Santa Pictures

We were so excited to offer our time, expertise, and services again this year to the city of Newcastle's Annual Tree lighting and children's program and pictures with Santa! We had so much fun taking pictures of all the kids (young and younger :) ) and listening to them tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Your free 5x7 pictures will be in the mail shortly!

Thank you to the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce for asking us to be your professional photographer again this year! We really enjoy getting to serve the community!

One of my Favorites

I'm not usually the type of person to pick favorites. I honestly love all of my clients and have so much fun at each session making them unique and different.
As the Children's portrait photographer for the studio, I get to enjoy all kinds of different personalities. And Anna's is one of my favorites.
My first session with Anna was when she was just 3 months old. Followed by: 6, 9, 12, and 18 month sessions, and then each birthday afterwards, and she even came for 2 of our spring bunny specials the past 2 years. Which means, over the past 5 years, I've had the great joy of photographing little Anna 11 times! (and 30+ images at each session!)


It is so rewarding to me to have a client who runs into my arms when she gets out of the car before our session begins! It literally melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes that she likes me just as much as I like her!
And the bonus here is: Anna now has a little sister! I'm thrilled to get to have another favorite join the first! Kamryn already has a winning smile and laid back mannerisms in front of the camera.

Anna's favorite thing to do these days is play dress up. So her 5 year session included just that. We had a blast playing and posing, and then when she waited patiently while Kamryn took a few more pictures she slipped on her Mimi's old heels with her beige sweater, so we had to take a few more of course!
So, Anna, I want you to know how blessed I am to have you as one of my regular clients, and how excited I am about the many more years to come. And I'm so glad you get to bring your new little sister with you too!

What a great week it's been. Engagement portraits for Carter & Alicia, bridal portraits for Sam, several senior sessions, maternity portraits for Tori & Jeff - a little bit of everything. We went to Mt. Scott for the engagement session and got lots of great images on the mountaintop, and in the town of Medicine Park. We'll post some of those later.

But what I've been wanting to share was Emily's senior photos. Here's a video. Elise took the images on the spiral staircase. They turned out awesome!!!

The Scotts

Clay and Elizabeth spend a lot of time together, and were engaged, in Bricktown, so this is where we did their engagement portraits a few months before the wedding. And the wedding was so much fun! These 2 are one of the most laid-back easy going couples that we've ever photographed. Here's a slideshow of their engagement session, and their wedding album is at the end of the show as well. And don't forget to notice the blue or black Converse shoes that the entire bridal party is wearing. They even convinced both sets of parents to kick back in the "chucks" that day.


Clay & Elizabeth

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Congratulations Liz and Clay!

Elise commented that we've had a busy summer, so I thought I'd share a little of what we've been up to:

Busy Summer!

We've had a very busy summer at Carr Portrait Art. Busy is good. It means we're doing our job of keeping satisfied customers. But it also means we didn't stay up to date on the blog. So for our regular readers, we apologize, but we hope to get back in the habit of sharing our fun sessions with you again.

Congratulations to DeAnn and Keenan! We're so excited about your wedding this weekend! We did some bridal portraits for DeAnn last weekend, and her dress is gorgeous! The church is beautiful! And the flowers and wedding colors will blend so well with the reception hall too.

Can't wait to spend Saturday with you two!

See us on youtube!

We've set up a YouTube account to start posting videos of some of our images on-line. Tell your friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW__uHs_Aq8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGpdbirg9Us

2009-2010 Seniors

It's What We Do

In the Professional Photography industry, there a lot of photographers who call themselves "professional". And I was looking through a few sites of new photographers in the area, just to see what is being marketed these days, and saw one of them even called himself a " "professional" "- with the quotations- as if to say he himself wasn't really sure what to call his work.
A Professional is one who (according to definition of the word) is an expert; or who belongs to a learned profession. Another definition classifies a professional as being an authority qualified to teach apprentices. Is your photographer qualified to teach someone about photography?

Rick and I are both PPA Certifed. To become Certified, we each took (and passed) an extensive photography exam on posing, lighting, and other technical aspects of photography, as well as submitted images before a panel of judges to show our work as photographers. This means we have both studied our craft to the extent that the Professional Photographers of America recognizes us each, as individuals, as being someone capable of their National recommendation.

A professional will commit to his/her client. And if an emergency arrises, they will do everything they can to help find a replacement who is just as good as, if not better than, themselves.

This was the case last weekend.
We received a call Monday morning last week from a fellow photographer who had a past client that had opted to hire a "friend of a friend with a camera" for their wedding last weekend. They just received a call from their "photographer" that they would be unable to make it to the wedding. This friend photographer had cancelled a week before the wedding!
Our fellow Professional was already committed to an event that weekend, so he told them he'd get on the phone and call a few professionals he knew and see if he could find an available photographer. He called us first (what a compliment!), and since we had scheduled this weekend off for the Professional Photographers of Oklahoma convention (Rick was going, but I was still deciding if I would attend some or all of the convention) I opted to help this photographerless Bride and Groom. What's a wedding without a photographer?

It's what we do.
I photographed the wedding that Friday night, and the family was so greatful that I chose to help them. And we all had a lot of fun with it too. The Bride and Groom even let me do a few fun poses that not everyone will do.

Saturday morning I received a call from another photographer in need of some help. She had someone lined up to take some candids at a family event (a fairytale ball) downtown that evening, but her photographer wasn't going to make it. So, of course, I helped her out. I was glad I had a free weekend to be available to other photographers.

It's what we do.

Photography is more than a job for Dad and me. It's more than our business. Photographs allow us to capture this moment in life. This very moment in your life - what's happening? Do you have kids graduating high school? Moving out? or even getting married and never living at home with you again? Or are your children still in the phase of life where everything is fun? Are they playing outside with sticks or playing little league games? Maybe you just had your first child (like me) and you're constantly overwhelmed by how much she's changing everyday. Or you could be an empty-nester and in need of some updated portraits of you and your spouse, reconnecting and enjoying the now quiet home. (Display your portraits of just the two of you in your home and I guarantee your children will be blessed by the constant reminder of the love you two share!)

We didn't seek out the title of Professional Photographer because we needed a status or letters to follow our name. We studied, and continue to attend conventions and photography classes to further our photographic education becuase we desire to be aware of the most up to date ideas, and technology so we can capture this moment. This very time in your life.

It's what we do, because we LOVE to do it. And because you deserve a photographer who values this moment in your life just as much as you do!

Felicia

When Felicia came in for her consultation for her Senior portraits, she said she wanted something different. She loved the look of rustic doors, or old front porches, or said we could try the downtown OKC area and find some fun alley ways.

So we scheduled her senior experience for the following week; and I drove around a few local towns to find the perfect spot for miss Felicia's session. I love the opportunity and challenge to be creative. And this was the perfect challenge.

I found it! A nice fun alley with big colorful doors, a spiral staircase, and close to some other parts of the town that had some old front porches too. Everything she wanted and then some!

Do you have some ideas for your senior session? Want something different and fun? Call us!

Lindsay

What a privilege we had this morning. Elise and I got to do senior portraits for a young lady who is finishing her high school studies this year at home. A few years ago, she was in a car accident and was crippled. She's 20 years old. She can't speak. She's mostly confined to a wheel chair. She can use her right arm enough to drive the chair to some extent, but mostly depends on others for mobility.

She was excited to be doing her senior portraits, though. She had three clothing changes, including a formal dress and homecoming queen ribbon and tiara, and a bouquet of red roses. Her biggest smiles came at the reminder that she was done with school (pretty much like any senior). It was hard work for her to do the session, somewhat tiring, but she loved it. She loved the attention. She loved being treated as someone special. Oh, I hope and pray that she loves the images - not because I need the approval, but because I want her to know how beautiful and special and precious she really is!!

Spring break & bunny season!

The bunnies are here! People are calling to schedule Spring children's portraits, and photos with the bunnies. Last week was Spring break. We took the first couple of days to do maintenance around the studio, especially outdoors - minor repairs to some of our sets, clean the pond, trim the grass on the berm, weed flower beds, prune shrubs, recover from sore muscles.... Then the rest of the week was mostly senior portraits. We did squeeze in a day at the zoo, and bunny photos for the little ones in our own family. We got portraits of Elise's little one, Anna, and her cousin Eva (Adam's little girl) one day.

Then this weekend, Trish & I got photos of Sarah's boys, Thayer & Aidan. We learned very quickly that two toddlers, and two hyper-active toddler bunnies in front of a camera is at least a three person job!! But we still came away with some cute images.

Spokes Model Search

Our annual search for senior spokes models is winding down. We still have openings for spokes models from a few schools. If you are a junior in high school (class of 2010), female (sorry guys, but girls and their friends just get more excited about photography) and you would like to be a spokes model for Carr Portrait Art and UltimateSeniorPortraits.com give us a call as soon as possible. We need to finish photographing our 2010 models by mid March at the latest!! That means we need to talk with you before the end of February in order to get you scheduled and plan your session! The number is 392-3929.

Our spokes model program is like none other in the OKCity Metro area. Call us and we'll schedule a time to chat (no obligation, no cost) and explain the program to you and a parent. Do a good job and you'll receive a coffee table book/album of images from your model session. Plus, you'll save money on your senior portrait session and order. Our top model will win an i-pod at our senior kick off party in May!

We are especially looking for models from Mustang, West Moore, and South Moore, Norman and Norman North. If you are not a junior, but no someone, please tell them about this. If you refer us to someone and they sign on as a model, I'll buy you a $25 gift card to the movies or your favorite restaurant, store or mall.

In the meantime, check out our website: www.carrportraitart.com, and our Carr Portrait Art Facebook page, as well as the Facebook group: Carr Portrait Art Made My Senior Portraits!
Our new senior website: www.ultimateseniorportraits.com is still under construction. We hope to launch it this spring featuring images from our 2010 spokes model sessions.