What’s your idea of a fun and romantic date? Walking in Hillsboro Village, hiking at Radnor Lake, checking out art at the First Center, or listening to music at the Irish Pub? What do you with your mate to celebrate a special anniversary, accomplishment or just to spend time together? We all long for these special moments to connect and to embrace. I offer a photo session just for couples: “Embrace.” The purpose of this session is to capture and celebrate your love story. What drew you together? What do you enjoy doing together? What do you love about you each other? What is your story? My hope is that during this session, I can capture the soul and essence of your journey together, to document the small details that are meaningful to you, to give you a chance to connect, to laugh, to celebrate, to embrace.

We think this would make a great Valentines, birthday, anniversary gift for your mate OR give this as a gift to your parents, friends or family. So this session is just for the two of you!  And we want you to make a date of it even after the photo session. So often those of us that have been married for a bit and have a few kids running around, it’s hard to set aside time to connect as a couple – so we want this to be a special time for you.

DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, I am offering a special promotion: $75 OFF the Session AND A FREE 6×6 CANVAS! You must purchase the session by Feb 28 and book your session by May 31. Email Kayla@ameliajmoore.com to make a reservation or for more information.

If you are purchasing this as a VALENTINE’S GIFT, we can send you a special gift card.

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala again! Our trip had two purposes: First, we are starting another documentary project titled, Becoming Fools which contrasts the tragic reality of homeless children and the hope that is possible when their community responds. The story will document the lives of street youth and professional clowns who are preparing them for a public event in the prestigious Guatemalan National Theatre. So we started on production for that (my husband was in the country for a month). And we also led a team to teach art classes at a camp with 100 kiddos. I wanted to share this with you as it was such an inspirational experience for me.

Thanks to a grant from LEGO, Athentikos was able to partner with Lemonade International to take children from one of Central America’s largest slum communities (La Limonada) to a week long Art Camp on the Guatemalan coast.

Lillie & Brad, your day was beautiful and it’s evident that you guys love each other and enjoy laughing, dancing and being together. May God richly bless your marriage as you grow closer to Him and each other every day.

Enjoy!

It’s been my intention for several years to pour my work energy & time into my photography business, so I’ve wanted to drop this other work plate for some time… but the financial security was a little too difficult. I’ve had this graphic design job for 10 years. So in a way, being “fired” was kinda a relief. But, I’ll have to be honest, it also sucked. It stung in a way I wasn’t expecting. I experienced rejection, frustration and fear. Ironically, in the same month, my husband also found out he was loosing his job of 7 years. So our emotions were only compounded… until they finally resulted in laughter, excitement and peace. I’m not saying we aren’t still experiencing all those negative emotions, but I am saying we are both excited about a new chapter in our lives to pursue our dreams: my being photography and his documentary work (more about that in another post).

I’m thankful I’m at a place with my business and my skill level that I can (almost) confidently step into self-employment. I have a great client base and many of you get your photos taken at least annually. I’ve loved getting to watch and document your family’s growth and activities. It really is an honor to provide this service and be an important part of your family’s lives. Thank you for your business and your belief in me.

In addition to continue to offer a variety of photography session options (family, infant, engagement, seniors and artist) and weddings, I’ll also be offering a full product line and design sessions. As you may know, this is something I’ve been trying to implement over the last year, but I’m excited to spend my extra time helping you come up with a plan for your photography that best fits your needs. You have invested time and energy (and money) in your images, I want you to do something beautiful with those photos whether it’s a gorgeous keepsake album or a totally “outside the box” art wall display idea.

So over the next several months, I’ll be posting product and display ideas. I also have lots of custom ideas churning in my head. After each photo session, I’ll set up a design session to sit down with you and help you come up with a plan for your photos. And I’ll also be adding product options to my basic photography service.

So I’m excited to announce that I’ll be employed full-time by me :) And it felt really good to drop a plate!

SO… I joined 11 photographers from the southeast region in Atlanta for a day with Shannon. She started out sharing about her background and approach to her work – and how that has evolved.  What I appreciated about her philosophy is that she takes and finds jobs that she enjoys. She challenged us to really evaluate what it is we enjoy and to go after that. Many people start in the photography business just thinking if they take a lot of photos and get a lot of clients then they will be successful. Her approach is to do what you love, set boundaries and then you will be successful. Therefore, she only photographs children. She loves their spirit, creativity and imaginations and she creates environments that depict that.

Shannon also encouraged us to really study what inspires you. So i have signed up for pintrest.com (follow me!). And am trying to spend some time each week looking around – not just at other photographers, but art, design, culture, global events and “pinning” what inspires me. Then, I’ll look at my boards and collaborate with Kayla and what we might want to include in our sessions. I don’t want to copy others, but I want to find inspiration from others’ ideas. SO – Do the same for some ideas that you might like for your next photo session and send my your pinned ideas! Let’s share and inspire each other together.

And then we got to do a style shoot with Shannon together. It was fun to watch her (and other photographers) approach their work. Shannon really encourages creatives to collaborate – not just at the workshop, but in general. What I really enjoyed about her is that she is laid back and flexible. She had a plan, but if it doesn’t work out, then she readjusted. Our first set up was against a white wall. Shannon had the models draw some simple objects to tape on the wall which included dogs, flowers, balloons, kites which the models would then interact with. We shot in a studio using all natural light (she uses very little artificial light which was shocking to me). We also shot with window light – how glorious! I was reminded that this is a great resource if I need to shot inside. Look at these stunning images!

Then we shot outside in broad daylight around 1:00 in the afternoon. This is the horror time for most photographers, but she wanted us to see how she’d approach it. Her plan was to draw a hopscotch and have the kids jump on it. But the chalk drawing wouldn’t show up on the ground in a photograph because it was so bright. So we adjusted and had the kids play on the hopscotch a bit – they had fun and then we moved on. She had them pose together and then each with an object. I loved how she positioned with them with the hola hoop and skate board. Both were “natural” poses that she directed. And Shannon positions them with the sun behind them and meters their face to get the right exposure for their skin. This will blow out the background which is typically fine.

Since it was blazing Atlanta hot (and Shannon is from Portland), we had to find some shade. Shannon had brought these simple props for the kids to interact with in their shoot: tin can stilts, soda pops and of course cool hats. I’m pretty sure you’ll see me using these ideas in your upcoming shoots! Then main thing I learned during this time was to find natural light reflectors – like the sidewalk or white building to use to bounce light. (instead of using a reflector, although I love my reflector).After our photographing session, she then demonstrated her post-processing procedure. It was surprisingly simple and yet inspiring. I gained some great insight into how I might cut down my work-flow (one tip being to just shoot JEPG and not RAW… but I don’t know if I can mentally handle that yet!) Shannon then opened the discussion for questions and was very generous in sharing insight from her business to offering to critique our work after the workshop. I really appreciate her sincere desire to invest and inspire others. Her heart and creativity are genuine and beautiful.

We always love to add a hand-made creative set to our mini-sessions. And this time we designed this beautiful paper garland wall. The idea was inspired by the very talented Shannon Sewell.  We hung ours on a brick wall to add some more texture and fortunately the home owners had these beautiful spring “flowers” growing in the bed right in front to add another texture element and spring color! And a special THANK YOU to Emily & Brent Stewart for allowing us to use their beautiful yard for the mini-sessions.

And Kayla made flower wreath crowns which the girls were excited to wear. We featured a few new props – like these fun hats. These were Kayla’s “Derby” hats. What girl doesn’t like hats!? One of our families brought a hat for their son… and I absolutely LOVE these! We have been using this beautiful very vintage quilt. I LOVE the colors. We even hung it for Rachel’s senior photos.

Our mini sessions are always popular and a fun way to connect with new families and reconnect with other clients. I am truly honored to photograph your families and I know your photos will be treasured for a long time. We are totally booked for our upcoming summer session; but we will be announcing our fall session in September.  The fall sessions book fast, so to be the first to receive word about the dates, make sure you “like” “Amelia J. Moore Photography” on facebook and email us to sign up for email list.

Style By: Kayla Henley
Assistants: Rachel Ratejetski
Location: Brentwood, TN
Home provided by : The Stewart Family