Archive for 'Portraits'
It’s Okay to be Beautiful
Posted on 25. Jul, 2010 by maryanne.
I tell her she is beautiful, and ask her to feel it from within. That is where it is. Inside. The glory God has given her as a woman. I turn my head and and adjust the backdrop that will not cooperate with me. I fluff the chiffon and tape up the velvet.
When I return there is a small but valuable tear sliding down her luminous cheek. I pause and frown. “What is it honey?” I ask. But I already know. I know because I feel it too, as has many if not most women on the planet. We don’t believe it. We don’t embrace it. We’re beautiful, and we don’t know it. She stutters to try to explain, and and I hold her head in my hands and pray for her and speak words of blessing. This is easy because she is mine. She is my Katie. I tell her who she is, who God says she is, and that it is okay to be beautiful. We don’t have to be afraid of it. It is our glory as women. It is our gift. Our softness, our inner passion. Our resolve to love.
We change the music and we laugh. I see her shining now. My Katie. It is okay to be beautiful. It is how God made you.
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Lindsay
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by maryanne.
This is my sister Dinah’s daughter. She is beautiful! Really, all of my nieces (and my own girls) are stunners! I am fortunate to be able to work with such beauties both inside and out. This is Lindsay. I photographed her wedding a year ago in May, and now I am helping her with headshots for her new acting career that is taking off! I am so proud of her. We decided to stay in the studio with the heat hovering around 95 degrees all week. Look at what we came up with. Well, I did have beautiful material. 
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Justin Davis Senior Shoot
Posted on 01. Jun, 2010 by maryanne.
Johnny and I had a great time shooting Justin Davis’s senior photo session on his beautiful family farm in Dacula, GA. We certainly didn’t have a shortage of beautiful places to shoot. The light was perfect as well as the weather. My favorite photos of the day were in an old barn on the property. The sunlight was beaming through the wooden planks and I had Johnny throw some dust behind Justin to get a nice hazy effect. Beautiful. We did have to leave there pretty quickly though; Evidently the bees that were nesting in the ground didn’t take too kindly to their dust being thrown around. Yikes! I can move fast at the sound of an angry bee.
Congratulations, Justin.
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Favorite Photos of the week 6
Posted on 31. May, 2010 by maryanne.
I had to do more than one favorite photo this week, because there were so many I loved in this shoot! These are my friend Linda’s beautiful kids and I loved these shots!!! So sweet.
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Favorite Photo of the week 5
Posted on 13. May, 2010 by maryanne.
I love this image. Caught at an unexpected moment and angle, it feels intimate and beautiful. This is one of my elegant brides from this last year. I could choose so many photos of her. She was so free and fun to photograph. Who knows what she was thinking at this moment, as she was breathing in the last moments before her marriage to Jonathan. Stunning.
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Eli
Posted on 17. Apr, 2010 by maryanne.
We had a wonderful day photographing Eli and his mom and dad last Saturday. We had baby sheep to play with as well as some sweet chicks on loan to me from my friend Kelly. I think Eli thought he was at the zoo or the park. I am not sure who had more fun, but I am pretty sure it was me. Eli is the apple of his mom and dad’s eyes, as you can see from these photos. Photographing children is so much fun as they are in a world of their own, and not worried about how to smile or behave. We just let him play and the magic came through.
Enjoy the photos of sweet Eli. ~
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Organization… (sigh)
Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by maryanne.
No, I didn’t find a treasure chest buried on my farm, even though this looks like the classic pirate’s booty you see in adventure movies. This.. is my dresser top. Okay, before you start making all kinds of rash (but probably true) judgements about me and my lack of orderliness, just know that it doesn’t always look this bad.
You see, my dresser top is a source of contention for me, every day. Every day of my life, I walk past that dresser top with things strewn everywhere. Usually it is the jewelry items I have worn in the past week (or month), my camera, picture frames that I hate but still keep, a spool of thread and a needle for mending buttons, important receipts, props from my last shoot, and dust, oh the dust. My heart cringes every time I see it, no matter what form it is in, and I think a few not-so-nice things about myself and go on with my day, feeling defeated before I have even started. Organization is my weakest character quality, and it is especially hard when I grew up with a super organized mother and sister. My artistic flair took me in other directions, and most of my life, I have dreaded even trying for fear of failure.
So, last night, I took every single item out of my jewelry box and drawers and decided to start there. I don’t think I have thrown one item of jewelry away since I was a little girl. It was actually a very nostalgic experience looking at things that were my mother’s or grandmother’s. It was also a little like Christmas seeing things I had packed away (for lack of knowing what to do with them), that I had forgotten I had. About two hours later, ( yes, two hours) this is what I had for a dresser top.
It was actually worse than this, but this is as vulnerable as I can get right now, okay? Immediately I did what any normal girl would do. I called my mother. “I need your help” I pleaded. Before I got two sentences in, she had devised a plan and a day to implement it. That’s my wonderful mom to the rescue! “Just leave it all on top like that”, she said, ” and we will have a fun day putting it all where it is supposed to go”. She even had a plan for the unwanted pieces with a church swap that is coming up for the ladies.
I will let you know how it goes! I think this is the beginning of a whole new world for me. Starting with my dresser top.
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A Piece of Faraway
Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by maryanne.
We don’t get much snow here in Georgia. Last year we got one day’s worth, and it was so magical. I felt like a little girl on that day. Then, as if someone shook the etch a sketch, it was all gone the very next day. We have had some false alarms this year, so when the weather man said it would snow on Friday, I was more than a little cynical (mostly because I wanted it so badly). However, much to my surprise, we got a great snowfall, and enough to play in too. It was a wonderful Valentine weekend surprise.
I took some photos while it was snowing on Friday afternoon, and then again Saturday morning when the sky was cerulean blue. I found my heart overwhelmed by the dramatic scenery. I asked God to help me to capture it if possible, but more than that, to breathe it in and enjoy it. I have often felt jealous of other photographers who get to travel and photograph beautiful scenery in faraway places. To quote photography icon and author Joe McNally from his book The Moment it Clicks, ” If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff “. I love that quote. The bottom line is that capturing God’s creation is at the center of my joy in photography, and I want to see more!
However, I felt thankful Saturday morning as I walked in the glory, that I had not (up until this present time) been a world traveler. I found my heart could not contain the splendor I found in my own backyard. I felt so small and incompetent as I fumbled through my bag, disapproving of each of my lens choices as soon as I placed them on the camera body. It was a humbling experience, as I once again offered up my heart, and my camera to God, and I laid down my need to perform for the approval of others. That is something we artists have to do on a daily, or even hourly basis. Anyway, this is what came of my time in the glory. Thankful for my own piece of ”faraway” that God gave me this weekend just out my back door.
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Cory and Cami are engaged!
Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by maryanne.
Annie and I had SO much fun shooting Cory and Cami’s engagement photos at Piedmont Park last weekend. Before the shoot, we did some dreaming about what they wanted to do and what they loved. Eventually, we landed on the whole idea of doing a vintage shoot. I was so excited as that was something I have really wanting to try. It was something we did at Love Affair this last fall. ( wow did I LOVE that workshop!) I had been wanting to try some new things but hadn’t had any real takers with my couples. Then came Cory and Cami! I love this couple! They are so fun and enjoy each other and life so much. This is part of what makes my life so enjoyable. Working with wonderful people who so openly and comfortably love one another.
I never had to pose them. We just gave them a few props and let them go. They did the rest.
I pray many blessings on this beautiful and sweet couple and am so thankful I get to shoot their upcoming wedding in March.
Enjoy their sweet pictures~
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Boys will be… beautiful
Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 by maryanne.
Every year for some time now I have been going out to my good friends Keith and Kelly Anderson’s farm to photograph their beautiful boys. I love it. When you see the images below you will know why. They are so full of life, and we always have fun running around her farm from place to place laughing and giggling. I can’t help laughing listening to them talk to one another, drop right on the spot and wrestle in the mud, chase chickens, and sometimes, I get them feeling pensive. The youngest, Ethan, is an old soul. He is the most like his mommy, I think. I can usually catch him standing with his hands in his pockets thinking about something important, I am sure. He is a love bug too, and I could just squeeze and kiss him all day. The middle one, Jonathan, comes up with the most amazing things to say. When I told him I couldn’t go with them to see Santa that night, he quipped ” it is such a hateful world”. I laughed about that all the way home with my Johnny, who assisted me on the shoot. Their oldest, Jack, is so funny too. He also comes out with hilarious things that sound like they came from a twenty-something man. All of them, amazing, and adorable.
Their mom, Kelly, is one of my dearest friends. She is wonderful through and through. She is a veterinarian, and therefore an instant hero for me. I always wanted to be one when I was a kid, but lacked the chemistry grades in high school. She has both beauty and brains. You can’t beat it. There is always a potpourri of different animals and rescues at her place. She has a heart of gold and the animals always seem to find her. I am always at home there myself. It is a good place to be.
Enjoy the beautiful Anderson boys.~
