Acorn Studio Photography

Children’s Valentine Card Idea

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:49:17 +0000

Valentine’s Day is a few days away and no matter your sentiments on the candy, balloon, flower and card crazed holiday, if you have school-aged children you probably have to send Valentine’s to school for your child to give to each of their classmates. I came across this idea several years ago on Design Aglow, a favorite site of mine for photographer templates and such, and Emma was super excited about it. She has asked every year since if we could do this for her Valentines. So, we are now three years running giving these as her Valentines to her friends.

I get that this is a bit more involved than buying a box of cards for her to address and being done with it, but I think it’s super cute and I’m always up for a crafty project.

Supplies You will Need:

Card stock
A piece or two of colored paper or scrapbook paper
Ribbon/twine
Kool-Aid Bursts (super cheap– I got a six pack for $1 at Kroger)
Hole punch
Scissors or straight cutter

First, I cut the scrapbook paper into little strips (approx. 2.5×5″) and had Emma address them to her classmates.

Next, I took a quick shot of Emma, pulled it onto the computer, added the heart graphic and the message and printed it on card stock on my regular non-photo printing printer. I cut each ‘card’ about 1/4-1/2″ smaller than the colored paper.

Then I took one card and one piece of colored paper, stacked them so they lined up in the top left corner and punched a hole for the twine.

Finally, thread a piece of twine through the stacked paper and card and tied it to the top of each Kool-Aid Burst.

These are just some quick iPhone photos– no judgement. :-)

And here is the result. Emma’s teacher and/or her classmates’ parents may hate me for sending a colored, sugar-filled drink that will burst :-) all over the place with one accidental squeeze of little Kindergartener hands, but points for cuteness– right? :-)

Kool-Aid Bursts come in several colors, red included which may be more Valentine-y but one of Emma’s classmates has a red dye allergy, so I opted for blue this year.

Snow Day

admin — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:55:37 +0000

I imagined beginning my 2013 blogging efforts with a typical post about welcome to the new year with some image highlights from 2012. While some 2012 image highlights might still happen I am going to focus on moving forward and not trying to catch up on everything I am behind on here on the blog. So the first post of 2013 features my two favorite kiddos in the world…my own- who were beside themselves to wake up to a snowy white wonderland yesterday morning.

This is the first time Nolan has seen snow and he was excited but not exactly sure what to think.

It didn’t take him long to get excited about it. Especially after he watched Emma pelt me with a snowball.

The attack on mom…

The attack on little brother.

Brittany [ACORN SENIOR MODEL]

admin — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:37:56 +0000

Meet Brittany, one of our Acorn Senior Models. We had a lot of fun photographing her senior session in downtown Raymond. She was kind enough to share a few things about herself for me to share with you.

1.I love Christ with all of my being.

2.I am passionate about photography and hope to become a professional photographer in the future. I love seeing the beauty of God’s creation through photo’s.

3.I have lived in Clinton, Mississippi my whole life.

4.I’m a coffee drinker.

5.I enjoy singing and help lead a praise band at my school.

6.I have attended Mt. Salus Christian School since I was in kindergarten.

7.”The Blues Brothers”, is my all time favorite movie.

8.I love to laugh and believe a sense of humor is very important to have in life.

9.I’m terrified of clowns and snakes.

10.History and Literature are my favorite subjects.

Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself Brittany!

Erica & Seth [ACORN WEDDING]

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:44:29 +0000

I met Erica and Seth just a couple of weeks before their wedding day and am so glad that I was available to document their big day! It was held at Cedar Grove in Vicksburg, which made for a gorgeous backdrop for their celebration. Erica and Seth did all of the planning themselves and it turned out beautifully. Here are a few favorites from their day.

Erica and Seth– thank you so much for having me be a part of your day! I truly enjoyed it!

Many Blessings- erin

A big thanks to David Wiggins for shooting with me!

David hung out with the guys and photographed them getting ready. Erica and Seth wrote their own vows.

Erica’s dress was made by a family friend. I really loved the soft layers of the skirt.

The color of these dresses pop really nicely against the green. Love it!

I love this shot David captured of Erica as she waited to walk down the aisle.

I think this might be my favorite from the day. It’s always hard to choose, but I love the quiet connection of this shot.

Calli– Erica and Seth’s daughter. She is such a cutie bug! I hope I can get her in front of my camera again sometime. :-)

Baby William and Dates You Don’t Want to Miss [BABY ACORN]

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:49:06 +0000

Meet William. This sweet little bundle was welcomed by his awesome mommy and daddy along with his proud big sister. I have photographed the rest of the family before and was really excited when Holly asked me to photograph William’s newborn portraits. As is common with newborn sessions, most of the time was spent getting little man happy. You wouldn’t know it looking at these images, but this precious sleeping angel was screaming like a mad man just a few minutes before these where taken. A little bit of patience goes a long way working with children and I couldn’t be happier with how these turned out. I also love the birth announcements we designed. They are one of my favorite to date.

Thanks Holly and Scott for letting me be a small part of this family milestone!

A bit of studio news:

So the dates you don’t want to miss…Acorn Fall Mini Sessions are coming and if you want to make sure you hear about the dates and details sign up for our email newsletter HERE. The dates will be announced tomorrow!

Here is a quick iPhone shot of his birth announcements.

I love that his mom and dad included who he was named after on the announcement.

3 Sessions of Emma [Baby Acorn]

admin — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00:57 +0000

I have been photographing this little cutie this year as part of our Baby Acorn Plan. We have shot 3 of the 4 sessions during Emma’s first year and it has been so fun to watch her grow. This precious little miss looks a lot like her mama and I’m hoping I can convince her mom and dad to jump in on some shot during her last Baby Acorn session in a few months.

Seriously, I want my eyelashes to look like that naturally!

What the Photographer Does with Her Family’s Photos

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:03:27 +0000

When people find out I’m a photographer they often say, ‘I bet you have the best pictures of your kids!’ Well, I do have some pretty great pictures of my kids, though I’m a little biased. :-) In all honesty though, my kids, especially my oldest, pretty much run if I try to break out the camera to do any kind of ‘formal’ photo session beyond grabbing iPhone snaps. Seeing that I’m a mom, forget about the photographer part, I love crappy photos of my kids like the next mom. Having great photos of my kids and my whole family together, me included, is really important to me though. And since every session I’ve ever tried to do formally with the kids, enlisting my husband to help, has ended with us needing some form of group therapy, I try to minimize how often I try to pull those off. So I do exactly what my clients do and hire a professional.

So who does the photographer choose for their family’s portraits? Well, I am friends with a number of photographers in the area and there are so many that are really talented, but after looking through online portfolios I landed on who I thought I would use to begin with – Robby Followell. Robby is super talented and I have always loved his work, which has a very distinct style. I knew that in addition to just having updated photographs I wanted some pieces to finish off some of the decor in our family room and knew Robby’s style would be a great fit.

So, without further ado, here are a few of my favorites and then below are a few pictures of the finished pieces in our family room.

Robby, thank you so much for being willing to work with our family, moody kids and all!

So here are a few shots in our family room so you can see how I chose to display the images. I love the mix of framed prints and gallery wrap canvases in this grouping.

I chose the sizing of each piece with this specific space in mind which ensures that it will fill the space appropriately. Not too big and overpowering and not a grouping of postage stamp sized prints. :-)

I wanted a canvas above our mantel but I wanted it to be more subtle that a big portrait with everyone looking and smiling and us taking up the majority of the frame. I love all the color that this image brings to the space. Again, I chose the size of the canvas specifically for this space and it’s a perfect fit.

Something is eventually going to happen to the lovely brassy/gold fireplace cover. Paint, a new one, something….

This is the first thing I see when I walk into my house from the garage and it makes me smile every time.