Okay, that was just mean. I wrote that as the title to this blog because another friend of mine had that as her blog post title and it’s been stuck in my head all day. (Thanks a lot, Michelle)

It’s been a busy week for me. On Monday, I had the honor of speaking to 114 students and a handful of faculty at William Woods University as part of their LEAD events calendar. I was incredibly nervous and even through the AV technical difficulties was able to pull off a pretty good presentation. The feedback has been great so far. I Really enjoyed putting the presentation together and thinking about why I love photography, how I got back into it and what I’ve done to make it work for me. I also loved sharing my two current bodies of work with the group.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to be the featured photographer on Lenscratch, a photography blog by renowned photographer Aline Smithson. She’s a rock star in the photo world and I was happy to have had the opportunity to meet her when I was in LA last spring. Lenscratch has been named one of the top ten photo related blogs you should be reading by InStyle Magazine, Wired.com and Source Review so naturally, I’m pretty giddy about being featured.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day (I also got my hair cut short again! yay!) I was humbled and truly surprised to hear that I placed third in the new CAL show: Based on a True Story, for my image called “Birthday”. The show is incredibly strong and I’m always thrilled when a photo piece can place amongst other mediums. I beg everyone in the area to go see the show if for nothing else, to see Susan Taylor Glasgow’s first place piece which is truly amazing and left me teary eyed and speechless. We are lucky to have so many incredibly talented artists in this town! The exhibit is open through April 16

And in other news, it seems someone is tagging galleries in the North Village area. PS Gallery’s beautiful new space was tagged Monday night and Orr Street Studio’s got it last night. The graffiti is not even visually appealing. The message is mixed since it is placed on a gallery wall. We’re not sure what to make of it, but it has sparked some lively discussions on facebook and here at the studios. At least the paint matches our color scheme! In the great Orr Street tradition, I’m calling this piece: Grafforrti

I am very pleased and humbled to have been awarded 2nd place in the current exhibition up at CAL (Columbia Art League).  The juror was Victoria Weaver, Museum Coordinator at the Daum Museum in Sedalia, MO.

Equally thrilling for me (okay, maybe even more so) was finding out I had placed 3rd overall in the HumanKind exhibition sponsored by the New York Photo Festival-The Future of Contemporary Photography. From their website:

Throughout history, every generation of theorists, scientists and artists has grappled with the ultimate quest: to understand and define the human condition.
Now our turn has come: We are looking for images that encompass the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. Images that tell the story of what it means to be part of HumanKind - the bad, the good, the beautiful, the ugly, the exotic, the mundane, and everything in between.

Drawn from online submissions, 120 images will be selected and exhibited at The powerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn. 
HumanKind - presented by the New York Photo Festival - will be on show from December 17 to January 20.

The jury for this show was something that caught my attention and motivated me to enter. It was very well rounded including photography consultants, art directors and most interesting to me-a social anthropologist. You can read about the jury here.

Over 2500 entries were received. To see the other prize winners, look here.

My prize for this award is free admission to the Powerhouse Portfolio Review in Dumbo, Brooklyn in February of 2011. Send good thoughts my way as I prepare for this daunting experience! AND, if you know anyone who is 100 years old or older who would like to be a model (they do not need to model nude!) please contact me right away!

I’m a little slow getting the word out here on my blog, but I learned a few weeks ago that two of my photos won 2nd and 3rd place in the nude category of the professional division of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award! Words can’t really express how excited I am about this. The project is one that is very special to me and being validated by some big names in photography feels pretty darn good, too. Here are a few columns that appeared recently in the local paper about the award. Click here for the first one, and here for the second one.

I hope some of you will be able to make it out on Thursday, Sept. 16 6-8 pm for the reception/party at Orr Street Studios. I will have several pieces from the series on display together for the first time.

I’ve been working diligently all summer to add to my portfolio. I have an unnamed, as of yet, series of images of children - mostly my own. Here are a few of my favorite new ones. If you have name suggestions, feel free to post a comment!

First, I have to thank the Witzigs for their patience. This past month has been crazy busy with catching up from my July vacation and watching my boys full time as Linda went back to work this month. phew! I’m not sure I’ve ever been this far behind, but it’s finally all coming together and I’m extremely happy to be getting this sneak peak out for Mandy and Steve!

Mandy and Steve introduced me to my new favorite location for family shooting! It’s top secret, so don’t even ask. They also are one of only a handful of people to ever take advantage of my “I can meet you as early as you can handle in the morning” offer. We met at 7:30 on a Saturday morning in July. The sun was just peeking over the trees giving us the perfect lighting conditions. I’ll let the handful of images selected here tell the story.

I swear, Annie is not about to jump into the lake!

Thanks, Mandy and Steve for an incredibly fun and memorable early Saturday morning adventure!

On my recent vacation to the great state of Texas, we had the pleasure of spending a few days in Houston. I can’t even tell you how glad I am for this small detour! I had 2 family photo sessions scheduled during our 2 day stay (note to self: stay longer in Houston next time). Houston is a great city and I highly recommend visiting! If you go, stay near Hermann Park Conservancy. We could have spent two days just exploring the park alone. But close by is the Museum District and if you only have time for one museum, I can personally recommend the Contemporary Art Museum Houston.

“But wait!” you say. “I thought this was a sneak peak at the Allen family, not an advertisement for Visit Houston!” Okay, now that I’ve put a plug in for vacationing in Houston, bring on the Allen family!

We met at Hermann Park. It was great to see the Allen family again! They were clients of mine in Columbia - I was lucky enough to get to photograph Kai’s birth. Meeting Ari was such a treat! Definitely two beautiful little guys with curly locks and loads of personality. Here’s just a very small selection of images to whet your appetite!

There were plenty examples of what is evidently known as, “The Allen Tongue”. Very expressive appendage!

My family and I just returned from the most fabulous vacation in Texas.  Part of it was work and most of it was pleasure.  I’ll be posting more images as I sort through them all, but here are a few of my immediate favorites.

This last one is of the amazing oak trees that are all over south Texas. We were pretty taken with them. This bunch was just beside the parking area of the Pelican Bay Resort, where we stayed for the Dembowski Family Reunion.

I’m particularly proud of this image of Hannah from this week’s photo session. Sometimes (most of the time) the image that speaks the loudest is not the one where the subject is smiling (saying cheese - ugh) and looking at the camera. I recently read a quote that I liked so much I wrote it down and stuck it up on the studio wall: “Great photographers capture moments that speak beyond the frame”.

Between the stunningly gorgeous days we’ve been having here in central Missouri, it’s been raining. A LOT. Last weekend the grounds were fairly swampy from the rain. Lucky for me, I work with the funnest clients! We knew by the end of this photo session we were going to all end up muddy and wet and we planned for it! Here are a few images from the end of our session. These guys made me smile the whole time we were together. In fact, as I’ve been looking through the images, they continue to crack me up. As the dad said to me, “Nathanial brought his own sunshine to the shoot.”

A big thank you to Russell for taking some pictures of me with his iPhone while I worked. I love lying in mud puddles as much as the kids do!

I was talking with fellow Columbia artist, Pack Mathews, this morning about the new show hanging in the Orr Street Studios gallery. It was a great chance to really talk about art, our perception of it and about how the messages in our heads can affect our art-in both good ways and bad. Just a few short moments before this conversation I was talking to two other friends of mine at the gym about how we’ve reached a certain age where we don’t really care what others think so much about us (or we’re trying to get there!) and we just want to do the things that make us happy and experience new things without worrying what others are saying while we are out there living out loud. And just a few days before this conversation, I wrote a comment on my facebook page about how happy I was and how I was feeling really good about my work lately. I think when I feel good about my work, that breeds better work. And when I’m not tearing myself down about what I may have not done well, my work is better. I certainly think there is a place for constructive criticism and definitely I make a big point to always learn from my mistakes–but it sure is nice to feel good about what I’m doing right now.

Last night, just before going to bed, I checked my email one last time. My inbox had two wonderful messages from clients. Both of which I had fully intended to blog about last week but didn’t get the time to do so. The first was from Carolyn Linton of Green Meadow Barn Company. If you are looking for beautiful furniture hand crafted from vintage 100 year old wood from barns and houses… well, you simply must give Carolyn a call! I drove out to her beautiful showroom roughly 10 miles outside of Columbia last week working on a feature for Columbia Home and Lifestyles magazine. It was snowy and cold and Carolyn had warned me that the heat had just gone out in the showroom so dress warmly. I was excited to meet Carolyn and see her work — the thought of owning one of these beautiful pieces sure did entice me. She was such fun to talk to and photograph and to top it off, she had just finished baking a batch of cookies to share with me over a cup of hot tea. As we wrapped up the photo taking, we sat down to warm cookies and hot tea and talked about so many things. It was truly a joy to work with her. I’ll share a piece of her email with you and one of the photos:

“It was so nice to have to come for a visit, ——and take pictures. Some photographers just take pictures, but you add an extra personal touch of class !” I’ve re-read this sentence a few times now and it never fails to make me smile. When I left my session with Carolyn, those were the same thoughts I had about her. It was so much more than just a photo session.

The second email was from my friend and now client, Jordan. I don’t think the fact that he was my friend first diminishes from his message. I am always honored when people take the time (especially parents of newborns!) to say thank you in such a personal way.

Here is an excerpt from his message: “Stacie, you have a gift and a talent for capturing MOMENTS with your camera and your eye. We are so impressed, now that it’s our child in the shot! These photos all capture a unique aspect of Brooklyn and our lives together. So thank you so much for recording these moments for us to savor and share.”

And here are a few of my favorites from their session:

Lots of sessions and lots of editing. When I wasn’t doing that, it seems I was playing Wii with the boys or drilling holes and /or glueing stuff to 3 images I’ve entered into the Missouri Contemporary Ballet show at Sven’s Kafe. I’ll show the ballet images next week after the show goes up. Without further adieu, some of the rest of the week’s photos:

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