Imploring the Sun to Come Back Out

Yes, I know, we needed the rain. But with yet another day ahead of severe storms, I wanted to share some photos to nudge the sun to come out and grace our area. Look at the sunny disposition of these cute little brothers enjoying the shoreline at their home.

~Trista

Email and Website Troubles All Fixed

I’ve been in business for almost six years and have never had website server troubles like this afternoon/evening. If you emailed me or attempted to visit my website, I greatly apologize. If you did email me. would you resend it please?

Thank you for your understanding.

Announcing High School 2010 Senior Photo Shoot Week – May 11-16, 2009

We are ready to rock the Gulf Coast with our fabulous H.S. Senior Photo Shoot week. The question is, are you ready 2010 Gulf Breeze/Pensacola Seniors?

When you book one of the six sessions during this special week you get the following:

• One-hour custom photo session at an exciting Pensacola or Gulf Breeze location based on your style and personality – all before the heat of summer kicks in
•  50 custom, complimentary 411 Cards w/photos from your session to share your personal info with all your friends
•  Here is the topper: I am throwing in a complimentary family photo session anytime during December 2009 (mom will love this last chance to have a family portrait before you head off to college)

Here is a sample of a set of 411 cards made for one of my Gulf Breeze Seniors. I’ve blurred her personal info of course.

You get all of this when you book one of the six slots available between May 11-16.  The cost is $195 (retail value: $500). If you would like to add-on additional locations to your shoot, I would be happy to do so, just let me know when you call.

These sessions will go fast…when have I ever offered two photo sessions for the price of one? Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have at trista@lookwhojustblouin.com. But please note: You will need to call me (850-712-1513) and book/pay for the session to reserve the slot. Emailing me your interest in the slot will not reserve the day for you.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please enjoy this video showing a sampling of my senior work…

First Time Pregnancy

I enjoyed photographing this mom-to-be recently. I was so impressed with the art in her home; each piece meant something to her personally. I know these portraits and those of her future baby will mean just as much. A lot of my clients who choose to use me do so because they want to display artful portraiture on their walls of their children. There is so much stuff that could hang on your walls. To have something that makes your heart leap in your chest every time you pass by it, that is what making a house a home is all about.

 

~Trista

The Beauty of the Here and Now

I recently photographed a family who booked me before finding out that they were blessed with a surprise pregnancy. Some might have cancelled the shoot figuring that their family photo wouldn’t be “complete.”  But this mom decided that it was important to capture this time in their lives and the unique qualities that defined their children at this point in time. I’ve had people tell me that they will book me when…fill-in-the-blank. The sad thing is that right now is just as important as when…fill-in-the-blank. You can NEVER get this time back. Life is an ongoing story and each chapter holds an integral part to the plot of your family’s story. The family I initially mentioned just saw their portraits and the photo of their boy, who was just taking his first steps, made her realize how precious THAT DAY was.

With that in mind, I would like to share a portion of a poem by Richard Gilbert entitled “Life Is Always Unfinished Business.”

In the midst of the whirling day,

In the hectic rush to be doing,

In the frantic pace of life,

Pause here for a moment…

 

Consider that our lives are always unfinished business;

Imagine that the picture of our being is never complete;

Allow your life to be a work in progress.

 

Do not hurry to mold the masterpiece;

Do not rush to finish the picture;

Do not be impatient to complete the drawing.

From beckoning birth to dawning death we are in process,

And always there is more to be done.

———————————

Here are some photos of another family who values the importance of capturing this special time in their children’s lives.  ETA: I NEED TO STRESS: THIS IS NOT THE SAME FAMILY MENTIONED IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. As parents we hope that our children will always want to snuggle up in our laps, but life just doesn’t come with a guarantee policy and before you know it, your little girl might find that snuggling is uncool for a 13 year old.  Fingers crossed that never happens though.

I am currently booking sessions in the middle of April if you would like to have me document this chapter in your child’s life.

~Trista

The Power of Touch

I would like to share an excerpt from the book “What Happy Women Know.”  It is powerful and there is no way I could summarize it without diluting its message. 

A nurse in a pediatric ward of an inner-city hospital witnessed this first hand…

“One day, she said, an elderly woman walked into the emergency room of a Newark, NJ, hospital. She was carrying a blanket-wrapped baby, who looked from a distance to be quite small. It turned out that the ‘baby,’ named Melanie, was 22 months old, and when the woman, a neighbor, had remarked earlier to the mother that there might be something seriously wrong with Melanie, the mother literally handed the baby over to the older woman and said, ‘Here. Maybe you can fix her.’

The first thing the ER staff did was weigh Melanie. She weighed 12 pounds, could not stand, and had never crawled. They later learned she had not been deprived of food so much as of love. No one ever held little Melanie for very long. Her mother claimed that with five kids, she simply ‘didn’t have enough time.’

When Melanie was admitted to the pediatric ward, her diagnosis was ‘failure to thrive.’  The pediatrician assigned to her case left a single prescription: Melanie was to be held as often as possible, around the clock, by any nurse or volunteer with a free arm. Within 3 months, she was standing and weighing in at 20 pounds. Eleven months later, on her last day at the hospital and just shy of her third birthday, the smiling child, now far too heavy to carry around for very long, ran down the hall with a fistful of balloons to bid goodbye to the nurses on the pediatric floor. According to them, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place as they stood watching ‘their’ little girl smile and wave and grab tightly to the hand of her future adoptive mother.

Such is the power of touch.”

The joy I get photographing families tenderly holding and touching their loved ones is immense. It is one of the biggest perks of my job. There is something indescribable that happens in my heart. Here is a family who just welcomed their third baby, their first daughter…

I know this photo is of the baby crying, but as a fellow parent I can feel the strong current of emotion in this photo that speaks directly to my heart…

I’ve photographed this guy for a few years now and I have yet to find such gorgeous eyelashes on a boy. Simply stunning!

~Trista

Wrapped in Ivy

Today I went outside with my hedge trimmers and attempted to tame the ivy that is covering the brick and attempting to cover our doors, windows, and eaves.  I came across a bird’s nest snuggled within the thicket and thought how comforting and secure that mama must feel. This past week I photographed a family who also had beautiful ivy covering their brick and trees. I actually photographed their children among it, it just felt so natural to see them entwined in its vines; so comforting.

~Trista