Say hello to Seth, another contestant in our Valentine’s Day Contest.  He’s the son of one of our good friends, and it was a pleasure to finally meet Seth and catch up with his mom. This little guy is 18 months old, and photographically speaking, he was a bit of a challenge because he didn’t stay still for a second!  :) His mom brought some really cute outfits and we had a blast chasing him around.

Don’t forget to check out Seth and the other kids in our Facebook contest!

Izabella was a little delight.  She’s buddies with Seth, who I’ll be blogging tomorrow.  Her mom brought in a suitcase full of amazing clothes which we barely put a dent in.  I guess we’ll have to have her come back!  Some of our favorites are below, but don’t forget to check out our Facebook page too so you can check out all the kids in our Valentine’s Day Contest.

As you can see we work these kids pretty hard in the studio!  :)

We launched our Valentine’s Day Contest on our Facebook page yesterday, and now I can finally start blogging some of our favorites from the sessions we did.  First up is 8-month old Braydon. What a handsome little dude!  Make sure you check our Braydon and all the other entries on our Facebook page, and be sure to place your vote!

Thanks for stopping by.  Don’t forget to head on over to Facebook where you can vote for Braydon and the other cuties in our Valentine’s Day Portrait Contest.  You can vote once per day from now until February 13th!

If you would like to set up a studio appointment, please fill out our contact form here.

Whooo!  It’s time for our Valentine’s Day Portrait Contest to begin!  This has been such a fun couple of weeks! If you’re a loyal blog reader, you know that 99% of our business up until now has been weddings.  And we love weddings, but we’ve decided it is time we expand our offerings.   Last year we moved from our office in Birmingham to a larger space in Clawson with an actual studio.  We also started to get calls from past clients who now have babies and were wondering if we did portraits. We can now officially say the answer is YES! To get things started, we welcomed seven families to our studio for complimentary sessions and a chance to win a prize package valued at $500.

Over the past several months, we’ve been acquiring sets and props and all kinds of fun stuff, and even more backdrops have arrived since we shot the Be Mine sessions two weeks ago.  We’ve really been having a ball with this. 

To help spread the word, we have set up our portrait contest on our Facebook Page.  To vote, you must visit our page and like it, and then you will be taken to the page where you can scroll through the photos and vote.  You are allowed to vote once per day.  (It will look a little different from a normal facebook photo gallery, we had to do it this way to stay within Facebook’s rules and keep the voting fair.)

Voting will end on February 13th at 11:59pm EST.   The winner will be announced on Valentine’s Day, and will receive a free session, print package, and choice of a session album or canvas wall art.

Over the next 7 days, I’ll be blogging one session a day – and I have some ridiculously adorable images to show off. 

So that’s it!  Now go check out the Facebook page, and cast your vote for today!  BIG HUGE thanks to the families that came out and participated, we really enjoyed these sessions!

]]> http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2012/02/01/bemine-valentines-day-portrait-contest/feed/ 2 http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2012/01/26/betsy-dannys-detroit-wedding/ http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2012/01/26/betsy-dannys-detroit-wedding/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:42:31 +0000 Lynn http://blog.westparkphoto.com/?p=2191

Choosing the photos for today’s blog post, I couldn’t help smiling.  Betsy & Danny had such a terrific wedding, and they are such wonderful, warm people.  Betsy was absolutely radiant, and there wasn’t a moment she didn’t have a big smile on her face.  Their wedding was full of exceptional details and exceptional people that made it richly memorable.  This is another one of those posts where you might want to refill your coffee cup before you settle in, because it’s a big one!

Hotel: Detroit Athletic Club
Ceremony:  Old St. Mary’s, Detroit
Reception: Detroit Athletic Club
Band: The Jerry Ross Band

I loved their tongue-in-cheek Save The Dates – these two have been an item for quite some time.

Betsy’s  stunning Kate Spade heels added a splash of color.

We were thrilled to be back at Old St. Mary’s – easily one of Detroit’s most beautiful churches.

Even though it’s been awhile, I still remember how touching and lovely the toasts at this wedding were.

Betsy’s brother injected a little comedic relief into his toast when he remarked on how happy everyone was for Betsy & Danny, “except maybe that lady up there”.

I have to mention that Betsy’s brother also went up and rocked out with the band, a moment which left his children awestruck. 

Betsy & Danny – THANK YOU.  You guys are seriously wonderful and we enjoyed every minute of working with you.  We wish you much happiness and hope we run into each other again in the future. 

We hardly ever post any personal work here, but we’ve decided to change that this year.  To stay fresh, it’s really important that we make a point to set aside time to shoot stuff besides weddings and portraits.  It’s a good way to refresh our eyeballs, and sometimes we discover cool locations in the process that we can use later for client work.  Two weekends ago, we decided to take a drive, and I brought our lensbaby with us.  It’s been so mild so far this winter that I didn’t appreciate how cold it was this particular day.  I soon gave up trying to get sharp focus with the lensbaby, and just decided to have fun with it.  It was very freeing to just go out and play and not take the images so seriously.

The blur effect was all lensbaby and the color shifts were done by purposefully shifting the white balance in camera.

Andy took some interesting shots as well, but what he’s most obsessed with currently is his 365 iPhoneography project.  He’s posting an image on Instagram everyday that he’s captured (and edited) on his iPhone.  If you use Instagram and want to follow him, look up @andyschwartz.  Here are some of his recent images:

We were shown the video below, which I think sums up what this is all about.  Take a look:

We think this is a really worthwhile cause and signed up to be volunteers on the spot.

As photographers, an organization like this really drives home the importance of what we do.  The reason Andy and I started this business wasn’t because we like photographing flowers in mason jars, or posing a troupe of bridesmaids in an ironically-casual grouping.  We fell in love with this type of photography because we enjoyed having a glimpse into a family’s history.  We are in the business of preserving memories, and not to sound self-aggrandizing, but this is significant.  Photography is not something just to be enjoyed by you, it’s a historical document, a gift to your family, and friends, and an investment that becomes more important with time.  It may even become priceless.  Photography gives a tangibility to something that’s completely intangible and fleeting – time.

Wish Upon a Wedding reminds us all to take nothing for granted, and to celebrate and document love.  That’s something we can all do, fancy camera or not.

I’m giving you all homework:  Take a photo today. 

Uh oh!  I’m a liar.  I said when I posted our previous engagement session that it would be the last one for awhile, but I completely overlooked Andrea & Patrick. In my defense, this was one of the rare times Andy was shooting solo.  He met up with this charming couple on a brisk fall morning in Birmingham, where they explored downtown together.  Andrea and Patrick had a beautiful fall wedding and they were so sweet on their wedding day.   (They got married at Weller’s in Saline – their wedding and this e-session were just a few days apart.)  Here are some of our favorites!

Hey there, loyal blog readers!  We have a special announcement to share with you today.  We will be offering, for two days only, free mini-sessions in our Clawson studio!  That’s right…free, as in, FREE!  These sessions are for tots and little ones up to 5 years old. Also, each child that comes in for a mini-session will be entered into a contest to win $500 worth of products from us.  Here’s all the details:

Session Dates:

Friday, January 20 |  10am – 6pm
Saturday, January 21 | 10am – 6pm

These dates are firm, and all sessions will take place at our studio in Clawson.  Also, once you have a time booked, that’s it, if you are late, we will move on to the next person. Limited to one child per household, and one outfit per session.

We are located on Crooks Rd between 14 and Maple.

Contest Details:

-This is open to kids from 6 months (sitting up) up to 5 years of age.
- All participants must sign a model release and give us permission to call them to confirm session time.
-Participants will each get one 5×7 print, which will be mailed to them.
-Our favorite photo from each session will be uploaded to our Facebook page, and our fans will “like” their favorites.
-The person with the most likes will win a deluxe portrait session, a set of gift prints, and choice of a 16×20 canvas or session album!

That’s it!  If you would like to sign-up, please GO HERE and fill out the entry form!  Spaces are limited, so don’t wait!

I’ve got another big, giant post so share with you all today.  For those of you who follow our page on facebook, you’ve probably noticed that I’m still updating our 2010 wedding galleries.  I feel sheepish doing it, because I’m sure at least one or two people are scratching their heads and thinking “Doesn’t she know it’s 2012?“  And yes, I do know it.  It seems absolutely insane to me that I’m still catching up on blogging weddings this far back – and rest assured, the couples got their proofs back WAY before now!  But here I am.  2010 was a crazy year for us and my blog posts suffered as a result.  And then 2011 was uber busy as well.  I’m not complaining, mind you, but there you have it.  I could just skip over the older weddings and blog the newer ones, but every event we photograph has meaning for us, and we’ve got some work I’m quite proud to show off.

So let me get back on topic.  Beth & Chris has a gorgeous fall wedding at the Inn at St. John’s. They put a priority on getting great portraits, so they opted to do a first look, which we always recommend.  These two were such a joy to photograph.  Beth has a stunning face.  The camera loves every angle of her.  She certainly made things easy for us. Chris is hilarious and has a super expressive face that radiates emotion. I met up with Beth in her hotel room while she got dressed.

See what I mean?  Stunning.

They chose to see each other for the first time in the courtyard at the Inn at St. John’s.

Is that a happy groom or what?  See what I mean about Chris? I love his expressions.

Beth & Chris – thanks again for choosing us to photograph your day.  You guys were incredible to work with and we enjoyed sharing  your day with you!