I hope everyone had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. We stayed busy but had plenty of relaxation too. We ended up painting my daughter’s bedroom. She had outgrown the pink she asked for 3 years ago so we decided on a pretty turquoise. She absolutely loves it so it was time well spent. Here she is 3 years ago painting her own room (Age 9) and this weekend painting it again (Age 12).

This week I found a gorgeous photo wall that includes step-by-step instructions. It doesn’t get better than that! I found the original post on the Tatertots & Jello Blog. How cute is that name?!

The colors are so crisp and bright. Doesn’t it just say “Hello! How are you? Come on in.” to people coming in the front door? There are step-by-step instructions on everything from painting the frames to hanging them without putting holes in your walls. So go check it out and have fun with it. Who’s ready to create a beautiful wall gallery of their own? I know I am! Have a great Wednesday!!

Peace and Popsicles!

Heather

How freakin’ cute is this? Daniel would never let me do this in our living room but I absolutely love it! I can see creating this design in a hallway instead of doing the same old line of photos down the wall. Or maybe in a child’s room replacing the black frames with colorful ones. I know Hobby Lobby carries wall clings that look very similar to this but you could also find them online. Or if you’re really creative just paint your own tree! Have fun with this one! You could really use your imagination!

Original post here

I’m sharing this Wall Art Wednesday post on Thursday. I was having some technical difficulties with the blog yesterday which led me to serious thoughts of throwing my computer against the wall. Luckily I took a breather before I could do any damage and the problems worked themselves out. So this morning I have a blog post for you and a computer that isn’t in 400 million pieces.

I came across this awesome idea on Pinterest (are you on Pinterest? If not, you definitely should be). How many times have you happened upon some old windows at a thrift store and wondered “Hmmm I know I could do something cool with those, but what would it be?” It would be this! What a gorgeous way to display your family’s photos and add a unique point of interest to any room in your home. It would be beautiful in a kitchen, dining room, family room…any room! I love the cottagey feel it has. Do you have some old windows that could be pulled out of the garage and put to some use? I’d love to see your version of this! Share it in the comments section or email it to heather@infinity-images.com.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Kisses!

Heather

I fell in love with this wall when I came across it on Pinterest. There was no link to the originator (I hate when someone pins something without a link) so I can’t say where it came from. But isn’t it a gorgeous statement piece…and all about the family that lives in this home. It helps tell the story of how much this family loves each other and how important they are to one another. No landscape picture can do that. I can tell by looking at this that these images were printed on canvas that’s ready to hang but you could also do it with prints mounted on foam core and use Velcro pieces to adhere them to the wall. That way you can change them out as your family grows. I love this and I may consider this for a wall in our home. I hope you enjoyed today’s Wall Art Wednesday. Is anyone feeling inspired yet?! Tell us what you think in the comments. We’d love to hear from you! Peace and popsicles! Heather

We love our pets!! Yep, I said it. I’ve turned into one of those crazy pet people. I dress my dogs up for Halloween, I feed them leftovers, I take them to the vet to get their teeth cleaned (I know!). I never thought I’d love our animals as much as I do. They have become part of our family and I couldn’t imagine living without them.

But not all pets are so lucky. When I visit the shelter in Darlington my heart breaks for all of those helpless animals. They look so sad and desperate to find someone to love them. If I could bring all of them home I would. But I would definitely be single if I bring home even one more animal (we have 3 inside dogs and 2 cats). So I do what I can to help out when I can. We’ve created an event that will help the shelter and all of the other crazy pet lovers out there. Our Pet Days Charity Portrait Event is an annual event where we collect puppy and kitten food for the shelter in exchange for a portrait session and print of your favorite pet. A win/win for everyone! Here’s how it works:

You bring your pet and a 20 lb or larger bag of Purina puppy or kitten food to the studio to have a 10-15 minute portrait session. You can even get in there if you’d like (we limit it to either 2 children or 1 adult). You’ll pick your favorite image and we’ll send you a FREE 5×7 Professional Quality Print. How cool is that?! You help out the shelter and you get a beautiful portrait of your furry friend! We were able to collect lots of food for the shelter last year and we’re hoping to top it this year. If you’d like to schedule your session please call 843-245-7320. If you don’t have a pet but know people that do (and don’t we all know a crazy pet person?) please forward this email to all of the people you know so we can spread the word and raise enough food to feed these desperate animals for a good long time. We’re looking forward to seeing you and your furry friend at the studio on August 18 & 19th!!

The shelter also needs tons of other items if you’d like to make a donation. They need blankets, towels, bleach, collars and leashes, chew toys, gas cards for transporting the animals and of course cash donations made directly to the shelter are always welcome.

Please share this on Facebook too! We need all of the help we can get to reach our goal of filling up these time slots!! Thanks so much for your support!

Hugs and sloppy puppy kisses xxxoooxxx!!

Heather

I’m so excited about this new weekly blog. Wall Art Wednesday was brought about after I made a delivery to one of my favorite clients. She’s been putting together a photo wall since her son was born 18 months ago (well longer since her maternity portraits were there too). She’s talked about it before during her sessions but I hadn’t seen it in a while. I was blown away by how much thought and effort she had put into it. She was on the Baby Plan so her son had his newborn, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 1 year portraits taken with us and they were all displayed along with her maternity portraits, family snap shots and a few from the Limited Editions they participated in this year. There were gallery wraps, small framed prints and larger prints all put together to make an amazing photo wall that I’m sure everyone loves to look at when they walk into her home.

Obviously I’ve gotten to know this mom over the past few years (I shot their wedding too) so I know that she is extremely crafty and loves Pinterest as much as I do. So it wasn’t a huge stretch for her to come up with something like this and execute it on her own. But lots of people have no idea what to do with their portraits and snapshots. They sit in a box or worse on a computer hard drive waiting for someone to do something with them. I thought it would be a great idea to help those people envision what their photos can look like and how beautiful they could be hanging on their wall. And that it doesn’t take a huge space to make a huge impact. So Wall Art Wednesday was born. Here on the blog I’ll post wall art that I find on the web or photos of my own clients’ walls. I hope to inspire people to take down the landscape picture of a windmill and replace it with beautiful pictures of your family. You’d be surprised how just passing by them can bring a smile to your face. I know mine do…especially when my kids are getting on my very last nerve.

Our very first Wall Art Wednesday is so much fun. I came across this idea on Bliss Images and Beyond’s Blog.

I loved the idea of adding a conversation starter as well as beautiful images. Using clocks below each of your child’s photos stopped at their birth times you are giving people something to talk about. Of course when someone sees it for the first time they’re going to ask what it means. It’s such a unique way to tell a story about your children and I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

I hope you enjoy this new series and get something out of it. Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you. And please send a photo if you have a gorgeous wall in your home or if you create one using the inspiration you find here. You can email it to heather@infinity-images.com. I can’t wait to see what we create together!

Thanks!

Heather

This has been such an unbelievable year so far. I hope it has been for you as well. Between the Studio opening in February and a complete rebranding of Infinity Images, we’ve had our hands full…which is a wonderful thing. We don’t like to be bored!

We are really happy to announce our 2011 Limited Edition Portrait Series Schedule. If you’ve never heard of our Limited Editions before, they absolutely ROCK! They are 30 minute Sessions done on a uniquely themed set so every year is a different look. You don’t have to worry about having the same portraits done year after year.

In addition to our popular Day at the Beach and Field Day Sessions, we’ve added 4 more BRAND NEW themed sets for you. Our most popular Sessions are the Day at the Beach. If you’re interested in this one, you’ll want to book it fast. It always fills up first. Our Dog Days of Summer Sessions are perfect for the pet lovers out there. We make your furry friend a star and you get amazing images to show the world how much they mean to you. Tutu & Ties is all about couture & fashion. Your kids will feel like supermodels on this set! If you’re looking for a unique family portrait, you will want to book the Field Day Session. Your family + a big comfy couch + a big field = AMAZING PORTRAITS!  Our Pumpkin Patch Sessions will be done outside (weather permitting) with the beautiful pumpkins from McLeod Farms.

Our Santa portraits are getting a facelift this year. We wanted to do something totally different (and not cheesy). I know how disappointing it is to have your kid’s portrait taken with Santa at the mall. Our Santa set is going to be a full on experience for your kids. Not just a quick pic assembly line. Our set is going to be a Woodland Wonderland that your children will not soon forget.

These rockin’ sessions will become available for booking on Monday, May 23, 2011. If you’re interested in booking a session, just call the studio and let us know which theme you’re interested in. A $39 Session Fee will book your session. We will have some really great Special Packages to choose from that were designed specifically for these sessions.

We are really excited about our Limited Editions this year and we hope you are too! If you have any questions about booking a session, please don’t hesitate to contact the studio at 843-245-7320 and we’ll be happy to help. We’re looking forward to making some amazing portraits for you and your family!! Be sure to share this post with your friends by clicking the links below. You know they want awesome photos too, right?!

I’m going to go ahead and warn you, this post is extremely picture heavy. I had so many to share and couldn’t decide which ones to cut so I just kept all of them. Sorry!!

Over the past couple of years I’ve really felt boxed in to only shooting in natural lighting conditions. Don’t get me wrong, I love natural light..I love the softness on the skin and the eyes. But sometimes I want to try dramatic lighting….and I’d like to be able to shoot outside during the middle of the day without worrying about how harsh the sun will be. While at a photography convention last year, I saw Blair and Suzanne Phillips of Blair Phillips Photography speak about Breaking the Mold. Their whole philosophy is to try new things..things no one else is trying. Trying new things is hard. Practicing new techniques takes time. That’s time and energy most photographers don’t want to put into their craft. I do. I want to try new things. I want to push myself to learn and grow. So when I found out that Blair and Suzanne had recently started doing a Break the Mold Workshop, I was more than excited. I signed up for it right away because I didn’t want to take the chance of it selling out. Then, I had to wait more than 6 months. The waiting was excruciating. I knew this workshop would change my world. And I wasn’t disappointed.

When March rolled around, my friend Nichole of Nichole Alexandra Photography and I headed up to Landis, NC. Nichole and I do a couple of photography trips a year together and always have such a great time. We spend our free time searching for the best places to eat and talking about everything under the sun. We always enjoy the kid/family-free time to just focus on our businesses. That’s not something we get very often so we take full advantage. Of course, there’s lots of gossiping too! Oh back to the workshop.  We were blown away from the moment we walked into Blair and Suzanne’s studio. Everything was absolutely gorgeous and screamed Blair Phillips Photography. We got to meet the other 14 workshop attendees who, like us, were eager to learn.  Over the next 2 days I learned exactly what I needed to learn to bring my photography to the next level. I learned how to use studio lighting outdoors and do it well. I never thought I would be able to shoot a bride outside during midday full sun and still be able to see the details in her dress. I did it…with the help of Blair and his amazing assistants. We also were able to shoot a senior session and add that edge that I need to separate myself from the people that bought a digital camera last week and started a photography business this week. I will forever be grateful for Blair, Suzanne and the rest of their crew for sharing so much of themselves and showing us that it is possible to grow a successful photography business in a small country town. Here are a few shots of their studio and Blair working his magic.

Blair was so awesome with the children that came into the studio that day. He got natural expressions out of this little girl while their were 20 other people standing around watching…and let me tell you, that’s not easy.

Blair builds these amazing sets outside behind his studio. Awesome!

This is the dressing room. Who wouldn’t feel incredibly glamorous in this room?

Didn’t I tell you their studio was fabulous?!

This is their client ordering room. Clients are treated to a real theatre experience.

Blair always says that he would never ask a client to do something he wouldn’t do.

So now that I’ve shown you all of the Blair awesomeness, here are some shots I got while he was demonstrating.

I know no one is going to believe me but I did absolutely no retouching on her skin. That’s what great lighting techniques do!

So what does all of this mean for my clients? It means I have a broader range of choices for selecting locations and scheduling sessions. It means I’m bringing more to the table when I pick up my camera. And that means more awesomeness to display in your home. Set up a session and let’s get started!!

I’ve always loved animals…any kind. So I’ve been working on a way to help the less than fortunate animals out there because I can’t bring them all home (that’s what Daniel tells me anyway). After the story broke a couple of weeks ago about the Chesterfield County Humane Society workers shooting dogs instead of using humane euthanizing methods, I just knew I had to do something to help these poor animals.

I’ve always thought so highly of the Darlington County Humane Society. We picked out our cat, Cricket, a few years ago and the whole process was amazing. The people that run the shelter actually care about the animals and know all of the stories that go along with each one. Like our Cricket was left in an abandoned mobile home that was being repossessed with only an open bag of cat food. After a couple of weeks the neighbors could hear her crying inside but the doors were locked so they couldn’t help her. They called the police and they found her inside dehydrated and emaciated. The shelter nursed her back to health and she has been our kitty for 3 years now. Without the love and attention from the shelter volunteers and workers, we wouldn’t have our Cricket and I just couldn’t imagine that. Please contact Jackie at 843-398-4402 if you’d like to find out more about the adoption process. She will be more than happy to help you find your perfect pet.

So I will be holding a Pet Days Charity Event during 2 separate weekends, one on Saturday April 30th & Sunday May 1st and then another on Saturday May 14th and Sunday May 15th. All donations will go directly to the Darlington County Humane Society. We hope that this gives everyone the opportunity to have some wonderful portraits of your furry babies and also help out the less fortunate animals out there that don’t have forever homes yet. Please call 843-245-7320 to set up your appointment now before they are all gone. I know these will book up fast. Find more details below or give us a call if you have any further questions.

So I hope by now everyone has seen our new Designer Frames. They are curvy, spunky and sooooo much fun! Who wouldn’t want a wall full of these awesome frames?! Well, I’ve decided to do a really fun giveaway for this super cool 8×10 frame. Our frames are available in over 50 colors so you will even get to choose which color would best fit your decor. All you have to do is head on over to our Facebook Fanpage here and “like” our Page. Then comment on this post letting us know you “liked” our Fanpage, who’s picture you would put in this frame and where you would hang it in your home. It’s that easy! One super-lucky winner will be chosen by a random drawing on Friday 2/18/11. We’ll announce the winner at 12pm. Good Luck!!!!