“I Love You…”

Nothing is more cherished or treasured than a child who says to you, “I love you…” and Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse for them to do just that!

Kids love to make things and helping to create their very own Valentine’s Day card has to be up there at the top of the list!

30 Minute Portrait Sessions

For a limited time only (2/2/10 to 2/5/10) we’re offering our “Hugs & Kisses” afternoon sessions for Valentine’s Day. There are only a few 30 minute sessions available each of the four days and once they’re booked, that’s it, they’re gone!

The kids are going to have so much fun creating these photographs, to produce a beautiful set of lasting portraits that you’ll treasure for a lifetime. These sessions are ideal for kids of all ages and everyone is welcome, but they’re particularly suited to those aged around 5-10.

Custom-Designed Art Valentine’s Cards

Not only do they get three truly awesome concertina cards with up to 12 poses, but the cards are sure to be something you’re going to want to keep forever. Printed on archival watercolor paper with a custom cover, the finished cards are a unique item indeed.

Free $20 Build-A-Bear Gift Card

As if that’s not enough for them, what young child doesn’t adore the “Build-A-Bear” store? I’ve never met one yet that doesn’t go nuts over the place. Now, for a limited time, we’re including a complimentary $20 gift card to the Build-A-Bear Workshop with any portrait package purchased from the “Hugs and Kisses” sessions.

Be A Music Video Star!

How would they like to star in their very own music video? Now, they can! Imagine how excited they’ll be when they see their photographs in a really cool slideshow, all set to music? You can share the video with friends, post it on Facebook or just watch it on your TV. Either way, these cool music videos have been a great hit.

How Do I Book?

The portrait creation fee is normally $75 but, for the “Hugs and Kisses” sessions, the price is only $45, a saving of $30. But, you must act soon. These sessions are going to sell out fast, and I can only fit in a certain number in the four days that the special is running and guarantee to have the cards here in time for Valentine’s Day.

Act NOW!!

If you like what you’ve seen and read here, call me TODAY at (901) 606-9105 and we can have a chat about the sessions and what to expect. There’s no obligation and I can let you know if I have any session slots remaining. But hurry… you can never call too early, but you can call too late…

Arguably the most romantic day of the year is fast approaching – Valentine’s Day! This is the exciting time of year when we celebrate our love and our everlasting relationships, although I would advocate celebrating such things every day!

What will you do for Valentine’s Day this year? Send a card? Go out for a romantic meal? Give a beautiful gift? Send flowers?

But how much of that will actually last more than a few days?

How about a gift that will last a lifetime? If you could have something that would capture the beauty of your love for each other and preserve it forever, so that you could reflect on it and enjoy it for the rest of your lives, wouldn’t that be the most amazing gift you could possibly give?

That’s precisely what a beautifully crafted portrait of the two of you can do…

For a limited time only, you can have a “romance” portrait session that will truly capture your wonderful relationship and the love you share with each other.

No other gift will say, “I love you” so clearly and for so long…

For more information, simply call me TODAY at (901) 606-9105 and I’ll be happy to chat with you.

What’s more, the first 9 couples to make their booking before 2/13/2010 will receive 50% off their session fee and 15% off portrait packages. The actual session can be held at any time, at a location of your choice, but you must book before 2/13/2010.

These romantic sessions can be held anywhere that’s meaningful to you, or in the comfort of your own home, but you must hurry to qualify for the special promotional discount.

We’ve been so busy lately, it’s hard to keep up with everything, but I just had to post some of the adorable photographs we created of Margaret during her 1yr old portrait session this week!

This is one of the first sessions we’ve done in the new studio, and with our new backdrop, and the results are amazing. It’s great to finally have the space to be able to hold indoor sessions, especially at this time of year when the weather outside is a little on the chilly side!

Margaret was the perfect model during her portrait session, and we couldn’t have asked for anyone better or cuter for these photographs! She was a bundle of joy to work with and, as you can see, she made some wonderful images.

There’s only a short window of opportunity to capture children at this time of their lives – it’s truly incredible how quickly they change. I photographed Margaret only 3 months ago, and was amazed at how much she’s grown and changed in just that short amount of time.

Portrait sessions like this are now available by appointment Monday through Wednesday each week, and also on Fridays.

This short video is the result of a wonderful kids portrait session in the park at Shelby Farms. What a great day! Wonderful people to photograph, beautiful colors and light, and the weather was simply fantastic! These three sisters had so much fun just being themselves and playing at being models for an afternoon – they all agreed afterwards that they had way more fun than they were expecting, which is a real compliment.

For me, I had a truly great time, and enjoyed creating every one of these photographs – one of the amazing things that makes being a photographer so rewarding.

The fall colors are still here, so call today to schedule your own fun portraits in the park session!

We are very proud to announce our 1st Annual Junior Photographer Competition and Exhibition, to benefit Fayette Cares.

The competition is open to all young photographers, aged through 15 – so get those cameras out, have fun, be creative and start shooting!

The exhibition will feature the work of approximately 100 young photographers, selected by our two jurors from the entries received, and will be on display at Merrick Photography’s new Angel Hill Studio from 21^st November 2009 to 20^th December 2009.

The opening reception and awards presentation will be held in conjunction with Merrick Photography’s Grand Opening for the new studio on Saturday 21^st November 2009 from 5-9pm.

The theme for this year’s competition and exhibition is: “What I Am Thankful For…”

For more details about the competition, rules and entry forms, please see the web site at:

http://www.merrickphoto.com/junior-photographer-2009/

Today turned out to be a beautiful day here in Memphis, which is a great relief after all the rain we’ve had over the last few weeks!

This was a perfect day for the first annual AIA Memphis Chalk Art Festival, held outside the Brooks Museum in mid-town Memphis.

Over 30 teams took part in the competition and I was honored to be asked by AIA Memphis to photograph the event for them.

The standard of artwork was excellent, and everyone had a lot of fun. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who took part today!

Saturday 13th September 2009 saw the second annual Cotton Pickin 5K run and the first annual cotton candy 1K fun run in Somerville, TN.

As a proud sponsor of the event I had the privilege of photographing the event for Fayette Cares, which is also Merrick Photography’s chosen local charity.

Here is a photograph of the overall winner of the 5K race, which saw almost 300 runners take part this year.

If you ran in the race and would like to see the finished photographs, please go to www.collages.net and login with the username “cotton pickin run 2009″ and password “21925″.

This week, I added a new video slideshow to the Senior Portraits page of the web site.

I had so much fun putting this together and would like to thank all the seniors we’ve photographed so far this busy season for making it a wonderful experience!

Like most small boys, when I was young I wanted to grow up to be a pilot – the thrill of the thought flying, combined with growing up in the age of Concorde and the Apollo space program were all fuel to the fire. Sadly, I’ve yet to realize that particular dream, but I still have a great sense of awe and wonder at those who do. So, I feel very lucky to have been able to meet Skip Stewart yesterday as he put his new prototype RC model of Prometheus, his stunt plane, through some initial flying tests. This is a 40% scale replica of his actual custom-built stunt plane, and currently the only one in existence.

The photograph above shows the plane landing after it’s test flight – very graceful, powerful and certainly a sight to see!

Thank you to Skip for allowing me to photograph the plane, and I look forward to seeing him at his next show – or over the skies of Fayette County, TN, where he practices his incredible flying skills. You can check out Skip’s web site at www.skipstewartairshows.com for more information on the plane, the pilot and the amazing shows he puts on.

While on our recent vacation in Florida, we were able to meet up with our good friends for a few days to catch up since the last time we saw them. Never one to pass up an opportunity to take a photograph, I created a series of portraits of the four of them on the beach. This was one of my favorites, showing them relaxed and enjoying each other’s company after a fun day playing in the pool and in the ocean. We waited until just after the sun had set to catch the best light, and then used a combination of the soft early evening light and flash to produce some lovely photographs.

Of course, our vacation is over and it will be at least another year before we get to see them again, but I’m pleased that we were able to take some time out to create this precious memory for them.

Family portraits, such as this one, can be created almost anywhere – in fact, I produce all of my portraiture on location, away from the studio. This lends a much more natural feel to the images and the subjects are more relaxed because they are in a less intimidating or closed-in environment.