 years from that date and sweet Lydia was born.
Lydia was a rainbow baby. A baby born after the heartache of loosing another child to still birth. I wanted to celebrate with her sweet life and her mama and so I volunteered to do newborn photos for Lydia.
I had no experience in newborn photographer short of having a friend take my own daugther’s images a few months ago. So I borrowed some gear and loved on this family.
I posted a few images in Facebook and within an hour someone messaged me “How much do you charge?” Quiet Graces was born.
Lydia is now a big sister and she and Ivey came in for mini sessions a few months ago!
Lydia, Ivey, and Tamara: Thank you so much for being the instrument through which Quiet Graces came to be!
Aug
31
2016Sawyer’s mama contacted me panicked and begging me to take her “older newborn” for photos in Greenville, SC.
Sawyer had arrived a little unexpectedly. Her birth experience had been difficult and had included an extended hospital stay.
When she finally settled in at home and realized she had not booked a newborn photographer she called a few local photographers.
Almost without exception she was told that newborn photos were only done in the first 10 days of life and that she should wait until 6 months to book a session.
Sawyer was just shy of three weeks old.
I was so sad for his mama. Here all she wanted was beautiful images of her sweet little one (asleep or awake) while he was still little and she was being told it wasn’t possible.
Obviously we were able to capture beautiful images of Sawyer even the sleepy and posed images that other photographers said were not possible at his old age.
Photographers: let me take a second to point at you and implore: please take on older newborns. Please take beautiful images of these sweet older newborns. Give up your ideal of sleeping infants in perfectly posed set up and accept the reality of perfectly imperfect art that gives a mama a memory for life. A memory she treasures and wants to pay you for.
And, mamas, if you’re not finding that all the photographers are saying your baby is too old for newborn pictures: contact me. And I will either see if I can fit you in my calendar or refer you to someone willing to create art for you.
Aug
23
2016
There’s a Robert Burn’s poem that I sang in my high school chorus days.
O my Love’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Love’s like the melody,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
As soon as I saw Rose, I couldn’t help but remember this song. The fourth child, only girl, of a family who had experienced so much miscarriage, Rose is a gift.
Fair haired and loved deeply until all the seas go dry.
Also, I LOVE this romper from Lydia’s Hope Chest. It’s one of my favorite pieces of the studio wardrobe for baby!
