The Happily Ever After League Baby Calendar!

I have some rockin' specials right now; first, if you donate $100 or more to the Breast Cancer 3 day walk, you get a free photo session and a feee hand painted 8x10, a value of $450. Woo Hoo! And you get to help a great cause!I want to tell those of you with young children of a fabulous opportunity; The Happily Every After League, a great organization that helps that families of breast cancer patients with their medical bills, is putting out a calendar for 2010, and YOUR child has the opportunity to be in it! How it works is this: Bring your special Prince or Princess to one of our special photo shoots throughout the Valley in March, (Locations and times to be announced), donate $100or more per child to the Happily Ever After League, and have an amazing sepia handcolored portrait taken of your child. You will have the opportunity to see all of the portraits and order if you wish, but you don't have to at all. Then tell all of your friends and family to go to a special website just set up for the event and vote for your child! Votes are $1 each, and the children with the most votes will be in the calendar! The child with the very most votes will appear on the cover. The calendars will be sold throughout the Valley, at gift shops and book stores, so it's a great opportunity to do a great thing and have a wonderful memory. Please check back here often, as we will only have a few time spots at each location and they'll be going fast. I'll announce where and when each location is as soon as I know so that you can sign up and tell all of your friends. Special Thanks to Sam and Lily for modeling for me for the postcard!

The Becker Family

My first video!

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Eric Duntley, the sweetest little boy on earth. So sweet and adorable and well behaved. His parents are pretty great, too! I felt like we parted friends, which is so great about what I do. I get to see the beautiful side of all of my clients, inside and out. At the end, he and his dad, Paul were running around and just "being boys" and I captured them here just as the sun was slipping under the horizon. I love my job. I just do.

Going for it in '09

A couple of my new years resolutions have been to put myself out there this year. As outgoing and kind of jokey as I am with everyone, I'm actually super shy when it comes right down to it, and since TT is going to full day kindergarten in August, I guess I could sit around eating bon bons, but the old wardrobe just couldn't take the stretching, so I have become the newest speaker for my fabulous lab, Millers Professional Imaging, who I have been with for 15 years and absolutely adore, and will go on the road speaking about what I do! Woo hoo! I'm pretty excited.

I am also about to launch a photographic calendar for the Susan G. Komen society; Little Angels. I'll photograph your Little Angel in beautiful Angel attire in exchange for a $100 donation to the three day walk, and then he or she will be entered in a contest where people can vote for them to be in the Calendar! Votes will be $1 each, 100% going towards the Cure, so that hopefully none of our little angels will ever have to be touched by breast cancer in their lifetimes. If you're interested in particpating in this awesome program, please give me a call at480.861.4529 or email me at photobarb@aol.com.

When Ann Becker asked me to come see her yard before we shot, I almost blew her off. I mean, here I am, the GREAT ME, I can make anything work brilliantly, why should I take the time to do something silly like go over and tell people to move their hose out of the way and make sure to pick up the dog poop...you know, what they already know but don't want to actually do it? Well, I happene to adore Ann, and I wanted to get to know her better anyway, so I gathered up the troops and brought them to New River, where we kept driving and driving, onto a dirt road, and driving, until we reached a sign that said Private Property. Buzz, my husband, was afraid to turn in, but after checking it out, it turned out that Ann's house is RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THE TONTO NATIONAL FOREST!!! No dog poop or water hoses here. She has billion dollar panoramic views of absolutely breathtaking scenery, and she wanted to show her family in it. We spent more than an hour going all around her property, and found several places with good texture and great light to shoot. And here are the results. I'm atually not done; I want to do a collage with all of these cool scenery shots I took, and you know I'm not usually a scenery person. I just loved shooting the Becker family on their property! They were such a cohesive unit...you can tell that they all have such a deep love and respect for each other. It was a great day.

New Year, new look...

I have been trying to figure myself out lately, and have realized that I am an enigma. Mommy, photographer, artist, dog person, wife, nose blower, teacher, international businesswoman, toenail clipper, meal planner, butt wiper, cancer surviver. I do it all, on a constant, every day basis. I am maniacal about deadlines, and meticulous about my work. I took this picture of TT and our Great Dane Puppy, Athena, the other day. It is totally the direction that I am going in my personal work...part classic, part iconic, part Norman Rockwell. Maybe I am going back to basics in my personal life, because I paint and paint in my professional life, but then again, I painted this shot of my Zoe, and loved every minute of it. What do you think? What should be my new direction for 2009?

The Musser Family

I am so utterly blessed to have such amazing clients...I recently had the opportunity to hang out with the Musser family. Stephanie Musser is the principal of my Zoe's school, so I was a little scared...what if she doesn't like them, will my kid never win a citizenship award again?? Just kidding, Stephanie Musser simply isn't like that!! You can tell a lot about people when you take pictures of them, and I must say, and I'm not kissing any executive booty here, that this family was one of my favorite families of the season! They were always laughing and having a great time together, and teasing each other. Courtnie and Perrie were the coolest teenagers ever, and Dad, Dan didn't hate me at all, which really helped a lot in general. They were a very cohesive unit, and being together and laughing during a photo session makes your having your pictures taken fun memories to have forever. These guys were part of my memories this year. Thanks so much!!