Giving is Awesome, back at it again!

In December, many of you read about my participation with the extraordinarily great group Giving is Awesome, to provide high quality family portraits for deserving families who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford them. Since I couldn't decide on ONE winner, Shutters is donating THREE - say it again - THREE SHOOTS to deserving families in the upcoming month. That seemed to happen around the globe as more than 500 photographers from the states and abroad donated over half a million dollars worth of services and prints. Now, Giving is Awesome is looking to hit another landmark, and WE NEED YOUR HELP. Read on to find out more!

Giving is Awesome was founded in December of 2008. It was a simple premise: photographers give a portrait shoot and products to a family who deserves it, but can’t afford it. In the twelve weeks since then, over 530 photographers have donated over $550,000 worth of custom portraiture to families who couldn’t afford it. Artists in places as far flung as Australia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Mexico joined in - including yours truly at Shutters Photography.

Giving is Awesome is also featured in this month’s issue of Professional Photographer magazine, and we’re looking to continue to spread the word about giving. Lenovo and Microsoft are sponsoring the ‘Name Your Dream Assignment’ contest, which grants $50,000 to the photographer who wins to shoot whatever/wherever they would like. What better way to spread the word than to load 12 photographers into a tour bus and hit up cities with Giving is Awesome shoots? The blog traffic generated by the tour would easily reach 50,000 photographers per day, thus multiplying the number of photographers who sign on for the 2009 version of Giving is Awesome. (The goal: 15,000 photographers for the 2009 edition.)

…but how would we decide who to shoot for those tour bus Giving is Awesome giveaways? Why, we would rely on our friends at ConKerr Cancer, an international charity, to provide our subjects: children currently living with cancer. We’d be bringing awareness of both utterly smashing organizations to light, spreading the photographic love, AND rockin’ a tour bus! Now we’re talkin’!

What if this project doesn’t cost $50,000? Easy! ConKerr Cancer receives the funds to purchase cameras for their chapter coordinators, less the expenses of the tour. This allows the impact of the tour to go much further than the people on the bus, or even the photographers associated with Giving is Awesome. It’s the ripple effect in its truest form, giving sparking giving sparking giving.

For more information about the organizations mentioned: http://www.givingisawesome.com & http://www.conkerrcancer.org

DIG IT? GO VOTE! Click that little 'pic' button in the upper left of the assignment details, when you get there. You’ll have to register to do so, but I promise it’s worth it!

GO!! : http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/givingisawesome/giving-is-awesome-tour/

A Seriously Super Mom and Baby

A couple of days ago I promised to post the images about a recent maternity and newborn session I did. Wait... did I just say maternity AND newborn in one sentence? I did. That is because this SuperMommy and I shot her maternity session ONE DAY before she had this little bundle of cuteness. So, not even a week later, we were shooting away at little baby Maverick. Check it out.

Here are a couple shots of mommy and 'sister', Daytona (the cute little nugget of an English Bulldog below), awaiting this little one.

AND..... without hesitation, here is the little bundle of joy himself, only 5 days later!

I'm not sure if families get much cuter than this, and I can't wait to shoot little Maverick in the years to come, as he has one of the cutest families around! CONGRATULATIONS JADE AND JEREMY!

My favorite little one...

Alright, this little one I can say without hesitation is my current favorite little chunky monkey in the world. Why can I say that so publicly you might ask, because she is my littlest little relation, my niece Aixa. While I completely adore my clients, I'm sure they can give me concession to confess my unwavering doting on this little one. Born with jet black hair and midnight black eyes, you might just get as hooked as I am when you see these newest photos.

Being the niece of a photographer has some definite perks, one being that when I need a guinea pig, or when my next session is about to arrive and my little nugget has just happened to drop in (my twin has a keen sense for 'stopping' by right before shoots), she gets thrown into action, and at only 6 months old (today actually) brings the 'A' game of a seasoned vet. While my family teases me that Aixa is going to start developing a permanent blink when she sees me from such constant 'photo training' (they all compare it to Pavlov's dog experimentation) I maintain that I will be forgiven for all someday when she has tons of cute little memories to show her own babies.

So, here she is, little Miss Aixa at 6 months old (and my 'eldest child' Colt, our 6 year old black lab who is one of Aixa's biggest fans).

NOW.... what I SHOULD have been editing while I snuck off to do these and make this posting, is the maternity and baby photos of the Wunder family. That's right, just ONE day after our maternity shoot, Jade had little Maverick, and he is a handsome little man. I'll have more to post VERY soon, so stay tuned!