Home Grown Bloggers | Event

The last weekend of September, y’all, was a busy one. Earlier that week a sister photographer messaged me that something had come up and would keep her from shooting an event. I had a family session that morning, but told her I could fill in afterwards.

I arrived at the Home Grown Bloggers event at Morgan Creek Vineyards mid morning to find a room full of beautiful, eager to learn bloggers engaged with each other during one of their sessions.

Heather and Kirsten are the brains behind Home Grown Bloggers. I had met Heather at another blogging event, but this was my first time to meet Kirsten. Y’all, these ladies are the definition of passionate when it comes to blogging and teaching. They are successful bloggers who are wanting other bloggers to succeed, and that’s exactly what this event was all about.

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The open forum sessions had everyone engaging in the topics. The ladies were soaking up every bit of knowledge from the speakers.

Before lunch, the ladies all got together to have some confetti fun! The sweet folks at The Confetti Bar sent everyone packs of confetti and it made for a fun picture!

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Lunch was provided by Eugene’s Hot Chicken. Heads up Birmingham, it’s here, and it’s SO GOOD!

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So many sponsors helped make the #HGBham event happen. Everyone left with some amazing SWAG!

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At the end of the day, I spent some time with Heather and Kirsten to take some promotional pictures of them around the Vineyard. If you are interesting in learning more about their expertise in blogging, contact them here or here. Their sessions will be available to purchase online, soon!

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Ladies, thanks again or having me out to capture your day and event. It was a fun and inspirational day learning about professional blogging.

The Chaffins | Family

We’ve had the pleasure of knowing the Chaffin family for a few months now, and they are just the sweetest! Amber is like my long lost sister. We’re basically twins from what we like to eat, things we like to do, oh, and did I mention our kids are both fifteen months apart?

Little Judah is about to be dedicated in church in a few weeks, and they needed some up-to-date pictures of him, and of their family. So we scheduled a time for late September (thinking it would be cooler) to have them taken. Y’all we we started at 8:45 a.m. and we didn’t even take the first picture before we were sweating to death. I’m so over this heat, and so ready for actual Fall temps.

Even though everyone, including the boys, were over the heat and sweat — their session turned out great! These are a few of my favorites from their session.

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Thank you for letting me capture your sweet family!

Treat Yourself | Before & After

Being a mother and a photographer, I can tell you exactly what goes through a mom’s brain as soon as she’s booked their family session. Outfits, weather, nap time schedules, the entire family’s cooperation — those are just a few of the things she’s going to stress about before the photo shoot happens. And being a mother, she will put herself last (kid(s) and husband always comes first) and really start to stress when she’s realized she has nothing to wear, her hair is not cooperating and her makeup is the same makeup she’s been wearing for years. (Been there, done that!)

Wouldn’t it be great to show up to your family session with all the confidence in the world? Wouldn’t it be great to know that you are put together and will be looking like a rock star the entire session? During my last session, Krystle took some time right before the session to have her makeup airbrushed by professional, Katie, and had a blow out, too! A blow out in the context of her hair being blown dry and styled. And y’all, she ROCKED their family session. It was HOT, it was dinner time, and there were bugs — but, she looked like she walked off a page from a magazine the entire session. That’s exactly how I want to feel when we take our family photos this year, and I plan on it.

To see exactly what the process looks like, I spent some time with her at SpaOne80 to get an up close and personal look at what goes in to the airbrush experience.

The girls came in with clean faces to start the process. And then Katie began to work her magic. First the eyes, then the airbrushing, and then the final touches!

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Wow! I’m a believer, and I’ve already told Katie she needs to put me on her book so I can feel put together during our family session and not worry if my makeup is sweating off!

Katie is offering a $100 special for an airbrush makeup makeover and a blow out! Go spend a little time and treat yourself.

Take it from this photographer; a mom who comes to their session knowing their hair is as it should be and their makeup is on point, the entire family is relaxed and a good time is had by all!

If you want to get in touch with Katie you can message her here or here. Or call SpaOne80 at 205-663-5566!

The Herrons | Family

It’s Fall!! Hallelujah! Now if the temps would follow suit, I’ll be a little happier. To kick off my favorite season I took my first Fall mini session of twenty sixteen.

The Herron family consists of two sweet parents, and two adorable little boys which the camera loved. I couldn’t have asked for more cooperative subjects to photograph!

I loved that Krystle took time out to get her hair and makeup professionally done before the session yesterday evening. Katie at SpaOne80 did a fabulous job adding to her beauty and giving her all the confidence that she needed to rock their session.

Here are a few of my favorites from their session. You are sure to fall in love, just like me.

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I’m looking forward to all the other sessions that have been scheduled.

If you are interested in scheduling your family pictures, email me at joyhsowell@me.com.

Fall Mini Sessions 2016

The weekend is drawing near, but I’m sitting here begging for cooler temperatures to arrive in Alabama. It just doesn’t seem right to pull all the Fall decorations out, even though I did see a few leaves in the yard this week. And it looks like the leaves are already starting to change over thanks to this long dry spell we’re having.

With that being said, I’m announcing the dates for Fall Mini Sessions! You can email me at joyhsowell@me.com to book your session.

Can’t wait to see how much your families have grown this year!

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