Irresistible Portraits: Garden Renovations

Karen and Buddy have decided to invest in renovating the portrait garden this spring. The work began yesterday with removing old fixtures and clearing more land.

Our old chevy truck has a new home at the bottom of the property rather than beside the studio. And moving an old truck that doesn't start is INTERESTING....

For a while... we have to look past the muddy tracks, but the garden is still open for portrait sessions.

We appreciate the hard work the guys of Earthworks Landscape Design are putting into the garden and we can't wait to see the finished garden!

Keep an eye on the blog and the facebook fan page - www.facebook.com/ipbykg - for more images as the garden progresses!

Irresistible Portraits: Location Portrait Sessions

We've had a lot of interest in location portrait sessions lately. We're happy to explore new locations. It seems to get the creative energy flowing around here! All the locations have been gorgeous and we wanted to share them with you. Maybe you've been thinking of a family portrait at your home or at a location that's personal to your family. This may give you some inspiration to schedule the session!

This was Meredith and Ben's engagement session in Winston Salem, NC at the Graylyn International Conference Center. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL and Karen could have photographed ALL day there if we would have let her!

Karen photographed the Lanning family at their home on Lake Tillery last weekend. They photographed a variety inside and outside their home and the images are STUNNING!

The Reed family lives on their farm in Mount Ulla, NC. The kids love playing outside barefoot and the perfect place for their family portrait was there - on the farm!

Honestly, this was Karen's idea to go to an alley in downtown Kannapolis, NC for this portrait session. Madeline is a dancer at heart and after hearing her talk about dance, Karen asked her if she'd like to go to this location... just to play and see what they could come up with. Of course, she agreed and jumped at the chance! Her mom fell in love with the images and that's all she wrote....

The Blair family has been planning a family portrait for a while and definitely wanted to include Carson, their family pet of nine years. Time got away from them and they finally scheduled their family session on the same week that they were moving out of their house! (We can work with last minute changes too!)

To see more from these location portrait sessions, check out of our facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/IPbyKG.

The Breast Center at Stanly Regional Medical Center

Through our business, we become connected to our clients and their families. Karen has been photographing Nicole and John Williams and their family for years and even hosted an IP party at their house recently. Nicole approached Karen about helping with the opening marketing campaign for The Breast Center at Stanly Regional Medical Center. The center is scheduled to open June 2010.

Bill Owens, creative director from Zander Guinn Millan, recruited survivors from within the employees of Stanly Regional Medical Center. With a group of seven women, Karen and Renda photographed group and individual images of the survivors at the Williams home a couple weeks ago. The images they choose will be displayed as large portraits around the building within the new Breast Center as well as using them for marketing materials.

Here are a few favorites and candids from the session...

"We've always used real people in our advertising and taken the home town approach to our campaigns."

IP is very proud to have been chosen for this project. We look forward to seeing the final product hanging on their walls!

Plain or Fancy's Pride & Joy

Gary Sweatt, owner of Plain or Fancy Catering in Kannapolis, NC, has helped us out ALOT with catering different fundraiser events for Focused on a Cure. He's always willing to whip up some delicious treats for us to share at Girls Night Outs, during our Cutest Kid contest, etc. He will also be at the Girls Night Out at Cabarrus Dance Academy on May 21st.

In return for all his help for Focused on a Cure, we asked him to bring in his pride and joy - his granddaughter, Lillie. Here are a few of our absolute favorites from her IP session.

Gary is known around IP for his delicious chicken salad and pimento cheese! We will have them both for sale at the Girls Night Out on May 21st. Stop by his table for a taste test!

If you're ever looking for a caterer for a gathering, party, wedding, etc, give Gary a call at 704-938-2409 or contact him through http://www.plainorfancycatering.com/. We highly recommend him!

Irresistible Portraits: IP's Cutest Kid Contest

Irresistible Portraits hosted their first IP's Cutest Kid Contest in April! They had two days of drop in FREE sessions in mid April, then invited the parents back in to pick their favorite which would be uploaded to the online voting contest. IP had 30+ families show up during those two days.

From April 21st to April 28th, the children and families were supposed to promote voting as much as they could and see how many votes they could earn. One vote equalled one dollar. IP set their goal at $10,000 in votes!

During the week, the parents shared their creative fundraising ideas with us - from lemonade stands and yard sales to auctioning off their relatives for dates!! Needless to say, IP met their goal and a little more! The grand total on the evening of April 28th was $10,175 for Focused on a Cure!!

The following are winners...

Jackson Parsons - IP's Cutest Baby

 

Katie Westmoreland - IP's Cutest Tot

Caroline Jeter - IP's Cutest Tween

Bryana Hott - IP's Cutest Pre-Teen

Jackson Parsons raised the most money totaling to $1303, therefore he is IP's Cutest Kid for 2010! Check out this image with his collection bucket that him and his sister carried while walking the neighborhood collecting from door to door!

We asked Lauren (Jackson's mom) to share her fundraising story with us...

The Focused on a Cure foundation hits home for our family being that Jackson's Nana is a 15 year breast cancer survivor. So when IP's Cutest Kid Contest came across my facebook events with all proceeds going to FOC, we were determined to raise as much money as we could. Who knew dressing a little boy in pink and sending him door to door could raise so much money. We set our goal at $1,000 and started raising money.

With the help of his big sister McKinlee, Jackson raised over $100 in our neighborhood asking people to donate money for "breath cancer." People were melting in their hands as they stood there with their bucket and sign. We also set up buckets at his pre-school, consigned clothes, sold our couch, took a class field trip to the fire station, raffled a Mary Kay basket, and asked just about everyone that walked past us.

Friends and family all over the US sent donations through the mail and online. It was amazing to see how supportive everyone we spoke with was. We are very grateful to have such wonderful family and friends. I am so proud of Jackson for being such a good sport, wearing so much pink, and being so excited everytime someone else gave him money. I am also thankful that this contest allowed me to teach my children about donating and giving back.

Thanks you to the IP family for starting this foundation and thank you to our wonderful family, friends, and everyone that helped us exceed our goal and raise $1,303 for Focused on a Cure.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
God Bless,
Lauren Dorsey Parsons

Check out some images from Jackson's Cutest Kid session on IP's facebook fan page - www.facebook.com/IPbyKG.

Professional Photographers of Michigan - Essentials for Women

Karen was invited to speak at PPM's Essentials for Women conference in Petosky, Michigan a few weeks ago. She was invited to share her experiences with Focused on a Cure and fundraising through her photography business - Irresistible Portraits. At the last minute, she was given the opportunity to share her tricks and advice for photographing unique maternity and newborn portraits. She was thrilled to do both!

Here's a couple of images from the sessions she photographed during her seminar...

You can see more of the images as well as some more candids on our facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/IPbyKG.

Karen has received a lot of great feedback and even chatted with other photographers further about their future involvment with Focused on a Cure. Some photographers were so inspired that they've offered to hold fundraisers at their studios across the US and donate the proceeds to Focused on a Cure! This is HUGE for our organization!!! We'd be happy to chat with anyone who's interested in doing something similar, whether it involves photography or not! We're open to any donations! Remember, our goal is $15,000 this year!

Irresistible Portraits: Costantino-Smith Wedding [05.01.10]

Karen has photographed the Blackwelder family for years. When Tonya and Michael decided to tie the knot, Michael's mother, Donna, came straight to IP! It's an honor to be considered a family's photographer, not to mention being included in the biggest day of a couple's life.

Tonya and Michael chose a GORGEOUS venue - Dennis Vineyards in Albemarle, NC. The weather was absolutely perfect with overcast skies. They wrote their own vows to go along with their non-traditional wedding. Then they surprised everyone with a choreographed first dance which caused an uproar in the reception hall! Needless to say, they were a fun couple to work with!

The Smiths' wedding day images will be online for viewing and ordering Saturday, June 5th until Saturday, July 3rd. To view their images, go to http://www.irresistibleportraits.com/. Click on weddings and client images. Enter smith (all lowercase) as your password.

Until then, check out our sneak peek album on our facebook fan page - www.facebook.com/IPbyKG.  Enjoy!