It's summer which means weddings and senior portraits, two of my favorite things. Actually, when you think about it two of the most important images of your life. Both turning points, both milestones that mark not only an end but a beginning as well.
It's these portraits that tell the world not only who we are but who we are planning to be. As life progresses you look back at "when I graduated high school" or "when we got married". It is for this reason that you want to be sure to get great photographs of these events. Senior portraits need to be a reflection of you, not a quick quick hurry up event done in a production line style. It needs to capture the sparkle that we each have inside, and you can not hurry that. This is why I shoot senior portraits after talking with the senior, consulting with them on how they want to appear and making them comfortable with not only me but with having their photo taken.
When I photograph a wedding I like each to be meaningful. Not images "of the times" like the pearl in the shoe image that is so popular lately. But images that show who you are, who you love. Not only the person you are marrying, but your family, your grandparents, your parents, and often your children. Family is what weddings are about, family is what keeps us strong, and family love is what I photograph.
So, when someone asks me what I have been doing all summer I guess I can answer...saving moments in time that represent the beginning of something new!
Live, Laugh, Photograph!
Maryann
During my lifetime I have probably had only a few portraits taken. This is partially because I was always taking someone else's photograph and partially because I don't photograph well. It's sad but true. I have photographed a thousand faces, and yet I can't seem to have an image of myself that doesn't look like I have been drinking heavily. One eye is open the other closed, my face is contorted in an odd expression, and I look like I just woke up from a hundred year nap.
This may be why I am so passionate about portraits and taking the best image I can. My passion is capturing relationships and personalities on film (Ok, digital media) for eternity. Some cultures believe that when you photograph a person you take some of their soul. Honestly, I think they may be right. Well, not actually take a piece of their soul, but capture and give it a place to reflect. Of course I am not sure what this means for me. Hmm...I will have to give that more thought.
Portraits and photographs in general are the one medium that allows you to freeze time, saving a moment for others to enjoy and study, to allow others to join you and time travel if you will to where you are today.
Have you ever fallen into a photograph for even a second? It's that split second where you are there again, or there for the first time. Sharing the event, and sharing the moment. There when that ring was slipped on your mother's finger by your dad. There when you where born, but this time able to see the love on your grandparents faces as they held you. Photographs can do that, they can help us time travel and experience something again, or give a chance to feel the moment that was.
This is why I am passionate about photography. Taking a picture makes something last forever. Forever young, forever in love, forever....you fill in the blanks.
Have your portrait taken and give someone else the opportunity to know you as you are today. Whether you are young or old, you are in a very special time of your life, a time worth recording, a time that will never come again. Photograph the people you love and hold those images close, they reflect moments that are the real treasure in life.
Call or email me and let's talk about taking some portraits of you and your family that show who you are today. I promise to spend the time to help you create just the right image to represent your life and the people in it.
Live, Laugh, Photograph!
Maryann
