Vicki

A memorial fund has been created at City National Bank of Lawton, OK to help the family cover the unexpected and unplanned funeral expenses for Vicki Danforth, killed in a tragic car accident Monday, April 16 in Elgin, Oklahoma.

'Vic' was a tremendous spirit full of life, energy and laughter and the halls at Eisenhower High School are quite and empty without her this week.

Everyone who knew her or at least 'of' her, has been asked to help this family during their tragic time of need. Services for Vicki will be Friday 10:30 a.m. at the Frontier Chapel on Fort Sill. Her burial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Post. The Hodge Funeral Home of Elgin, OK on 'A' street is handling her services and will be open until 8p.m. Wednesday and Thursday evenings for visitation and viewing.

The loss of Vicki will be felt for many years to come by her family, friends and teammates. She will be greatly missed. May God be with her family and friends during this time and may He grant them comfort and peace.

Loss of a Terrific Young Lady

Many of my clients know my hubby is a coach - mainly girls sports - basketball & softball. This morning, on MY way into the office, I had to pull off the road for emergency vehicles. They turned down a small, yet busy, country road known for accidents and I remember thinking, someone must have had a wreck.

20 minutes later when I got to the office, my husband called to tell me one of his players, Vicki, had been killed this morning in a car accident. I asked if it was on the little county road - he didn't know, but thought probably since the young lady lived in that direction. Within about 30 minutes, our fears were confirmed and made official. Vicki has played for my husband since before we were even married - since her 7th grade year. I've gotten to know her a lot myself over the years and have always been impressed with her.

Vicki had a terrific personality, always had a laughing smile and was always seen with her friends. In addition to being a great athlete, she was a great student. She would have graduated from Ike later this year. My husband and I have watched her grow from an awkward pre-teen to a beautiful young woman who had a lot of life left to give.

We've since learned that Vicki was traveling at a high rate of speed in her car this morning on her way to school, lost control and was ejected. This seems to be an epidemic lately amoung young people in our area - several have lost their lives over the last few weeks. So for all the readers, young, old or somewhere in between - let this be yet another lesson, there is no need to rush, buckle up and be careful. No one is indestructable. If you're a parent - hug your kids at night and tell them that you love them often - they might be teenagers in the middle of the 'I hate you stage', but tell them anyway - they need to know and you need to know you've told them.

Vicki will be greatly missed among her friends, family and teammates. Shawn and I are among that group - she touched many lives with her energectic spirit and love of life. May God bless her family during this time of sorrow and grief and may He bring comfort to all of them.

Nicole & Mark

Nicole and Mark had a beautiful day! Their friends and family were great and a joy to work with. The day itself started out cold, wet and dreary ... but right at reception time, the clouds broke, the winds died down and we were able to step outside for a few quick and fun pictures.

Now the couple is off to Jamaica and we wish them the very best of luck!

Weekend of Weddings

This weekend is going to go by in a quick, fast, furious blur of white, lace, "I Do's", cake and laughter as we shoot two seperate weddings! Tomorrow we'll travel down south and photograph the union of Nicole and Mark. They're planning a great celebration for tomorrow with a reception to be held on the campus of MSU.

We were honored to shoot their engagements back in February - they were brave enough to get out in the cold and put on their very best faces for some fun images. Then just last week, we had a preview of Nicole's dress and hair as we shot her bridal portraits. She has made a gorgous bride and her eyes just sparkled as we talked about all of the day's details.

We're so excited to see all of the pink and lime green tomorrow!!! We love colorful wedding details and things just a little 'off tradition'.

Our second day of festivities will be for Angie and David. For Sunday, it will be a smaller celebration, but no less fun! We'll have to travel up north to a 'rival city' if you happen to root for the Big ORANGE and BLACK! Go Pokes! We can't wait to share with you great shots from both big days!

The Class of 2007

The senior class of 2007 has really sent us in a whilrwind this past week. We've had back to back to back sessions this week and have really enjoyed getting to know such wonderful young people. They've all been full of personality and their own special charm and it was our pleasure to create for them images that are truely special. We wish them all the very best in each of their future endeavors!!

Senior Session from the Weekend

I had the opportunity this past weekend to photograph not one, but two exceptional young ladies. We were all over the place taking pictures and I was really excited about how they turned out! For Tori's session, we lucked out and found some train engines not in use at the moment and were able to grab a few pictures there. Jeny was awesome in her session and we found some great backgrounds and locations I had never used before.

Here are just a couple from their sessions:

For Photographers

I have lots of photographer friends and we chat often - I know many of them are just as busy as I am so we're always trying to figure out ways to be more creative, learn from each other and speed along the tedious process of processing our images. I've come up with a few 'starter packs' of announcements. I'll be adding more as I have the time and get my creative juices flowing.

Right now I have two sets available - a total of 5 5x7 horizontal templates - both birth announcements, one for girls, one for boys. The text layers are completely customizable and are for CS2 users. Because the backgrounds are copyright protected, they are not customizable. They are saved at 300 dpi and zipped together and then emailed after you purchase them. They do not include the font files.

Hope everyone enjoys!!

Reign Over Me

Okay - the most recent movie we've seen is 'Reign Over Me' - its a new personal favorite. Now I grant you this movie does get a little slow in the middle, but the overall story is very heartfelt and deep. You'll laugh during the movie, but this is by no means a typical Adam Sandler movie. There is a little bit of language but not bad, no violence, no sex ... Sandler and Don Cheadle make a great pair on screen.

The overall premise of the movie is a man (Sandler) has lost his entire family (wife and daughters) on 9/11. The movie doesn't really focus on the 'what' happened to them as it does more on how that day totally changed the direction of his life. It really tells his story of heartbreak, loss, and looking ahead to find himself.

I thought the movie would be good, but was really surprised with HOW good by the end. I will admit that I did get teary-eyed in the last few minutes... if you haven't seen it - do!!!

For Graduating Seniors

We love to do fun, creative things - so we offer to our high school seniors (and brides for that matter) fun, unique graduation announcements. Something that can make you stand apart from the crowd and really make a statement! Graduation announcements can incorporate your favorite picture(s) from your session, your school colors or something different! Just provide us with your graduation date info and we can create samples for you!

We offer a variety of sizes and paper options just so you make sure you get exactly what you're looking for!

Something We're Proud Of

The Oklahoma FFA Association is something that we've always been a MAJOR part of - since pretty much since I was born (and we won't name dates/years....). It's an organization that is very near and dear and whenever I can give back to an organization that really shaped my life in a major way - I like to.

This year the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association will hold an auction to raise money for new scholarships for graduates who wish to pursue a career as an agricultural education instructor (Ag-Teacher). The auction will be held during the 2007 State FFA Convention in Oklahoma City. We wanted to donate a couple of items that could not only show off our work, but also would be something that someone else could be proud of as well.

We've been doing this type of work for a few months now - looking at the world around us in a new and different way - looking for the unexpected. This first piece 'I Believe' - is a reflection of a trip around the family farm...this piece will be auctioned off during the convention and we will also have additional prints available for sale via our website.

First Wedding of 2007

Rachel & Ryan were our first wedding of 2007. Shot in February we had a blast!! Rachel was a beautiful bride - we shot her bridals in January! This couple was a photographers dream from start to finish. Their bridal party was a blast as well!! We were so excited to share this day with them and their families!!

The church was up in northeastern Oklahoma - wonderful faux finish walls really added to the shots!

Bricktown Shootout

Okay seniors - this is something to be excited about!! We certainly are. June 23 & 24 we will host our first 'Bricktown Shootout' in Oklahoma City. We have VERY limited appointments for this event, but we will meet clients in Oklahoma City where we will take a 'walking' trip around Bricktown for your session.

We'll photograph you in places along the canal, the Myriad Gardens, the ballpark - EVERYWHERE downtown! Session fee is $75 for a 2 hour session, you can change clothes up to four times (however dressing in layers - i.e. a jacket/sweater - won't count). With this special session, you'll also receive 10 custom graduation announcements!!

This is the type of session to bring fun, funky, favorite clothing - bring out all of your accessories - hats, sunglasses, jewelry, letter jackets, pets, etc.

In case of inclement weather, we will have a back up date of July 28 & 29.

Big Changes in April

April 1st will mark a big change for our studio. After lots and lots and LOTS of thought and consideration, we've decided to stop doing family, children and event portraits. This decision has been a long time coming and one we hated to make, but one we feel will really be a god-send to us in the future. Our seniors and wedding business has grown so much over the last two years, we've found ourselves stretched really thin and want to be sure we give each of our clients the very best service and attention to detail. In order to do that, we knew we needed to scale back a bit and re-focus our business.

We're very excited about the change because it will allow us a lot more creative freedom than we've had in the last couple of years. With this change, our clients can expect to see big, new things over the next year and beyond. We are temporarily closing our indoor studio in conjunction with this shift in focus - allowing us to make some much needed changes and updates in equipment! That's one thing we are REALLY pumped about right now! Over the next few months - you'll be seeing all the big changes coming to our studio!!