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choices & changes | St. Louis Photographer

Posted on October 28, 2011

 

This has been one of my favorite pins on Pinterest (and seriously, folks, if you haven’t joined the fabulousness that is pinterest, do. so. now.)… the words are so true.  And I really thought I had this in check.  I’d been a stay-at-home mom full time for many many years.  Then the photography bug bit, and I longed for that creative outlet, and I believed as my kids got older, they just didn’t need me as much.  So I jumped in fully when Jodie & I decided to merge together as Fresh Art.  And oh how Fresh Art has grown and been a fabulous creative outlet and successful business adventure!  Beyond my wildest dreams!  We have met so many fabulous clients we truly count as friends and had some really amazing opportunities!

Only, as Fresh Art has grown and grown, I have begun to realize how much MORE the kids need me as they grow (and are running in 7 very different directions with 7 very different specific needs).  And inevitably with the huge growth of Fresh Art, I began making choices that put work first.  The business end of it all became overwhelming, yet at the same time, could not be pushed aside to choose later because clients were waiting and we’d been paid to complete certain tasks, so the kids were the ones that were chosen later.  And I knew I needed to make some better choices and changes.  Hard choices.  We had started our family with lots of work and sacrifice to make sure I *could* be there, so I knew I needed to get back to that point.

So after much thought, prayer, and discussion, I have decided to step back a bit from Fresh Art.  Which means the way Fresh Art is structured will be a bit different, but Jodie and I are making this a smooth and easy transition and not much is really changing in the service and art provided by Fresh Art.

What exactly does this mean?  Please know this changes nothing for our clients that are currently booked, their sessions will be exactly the same, I will still be there, it will be exactly the Fresh Art session they have paid for and scheduled… including weddings, baby planners, family sessions, seniors, newborns, classes.  Moving forward with new bookings, Jodie will be completely taking over and doing family, seniors, and maybe even more weddings, on her own.  I will continue to work with her on all newborn sessions.  We feel it is essential to the images we want to produce that the two of us continue to work together on every newborn session… (and truthfully, I *need* the baby fixes!  ha!) so a newborn session will essentially be unchanged on the client end.

With this change in the structure, and to avoid Jodie, who will now be the sole owner of Fresh Art, to get bogged down with the back end business side that I handled and thus more time away from her family, there will also be a change in your after the session ordering.  Which actually makes it a great value and very easy for the client as well!  Win win!  Details on all that to follow, but it’s exciting and will include exactly what a huge majority of our clients are looking for, in a super simple way.  It’s an option we had tossed around together, but we just couldn’t get it to the right price point since there were two of us needing to split the income.

I’m excited for the next phase of Fresh Art, continuing to watch it grow, and the great product that the clients will continue to receive.  I’m glad to still continue to work with Jodie, who is so much more than a creative partner or co-worker, but a truly amazing friend… who totally GOT my struggles, and jumped to help me figure it all out and come up with a solution to keep everyone happy.  A solution that will allow her to still be the fabulous and hands-on mom that she is!

Any questions/concerns/comments can be sent to us both at info@freshartphotography.com.  We should both be around on FACEBOOK tonight to answer any questions & comments as well.

The Storck Family | St. Louis Family Photography

Posted on October 27, 2011

When we moved to Webster this summer we felt so lucky to just be able to own our first home. We loved our tiny little house with a good sized yard, I loved the big tree out front and that our street was a dead end. We still love so many things about our house (except that three months in and we’re also finding out all the bad things about home ownership like roots clogging our pipes and the bathroom sink literally falling off the wall last night!) but what I’m growing to love even more every single day are our neighbors. The Storcks have twin girls who are in first grade with Bailey so the kids have built in friends and slowly it’s becoming so much more than having someone to borrow an egg from! Just tonight while all the kids were playing in our backyard I asked Kelly to come over and give me decorating advice. I love that. She drives Bailey to school most days now so I can wait and do the preschool run a little later. We have someone to call last minute when we need kids picked up, we have people to chat with while we work outside on the weekends and we have friends right across the street from our house. Friends. I feel so blessed to be able to watch our friendship grow.

For my birthday I did 32 semi-random acts of kindness and one was that I gave away three photo sessions. One to Kim, one to Kelly and one to my friend Angie (whose session will be around Thanksgiving). When I offer free photos some people really balk. Like I’m giving them gold or something. I know that photos are cherished and I know Fresh Art isn’t the cheapest gig around but for me it is such a huge pleasure for me to give of myself in this way to the people I care about. I would do free sessions every day if I didn’t need to help put food on our table or a new sink in our one and only bathroom!

NOW.

I want to talk about this session. It is SO different from any that Kim and I have done. Ever. The Storck’s and I met after school Monday at the park down the street from our houses, plopped two old chairs and a quilt in the middle of the field and then I asked them to just BE together. They played and read and wrestled and laughed. And I just ran around capturing it all. But the BEST thing we did all afternoon started with this image:

Riley had gone and laid down on the chairs when Oma (Grandma) went and sat on her… which caused Kelly to say to me… “let’s shoot the girls by themselves with each adult!”

And right in that second an idea was born I’ve never thought of before.

Two chairs in one field filled with two different people. One child and one adult. Both full of love.

What started happening was something I’ve never noticed before.

I was watching so many different relationships unfold before my eyes! And I’d just never thought about the fact that every adult has a different relationship with the kids in their lives. Tiny details of relationships that you miss when photographing the family all together. Not that there’s anything wrong with photographing a family together, because obviously those relationships are equally as important, this was just so eye opening for me!

By the end of the session when they were all played out and it was officially way past dinner time the light was fading (hence the higher ISO I had to use for this shot) so we were finished.

You guys.

Have you ever had a session that got you excited about photography again? THIS WAS IT for me. The shots aren’t perfect, the light was really fading at the end and there was about 5 minutes of actual posing instead of well thought out poses, but it was perfect. For me at least! It’s making me CRAVE these kind of sessions. I want to come to your house and capture your LIFE. This is their life. Reading and playing and tickling and snuggling. When Tim and Kelly are home alone as empty nesters I bet these are some of the images they will look back on and smile. I’m craving messy houses and bad light and just capturing your family AS THEY ARE.

We have some big changes to announce soon and I can’t wait to see where this road takes us. Tonight I’m hoping it takes me to some of your homes to capture your families as they are right now!

Levi is 6 months old | St. Louis Baby Photographers

Posted on October 25, 2011

Oh how we LOVE the Sanders! When did we actually fall in love? Maybe it was when Megan posed for her maternity shots next to a crack house hut, or maybe it was when she crawled through a locked fence with her baby belly but it’s definitely when they let us put their newborn on a dirty oil drum and said, “it’s fine! he’ll wash off!” HA! To say we love this creative couple is a huge understatement!

The other day we had amazing weather and got to capture Levi as he turns six months old!

I mean seriously. Could he be any cuter? And could Megan have done a better job on his clothing? SO perfect!

Ok, let’s do a quick flash back!

And now…

Thanks Josh and Megan! You’d better start working on the one year session! HA! And let’s plan for a Sunday so we can actually break into the places we want to next time!

My Halloween Mantle

Posted on October 25, 2011

My personal blog is over its bandwidth (I REALLY need to take care of this issue!) and there are a few Halloween related things I wanted to post this week over there so instead I’m going to bore all of you with them! I know you pop in here to see cute babies or families so feel free to skip past the few Halloween posts if you’d like!

The ONLY reason I’m posting this is because I’m so damn proud of it! HA! For the first time in over 5 years we have a mantle but also for the first time we have a huge tv hanging above it which is proving quite difficult to decorate around! I’ve been dreaming about decorating a mantle for so long the tv is really hindering me! Not that I’m complaining the fact that we were finally able to get rid of our 19in TVs we took to college, just that the only place for it to fit in our tiny house was above the fireplace.

So I pondered Halloween swag for a while and came up with something I love…

Let me break it down…

The pumpkins were $1.50 each from our local pumpkin patch, I had the two white vases, the “old” fabric hanging in the back I bought at Walgreens for $3.99, the orange/black/yellow garland was a hand-me-down from my mom who didn’t want it anymore, the “Halloween” bunting I made and I also made the book page bunting. The bats hung in my house when I was a kid so they’re about 30 years old and I LOVE them. They are tied to pumpkins with black rickrack. Rickrack is an obsession of mine that’s almost as strong as my obsession with ModPodge. Almost.

For the Halloween bunting all I did was take leftover burlap and cut it into triangles, threaded the twine through the top, cut smaller triangles out of craft paper, painted the word Halloween with black acrylic paint and then glued the paper to the burlap. SUPER simple and all done while my kids played at home sick last week.

For the book bunting I literally just cut strips out of an old children’s Bible that was my mom’s (it was missing pages and headed to the recycle bin when I grabbed it), burned the bottom of each strip and then folded the top to glue it on some twine. Again, super simple but the burned paper was kind of messy. I sat in front of the fireplace to do the burning, you know, just in case!

Oh and just for fun I stuck in a few spider rings I bought at Target. They just are hanging in the “old” fabric!

Super easy but so fun… it makes me happy when I walk in the door each day!

OH and see that stick broom? I bought it at the grocery store and it smells like cinnamon! Seriously the most amazing smell ever!

Happy mantle decorating!

The (KIM) Weiss Family! | St. Louis Family Photography

Posted on October 23, 2011

Kim and I have been working together for over two years and this is the VERY first time I’ve not only gotten to photograph her family but the first time I’ve seen them all together! Katie helped me out since in my life I’ve never worked with so many kids at once! Thank you Katie! You’re awesome!

Check out the awesome mix of clothes Kim put together… they are an ad for HOW TO DRESS for a photo shoot with us! Not at all matching but completely cohesive! She did an unbelievable job!

AND her kids are awesome. They’re all awesome! It was so much fun to see her in full-on mom-mode for the first time! HA! And she never even yelled! HA!

Truly, it was a huge pleasure and I just pray I measured up!

What happens when you photograph 7 kids before their parents get there? A little bit of wrestling! HA!

So this shot was a total joke. No offense to any photographers that do this shot but Kim and I are not fans of the “lay the kids on top of one another” shots. NOT fans at all. So with Kim not to the session yet Katie and I thought it would be funny to set up this shot as a joke. But then seven kids wouldn’t work right on top of each other (when you see the shot it’s usually taken from the side which is even more tragic) so we broke them up a bit and LOW AND BEHOLD it kind of turned out cute! HA! Still not something we would EVER do with clients but it was funny to try and I’m sure Kim is cracking up that we made her kids do this! HA!

Oh and doesn’t Billy (on the bottom) look miserable? SO funny!

Have you guys ever seen The Sound of Music? One of my all-time favorite movies and it made me laugh when Kim and Bill found us on the side of the road with their kids up that hill because it reminded me of the VonTrap kids hanging in the trees when their dad comes home… remember that part? And they’re wearing curtains? Maybe it’s just me but this totally reminded me of that!

I think they’re laughing because I said their dad tooted! HA! Gotta love a good fart joke!

Technically this photo isn’t that great because little Sophie is totally blurry, BUT I had to keep it because Abby is laughing after her dad grabbed her mom’s boob! HA! I just thought this was such a great shot even with the blur I had to keep it! With seven kids there is LOTS of love!

And boob grabbing apparently!

No wonder they have seven kids! HA!

Thanks Weiss clan! I love you guys!

The Barr Family | St. Louis Family Photography

Posted on October 18, 2011

The Barr family was SO much fun to work with! Both Beth and Steve work in creative fields so it was a little intimidating to work for them initially but they put us SO at ease! They trusted us and let us do our thing, even when we dragged them so many places they had to stop for gas! And their girls were so great and so much fun! It’s SO different to work with kids over the age of 4!

Inspiration for this HERE.

BTW… Beth is kinda famous around these parts! She owns Two Blue Doors in Webster and creates SO many amazing designs! You should certainly check them out!

Ok! Thanks Barr family! It was seriously our pleasure!

 

The Gardner Family | St. Louis Family Photographers

Posted on October 17, 2011

When we met the Gardner family it was quite possibly the WINDIEST day ever! Seriously, the wind was insane but MAN were they troopers! And their girls couldn’t have been sweeter!

I am in LOVE with the above shot! IN LOVE! Kim is magical!

It was so great to meet this awesome family (who is friends with a bunch or our clients!) and Emily we hope you love your sneak peek!

Oh, and in case we get questions, the girl’s clothes are from Matilda Jane!

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