Spring rain.  LOTS of Spring rain today, yesterday, and the day before.  All nine of my weekend sessions were rained out... rescheduled.  Guess what?  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since now my fridge is super clean.  It even has that "new fridge" smell again.  I also washed and ironed all our clothes!  Those of you who don't find this news exciting have never been single Moms with three kids;)

Because the rain gave me a day off, my children and I sat down to a big dinner and the split a homemade chocolate meringue pie (which Emma and I baked together, of course) for dessert.  This gray, rainy day has been a little bit of Heaven.

I just got in a shipment of the newest product at Heather Sargent Photography.  This is the USB Pen. Now my clients who purchase a set of Image Files can have them on this beautiful pen.  This pen has a stylish look and weighty feel.  The USB is hidden in the cap and holds up to 1G of data!  I will recommend that clients immediately upload their images to a harddrive and then make themselves an additional back-up copy on a DVD.  Then they can use their very nice new ink pen to help them transport data from home to work.

With Mother's Day and Father's Day right around the corner, this pen would make a wonderful gift along with Images of loved ones stored inside.  It comes in an attractive gray box with a slipcase and tied with a white ribbon.

The picture above was taken by my good friend, Megan, of her daughter.  She was very brave and kind to allow me to use it for this blog post to make a point about the differences between snapshots and portraits and why should we care?  The title of this article is misleading- I'm not anti- snaphot!  I have lots of them of my own family and they are important to help us remember and celebrate our memories with friends and family.

They aren't portraits, though. Portraits are so important- I have to say this, I know, but seriously- hear me out.  What does a good portrait do that a snapshot does not do?  A portrait is not just a likeness- a record of facial features, eye color, etc.  A portrait, taken by a skilled photographer with an artist's eye, gives you a photograph that shows what is MOST BEAUTIFUL about that person on the outside but also a bit of the beauty inside.  Follow the link in the next post that has all of Xan's images and you will see not just well-taken pictures but you will, I hope, feel that you know something about this little girl by the gestures and expressions I have captured with my camera. 

Why is this important?  Because to know her is to love her.  To know, we must remember all about that person.  Xan is a cute little pig-tailed squirt right now but in the blink of an eye she will be driving off to college- she'll be taller, bigger, smarter, capable, different...wonderful, I'm very sure...but also grown. She will change and the portraits I have just taken of her will grow in value to her Mom and Dad each year that the little girl in the picture looks a little less like the bigger girl sitting across from them at the breakfast table. 

Take a look at the most recent pictures you have of the people you love and ask yourself...

how will I remember them?

....and this is one of the beautiful portraits we captured of Xan during our session.  You can see them all by clicking here.

Kristy Garvin and I just spent some time together capturing beautiful photos of her brand new baby girl, Maegan.  She brought her in all wrapped up in a baby blanket and laid her down....the blanket came off and, viola!, I saw pink.  Lots of PINK and I love it.  Maegan is the quintessential baby girl- tiny, delicate features and pink cheeks and lips to match her pretty pink clothes.  Kristy let me hold her and I was immediately taken back about 8 years to when my own little girl was brand new.  I was so happy to be able to tell Kristy that it just keeps getting better and better.  Yeah- the difficulties change (would anyone like to trade a month (or ten) of sleepless nights for a lengthy battle over skirt lenths or choice of TV shows?!). Being a parent is still the toughest job you'll ever love.

Welcome to the club, Kristy.

Earlier today I went out to Mount Vintage near Augusta and photographed Stan Everitt and his daughter Xan on a golf date! The pictures are soooo cute and I can't wait to get more of them up tomorrow.

This summer I will be photographing at the Beach once a week.  For the week of June 8-12 I will be taking sessions (mornings and evenings) for the entire week.  I plan to keep the sessions limited to two in the morning and two in the evening so that I can give my families an unhurried and fun portrait experience.  Please call the studio at 803.221.8951 and reserve your beach session.  (More information will be coming soon about the beach session prices.)

Recently I photographed uber-cute couple, Casey and Nick, at River Island in Augusta.  We had a lot of laughs and got some wonderful photos which you can see here.

This little girly with torn jeans is my darling Emma.  She hates hairbows, loves our dog, Dutch, and she wants to grow up to be an artist.

It's official.

I'm addicted to the ramblin', hysterical blog of The Pioneer Woman.  Log on to read her steamy love story, pick up a great recipe, or even see some AMAZING photographs.

***WARNING***If you log on and begin to read, you will look up two hours later to see dinner burned and the children feeding cheese nips to the dog while they watch unapproved TV shows.