Time for the contest again

Last year the studio participated in the America’s Cutest Kid contests and had a great time. The contest raised $164,775 for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. This year, we are going international!

The International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Family and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS.org) is going on.

I know I photograph the best and cutest families. Now is the time to prove your loved ones are North America’s Cutest Family? Many exciting prizes will be awarded, and the grand prize winner receives a new car!

Model Search Special:
$25 entrance fee includes a model session and one image submitted to the national gallery. Saturday sessions are available and receive 10% any portrait order from the model session.

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Each vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).

Grand prize international winner will be determined from the 52 city finalists. The winners will be selected from the finalist gallery by photography and modeling industry experts.

Call 828-397-6055 or email me now to enter your family in this exciting contest. Entry into the contest ends April 5th.

*Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. For more information, visit http://sandypucmodels.com/.

New website new blog

Just wanted to let you know that I am building a whole new website and the blog will be moving to the actual website. I will leave this one up for all of the archived posts and will let you know here when the new site is up and running.

The old website was down for a little while last night and today, thanks to an oops on my part. Hopefully that won't happen again, but if you go to the site and it looks weird or it gives you some error you will know I did something again. I know it gave me a nice headache today. But when the new site is up; it will be so worth it.

Hang with me and enjoy this winter weather.
Thanks
Denise

It's Party Time Again!

That’s right the first facebook party was so much fun that we decided that night to do another one. We had thought about July or August, but we all had visions of sand between our toes and the cool breeze coming off the ocean. Ahhhh… now I want to go back to the beach.

So we are going to have another facebook profile party on Thursday, Sept. 17th at the studio from 6-8 pm. Come by and stay as long as you want. We will do a mini-session and from that you will get an image file to use for your profile portrait on facebook, myspace, linkedin, twitter or whatever you are online on.

Nancy Hunt will be back with all her pretty bling, bling! Nancy is an independent distributor for Premier Designs High Fashion Jewelry. They have some great new fall pieces.

This time we are going to have your Avon lady, Renee Bradshaw here. Renee will have some Avon samples for you to check out as well.

It is going to be lots of fun. Since it is a party, you know there will be food.

There is no admission charge, but if you could bring a donation of dog or cat food that would be great. During the month of September DCP is working with Catawba County Humane Society by collecting donations for their food pantry. With the economy the way it is, some families are struggling to be able to afford to feed their family pet. Many of these pets are brought to the shelter or worst abandoned. The food pantry gives food to families in need so they can feed their furry family member and not have to give them up.

Let me know if you have any questions and don’t forget to bring a friend!

Beautiful Sleeping Baby

I recently saw a news story on Good Morning America about beautiful sleeping baby images used in advertising. The story referred to the proper sleep position for babies to reduce the risks of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). A new article was released discussing the importance of having your baby sleep on their back and not on their stomach and/or on soft comforters, etc. Read the full story to find out about the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on sleep positions for your baby.

Watching Sarah sleep when she was a baby is one of my fondest memories. I still love sleeping babies and capturing the sweet innocence of that quiet time. I always know we are going to have a special treasure for mommy when her little one falls asleep at the studio. Every parent should have a portrait like that. Take it from me, it becomes priceless. You will need that reminder of how sweet they can be, when you are trying to get them up for school in a few years.

Jailhouse FACES Exhibit

Earlier in the spring, I was asked to participate in a special exhibit for the Burke County United Way showcases the “FACES” of those involved in the United Way projects. It was an incredible honor to be one of a few photographers asked to do the photography for this project and during the month of June I went to some of the projects to do the photographs needed for the exhibit. I can say it was a lot of fun doing this and I met some incredible people. Our county really does have some wonderful people.

The projects United Way funds really do some incredible things for our community and the staff and volunteers of the United Way are hard working and caring people. We are fortunate to have them working to make our county a better place.

The exhibit is now on display at the Burke Arts Council’s Jailhouse Gallery on the square in downtown Morganton and will be there through the rest of August. Last night, they held a special exhibit reception and I got to see for the first time which images of mine they selected to use for the exhibit. The exhibit looks great. You really need to run by there and see it. It truly does put a face to the United Way.

While at the reception, I was able to meet the other two photographers that were selected to participate in this project; Kimberly Lajzar and Jeff Starks. It was a real pleasure getting to meet them and their work is great. I hope they had as much fun with this project as I did. I also got to see many old friends that I have not seen in years. Yes I know “me bad”, but it is always great to see them and hopefully it won’t be as long before we see each other again.

Of course everyone knows how much I love spending time in jail – the Jailhouse Gallery that is. It has been several years since my last exhibit there and I must say I love the changes to the gallery room the recent remodeling project did. Ann DiSanto, the staff and volunteers at the Burke Arts Council always do a great job in displaying exhibits and I always feel at home when I am in the jailhouse. Okay no smart comments on that…

Here are a few of my images you will see on display, but you really should check out the exhibit and let me know what you think. Visiting hours are 9-5 Tuesday through Friday. Hope to see you there!