Sing Photography Untucked

My Crib.....

This is a wall in the boy's room that we put together a few weeks ago. I took this idea from a Pottery Barn catalog from last summer. I love how it turned out, and so do they. I love that it is a perfect way display lots of photos of them that I love. And I can rotate them out as new favorites come along. It was hard choosing which photos to use because I have so many favorites of them. So to make it easy on me, I decided to keep it current. These are 16x20's and 12x18's. Thanks for stopping by!!!! 

Spring Breakin'

Happy Spring Break folks! I am signing off here for about a week and wanted to say bon spring before I go. I will be checking email a couple of times while on break, but no blogging, no computer and gonna step away from the t.v too. I need the detox and am looking forward to it. I am pretty much caught up on editing and client orders have been sent or processed. Yippee! This break happens to coincide perfectly with The Artist's Way group I am in. As there is a week where a complete media break is suggested. Even a break from books as reading can sometimes be a form of escape in the same way as tv, computers, email, etc. The premise is that with all of these someone else's words, thoughts, images and ideas are being put in our heads. And we can get to where we aren't listening to our inner thoughts and ideas. I'll let ya know how it goes and if I come up with anything insightful. I'll admit, at first I pretty much became somewhat irritated, restless and angry at the thought of it. But, now that it has had a chance to sink in, I am excited. And have had some fun ideas and plans and projects just at the thought of it. 

I enjoyed my camera this morning as I walked around our yard to welcome spring. I tend to live in the big ideas part of my brain, so stopping to notice details can be pretty good for me. From the looks of the weather forecast, looks like today may be the only glimpse of spring we see for a while. And a nature photographer I ain't, but here are a few from my wanderings........

Ahhh! Moss growing on garden accents makes me happy.......we have kind of an English garden motif going on around here.......

Irises are lovely.....

As is dew on grass....

And these....these are lovely too.....

I love that life is so big that it can burst through concrete. Here is a bit of green pushing it's way through cement.....

Ok. Gotta be real here. After such a wet, cold and yucky winter. Which came after a hot, and draught filled summer. We have some garden projects cut out for us. Can't lie. We really have kind of a Boo Radley yard motif going on. Here we have the flower bed at the mailbox. Weeds have taken over. Time to get to de-weeding and planting. Not gonna this week. Just spring breakin.....

And lots of algae and muck to clean from everywhere after all the rain......

Enjoy your week! Let me know what you are up to. Peace and love! Amy

WPPI & Catching Up......

Happy Monday evening blog readers. I've been away for a little over week and boy have I missed the old bloggity blog! I returned last Wednesday evening from WPPI in Las Vegas. I spent an amazing 4 days surrounded by and connecting with all things photography. But, most importantly, really incredible friends. I feel so blessed with my "job". And to be able to have friends I can call on and share with that understand the excitement and joy I have for my business.....because they feel the same way about their "job."  Last week was full of learning, hanging with old friends, meeting new ones, the latest and greatest technology in photography, I-phones, parties, lots of dancing, late night talks, not much sleep and of course cameras. Big cameras. I happened to mostly take partying type pics with my point and shoot and I-phone. However, my soul mate friends and roomies from the trip, Alice and Sara were all over modeling their new Sing Photography T's. We had a blast shooting and letting our lungs expand a bit from 3 days spent in the casino. Looooove these girls and can't wait for our next trip!!! 

First up the gorgeous Alice......looking chic and sassy!

Next..... the hot Sara. Showing the T off with her hip and fun look....

And I'll leave you with a shot of the 3 of us from the Pictage party photo booth at Studio 54. 

In the Studio....

Hung out at my friend Sara Anthony's place the other day. We caught up after the busy holidays, discussed our plans and goals for 2009 and had a blast photographing each other in her studio. Besides being gorgeous and fun to photograph, Sara just plain rocks. She is an awesome photographer, sounding board, inspiration and cheerleader. Enjoy a few from my time in the studio with Sara. Can I tell you how much fun I had with her equipment? I have now added softboxes, pocket wizards and more to my ever expanding list of photography must haves. Thanks Sara!!!

Awesome Saturday!

The dynamic Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith and his wonderful singer, songwriter, composer wife Rickie Byers Beckwith came to speak at our church this past Saturday afternoon. So many people from all over came to hear these 2 spiritual leaders speak, share and inspire. I definitely came away renewed, refreshed and transformed. So much is still sinking in 4 days later. Reverend Beckwith has been teaching spiritual practices for over 20 years with his Agape Spiritual Center in California. He is one of the teachers in The Secret and was recently on Oprah's Live Your Best Life Series discussing spirituality. They, along with many members of their choir will be at one of the Inaugural Balls tonight, surely bringing the house down. I was more than honored to photograph during the event on Saturday and just fell in love with these 2 even more after having them in front of my lens. It's something that happens to me with everyone I photograph and the Beckwiths were certainly no different!

These 2 are incredible together and their talks are always off the cuff and go with the flow. They will be here in Atlanta at the end of May for a weekend and I so recommend attending. 

I was thrilled to spend some time with them before they went on stage.

These next 2 shots, I love. The room was lit by mostly just candle light and I love the grain.

A bit of hanging out in the green room and Reverend Beckwith showing me his i-Phone with his Facebook application. Spiritual leaders are cool.

Spadelic

I have the coolest "job" and get to meet the most fun and interesting people. I met up with the gorgeous Kelly Kirby recently to photograph her for a spread in Jezebel Magazine. She is the brains behind Spadelic. Go check out her website for yourself to get a glimpse at what this funky, offbeat, spa is all about! Kelly is such a beautiful soul and you just can't help but be drawn to her. We hit it off immediately. Listening to her talk about her wonderful staff and a couple of the causes she feels deeply about is so inspiring. She is such a generous spirit! Her spa is a girl's dream. She has some killer products and awesome spa lines exclusive only to her. Hanging out at Spadelic made me want to get a bunch of girlfriends together for a fun night out and she can provide that too! Definitely stop by Spadelic and tell Kelly and the gals that I sent you!

Love the attention to detail and fun decorative accents throughout the cozy shop.

A Small Attempt to Recap Learnfest....

Well, I just seriously don't have the words for Learnfest! It came along at such an amazing time for me and my business. I have been in the middle of re-branding and identity for a few months now with a wonderful crew of folks. Really honing in on making your custom photography experience here at Sing Photography truly special and one of a kind. By capturing your family, kiddo, relationship at it's authentic awesomeness and creating amazing pieces of meaningful art that tell the story of your life. I have been so blessed with the most open and fun clients (most are now friends) and some great opportunities. What started out with children has naturally evolved into families, relationships, photojournalism and editorial work. I am so looking forward to being at Emily and Shane's wedding this weekend and other way cool shoots coming up as well.

So, the point of all of this rambling, is that I was actually able to be inspired, taught and around 4 of the best women in the photography business and see so much of what we have been working on around here actually in action. Lena, Tamara, Laura, and Audrey are incredible talents! SO wonderful to get to spend several days with these ladies. It was truly a life changing week. Besides the instructors, making friends with 60 other was pretty rockin' too! I made fast friends with so many and can't wait to see where life takes us all. I felt a deep kinship with several of them. Below is only a sample from the trip. There are so many other people, places and things I wish I had photographed, but here is a bit to tell the story......

First up.... my housemates and golf cart buddies Sara and Whitney...

Next up, just a drive by view from our golf cart. That's a piece of golf cart in the upper right corner
A bit of shooting with Tamara Lackey. She's so adorable!
A couple of our cutie pie models.....




And one more of my cutie soulmate friend Sara Harris.....
And the lovely Alice Park and hilarious Jessica Grieves!
There are sooooo many more special folks that I'm missing! Thank goodness for blogs and Facebook!

BHI

I am back from Bald Head Island, N.C. What an amazing experience! I have a head full of info and a heart full of love from the incredible Learnfest crew! Not to mention so many talented and wonderful photographers who I can now call my friends. I am missing my new buds and have that after a big event melancholy feeling. BUT getting to spend the weekend squeezing and smooching my boys to bits more than makes up for it! Oh, how I missed those 3 guys! Happy Friday!

"So I creep, yeah, I just keep it on the down low......"

I had the immense pleasure recently of photographing the one and only Chilli for a feature in this month's issue of Jezebel. She is a love and such a genuine soul. Which is awesome because I am a huge fan. And I go way back. In the summer of 1995, my copy of TLC's Crazy, Sexy, Cool cd was always in my multi-loader disc player. In the car and in the house. So, Chilli is just amazing. And she didn't laugh too hard when I told her I had jammies just like they wore in the Creep video and I used to creep around the house in them. To top my whole dorky fanness off, I asked her to sign my original cd and she did happily. The shoot was loooong and a blast. Chilli has a new song out and her hand in lots of cool stuff. She is super busy. She does a lot of work with teenage girls to help with self esteem. The article is great. I was going to choose some other behind the scenes pics from the shoot, but a few of the ones they chose for the article were my favorites, so that's what I'm posting here. Enjoy. And that is gum you see in my mouth. I actually don't usually chew it, but I was just plain gross after such a long day. Not like Chilli, who, as you can see was still looking quite gorgeous.

Storyboards

ETA: Pardon the screwy text here.

Thought I'd share a bit of behind the scenes stuff here. I know if you are a client, you know how much fun it is for me to get to the display end of our photo session. But, if you are a blog reader and have not yet had a session with me, or if you are on the books, you may not know that part. :) I love to take all the worry and stress over choosing and displaying your photography. Helping with wall collage ideas as well as other unique and personal ways to show off the artwork we create together is so thrilling for me! I'll have to post some finished walls here for you to get a glimpse. Anyway, storyboards are also a fun way to combine several photographs from your session in a creative layout. Here are a few from recent sessions that some creative clients pulled together. The horizontal ones you see here are 10x20. And the vertical ones are 16x20. We can create larger pieces as well.

Mom and I put this together to celebrate Will turning 1.

And here is one from the same session. A sleek and fun way to have multiple photos is one simple and custom piece.

And love this one in black and white as well. Emily and I put together a piece that captures she and Shane's relationship. Gorgeous!