Lifelong Impressions Photography » Lifelong Impressions custom photography capturing you

Sep 19 2011

It feels a little like Fall

Wow, the first few days of cooler temperatures has arrived. It feels fantastic! As my 3 year old Madison says, “It’s chiwli,” with a delighted grin on her face. Along with fall comes the great family session event, as I like to call it. This is the season which many clients love the best and want to capture images of their family wearing adorable layers of clothes in snuggly scenes. It’s the time of year we imagine ourselves starting to feast on warm soups and stews along with yummy hot chocolate on chilly days. Yay, us! I can’t wait to photograph the lovely families that are on the books.

Halloween is also right around the corner. We are certainly all busy picking out what we want to be for Halloween. Madison is all set since her beautiful costume from last year fits perfect this year. This year instead of being a pirate lady she’ll be a princess with it! Last year Blake was a pirate, but this year he wants to be some kind of superhero! Here is an image of the twins from last years Halloween dress up mini sessions.

Speaking of Halloween sessions… It is definitely that time of year and it is time for you to schedule yours. Give me a call or send an email to set up your appointment. 919-585-6433 or shannon@lifelongimpressions.com

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Jul 29 2011

Peek into the last three + months

There has been so much going on here the last three months!

With the birth of Landon, we welcomed home the most awesome baby. He is so good and sooooo low maintenance. The twins were definitely high maintenance and either one of them would have been considered high maintenance on their own as well. It is such a treat to have such a happy and content baby. He smiles all the time, wants to sleep regularly {including almost all night!}, loves to be held, loves to chill on his own and just generally brings us all joy.

A couple weeks after Landon was born I had my tailbone removed since it had been paining me for 8 years. Being up and about was no problem, even a few days post op, but sitting at my computer was an issue. Posting new images and articles on the website was one of the things to suffer from the inattention to the computer. I was still doing sessions and working on clients orders, but not really able to do much more then share a few images on my Facebook page. Sharing images there is all good, but it is so much more fun and interesting to put in the comments and backstories!

Here are some images from the last three months. It’s going to be so hard to only pick one image from a session!

We did a pirate and princess theme session with Miles and his sister. It’s so fun to dress up little kids and celebrate the beginnings of their imaginations by representing their playtime in images. Just other day our daughter, Madison, stood up on an old hard cover suitcase and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen. Blake and Maddie will now present a show for you.” So cute. Anyway, the images of Miles and Ava will also be used in their 3rd birthday party invitations for their pirate and princess themed party.

There are so many non crying images, but we call this one “Missing Daddy.” He is currently deployed for a year to Afghanistan and left just 2 months after she was born. Both mom and baby Ava can’t wait to have him home again.

Ryan is celebrating his arrival to 18 months with joy. We had a very busy session chasing this little guy around. His brother Anderson was in a few shots too.

Capturing relationships with extended families is one of my favorite things. It is so rare that most people take the time to capture these special relationships as adults.

Emily, my summer intern, got to practice shooting my friend, Sandy’s, two girls. I took the position of second shooter and let her take charge of the session only jumping in occasionally to give advice and suggest poses. While she had the older of the two girls off on her own, I got this beauty of mom and daughter.

Of all the baby milestones I photograph, the six month {sitting not crawling} age is my favorite to do an urban session. They aren’t going anywhere so we don’t have to worry about them stepping in glass or eating rusty stuff. The textures and colors are so awesome in the background and create a stark contrast to a babies beautiful new skin.

Newborns are just so precious. Little Julian loved the hot humid air and slept contentedly while we moved him around for different poses.

Just before we gave Emily and Drew cakes to smash up, we captured a few poses of them just sitting for us on the grey backdrop. This is one of my favorite images all year out of all my personal and professional images! I love their joy an her advancing on me…

Newborn Hazel is a sweetheart. I think her voice is also just like her older sisters! I always enjoy capturing Heather’s family.

Coming in September Adrian and Jennifer will be getting hitched! We had a lot of fun marrying Adrian’s love of architecture with Jennifer’s more traditional design wishes. It was so much fun getting to do both urban and green for both the engagement and bridal sessions. It is so hard waiting to share the bridals!

Here is one of the only images I can share from Jennifer’s bridals. :-)

Emily has been a huge part of the last few months while she interns with me. This girl will definitely be going places with her fantastic natural talent and great personality. My kids love her. They tell her they love her all the time and also include her in their prayers.

Mom was thinking of putting Miles and Ava into modeling so we did a mini session for a couple images to submit to an agency. After capturing them both individually we got a few super fun images of them together.

Baby Hazel {still in mom’s tummy} with her big sister & mommy. I love how sweetly excited Cora was here in anticipation of meeting her baby sister.

We had lots of family visit us after Landon arrived. Corri is Guy’s sister. She asked if they could do a session while they were here. YES! I love to capture our family members. It is so much fun to see what they order. Corri basically bought the store. :-) I’m pretty sure she loves getting her items at cost because she is family.

Josh is a very interesting person to talk to to and to have in front of the camera. He shows a range of emotions and looks.

Keatyn’s 3 month session was at home. I loved how they remodeled and decorated their home. It’s no wonder they sold their home quickly when they decided to move back home to Louisiana. I’ll miss being able to photograph Jade’s adorable girls with their stylish outfits mom picks out.

Posted in 2011 Seniors, Babies, Families, Kids, Maternity, My Family

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lauri - August 24, 2011 - 4:02 pm

What an incredible variety youv’e shown here! Your work is beautiful and so full of life!

Jul 20 2011

Meet Emily

Emily is interning with me this summer. There is no doubt we would have gone out eventually this summer to photograph her. We had a little incentive, however, since there was still a blank space on the family wall for her high school senior portrait to hang. The photographer her school required she go to did not produce work they were interesting in hanging their walls. Some time passed and they were about to order a, what I thought, was a great image her dad, camera buff, had captured of her. She just wasn’t a fan of the shot or any others they had of her. We set out one day with our cameras, some props, and Blake.

During her fall semester last year she decided to change her major from textiles to photography. She enrolled for the spring semester at Appalachian State completing her first black and white film photography class along with other general prerequisites. She has also been learning digital photography and editing on her own.

She ended up interning with me this summer after he dad and I struck up a conversation on photography. He let me know his daughter was looking to intern this summer. I gave him my card, and she emailed me. After looking at her work on Facebook, I thought she would be a great match for Lifelong Impressions photography. She has a natural eye for composition and light which is an awesome foundation.

This image is my favorite of all from this session. To me it really represents the Emily we’ve gotten to know.

Everyone in my family has enjoyed getting to know Emily this summer. My kids get almost as excited to see her pull up into the driveway as they do their daddy.

We are about half way done with working on a client website with all the lovely information and forms available not on password protected pages as they are now.

I’m very excited to get the client website done and sent out to all my clients!

Emily is a learns new information quickly and adds value with her design sense and techie shortcuts I love to learn. Anything to get things done more efficiently is a bonus!

By the time we are done this summer I think she’ll be ready to network and build a business of engagement & wedding photography with all the other young adults she’ll be networking with in college.

With each of the sessions I see her work done on her own and with me there are more great captures.

Like me at her age she is a little shy, but I think she’ll break right out over time especially when holding the camera. The camera is like a free pass to be so different. I can’t explain it. For me when the camera is in my hand there is no such thing as personal space like showing someone how to pose with their spouse essentially snuggling up to them or picking lint and other debris off shirts and pants. There is no way I’d be doing that without a camera in my hand, nor would there be any reason to come to think of it. :-)

My son, Blake, is not a boy who likes to get dirty. In fact, his hands are not allowed to get dirt on them at all and must be cleaned off right away if they get anything on them. The morning we went out was both hot and humid so he wasn’t digging the field with the dirt and tall weeds.

Thankfully, I also brought a tricycle for him to play with while Emily was in front of the camera. He got into posing with Emily very quickly. After I was done with her she took a crack at photographing Blake since she has been nervous to photograph kids. Starting with one she has a relationship with was great. I can’t wait to share some of the images she took of Blake as soon as I have some time to edit personal images.

Love this shot of her!

Followed closely by this one!

The images towards the end of any session tend to be my favorites. I love the edit on this one as much as the image itself.

She and her parents also agreed on a senior image to hang on the wall {a little late} from this session. It was one of the 6 like this horizontal laying down image. It was well worth laying down in the weeds and old leaves to get her favorites!

Posted in Business Spotlight, Information, Mentoring

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Jul 06 2011

Bella Mia Shoot

I just realized that I never put the images from Bella Mia’s session on here. Bella Mia provides adorable custom bows, flowers, tutus, flip flops and other accessories. Daniella is one of the sweetest women I have met and worked with. She definitely puts the love into her products.

FACEBOOK / ETSY / LOCAL

Locally Bella Mia items are available at Buttons and Bows Children’s Consignment in Garner, NC off Aversboro Road. Christine and Marty are the fabulous shop owners who have recently redesigned and launched the store. The non tutu clothing items in the shots around the barn are from Christine’s clothing line Alyssa Caroline also available at Buttons and Bows.

Us girls {me, Daniella & Christine} were goofing off at the end while cleaning up. I look like a giant next to the normal size ladies! I think I was bending my knees too!

Posted in Business Spotlight, Commercial

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Jun 24 2011

Personal Shooting

I haven’t talked a lot on this website about personal shooting. As an artist first and foremost it is very important to be inspired continually. When we drive anywhere my mind is constantly taking in the scenes and lighting conditions that pass before us. Most of the time I imagine how these scenes we pass will look with people in them. I love to photograph people most of all. When I meet people, and even when chatting with friends, my mind is often using an imaginary camera to capture the best of that person. Looking for the good, the pretty and most importantly the personality.

While it is currently very popular among photographers to capture sultry looks from their subjects I will undoubtedly continue to endeavor o capture the real smile and joyful personality in every subject. Most people have a cheerful and cheeky side that is just waiting to be captured. This certainly doesn’t mean I want to pass up any tender emotional moments that convey the genuine love families have for each other.

But I digress from my original topic. Capturing images just for my personal inspiration. When I am being personally inspired the whole world just seems to be a better and more enjoyable place. This is why I decided to accomplish a 365 project where I take an image a day. It has been a bit impossible to post those images lately on my blog, but I am still taking them daily. They inspire me many days.

This last week we spend in Atlanta visiting some of my family. As we were driving to the house the second day we were there, I noticed a really cool shabby barn surrounded by some beautiful trees. My first thought was that it would make a great place to capture some family images. Since my family there is pretty camera shy I knew we probably wouldn’t get to capture everyone, but the kids would work great there too. I capture images of them all the time, but we rarely go out with the intent to capture images like a real session.

I rummaged around my parents house to see what we could use for the impromptu session. Guy & Madison had her dressed in a rather eclectic outfit and I liked the colors Blake was dressed in. We didn’t bring any clothes with us other then everyday play clothes. With all the items gathered my sister and I jumped in the SUV with the twins and headed over to the barn.

And here we begin! Just after they sit down they are both enthralled by the water in Madison’s cup only it wasn’t just water in there. There was a small black bug swimming for all he was worth to escape. I quickly dumped the water and we reloaded with some fresh water. Ha ha.

After I got the bug out of her water and they switched sides a few times we got down to the ‘serious’ business of shooting.

Clients are always asking me what they should bring to a session. When kids are involved there are so many options right from your own home. All of these items were just around my parents home. The hydrangea bush on the side of the house provided the flowers. The bottle came from an Australian ginger beer I got when Guy got his meat pie and sausage roll fix from the Australian bakery the day before {Guy is from Australia}. The “table top” is a book with one giant pull out page I remember seeing as a kid. The “table base” is a family heirloom handed down to my step mom from her grandmother. Madison and Blake’s “chairs” were grabbed as I was walking around perusing the house contents. My step mom has a thing for dishes and china so at the last moment I grabbed a couple plates and cups to take with us. I didn’t have any plan on what to use where, but it all came together when we got there. We also brought a black umbrella.

My husband, Guy, says this one should be titled Mars – Venus! We love it.

Back at home from our trip the last two days they have played tea party in their room. As I was editing the images both of them excitedly relived their photo session describing all the stuff they did while pointing to their images.

She looks so pretty to me.

LOVE

She started laughing at me as I was teasing her to coax out different looks.

My baby sister, Grace, was helping out by moving the kids here and there, filling their water and adjusting whatever needed adjusting. Blake is inspecting his cup to ensure it was filled properly by her. lol

Then he ran off. Typical boy.

No worries. Madison carried on the tea party without him.

She decided it was time for her to get in some good play time too. She gave me this adorable look and body pose before heading off.

I love this shot. It is definitely time to get some of my favorite images together to sell as fine art images people can display in their homes.

I need to braid her hair more often. It goes together well and looks so cute.

Another fine art image. So sweet and nostalgic.

Grammy’s china photographs beautifully.

Detail shots are always a favorite of mine. One of these days I want to publish a book of my detail images with cool stories and funny saying calling it Pieces.

Blake gave Maddie some flowers. Giving them actions generally helps them to have more fun and gives me cool images that tell a story. This evening, Blake was talking on the phone to Nanny {Guy’s mum}. He turns to the computer just after saying hello and sees this image. He tells her, “Did you see the pictures of Blake and Maddie on mom computer? We were playing.” Well honey, she will see them soon enough when this post gets published.

Girls need to run off and have a different kind of fun sometimes. Blake liked to get out of the shady area where the location wasn’t quite as cool anymore. She’s off to join him here.

After some smooth talking they came back into the ‘scene’ and agreed to hug each other. This quickly became a giggly mess of let’s see who can knock the other one down first.

Madison got a scratch & not sure why Blake looks sad too. This is one of my favorite images from the session.

This girl loves to pout. I don’t think we go a day without her pouting over something.

Blake came over to help her up.

She loved it until…

Yep, neck grab and she stopped helping herself up thinking her same size three year old brother would be able to lift her dead weight up off the ground. Sure Maddie. She has a thing or two to learn about physics.

The wind kept knocking our wold history pull out over which I ended up liking better anyway. She brought the pot back over to the tea table. It’s such a cute image of a little girl at play.

We got this adorable image before he was fired from the umbrella for a while.

This session turned into something much more about Madison then Blake. There are so many images I love. She cracks me up and I love this quirky outfit her dad put her in that morning.

Both of my twins love to tease us, and playing hide and seek is one of their favorite tricks.

I love how quickly their attention turns in different directions.

After capturing some images of Maddie with the umbrella we walked over to see if Blake was ready to join us for some close ups of the two of them together. I turned around to see this… My sweet girl was busy walking behind me dragging the umbrella while blowing bubbles. lol

This one makes me laugh.

This is so sweet. They really love each other. I’m so glad Blake consented to rejoin us for some close ups under the umbrella together. The first time we tried it he kept dragging her by walking away and pulling the umbrella. This time he got really into the affectionate and fun moments with his twin sister.

Check out the love in that look.

I love these moments and am so thankful to be blessed with the talent to capture these precious moments of my kids as they grow and develop.

I inherited this same upside down smile thing from my grandma who passed away last summer. She is the first one I thought of when this image popped up. Miss her.

Another look at Mars and Venus here. Madison is all angelic looking right at the camera, while Blake is doing his own thing and looking bored with it all.

I love everything about this last shot I got of them. It was the perfect note to end on. Pretty much since this session ended I’ve been on an emotional high.

Posted in My Family, Relationships

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Jun 17 2011

Sweet Ava

You may remember the recent maternity session I blogged about found here. Well, sweet baby Ava has arrived, and I’d love to share some of the images from their newborn session.

She wanted to eat as soon as I got there so we started out with some images of cuddly family time.

The morning light was so pretty in the family room.

I love simple family moments like this one.

And this is super sweet. I think Ava will love this image when she gets older.

Infant smiles are rarely timed for a session so I love when we get them!

This blanket of Ann’s is an amazing color!

Love the contrast of masculine and delicate new baby.

My favorite image of Ann. She is so beautiful.

Natural and beautiful!

Love this moment chillin in Ava’s room.

Oh, and this one.

Ava is with a lot of special items here. Dad is in the special forces. The pink hat and the blanket both have the information for his unit, and the antiques belonged to Ann’s father.

Posted in Babies

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