Photography Archives - Page 3 of 4

Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

2020 Personal Picture Project

It is time for the 2020 Personal Picture Project! One of Spoiled Rotten Photography’s core values is excellence. One way to continually grow as a photographer is to constantly be looking for inspiration that you can incorporate into your own work through the work of artists of all mediums, nature, and the work of other photographers. It is getting outside of the style and comfort of the lighting, posing, and styling that you typically do to create a piece of art that speaks to you personally. We believe we are more than just a warm body behind a camera snapping a button of children, but rather artists who are trained to connect with the soul of a child and capture memories for parents with excellence.

2020

“Free Puppyz”

This year I was inspired by a return to simpler times depicted in Norman Rockwell style paintings. Children playing outdoors with puppies trailing at their feet. When I learned my brother and sister-in-law’s dog just had puppies, I knew they would be the perfect subjects to incorporate into a story with my nephews.

Inspiration Artwork

If you think working with children always yields a perfect image with everyone looking at the camera at just the right second, think again. For laughs I am sharing the original images that went into making this final piece of art.

2019

“Our Story in Silhouette”

I was inspired by the playful nature of sunset silhouette pictures by Jen Snyder. I wanted to simplistically tell the story of my girls in the light of this moment in time. This was a photo project that lit my girls up with excitement for helping to achieve together. Savannah has been learning to play the clarinet through middle school band and Sarah Beth is still all about tutus and dressing up along with her guinea pig, Cupcake, that she got in 2019. This image now lives on our wall as a 24×30 gallery wrapped canvas.

2018

“Fearless”

I was inspired by the simplicity and boldness of the black and white portraits created by Lisa Visser. In this image of my daughter, I wanted to capture and highlight her summer freckles.

Make sure you cast your vote for your favorite image in the 2020 Personal Picture Project by commenting on this Facebook post.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Graduation 2020

Graduation 2020 looks a lot different this year than what we have come to expect for preschool, high school, and collage graduations. Both of my girls have completed their seasons of elementary and middle school this year and will be moving on to middle and high school in the Fall.

The girls have been sad about missing fun end-of-the-year activities, special programs and award ceremonies that they should be enjoying before making the transition to a new school.

Today we grabbed my 22 year old, royal blue, high school graduation gown out of the closet and had a little fun creating images to help us remember these milestone graduations. Luckily the gown color matches our current Chelsea blue.

I have photographed a lot of preschool little graduates over the years, but these images of my girls are the ones that will make me cry as we pull them back out at the next milestone.

What is not to love about star confetti?!

We’ve been making the most of our time “Staying at Home” this Spring while celebrating birthdays, crafting, playing, baking, and homeschooling.

We are wrapping up our digital home learning this week and are looking forward to a Summer full of more memories!

The thing about new beginnings is that they require something else to end.
– Blair Waldorf

What does the end of the school year, Graduation 2020 look like for your family? Do you have any kiddos moving on to a new school in the Fall? Share with us how you are choosing to celebrate the end of the school year and any graduates at your home!

If you have a high school or collage graduate, Krispie Kreme is doing a fun promotion that your graduate can be recognized for the week of 5/18-5/24!

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Printables

Game Night

Mothers I see you and know you have all been thrown expectations out of the norm over the past 2 months. From making decisions that are best for your family, juggling working from home while entertaining children and continuing school at home, to providing 3 meals a day and keeping a sense of order in your home.

As a fun diversion, I hosted this virtual game night on Facebook to bring my friends together for an evening of fun.

You can download each of the game boards and post to your personal social media accounts and pages to host your own virtual interactive event.

STAY HOME – BINGO

I know each of our “Stay Home” experiences have looked a little different depending on where we live, how we are working, and the needs of our children. I know for many this has been a much needed time to slow down and rest during a season of growth. As we share our own personal stories from this time, I am sure common themes and activities connect each of us.

Download the Bingo board and you can digitally cross off items you have completed with Staying Home.

STAY HOME – BINGO Download

STAY HOME – THIS OR THAT

If you watch Instagram Stories, you may be familiar with “This or That.” Simply download the graphic and mark it up by drawing a circle around your answer.

STAY HOME – THIS OR THAT Download

STAY HOME – SCATTERGORIES

Scattergories may have been one of my favorite games growing up! I love having to think quickly to come up with a list within given parameters. I have devised a “quarantine” edition of Scattergories, that will be fun to share with your friends.

STAY HOME SCATTERGORIES Download

I SPY – STAY HOME EDITION

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Did you ever read/look at the I Spy Books that were filled with thematic collaged photographs? You could spend hours looking at hidden objects within the carefully arranged pages.

Think through the activities and things you have been doing yourself or as a family during your extended period of staying at home. Gather as many items as you can to represent what you have been doing and set them up on a neutral background (floor, on a blanket, on a counter, on a table) Have fun arranging all your items within your given canvas. Stand above your items. Grab a step ladder or sturdy chair and shoot down to photograph all your items laid out flat.

Try to make sure your items are well lit or use photo editing afterward.

This photograph will be a special memory to hang on to for years to come to tell future generations about the months you learned to be still at home.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Easy DIY Accordion Photo Album

Mother’s Day 2020 will look a little bit different for families across the nation. Local restaurants will not be open for taking Mom out for a sit down meal. Essential shopping has shifted to online shopping to find the perfect token of your appreciation for mothers and grandmothers.

This year try using the resources you have at home to create an easy DIY accordion photo album that can easily be slipped in the mail if you are not able to gather with your mothers and grandmothers on Mother’s Day.

Materials Needed for Accordion Photo Album

2 – 12×12 pieces of cardstock (white or color of choice) or 3 – 8.5×11 pieces of cardstock
10 photos that can crop to a 4×4 square
Cover image
Paper trimmer or ruler and scissors
Glue stick or double-sided tape
Optional – colored washi tape to decorate edges, ribbon for tying book closed

Gather images that you have at home, print photos on your home printer, or send to your local 1 hour photo lab. I was able to print 4×6 images at my local Walmart 1 hour photo lab. If you have more time you can send to your favorite online photo lab.

I was excited to be able to to pull 10 of my favorite images from the family portrait session we had with Spoiled Rotten Photography on the Spring Daydream Set.

To include 10 images in your Accordion Photo Album you will need 5 – 4×8 strips of paper. Below you will see how I used a paper trimmer to cut those strips from 2 pieces of 12×12 cardstock.

Next fold each of your 4×8 strips of paper in half to create 4×4 boxes.

To put the base of your Accordion Photo Album together, lay each of the sections out, alternating the direction of the folded point.

Use a glue stick or double-sided tape to attach each individual piece to the accordion chain.

Use a glue stick or double-sided tape to attach 6 images to the front side and 4 images to the middle squares on the back side of the accordion chain. You will need to leave the first and last square to fold up to be your front and back cover.

If you have more or less than 10 images that you would like to include in your Accordion Photo Album, you can modify the number of 4×8 in. strips you add to your base. Use 4 – 4×8 in. strips for 8 images, 6 – 4×8 in. strips for 12 images and so forth.

Download the Mother’s Day cover images

Mothers Day Title Cover Download

Mothers Hold Their Children’s Hands for Awhile… Their Hearts Forever Cover Download

There is no greater love than that of a Mother Cover Download

We would love to see your finished Accordion Photo Albums! Use the hashtag #thewayhomelife and post on your social media.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography

A Birthday in Quarantine

Savannah’s 14 birthday fell during our epic “Stay at Home” quarantine Spring of 2020. We all enjoyed good health, beautiful weather, but had to be creative in how we chose to celebrate with family and friends.

My sister dropped by with her kids to surprise Savannah for her birthday and Savannah was able to bake cupcakes with her cousin. She wanted to deliver a boxed cupcake to a group of local friends and then all join up that evening on a Zoom call to all eat their pineapple dole whip cupcakes together.

Here is a little video of her special day.

14 star balloons for 14 years of fun!

Savannah I hope you are able to look back on your 14th birthday and smile for the unique period of time in which you have been able to live and grow through. A birthday in which we were able to completely stop time and be fully present to make memories together with your family and friends.

I know you are missing the structure of school, your friends, and the band trip to Orlando you should be leaving for this week.

I pray we are able to successfully help you bridge the gap between middle school and high school in the coming months and your generation will be a step ahead of the previous generation in your abilities to empathize, create, innovate, and see the good in all circumstances.

I am thankful we were able to grab a few spring portraits at the beginning of our quarantine with our quick trip to Gibbs Gardens.

Do you have any loved ones who have celebrated a birthday during the Spring 2020 quarantine? How did you choose to make their day special?

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Picture Project

The past 9 days I helped Spoiled Rotten Photography host the #SRPpicturePROJECT. This was a fun project we put together to share with the preschools and parents that we work with as well as our friends and anyone who wanted to join. The purpose of the project was to take one picture each day to represent what you were doing, sensing, and feeling throughout your QuaranTIME. Our generation has never experienced so much TIME spent at home with limited disruptions and obligations. Each of 9 photographs were to be placed into a grid that could be shared, printed out, and saved as a memory to this special time.

We partnered with some other AMAZING local small businesses who sponsored each day, giving away some very cool prizes! We are giving everyone until Monday, April 13 to submit their completed 9 grid to be eligible to win prizes, so you can still jump in this week and participate if you missed out last week!

I shared some of these pictures along the way on my social media, but here is the full story behind each picture.

Day 1 – Photograph something PURPLE

I love watching the purple wisteria vines pop up in the most unusual places during the month of March! We found a hidden patch to photograph the girls while it was at its peak.

Day 2 – Photograph something I SEE

I had begun seeing many women, including my mother, sewing face masks for the frontline health care workers, and had a vision for this portrait that I wanted to photograph my mother for. We Can Sew It!

Day 3 – Photograph something I SMELL

The girls and I got up early one morning to drive to a local strawberry field to buy a bunch of strawberry baskets to deliver to friends and family. I love the smell of fresh strawberries in the spring!

Day 4 – Photograph something I HEAR

Daily I hear the sound of my feet hitting the pavement in the 2 mile loop in my neighborhood. I have a favorite Pandora station that inspires my thoughts and it is this time alone with God that prompts me to take my next step.

Day 5 – Photograph something I TASTE

I recently picked up some sourdough starter from my sister and we baked our first batch of homemade sourdough bread this week. It tastes so good, and is so easy to make.

Day 6 – Photograph something I FEEL

I had all the feels as this 24×30 metallic canvas arrived on my doorstep! I took this silhouette portrait featuring my girl’s interests… clarinet and guinea pig, last summer shortly after we moved into our new house and learned of the beautiful sunsets from atop the mountain. This was a project the girls and I envisioned together and they were just as excited about the process and having this canvas printed to hang on our walls as I was.

Day 7 – Photograph something I PLAY

We have been inspired by all the sidewalk chalk drawings and messages that have flooded our newsfeed and were able to find the last box of Crayola chalk at Michaels. After creating chalk mosaics in our driveway, we got permission to leave sidewalk chalk drawings and messages on the sidewalk outside our Grandmother’s retirement apartment since they have been more isolated during this time of sheltering in place.

Day 8 – Photograph something I READ

I have been digging deeper in to my Bible to find peace, hope and direction for the here and now and what is to come.

Day 9 – Photograph something I GROW

Our time of staying home was kicked off by Sarah Beth’s garden party and we have since planted some herbs, flowers, and vegetables to watch sprout and grow and hopefully be able to enjoy the produce of in the months to come.

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Categories: Life, Photography

We Can Sew It!

We Can Sew It! After seeing so many women starting to gather their own personal resources and skills to sew face masks to fill the need in our current healthcare crisis, it made me think of the iconic Rosie the Riveter portrait that represented so many women entering the workforce to fill a need during WWII.

We are currently fighting a different type of war, but the combined efforts of women joining forces through social media are seen and appreciated.

My mother, Vanessa Sauter, was one of the first women I saw talking about taking on this project to provide sewn face masks to her friends in the healthcare fields. My mother allowed me to doll her up for a photoshoot of an image I had envisioned to create with the face mask project 😷, that she and so many others have been working on.

I hope this image represents in a small way the efforts millions are putting forth to help their fellow neighbor. I hope we are all able to use our gifts and talents to create light in the current shadow in front of us!

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Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

High Five Friday – Kara Kellner

Meet my friend and business associate, Kara Kellner. I got to watch her adorable son, grow up in front of my camera lens at Primrose Meadowbrook. Little did Kara know when she sent her little boy to preschool in 2016, that his cap and gown portraits would tug at her heart so much that she would begin inquiring and dreaming about the opportunity to own her own piece of Spoiled Rotten Photography and be able to reproduce those same memories for families in Birmingham.

Kara and her family joined the Spoiled Rotten Photography family in 2017 and I have watched her work relentlessly to build a sustainable business for her family. That little brown-eyed, brown-headed little boy has become the #1 cheerleader and advocate for their family’s business.

At our Spoiled Rotten Photography conference in January, Kara was awarded the Purple Crown Award. The Purple Crown is awarded to the franchise owner who excels in all the SRP core values from the previous year.

Since my family moved back to Birmingham in 2019 and selling my Alpharetta SRP franchise in 2020, I have been between roles and careers. Back in December, Kara called me distraught knowing that she would need an additional photographer to make it through her Spring season, so I gladly stepped in to fill in the gaps for her wherever she needed help. It has been a pleasure working with Kara this Spring to provide beautiful portraits for the Birmingham preschool families.

Kara has built a nurturing and loving relationship with all the schools she works with locally and it is evident when I have walked into the schools and I hear the owners, directors, teachers, and parents raving about the quality she provides.

If you know of any daycares, mother’s day out programs, or preschools in the Birmingham area that aren’t currently using Spoiled Rotten Photography for their Spring and Fall Portraits, you can send me those names and referrals or reach out to Kara directly at kellners@spoiledrottenphotography.com. Kara has a goal of adding at least 3 new partner schools to her Fall schedule and I am confident she will connect with the right schools who will be blessed with amazing school pictures

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Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

High Five Friday – Vinehouse Nursery

For today’s High Five Friday, I would like to give a shout out to Vinehouse Nursery in Alabaster, Alabama.

I had the privilege of being able to fill in as the Spoiled Rotten Photography photographer for their Spring Portraits this week.

Vinehouse Nursery is only a few years old and has organically grown each year as they add a classroom to meet the needs of their growing family of children. Depending on the age of the enrolled child, they move through 4 “Vine” themed programs – Seedlings, Sprouts, Stems, and Sunflowers. The classrooms and decor have a beautiful modern flair to reflect each of these growth stages.

From the minute I walked in the door, the owner Khiari Mcalpin, and all her staff were so friendly and super helpful. I felt like an honored guest being in their school. You could tell the children were all very well adjusted to their environment, their teachers, and other students.

Kaitlyn Mackey and I had the best time playing with all the children and capturing beautiful Spring Portraits on the new Daydream set. There should be a lot of proud parents as they receive their online galleries for viewing and ordering!

If you are looking for a clean, safe, calm, and nurturing environment for your babies in the Alabaster area, I highly recommend checking out Vinehouse Nursery! Or if you have a heart for working with children, I do believe they may be looking to hire an additional part time or full time employee.

Do you have a local business that you believe I should feature on a future High Five Friday? Send me a message and let’s chat!

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography

Hometown Love – Homewood

Homewood – Bandit Patisserie, Leaf and Petal

One thing I like to be intentional about is spending one-on-one time with each of my daughters. One of my youngest daughter’s love language is quality time, so she is always up for an adventure! When one daughter has a planned activity, it is the perfect time to take the other one out for a special date to Starbucks, Target, or to discover new places in our hometown.

I have been seeing rave reviews of the new Bandit Patisserie that recently opened in Homewood, so we began our Saturday adventure with breakfast together in Homewood. I heard you have to get there early to grab one of the adorable homemade pop tarts. My girls know I am not usually keen on sugary breakfast foods, but will splurge once in a while.

I loved the simplicity of the menu. Every item on the menu would have been a solid choice. The modern coffee shop/bakery decor was tastefully done and the morning natural light floods in the front windows.

I was curious why the shop was named Bandit, so I did a little searching and found that the owner Kristen Farmer Hall birthed the idea back in 2013 after baking pastries to deliver to the neighbors. They would ring the doorbell and run away. They became know as the “Baking Bandits.”

Why have to choose between the pop tart flavor choices? We ordered a strawberry and Nutella and shared. We both enjoyed the Nutella one the most!

The oat milk latte was on point!

Treat yourself and take a daughter or friend to enjoy a treat at The Bandit Bakery soon!

I am still looking for the perfect table to complete our kitchen, so we stopped at a couple furniture stores in Homewood to browse. Sarah Beth had never been to the stores on 18th Street in Homewood, so we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Are your kids as obsessed with squishy things as much as my girls are? Homewood Toy and Hobby never disappoints with their selection of toys and games.

Before leaving Homewood, I introduced Sarah Beth to another local Birmingham favorite. The chicken salad plate from O’Carrs Restaurant.

Our final stop of the day was my choice. I have been driving past the Leaf and Petal shop in Cahaba Heights the last month and wanting to check it out. I could have spent hours just soaking up the oxygen and warmth in the beautiful greenhouse! I was excited to find Calathea Rattlesnake plants in the greenhouse! I fell in love with these painted looking finger leaf plants at the Magnolia Plantation we visited in Charleston.

Small potted plants were the perfect souvenir from our Saturday Mother/Daughter date! I came home with my own rattlesnake plant and Sarah Beth got a small fern to hang in her room.

If you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area, have you visited Bandit Pastry or Leaf and Petal? Let me know what you think once you visit.

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