This was a real treat for us! A couple of years ago Savannah was a category winner in our Star Kids Modeling Contest. We hadn't seen her since then, but she just recently came back in! She's 8 now and has grown into a wonderful girl! AND...Savannah brought a friend with her to be photographed: her new kitten Megan!
Isn't she adorable?!? We were so thrilled to be able to photograph a cute girl and her new best friend. Check out a few of these great images of them together!
Thanks, Savannah, for coming in again and for bringing Megan with you! You two are precious together!
We look forward to seeing you again soon!
As you can see, Ashley and Shelly couldn't keep their hands off this cute little furball. They are true cat ladies: between them they've had more than 50 cats in their lifetimes!
All January we've been advertising that we are looking for Models to be part of Sample Month, and we've had lots of amazing people ask about it so far...but this little girl tops them all!
So it's Monday morning, and we walk in to find this on our answering machine...
Oh, oh, OOOOoooOOoooh!!!
Part 2
So we look up the song (from the lyrics, as best we could determine them from the answering machine), and once we found out what the song was...
I hope she calls back, because we'd LOVE to have her perform for us live!
Here's something fun - remember the snow we had two weeks ago? Well, Ashley (our newest photographer) was outside trying to sweep off some of the snow from the stoop of the Portrait Shoppe and...well, she can get a little crazy sometimes. So while she was sweeping--you know what, you'd better just watch the video.
You know what the funniest part is? She didn't know that we were recording video! She just thought it was a couple of still shots! So, that's just Ashley being herself. We love our staff!
Our friend Diane sent us this snapshot of her most recent family wall portrait taken at the Portrait Shoppe. With her permission, we wanted you all to see just how good it looks "at home."
It looks awesome Diane! What a great choice of background and frame to fit your sitting room. Thank you SO much for sharing with us!
We had a BLAST on Halloween! We had a few great sessions, and all in costume, baby! Check out these awesome images from one session with 3 little angels, courtesy of their mom.
The 3rd little angel isn't in these shots because she's only 2, and she wasn't quite up for playing with us. The portraits turned out great, and (as you can plainly see) we had an awesome time! Thanks to Jill for providing us with the pictures from her own camera!
Now you can come by and sign your name up on our wall...no, not our Facebook wall, our REAL wall...you know, hard? Made of Sheetrock? Usually covered in paint and/or wall paper? Yeah, that kind of wall! The next time you come by our studio, definitely stop by and have your kids put their John Hancock on our front wall (don't worry...if your child doesn't know how to write yet, scribbling is just fine with us!). Seriously - try it! Check it out:
[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="475" caption="Michael christening our new wall"][/caption]
We bought this awesome paint that turned our wall into a chalkboard! We got it at Lowes for $12, and it works great! I may try this in my house - just think: now you can be glad that you're children are writing on the wall! If you like the idea for your kids' rooms, you can find the same paint HERE.
So, really, come by and have your kids write on our wall - anything they want! BTW - you can post on our Facebook wall too...just follow this link!
Hey everybody! I'd like you to meet the newest member of our family: Micah Paige!
He was born at 5:51 am Tuesday morning, Oct. 6. Mom (Aura) is doing great, and his 3 older siblings are all very excited that he has finally arrived. We're all a little exhausted, but we couldn't be happier!
So now I'm a daddy of 4...wow! That's almost hard to believe! As the t-shirt says, "Life is Good!"
I'll keep you updated as I have opportunity - but keep checking back for more family updates from us at the Portrait Shoppe!
Boy this has been a crazy month! We danced and dressed up in all kinds of funky costumes. We gave away a Wall Portrait and even made some honorary Portrait Shoppe staff out of your children. Why? Well...sometimes it's nice to celebrate just to celebrate. And that's what September was about for all of us - fun for its own sake!
I wanted to share with you the last of our crazy outfits from this month - it was Superhero Week! Those of you who watched the results of the Wall Portrait giveaway will have already had a preview of Shelly's and my outfit. But, for your viewing pleasure, here are the Superheroes of the Portrait Shoppe, immortalized forever on this blog!
All in all, we had a BLAST!!! Thanks so much for coming by and "playing" along with us.
BTW, if you want to get your children photographed in their Halloween outfits, we'll be offering a $29.99 special! It also comes with a free family portrait session, so make sure you book enough time for that as well.
We're sorry to see September go, but we had so much fun...maybe we'll just have to do that again sometime soon! Thanks again for making it worthwhile!
P.S. And for those of you who think that all we did all month was play and did no work, here's proof otherwise:
Today is a very special day! We are giving away a free wall portrait to one of our lucky UKC (that's Unique Kids Club) members who had a photo session during the month of September. Once in a while we get to do something really cool for our UKC's, and this is definitely one of the coolest! So, without further ado: the winner is..........
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Thanks so much to everybody who did come and "play" with us during this craziness! We have had a BLAST! Don't forget to check back here at the end of the week for some updated hero photos (yes, you will most certainly want to see Batman - Adam West style!).
September is still goin' strong, and we've been rockin' to the music of the 1950's all this week! Check out our own version of the Greasers from that era:
Come on down and rock and roll with us. We'd love to know: What's your favorite song from the 1950's? Tell us, and we'll have Shelly dance to it... seriously- check this out.
Now, come on - who WOULDN'T want these two tearing up the dance floor to your favorite hit from the 50's!
Set your jukebox back a few decades, and jitterbug away - the Portrait Shoppe is continuing it's Crazy September with 50's week! Currently, our favorite song is "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis, a classic rockabilly hit!
Stop by the Portrait Shoppe this week to see some our own versions of the Greasers and Pink Ladies! And who knows...maybe the Fonz will even make an appearance...or Elvis - we'll take either.
We'll be posting pics of our outfits later in the week - keep an eye out!
THIS JUST IN: One of the pirates, a dangerous looking bloke who, as best we can tell, is called "The Dread Pirate Ryan," seems to have recently recruited a first-mate. This new buckaneer looks to be even more dread than Ryan himself. Our advice: stay in your house! Lock your doors! If these pirates continue their rampage at the Portrait Shoppe there's no telling what could become of all our children!
As a famous king of England once said in a movie, "Run Away! RUN AWAY!"
I don't know what's worse - the fact that there are pirates running amok in Lexington, or that they're taking photos of one another!
Pirates are attacking! Pirates are attacking! A confirmed visual has been recorded in Lexington, KY of Pirates run amok among a local strip mall. See for yourselves:
Don't take our word for it, come see it yourself - actual, real-life pirates have attacked the Plaza at Fayette Mall!
September is underway - and so is our crazy dress up plan for the month! If you didn't stop by last week you missed what was sure to be the most natural and comfortable of all of our theme weeks - Pajama week! We all got to hang out in our sweat pants and bath robes at work. Here's a snapshot of us that one of our kids took (not OUR kids, of course, one of our Client's kids). Anyway, she caught us as we really were last week!
[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="374" caption="The PJs of the Portrait Shoppe"][/caption]
So, if you missed it, fret not! You can come in your pajamas anytime you want! (You'd be surprised how many people will stop by and do just that) Plus, this week is even more exciting! Seriously - stop by and check it out!
(Hint: if ye bring yer wee buckaneers o'er t' th' Portrait Shoppe this here week, we'll make them an official swashbuckler with a lit'l piece o' eight. Arrrgh!)
Alright, so the other a client of ours came in to look at her daughter's portraits that we had taken about a week before. She arrived with all 3 girls in tow (all three of whom have been lovely subjects at the Portrait Shoppe before). Her oldest, Erika, just began kindergaten this fall and I haven't seen her since her birthday shoot back in the spring. Well, she comes in with a loose tooth - one of the front ones, too. So I make the bad joke of knocking it out for her. Well, lo and behold, as I pretend to knock her tooth out (I didn't touch her, I SWEAR - you can ask her mom), Erika puts her hand to her mouth and spits out...her TOOTH! Right in front of us! Plenty of kids have come in with loose or missing teeth before, but this was our very first time that a tooth was lost here in the Portrait Shoppe!
[caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="374" caption="Erika with her newly missing tooth (it's in the envelope)"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_112" align="aligncenter" width="302" caption="Erika and her sister Madelyn"][/caption]
Here's the tooth itself...yeah, the image is blurry...and it was taken by me: a photographer! How embarrassing ;-)
Way to go Erika! I hope the tooth fairy was good to you! What's her going rate now, $1? $2? $5? I got a quarter when my teeth fell out - what did you use to get?
We had an AWESOME time this past Easter! The kids all had such a great time playing with the bunnies and the lamb this year, and they all looked super-cute!
Every session was special, each child brought something unique and wonderful to the images. You can see from the few we have here that they were all so different, and so special.
Our Lamb was named Joey (we're not sure how we picked Joey, but it worked) - he was only 1 week old during the portraits! What a trooper - he lasted through every single portrait session (and the kids thought they had a hard time!). Normally we get 2 lambs, but because Easter was a little later this year, the lambing season was almost over and we were lucky to get this little guy. We were definitely sad to see him go after that weekend.
We had two bunnies this year also. Their names were Siegfried (Ziggy) and Smidge. Smidge was appropriately named because he was only a dwarf. Once during a session with him, one of our clients asked, "he's not going to get much bigger, is he?" And Shelly responded, "maybe just a smidge." Thus, the birth of the name Smidge - most of the time he rode around in the pocket of Shelly's sweatshirt! We got to enjoy them for a couple of weeks. All the kids loved them too!
The kids were amazing this year - they were well behaved, fun, energetic...just overall it was a great group of little people!
Thank you so much for making this a spectacular Easter! We would love to see you all back again next season!
We were given a special treat this particular Easter - Brian's mom Erin took a picture of the photographers with Joey the lamb! This is a picture of Brian (isn't he just adorable?!), his mom Erin, Shelly and Ryan (the two Portrait Shoppe Photographers), and Joey the star of the weekend! Thanks Brian and Erin for this cool gift!
Oh my goodness! It has been WAAAAAYYY too long since we've last updated this! For all of you readers, WE'RE SORRY!!! We love you for reading, and we're going to be doing some big updates in the next couple of weeks. Here are things to be looking forward to:
Paw-trait Contest Results
Easter (Lambs and Bunnies)
Lexington Family Magazine Camp Fair
Star Kids Modeling Contest
NEW Styles, Galleries, and Products at the Portrait Shoppe!
If you have been into the UK Children's Hospital recently, chances are you've seen our work (and maybe not even known it). We were honored to be able to put up a display of our photographic artwork in their wing over the summer of '08. Well, just in a recent publication of theirs we found this page talking about that very thing!
It is a privilege for us to help out this area in our community. We are also pleased to be able to donate proceeds to the Children's Hospital every year from our big summer project: the annual StarKids Modeling Contest. To learn more about StarKids modeling contest, visit our website! (Hint: the link is over there, on your right...a little farther...down...there you go! Now - CLICK!)
If you thought that Portrait Shoppe only does photography for individuals and families, well broaden your horizons!
Once in a while we actually have the opportunity to do photo shoots for other business or events. We have done dance studios and animal hospitals, but one of our favorites is the cover shoot for Lexington Family Magazine. They are an awesome, free publication here in central Kentucky. They are an incredible resource for families of all types and address all kinds of issues. (Oh, by the way, it's FREE for you to pick up a copy). And, in our opinion, they have some of the most educated, well researched, on target editorial material out there - did we mention that it's free? You should check them out at www.lexingtonfamily.com
Alright, commercial over - Over the past few months we at the Portrait Shoppe have had the privilege of doing the photo shoot for many of their recent covers! It's really cool for us because we enjoy all the adorable kids, and Laurie (Event Coordinator at Lexington Family) always comes to make the experience particularly enlivening! So, next time you pick up your FREE copy of the magazine, flip open the front cover and look to see if the photo was taken by the Portrait Shoppe (all the ones on the left here have been).
Think your kid is cute enough to make it onto the cover of the Magazine?
Well, come and find out! Every year, in April, Lexington Family Magazine hosts a Summer Camps & Activities Fair. One of the events is the cover model search. Yes, anybody can enter their child into the search by sitting for a quick head shot, taken by yours truly - the Portrait Shoppe! Last year we took head shots of over 325 kids (thank goodness we don't have to narrow them down - we certainly don't envy that job)! It's free (like the magazine itself) and fun for everyone!
Date: April 11th, 2009 from 10am to 2pm
Location: Lexington Christian Academy
(for more details, see their website - particularly this page)
So, enjoy the cover shoots! And we'll see you at the camp fair to take portraits of your own cover model!
This giant insect is directly over our mirror (hey, look at that - Ryan the photographer got his legs out of the way for this shot - go Ryan!). The detail is amazing!
[caption id="attachment_43" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="The Tortise and ..."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_44" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="... the Hares!"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_45" align="alignnone" width="324" caption="Shy Field Mouse"][/caption]
This little guy has so much personality - we love him!
[caption id="attachment_46" align="alignnone" width="324" caption="The bee is done too - can you see its wings?"][/caption]
We are SO THRILLED to have this dressing room done so beautifully. Linda (the artist) was amazing! It really helps transform the look of the room, and easily lets a child's imagination run wild! Come and check it out!
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He was born at 5:51 am Tuesday morning, Oct. 6. Mom (Aura) is doing great, and his 3 older siblings are all very excited that he has finally arrived. We're all a little exhausted, but we couldn't be happier!
So now I'm a daddy of 4...wow! That's almost hard to believe! As the t-shirt says, "Life is Good!"
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