Saw the most awesome family tonight!

While having dinner tonight at our local Ruby Tuesday, we were seated near the sweetest looking family. They had 3 kids, ranging in age from about 11 down to probably 5 or 6. Other than just being really cute and exceedingly well-behaved kids, they were also really unique looking! I SO want to get them in the studio!!

You see, they all had really cool hair cuts. And unusual hair cuts at that. The oldest one, a boy, had a really snazzy looking mohawk. Yes, an honest to goodness mohawk! I LOVED it! He even used colored hair gel to keep it standing upright. He did it up in reddish streaks. Completely cool! And his younger sister, who was probably about 8 or 9, also had an age-unusual style and it really suited her. It was one of those avant-garde beveled bobs where it’s shorter in the back and much longer in the front. It looked so cute on her.  And the youngest one…oh my. She was probably about 6 or so and had this adorable mass of dusty strawberry blonde hair with big unruly curls pushed back with a headband.  All three, so different, but each style worked on them individually.  I was smitten, what can I say? LOL

So, of course, I had to go over, introduce myself – which is something I rarely do since I’m normally a little shy in those situations – and  give them my business card. I’m really hoping they give me a call. The kids seemed super sweet, the parents quite nice (and nice looking themselves!) and I think they’d be a lot of fun in the studio. I’d love to have them as part of my portfolio, but also just for the fun of making a cool portrait of some really cool looking kids!

Gearing up for the holidays!

Tis the season! (yeah, I know…where did summer go, right?!)

Actually, I’m excited. I’m going to spend some time this week gathering up some new nifty holiday props and creating some scenes to use for holiday images for my upcoming shoots.

Sure, it’s a busy time for me (and everyone), but it sure can be a lot of fun! Stay tuned for some sneak previews and to find out about my holiday specials.

Here are some Christmas Cuties from last year! Click on the image to see it larger.

Flickr Portfolio available!

I’ve been working on putting together a portfolio slide show through Flickr since my website’s built-in slide show is really only geared towards horizontal images. The Flickr slide show can go either vertical or horizontal with no problem. So please take a look!

For best results, be sure to change your settings (located at the upper right hand corner of the slide show page – under “options”) to uncheck all the boxes so that the images don’t get “embiggened” and get pixellated when they get stretched too large for their resolution. Thanks!

Click to see Twila Davis Reed’s Portrait Portfolio

Sorely Neglected!

Chalk it up to being busy, but I’ve been bad and have neglected my blog. The studio is somewhat finished and I’ve had a few shoots now. I still have some tweaking to be done, but overall, it looks pretty dang great down there!

Now, I’m finishing up my paperwork and working on booking some holiday sessions. Should be fun!

Thanks to everyone who has helped make the new studio a success!

More to come soon! (And pics too, I promise!)

Complete disarray!

Well, we’ve moved pretty much all the studio equipment over from the old house except my backgrounds and background support system, a couple of props and some of the storage furniture. That will hopefully come over next week.

However, currently, everything that has been moved over is strewn across the floor of the studio, awaiting me to figure out where it should all go! I’m actually sort of afraid to go down there at the moment because it’s so overwhelming! LOL The thing is that I’m still trying to get the main living areas of the house set up and we have house guests coming this weekend, so that sort of has to come first. I’m still unpacking the kitchen stuff, for goodness sakes!

The studio will get there. I promise! I’ll keep you posted!

It’s Alive! (or live anyway!)

The studio site is now live! I’m still working on the portfolio stuff, so there aren’t a ton of images in the main slide show yet and I don’t have any individual galleries quite yet. But I’m working on it!

However, I do have all my contact info, my bio and my current price lists which reflect the fact I’m in the portfolio building phase (BIG discounts!)

So stop by and take a look!

EnchantedLightStudios.com

Homeowners!

The Hubbsterdude™ and I are officially mortgage-paying, full-fledged, American Dream-following homeowners now! Very exciting, indeed!

We have been busily prepping the house so it’s fit for us to move in. Thankfully, it’s in really great shape and just needs a few cosmetic things done like washing all the kid hand prints off the walls, deep cleaning the bathrooms, washing windows (and there are a LOT of windows to wash!) and putting some doors back on their hinges – that kind of thing. The yard is a complete mess because the house has been vacant for about 9 months, so the Hubbsterdude™ and his college-aged brother, Brandan, who stays with us during the summers (aka Dishboy™) have been pulling weeds and mowing and trying to make the yard quasi-presentable. But overall, it’s a beautiful place and we’re very excited to be moving in.

The big stuff goes over this weekend. We’ve already started taking small van loads of things over as we can. I even have a couple of armless chairs, coffee and side tables and some of my “plants” that have already gone over to the new place. (Mostly to get them out of the way at the old house so I have room to pack!) But it’s actually starting to look like a home in there. It’ll be nice when it’s all moved and we’re settled. THEN I can start getting the studio put together!

Actually closing?

Well, it looks like we’re actually going to make it to the closing table! The loan underwriter took her sweet time, but after finally getting The Hubbsterdude™’s employment verified, it looks like everything is ready to be finalized. A day later than originally scheduled, but apparently, in today’s tight mortgage lending environment, a day late means your files were really clean and in great order! So I guess that makes me feel a little better about the whole thing!

So, we’ll be closing on my birthday. What a nice present, huh? We’re both exceedingly excited!

Guess being a homeowner means I’m really a grown up person now eh?!

Starting to pack!

We’ve officially started packing up, getting ready for the move to the new house. It’s hard to believe we’ve lived in our current place for nearly 8 years already. Where *has* the time gone!? Although, one thing that makes that amount of time easier to comprehend is just how much junk we’ve accumulated over that time! Holy cow! Just going through our kitchen items has created a sizable pile of yard sale fodder. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty much all good stuff, but egads, if I haven’t used it in 2 years, it ain’t stayin’! Anyone want a really nice bread machine? LOL

Today’s task is wrapping and boxing up all my nice, breakable platters and serving dishes. And I need to box up all my Polish Pottery, as well. Can’t wait to get that into the new house. It’s going to look fantastic!

Alrighty, back to work!

Had our home inspection today!

Well, after a lot of incompetence on the part of the listing agent and her inability to get the utilities turned on in a timely manner, we FINALLY got to go do our house inspection today.

Great news is that the inspector didn’t think think the mold spot on the garage ceiling was actually from the plumbing in the master bathroom but rather it’s likely coming from the outside, probably from some faulty window flashing. Even though he’s not entirely sure and can’t be without pulling down the drywall, if it is coming from the outside, the home builder should cover it since the house is only 2 years old! There’s no plumbing in that part of the ceiling, so he really feels it is probably coming from outside. So this is great news!

And other than a few other little cosmetic things and a couple of new code issues, he thinks it’s a great house at a great value. So we are totally psyched!

I took lots of pics today, including ones down in the studio area, so if you’d like to see the slide show, feel free!

I’m really excited, can you tell? This is also the first time The Hubbsterdude™ has shown real excitement. It’s cute!

Slideshow on Flickr

More of the Maddiemeister

The Hubbsterdude™ and I were talking and laughing over how our niece, Maddie, just loves to pose for the camera. Here are another couple of shots showing just how true this is!

Now, let’s just hope she continues to like having her photograph made!

Two of my favorite girls

I was moving files around today and came across these gems from last summer. These are my nieces, Alexis and Maddie. We had a lot of fun when they came to stay with us for a week, as is our yearly summer tradition. Luckily for me, they don’t mind being my guinea pigs to try out new techniques. Well, the older one minds a bit, but I have to make bargains with the little one to do the poses I want her to do because she just LOVES to pose! In fact, when we were making plans for them to come and stay, she runs over and says, “Can we take pictures? PLEASE??!!! I can do *this* pose…and *this* pose and…” Her mother and I just rolled our eyes and laughed. Yes, what can I say, I’ve created a monster! LOL

Just went semi-live with my website!

I’m still working on the real thing, but I have my splash page up with my phone number and email address in case someone wants to contact me now. I still have a few things to tweak and I’m still putting the portfolios together, but it’s coming along nicely. I’m super excited about the design.

As the new studio gets closer to reality, I’m trying to make sure I have everything ready to hit the ground running. And that includes getting my online presence all nice and copacetic!

Check out my new page at www.EnchantedLightStudios.com

Packed up the old studio today

In order to make room for our impending move to the new house, I needed to clear out my current studio space – which also happens to be the room formerly known as the dining room. We plan to use it as the staging area to store packed boxes until we’re actually able to move.

I haven’t finished packing it up completely…I still need to box up the bookcase of equipment and small props and take down my backgrounds and the muslin mover track, but other than that, I have all my lights packed up, softboxes disassembled and the other larger props all stacked up to make room for the other boxes.

It’s sort of bittersweet taking all of that apart, but it’s also really exciting because it means that I’m just that much closer to being in my new space. It really is a lovely basement, very open and airy with high ceilings, lots of windows and even a beautiful marble fireplace. I even have a separate office area and storage room just for my equipment and props along with a full bath. And The Hubbsterdude™ isn’t being left out. There’s even room for him to have a decent-sized “man cave” complete with a pool table and foosball table. That space is unfinished but he doesn’t mind. We’ll finish it when we have time and money to do it.

But like I said, it’s really exciting. It’ll be nice to have enough room to shoot more than a tiny family of three!

The new studio is closer to reality!

My Hubbsterdude™ and I have been in the process of buying a new house. This new house will not only be where we live but will also allow me to utilize the finished basement (with separate entrance) as my very spacious portrait studio. I’m completely and utterly thrilled with this! It’s been a long time coming! To have the space to do what I love and make a living at it again has been my goal and dream for the last ten years.

If all goes well, we should close on the house June 23rd and will be able to move in shortly thereafter. This means that I should be able to officially open the studio around the end of July!

So, watch this space! I’m just beside myself and giddy knowing I’ll be able to obtain an official business license and get back to the career I set aside almost a decade ago. Even though I’ve been actively photographing people, it’s just been mostly friends and family. Now I can get back to the real people. This makes me so happy!

Here’s a teaser shot of the front of the house. Can’t wait to get started on the landscaping too. Wish us luck!