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Grayson

Grayson

Sometimes in life you hear stories that fill you with faith and peace… Grayson’s story did that for me.  I have photographed the L family for years and I have loved following their family on Facebook.  I knew they were expecting their family to expand and I was looking forward to photographing the new baby, but none of us expected to meet him as early as we did!  There were some issues with the pregnancy and they were monitoring mom closely, and had her come back in for a precautionary ultrasound.  During that ultrasound, they realized that there was a placenta abruption and Grayson needed to be delivered RIGHT THEN.

They rushed into an emergency C-section and then flew Grayson down to Tallahassee.  It was days before his mom could see him, they were taking every precautionary measure to get Grayson functioning on his own and also testing to see if there was likely brain damage due to the abruption.  You can call it luck that they caught the abruption so quickly, but its hard not to have faith when you hear that tiny preemie Grayson was kicking butt in the NICU.  Not only was he amazing doctors with his strength but then the brain scans come back… showing everything was normal.   This child has defied ALL the odds and  continues to grow and thrive.

I am so thankful that both Grayson and his mom are ok and I get to tell this amazing story.  I am thankful for all the doctors and the amazing new technology that saved his life.  I am thankful for the faith of this family that gave them all the strength to get through this.  And I am thankful that I get to be a small small part of it all by showing how handsome this little fighter is!

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Award Winning Images

Award Winning Images

I am absolutely overjoyed with the recent results from the International Print Competition hosted by Professional Photographers of America and also the Florida Professional Photographers annual print competition.  Judging for each of these competitions is very strict, so any success at this level is awesome!

For the International Print Competition, you can enter four images.  They are judged first to decide if they are merit images or not.  Merit images are images that are exemplary for a professional photographer, which is a very high standard.  Once all the merit images have been chosen, the judges go back to select the best of the best to be included in the loan collection.  This year, I received merits for all four of my images and two were selected for the loan collection!  Wowza!  This means for 2015, I am a PPA Gold Medal Photographer!  I also received the last merit I needed to receive my Master Photographer designation in January!  Yay!!

For the Florida competition, I entered nine images and had seven of them merit!  I also received a distinguished award and my image scores placed me in the top ten of Florida Professional Photographers!  I will receive my Florida Degree of Photographic Excellence next August for the merits I have received at the state level.

So… here are the images with their titles and info!

“One in Every Family” PPA Merit, PPA Loan Collection, FPP Merit, FPP Distinguished Award for Portrait of a Pet

tppg4“Frozen” PPA Merit, PPA Loan Collection, 2014 FPP Merit, FPP Illustrative Best in Show, FPP Illustrative Open First Placetppg5

“Possessed”, PPA Merit, 2014 FPP Merit”tppg2

“Rose Red”, PPA Merittppg1

“Shellacked” FPP Meritshellack

“Dream Dancer” FPP Meritdreamdancer

“Arctic Angel”, FPP Meritangel

“In the Spotlight”, FPP Meritspotlight

“Plastique Chic”, FPP Meritplastique

“Supernatural”, FPP Meritsupernatural

 

Awards and Accolades!

Awards and Accolades!

A dear friend recently told me that I am terrible at the “humble brag”, and I know its true.  I guess its part of my Southern manners that you aren’t supposed to brag about yourself, so writing posts like this are actually super difficult for me!

But, the recent honors I have received warrant a bit of bragging!  Last month, at the Tallahassee Professional Photographers Guild annual print competition, I was overjoyed to have all six of my entries be judged as merits by the panel of judges.  Even more exciting, my image “Frozen” was chosen as the best Illustrative image and the overall “Best in Show”!  Also, my image, “Possessed” was named as the overall third place image!

So, here are my six merit images from the TPPG competition!

Illustrative Open: “Frozen”  Overall Best In Show 2015 Tallahassee Professional Photographers Guildtppg5 Illustrative Open: “Possessed” Overall Third Place Tallahassee Professional Photographers Guildtppg2Portrait of a Child: “Bashful Blush”tppg6 Portrait of a Pet: “One in Every Family”tppg4 Illustrative Open: “Sealed”tppg3 Portrait of a Child, “Rose Red”tppg1

Chipper

Chipper

My name is Linda and I am addicted to bulldogs.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right??  My first dog was a bulldog and she was the greatest dog ever.  (Completely non-biased opinion here).  Ever since, I go bonkers for any roly, snorty, chubby, wiggly bulldog.  A bulldog puppy?  Yeah… that’s like my version of crack!

So, when a good friend happened to mention that he was dog sitting a bulldog puppy… yeah… well… I puppy-napped the bulldog.  In exchange for some snorty puppy kisses, I spent some time photographing Chipper here at the studio.  I spent the rest of the time playing and snuggling, but at least there was a part of the day that was productive!

So brace yourself for the irresistible cuteness of Chipper the bulldog!

chip5 chip4 chip3 chip2 chip1

PPA Super One Day

PPA Super One Day

As a long time member of the Professional Photographers of America, I have long supported the educational opportunities that they provide for members.  Last Monday, I had the pleasure of teaching a class for professional photographers here in Tallahassee, along with my dear friend Kira Derryberry.  We were so blessed to have the most incredible model for the class, Mary.  Mary is a singer and has the best personality in the world.  I swear I could have photographed her for days!  Thank you so much to Mary, to Laura J Artistry for the hair and makeup, to PPA and to all the students that attended our class!

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Yay for me!!

Yay for me!!

I have to brag for myself for a minute!  At the Tallahassee Professional Photographers Guild annual print competition, I merited five of my six entries!  Woo!  I am super proud of my images and their scores, especially with all the other great images that were entered this year!

Here are my five merited images:

Portrait of a Woman, “Unwrapped”

merit5

Portrait of a Woman, “Unconquered”merit4Environmental Portrait, “Force of Nature”
merit3

Illustrative Open, “The Ringmaster”
merit2

Illustrative Open, “Unwrapped”merit1