Fall Mini-Sessions at Quiver Tree

Sep 10, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

Hi Guys and Gals! I know this little post only applies to those of you who are local, but I thought I ought to let you local readers know that we’ve just announced the dates of the fall mini-sessions by Quiver Tree Photography. The slots might fill up quickly…and I want you guys to hear about it first! Because I love you. {And y’all! The price is really good!}

On Oct. 27th & Nov. 24th, the Hubs will be geared up and ready to shoot an afternoon away at one picturesque outdoorsy location in Washington, NC. You will show up with your crew for your 25 minute shoot, and within two weeks, get a disc of the 30 best images in color (+30 black & white = 60 total!) and {ka-chow!} now you have photos for Christmas cards and gifts for the grandparents/wife/second cousin’s third grade teacher SORTED!

You can find out more about the sessions on the Quiver Tree Photography Blog — or if you know you want to book you can go ahead and email me at ccollie@quivertreephoto.com. {The slots will be every half hour between 2 and 5 pm on each date.}

We can’t wait to see you on the other side of our lenses this fall! And the slots are likely to go quickly, so get in touch soon!

xCC

What Winners Look Like

Aug 4, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

Remember 87ish days ago when I hosted a giveaway for a free Quiver Tree Photo session and an 8 x 10 canvas or something like that … I can’t even remember what we promised it’s been so long, but I didn’t actually count the days so I’m not sure, I just know it’s been a while? Remember that?

Because we finally worked it out to do the shoot with the wonderful family that won and I am SO glad we did. I love all of you precious people, but I was secretly especially excited the Boltes family won. {And my Dad picked the winning number, so don’t start thinking it was rigged!} They are such a precious and special family, and their two handsome boys were adopted from Ethiopia and Uganda. And I think most of you know the people, and especially the children of Mama Africa have a very special place in my heart.

Megan and Cameron are absolutely wonderful (inspiring) parents and I am very thankful (thank you, Mom & Dad!) that I was able to assist the Hubs at this shoot. They’re such a great family!

I just posted a preview album of photos to Facebook, which will be easy to find if you visit the Quiver Tree Photography page, or if we’re friends. (Are we friends? I hope we’re friends.)

But I’ll also post a few favourites right here, since some of you might not be Facebookers, and that sure is okay, too!

The elder of the two boys, Sam, has a birthday just two days away from the Bear’s. And watching him, and listening to him, it was just so neat to see how very similar they are… such similar slender body types (unlike their more tough and tank-like little bros) occasionally giving the same cheezy grins… asking heaps of questions… and energetic! {The Bear has started saying “you remember when I was three and … ” as if his third year of life is a thing of the past… but we still have two more weeks!}

This little guy (Solomon) is just an absolute dollbaby. He’s got about six months on Tiger Tank, but they remind me a lot of each other, too. Tough little brothers! {I guess they have to be!}

I love these two shots extra specially! {Above and below…}

And this one (below) is one of my absolute favourites…

{Maybe the Hubs should start shooting adverts for children’s clothing or something. I’d like to buy that anchor shirt now, please.}

Christmas Card possibilities… (I’m always looking for those.)

And, if you’re looking for an example of two amazing parents, look no further…

I’ll let you all know when we get a little more than just a wee preview up on the Quiver Tree blog! Cameron and Megan — I’m so glad we got to hang out with you guys and enjoy your precious family! Hope you love the results!

xCC 

More Wedding Day Faves & Quiver Tree Freebies

Jul 18, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

I forgot to ask the Hubs if it was okay to post a few more photos from the wedding on my blog, so if this post mysteriously disappears later, you’ll know why. A fun new job I’m enjoying as Mrs. Hero Hubs is choosing my favourite photos for the blog posts we do after a Quiver Tree wedding or photo session.

And let’s just be honest, you dear readers are too smart to be fooled into thinking the Hubs is writing all those posts over at the Quiver Tree site, right? You probably picked up on my writing style and tone of voice and immediately knew I was speaking in his person, so I think I need to let the cat out of the bag and just go ahead and start writing those posts as if it’s me. Because it is me. We’re a hubs and hub-ess team any who, right?

That was a digression. Returning to what I was originally here to talk about, I wanted to show you a few more photos from the wedding, since I forgot to give you a link over to the original post — which I still think you should go view, because I am sharing a few different favourites here today. Obviously, they’re all my favourites, because the Hubs is working hard, and I’m choosing photos and writing blog posts hard!

But I think you guys probably want to see the Bear in his kilt, and I don’t blame you. So here’s that, and some other goodies thrown in for good measure.

I was pleased. And proud. And glad Agnes agreed that we shouldn’t give this three-year-old the actual wedding rings. Carrying a pillow was just fine.

Just after this, he followed me up on stage, and UH-dorable Sophie, the flower girl, followed him — which was not the plan. But it was okay.

The kilt kind of wanted to fall down a lot. He is a narrow-waisted wee creature — if I’d known further in advance I could’ve made a plan but I was nae prepared! And at the reception the Bear discovered if he jumped hard enough, he could make his kilt fall down to his ankles. Many an elderly Scotsman had a good laugh at his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear, while I thanked the Lord he didn’t figure that out on stage during the ceremony.

I got to put Agnes’s veil on. Which made me really happy. Those are my hands. They don’t look pregnant yet.

That’s another of my favourites from the day. I kind of have a lot of favourites.

The second shooter who assisted the Hubs let the Bear try on his glasses. I thought he looked rather astute. I thought I looked rather nervous. Because I did.

Someone else trusted the Bear — my three. year. old. Bear — with their digital camera and let him take heaps of pictures. I was nervous {again} and hoped I didn’t end up owing someone a pretty pence because my kid broke their camera. Apparently he snagged some good shots, following in his Dad’s footsteps. Unfortunately, the shots are all taken from crotch level.

There was some serious tomfoolery during picture time. And there I am, hiding my Bump with a bouquet! Subtle much?

Did I mention there was some stage-diving at this event?

And the Bear was adopted by the ceilidh band, and had the privilege of lifting his kilt to bang on that beat-box thingy. I honestly think that picture is just stellar!

So those are a few more highlights from the day — and if you want to see more of the proper, less Bear-centric stuff, you can visit the Quiver Tree blog.

In other, related, very good news, especially if you’re in the area, the Hubs and I will be passing out flyers at Music in the Streets this Friday night. {That’s a local musical event in Downtown wee Washington which takes place once a month during the summer.} If you grab a flyer, you can score $10 off any purchase in the Quiver Tree gallery or $10 off any photo session booked by Sept. 30, 2012.

We’re also sharing the details for how to earn 100 Bucks of Quiver Tree Plunder {it’s a Pirate-themed flyer, mind you} but I think I ought to spill the beans here, too. {Or am I spilling gold doubloons?}

For however long this seems like a good idea, if you refer a friend, family member, or complete stranger, to Quiver Tree Photography and they book a wedding package with us, you’ll get $100 credit which you can use toward:

• An awesome purchase inside the Quiver Tree Gallery OR
• A 1hr photo session OR
• A Quiver Tree Photography workshop {more details on that coming soon!}

And you don’t have to have the flyer in your hand to score on that awesomeness! But for that $10 off coupon you need to find us at Music in the Streets, mmmkay?

So tell me… have you had a look at the photos from the wedding on FB or at the QT site? Did you think the one of Agnes “peeking” under Alan’s kilt was pure dead brilliant? I sure did.

xCC

A Tour of the Quiver Tree Gallery

Jun 27, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

Guys and gals! Do you forgive me for hardly writing since those long ago days before Facebook became a publicly traded company? I can honestly say I do have something to show for the efforts away from this corner of the virtual map…and for once it’s something you could actually come visit in real life.

Gosh, that feels kinda nice.

The great news is the Quiver Tree Gallery is finally open, inside the Inner Banks Artisan Center right here in wee Washington, NC. And it’s wild to think this portion of the journey of launching the Quiver Tree Photography business really only came about a couple of months ago. But I suppose that’s a story for another day.

In the meantime, today’s story is supposed to be about the gallery itself. Because I know lots of you have been following the story here and/or on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and I would love for you to ‘almost’ feel like you’ve been there, since you might not be able to actually come for a visit right now.

It blows my mind to think that perhaps a month and a half ago the Hubs looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I want the gallery to be your baby. I’ll take the pictures, but I want you to plan and decorate the space.”

I probably looked like a deer in headlights, and was pretty afraid of taking on the project. I mean, he takes some sweet pictures – I don’t want to mess up showing them off because I don’t know what I’m doing!

But I decided to be brave and especially to not be afraid of taking risks. And then he seemed a little nervous — and maybe a little sorry he’d suggested that the space be ‘my baby’ — when I told him I thought we should paint the walls with black chalkboard paint. I almost chickened out about six times, but then I created a board on Pinterest and looked at all the places where chalkboard paint was looking awesome on other people’s walls. And I stuck to my guns and said I thought we should go for it.

And I think it worked out.

{This is a shot standing at the entrance to the gallery — sorry it’s just via Instagram, I have some better photos below!}

I also decided that instead of just slapping heaps of stuff on the walls, I wanted to arrange the photos in mini-collections and allow a lot of breathing room. And I read a nice tutorial on the Ikea website (I was looking for picture frames and a rug at the time) about grouping photos together in a coherent shape — a rectangle or a square — so that the edges line up and they feel like a unique ‘set.’ And while on the Ikea site I saw another wall painted with chalkboard paint and then I felt like I was totally hip and with it and that I didn’t need to be afraid.

Thanks, Ikea.

And we did that survey to ask you what your favourite photos were, and I was really inspired by the fact that I’d only pulled out a tenth of the Hubs’ best ones, and there was such a wide variety of favourites among them — it wasn’t as if everyone liked the same five photos and the rest were second string. That was encouraging, and I drew a lot of conclusions about that which I plan to talk about in another post.

Thanks again so much to all of you awesome people who participated. Your input was PRICELESS.

Then I had this completely different idea, based on just seeing a pin on Pinterest where someone had used an oil drip tray/pan thingy from the automotive section on a wall for their kids to play with as a magnet board. I thought about how we’d easily be able to create mini-collections for people on photo paper or on canvas, allowing them to choose their favourite photos. But how to show them the plethora of photos they could choose from? A conundrum.

Because clearly, thanks to the survey, no matter which photos I chose to hang, I wasn’t going to hang everybody’s fave.

So I decided to cause myself great grief — I mean, create this really great board where you could play around with pictures that you liked, to see what they might look like in a grouping of four as a square, or as a landscape with three or four pictures side by side. And I cut out a gabillion (okay, sixty) little squares and a bunch of poster board squares and there was some adhesive spraying involved and me on the floor till midnight listening to a great sermon and wondering if the Hubs would ever get home from the gallery (he came in about five hours later…yes, at 5 am) and we ran out of magnets, but it eventually all came together to look like this:

{I later added baskets to hold all those extra photos at the bottom in tidy groups.}

And then everyone commented on how much it looked like an iPhone, which never occurred to me, but I suppose it rather does.

When crunch time came and we weren’t able to slap every stinking photo on the wall that I’d hoped we could, we made the executive decision to let some of the big 20 x 30 canvases stand alone with their bold selves — and you can see those at the end of each side wall, towards the rear wall.

And I wanted to use a lot of book paper to decorate but ending up not getting to execute as much of that as I’d hoped. However, I did save a bunch of jars, remove their goo, and for the first time ever, I used a hot glue gun {it was kind of surreal, I felt like a bunch of women in matching cardigans and headbands and stylish ballet flats should’ve been there to cheer me on} to create these special little ‘vases’.

And then I cut one dead branch and one live branch off the palm tree in our front yard to add some greenery/brownery to the jars so that I could arrange them on top of some nekkid books (thank you, Nester – you inspired a lot of this process for me) to add some interest and texture to the space. I wanted the old books and the leaves we arranged on that bench at the back to have a sort of vintage feel.

And about twenty minutes before the guests arrived — and maybe when some of them had already arrived a little early — I ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom had the pleasure of simply writing titles and descriptions and prices of the photos right there on the wall with chalk. Easy peasy.

So, here’s a decent idea of what the space looks like. {Please ask questions in the comments if these pictures create questions in your head.}

This is the view if you’re walking in the left-hand door. (There are two doors into the space.)

At the moment, it’s a little bare in the middle (there’s a big storage desk the Hubs is busy building that will stand on that rug) and a little busy at the back, but I want some of those photos leaning against the wall on the bench to be hanging soon. But this is what we could do in the meantime, with printing issues, delivery issues, and limited time, and I think it worked out!

And this is the right side of the gallery, if you were standing at the right door, looking dead ahead. {And the boxes you might be able to see on the floor there are covered in old book paper.}

And that’s a view from the right corner…the printer is to the left of those photos on the far left, which isn’t very interesting. 🙂

That’s a good view of the North Wall.

And the South.

So that’s the tour of the Quiver Tree gallery space! I need to ask the Hubs to take some pictures of the Artisan Centre so you’ll get a feel for the bigger space we’re in. {You can check out the IBAC website here.}  But that’s where things are right now… and I’m looking at these pictures and thinking about the heaps of things that I want to do…but now there’s no rush! Yay!

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you!

xCC

The Hubs Shot the A-Team

Jun 13, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

That title is of course, figuratively speaking. And I’m not actually referring to the team that Mr. T was a part of (and I can’t really remember who else was in it because I’m not old enough.) Or my memory’s failing.

One of the two.

Rather, I am referencing some dear friends of ours, the Averys, who had a Quiver Tree photo session just the other day. Amanda and I went to college together — she has posted here before, you might remember — and I am indubitably superduperally happy that the Lord decided to move her sweet family from being a thirty minute drive away to being just down the road. They’re actually now neighbours with my Dad. Yay, G-pa!

Anywho… we just posted the photos from their shoot over at Quiver Tree, but in case you’re feeling lazy or need extra encouragement I’ll post my top five favourites… and try to limit it to five… right here.

I can’t stop looking at Lily’s (the little one’s) face in this picture. She is just going for it and it is just adorable to me!

I promise there were plenty of pictures (out of the 90-some final shots the Hubs produced) where everyone was looking at the camera and behaving. They’re just not my favourites.

Except this one.

{Amanda, you look so prit-dy! Like model…cheeuhleaduh…somethin’ prit-dy!}

Okay that was five but maybe two more?

Okay seriously, that’s the end. But you can click over to Quiver Tree to see more!

What do ya think?

xCC