In December of 2008 we haphazardly coordinated clothing colors with our cousins and grandparents in hopes of all getting a group photo taken with the entire family on Christmas Day. We are rarely all together and knew it would be the perfect opportunity. Christmas day arrived. The kids worked themselves up into a exhausted frenzy of gift opening, toy assembly and all the joys of a busy Christmas Day. Holidays are always joyous but so very tiring. My cousins put their littlest ones down for a late afternoon nap. It wasn’t long after this that I realized that the short winter day had caught up with us and the sunlight outside was fading quickly. We woke the kids up to walk out into the front yard and snap a quick photo of all of us together. It was nothing glamorous. There was no fancy lighting and no stunning backdrop.  As we stood in a row in my grandparents front yard I never knew what an impact that moment would have on me.  This would be the last photo that would be taken with the whole family.  Just a few months later, in August of 2009, we unexpected lost our grandmother. When someone asks you in life what things you treasure most what would you say? For me, one of my most treasured possessions is that photo…that moment.

Regardless of what we look like (pudgy belly or not), my immediate family has made an effort to take a portrait every year since.  My dad can roll his eyes and complain about having to participate, lol, but we get it done!  Life is not something that you can predict, map out or plan. You’re kidding yourself if you think you can control things. It happens as it will and phone call that I got from a client this morning reminded me of this.  Take the time to make memories of the ones you love.

If you know of a family that is facing a terminal illness, please call us. We’ll provide a family photo session and some beautiful images of them free of charge.

What IS IT? Simply put… it’s a virtual pin board. Basically, you “pin” photos from all over the internet onto categorized boards.

Pin Boards: You create your own pin boards and name them anything you want. You can see some of my boards in the photo below.  My favorite boards are: “Chuckle Giggle Snort” (for all the things I find to be hilarious), “Baking Obsession” (a place where I store all the cool recipes I’ve seen), and “Tree Love” (photos of the most beautiful trees!).

Pinning: Not only can you pin things from other websites you visit but you can also re-pin things that other pinterest members are pinning.  There is a newsfeed page of everything that is being pinned right now! The photo below shows all the pins that are in the general news feed right now.

The cool part:  When you go to one of your boards and revisit a “pin” you can see the website where that pin originated from!!!  OMG… revolutionary right?!  It’s like a visual set of bookmarks.  So, for example, if I have a pin of a recipe I can click back on the pin I can go to the website to check it out again. GENIOUS!!

Pinterest is like Twitter.  You can follow anyone and anyone can follow you!

If you want to follow us then leave me your email address in a comment and I will send you an invitation to join!  If you try to sign up on your own there is a waiting list.

Why are theses sessions “Limited Edition”? We enjoy designing and creating exceptional portrait experiences for children, so each year new sets and costumes are hand created. These sets will only be available for a limited time during the year.  Plus… we’re kinda obsessed with making things! This helps to feed our ever so hungry addiction to all things crafty!

Along with our Limited Edition sets we also have monthly specials and events planned.  In July we’ll have a wonderful Girls Night Out event! In September you can stop by on the 7th, donate $15 to charity and get a retouched headshot for your Facebook page!!  October and November bring Halloween portraits and days when you can come out for our decedent hot cocoa bar AND get Christmas card photos made!

All of our Couture Kids Limited Editions can be booked by clicking here
or
by visiting our website www.silver-image-photo.com
eventering our Main Site and clicking “Book Online” in the top right corner.

This month….

 http://www.good.is/post/american-medical-association-officially-condemns-photoshopping

I saw this link and photo posted on someone’s Facebook page today and well… I think it might be time for me to get on my soap box for a moment.

Apparently the American Medical Association has “officially” condemned photoshopping saying that, “photoshopping pictures has also left millions of Americans, particularly women, with unhealthy body image issues.”  Look…if you are silly enough to judge your beauty and self worth on a model or celebrity then you have bigger problems than worrying about what they did or did not photoshop on Kim Kardashian.  I will never be perfect and have no delusions that I should or could be. An enhanced photo of someone famous will not determine my confidence.

Everyone wants to look lovely. We have never had a client NOT want their photos retouched.  In my opinion it’s simply the best version of how beautiful you already are.

The moral of the story:  There might be 50 truly unobtainable and exceptionally beautiful people in the world. Unfortunately they will always be photographed and in the public eye. Maybe they’ll be photoshop enhanced. In fact, I almost guarantee they will be. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look at them or admire their beauty, it just means that no one else’s image should determine our self-respect. Each and every one of us is beautiful in our own way.

We photographed Erin’s sister’s wedding just two years ago and were delighted when the family asked us back to photograph a second wedding with them.  Erin & Eric’s wedding was held at the beautiful Tribute Golf Club in the Colony (Frisco, TX). Even though the prediction of rain threatened all day, not a single drop showed up to ruin the lovely event.  Instead, we were met with brisk, warm winds and a breathtaking sunset. 

Thanks to the Smith family for having us out again. We loved being able to celebrate another daughter’s wedding!

For Cristie’s 30th birthday this past weekend we threw quite possibly the best party EVER (seriously… ever)!  It was a real life game of Clue with a Masqureade Ball theme!  Talk about amazing!  We covered the ceiling with over 300 helium balloons which was no small feat.  We then turned the living room into a fancy banquet room and set the mood with flowers and drippy candles.  The evening was murder mystery meets the masquerade ball scene from the movie Labyrith (one of our favorite movies by the way and if you haven’t seen it you SHOULD.  Go… rent it now!  Four words:  David Bowie in TIGHTS).

We were all assigned characters and received clues about the other characters and the murder through out the night.  The first clues arrived during the cocktail hour followed by more clues at dinner and a MURDER! By dessert everyone was accusing each other of being the prime suspect until Bameril finally confessed to the crime!  I heart that we have friends cool enough to show up in costume complete with character accents and all!  Thanks everyone for making it a wonderful birthday for Cristie!

Fast forward a few hours… we got a special late night visit from a friend who has recently come back from a Navy deployment to Iraq.  Thanks Mike for serving our county so that we can have all the incredible freedoms that are most definatly taken for granted.  I don’t think thank you is ever said enough.  So, even when a friend shows up at midnight and doesn’t leave until 4am… how can you say no to catching up with a best friend?!  Well, the answer is… you don’t.  You just get to get very little sleep and intake copius amounts of coffee to get through the rest of the morning.  It was worth it and we got new creamer anyways so the coffee was kind of amazing.

That brings us to this morning. We pryed ourselves out of bed and prepped for one of our favorite things…a new born baby session.  We should really total up one day how many babies we’ve welcomed into the world. About 10 minutes before the session we get a phone call from Justin (dad of sweet new baby).  It seems that the construction crew working along the main road next to our studio decided to dig out the front of our street making it completely impossible for us to get out and anyone else to get it.  It’s a dead end street morons!! A little warning would have been nice.  Poor Jill and Justin waited in the Jack-n-the-Box parking lot for almost an hour while they reconstructed the driveway leading to the studio.  Thank goodness they were patient because we got to meet the most precious new little baby when they arrived.  It totally made the wait worth while.  Hopefully the portraits made the wait worth while for them.  Here are a few of our favorite images from the shoot!

We had so much fun on Kirby’s shoot.  We did some photos here at the studio, a few in the woods across from the studio and finished up at the dancing fountians in The Woodlands.  Thank goodness for amazing overcast days!  Lots of fun with lighting for sure.  We can hardly wait for him to see the rest!!  Thanks Kirby!

Valentine’s Day rocks if you’re not single right?! WRONG! There’s an unspoken expectation following this holiday that astounds me. If you’re dating or married then you spend days (maybe even weeks) before this dreaded day trying to think up SOMETHING wonderful to surprise your Valentine with. Then, if all your planning doesn’t elicit the reaction you were hoping for you walk away in bitter disappointment AND in the dog house. Nice.

I wrote a blog last night for Valentine’s Day that automatically posted this morning. But then…the most amazing thing happened as we went to start our day. We opened the front door to find a trail of beautifully handcrafted little valentines lining our sidewalk and hanging in our (previously frozen & mostly dead) bushes. At first, we thought for sure this was something our parents had done. They are always very careful to look out for us on this holiday by making sure that we aren’t left out. It’s sweet and always much appreciated. Just once maybe my mom would go over the top and get us a couple of single, normal, wonderful men in big red bows! Yipee! Anyways…I digress. Glitter, scrapbook paper, ribbon adorned each little note. They all had so much love poured into them! As we turned each one over we realized that they weren’t just decorations but instead they were notes from friends and family. Crisite and I were truly and completely touched by everyone’s kind words. I know that tears were in my eyes while I read though them. Geez I’ve been turned into a sap!

My mom let the secret out this morning when she told us that our friend Sarah was responsible for our Valentine’s Day yard attack. Armed with glitter and a glue stick she gave us a gift that came from the heart. It was an overwhelming, thoughtful and completely unexpected twist to the day. Thank you Sarah for your amazing friendship. Even though we lost touch over the years I am so blessed to have been able to reconnect with you. I knew even way back in elementary school that you’d be one of the most incredible people I’d ever meet (even if you ARE moving to Arizona for a stinky boy soon). Maybe (just maybe, lol) this will change my thoughts about this wretched holiday.

A look at what a little glitter can accomplish!

Crisite & PaPa (not too shabby for a cell phone photo)

So, being that it’s Sappy-Icky-Mushy-Love Day (aka Valentine’s Day), I was going to write something about my usual feelings over how ridiculous this holiday is.  I will however throw in one little thought from a blog a follow called BloggingDangerously… “If you’re not in a relationship, Valentine’s Day is just a reminder – and let’s be honest, if you’re NOT in a relationship do you REALLY need a reminder?”  (Yep, I’m single… can ya tell?! LOL!) Instead of continuing my cynical VDay tirade I wanted to share a little something else.

We went to go visit our grandpa in the nursing home yesterday.  This is a new situation and has been a time of adjustment for the whole family.  He’s been there for almost a month and seems to have taken to the new place like a champ.  Sadly, with his advanced Alzheimer’s I don’t think he realizes that he’s in a home.  Perhaps this is why the transition happened so smoothly for him.  Day by day we see small improvements in his demeanor. 

Yesterday was a good day.  We walked into the comfortable and charmingly decorated living room area of the home.  It’s one of many areas that the residents can come to hang out, watch tv or (as in most cases) sleep & snore the day away.  The facility is new and only houses 7 residents at the moment.  It’s cute and comforting to see them all gather in one room together.  I like knowing that my grandpa is surrounded by other people who have similar memory issues.  It puts me at ease to know that he’s not alone in his journey.  I know that in his brief moments of lucidity he can see it as well. 

I saw my PaPa’s face light up from across the room as we entered.  He waved and recognized us immediately.   I couldn’t help but smile because I know that there will come a time soon when he doesn’t remember us and all that will remain are snippets of the life that was once his.  Each moment that he is the grandpa I always knew is a moment I now hold with special regard. 

We brought strawberry cupcakes with decadent cream cheese icing to the home to share with everyone for the Valentine’s Day holiday.  He reached for the tray full of cupcakes and insisted that he “just take a little look at one up close.”  It only took a moment before “up close” was more like “in his mouth.” Hahaha! Some things obviously never change. The BEST part of the visit though was when he leaned over to my dad as if to tell him a secret. I heard him say, “Man, there sure are a lot of old people that hang around here all the time.”  Sad yet so humorous that I think it’s the best laugh I’ve had in a week!!

So, happy Valentine’s Day to everyone today.  May it be a day when love and the beauty in life and it’s little precious moments goes so much further than candy-filled heart shaped boxes & flowers. 

~Melinda~