Because I am just so excited about today's turnout and I really want to thank the women that generously donated to Soulumination and showed up on my first real day of this event I am going to post an obscene amount of images from the hour we were together. I am so excited for them to see all of them as their kids are adorable and I had so much fun with them.
Thank you Sarah, Jayme, Jane & Shidan for coming out today, for your contribution to Soulumination and also sharing your excitment and enthusiasm about what I am doing this month with me. Your words really means so much to me. And your showing up makes me believe that my little crazy dream may have some legs under it soon to be off and running and the sky is the limit as to what we can raise for Soul!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Now enjoy your sweet little ones.

A Big Thank You!

I have to admit I was not sure how today's Giving Every Day in May was going to go. As I picked up the donation of tasty mini donuts from Mighty Os rain was falling and I starting wondering if my boys were going to be the only ones super happy about my crazy GEDIM plan. I was not sure if anyone was going to show up and I was beginning to regret my decision to dream big this month.
But thanks to 4 wonderful moms my spirits were lifted beyond explanation! Because a few arrived at the same time I decided to go w/ a let them play as we go and the kids had a great time & I think I even had a better time then they did. I am going to share many pictures very soon but first I must thank Mighty O Donuts for their contribution that ended the shoot on such a high note. Kids LOVE these donuts and if you have not heard about or had a Mighty O Donut you need to track them down ASAP, seriously! Here are a few pics for a little proof.

Giving Every Day in May continues today & this first week will be in honor of my niece Abbie. Tomorrow will mark 6 yrs since Abbie became my inspiration. She is a drowning survivor who continues to astound us with her strength & intelligence. Yesterday on a run through the Arboretum I found the perfect spot for today' shoot. The flowers are in full bloom and all of Abbie's favorite colors are represented. If you have a child 8 1/2 yrs or younger (Abbie is 8 & 1/2) then you meet "criteria" for todays's GEDIM shoot.
AND all the little ones will get a special treat from Mighty-O Donuts...I know if Abbie lived in Seattle she would be a HUGE fan of Mighty-Os!
The shoot will be at 2:30pm. You can find the exact location on Twitter (tclarkphoto). Please come support Souluminations, celebrate Abbie with me & have some fun amongst the flowers!
Yesterday I did my Mother's Day shoot for my family. And everyone is always telling me that they just cannot get great pictures of their kids & I tell them I have the same problem w/ mine and I don't think they believe me. It was like pulling teeth to get my boys to stay put w/ my mom for just a few minutes and even when they did bribery had to come into play for them to give me a half way decent look...but we did manage to get a few. Happy Mother's Day Mom!
And the first picture is a favorite of Abbie w/ one of her brothers.

The giving has begun and I am so excited and must thank Gretchen for being the first to join me in making Giving Every Day in May successful. She gave to Souluminations and was also giving herself a Mother's Day gift in hopes of getting a good picture with her little ones. I hope I was able to give her the gift she will cherish for years to come...here are my 3 favorites from the shoot.






Join me at 9:45am same place (see Facebook or Twitter) for your chance to give and receive!!

Fridays are supposed to be my day off to spend w/ Oscar but here I sit. I am so excited to kick off the May Giving Every Day shoots so I am putting some last minute thoughts into it, check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seattle-WA/Tara-Clark-Photography/59082974864 for a clue to the first shoot which I decided to start tomorrow.

Since I was in my office I knew I had to share some images from the next El Paso shoot. This mom was so excited about the shoot and I am sure is very anxious to see pictures as the weather that morning was very cold, windy & even a little rainy so I'm sure she is wondering if anything good came out of the shoot. Although the weather didn't cooperate I had fun with this family, especially capturing how much fun (and love) the boys had with this little sister. Paige, I hope you love these!!

Join in the giving!!

The month of May is a month when we honor mothers and I have decided to do as much as I can to fundraise for an organization, Soulumination that gives amazing gifts to mothers who are experiencing trials in life that all mothers pray they will not have to experience.
Friends that know me well know that I thrive on being challenged & giving. This month I am going to try my best to really fill myself up in both areas. And I hope you can join me in this endeavor.
There are a few things that are going to be very challenging. First is that I am going to try my hand at the social networking craze and jump on the Twitter bandwagon and supplement that with a little Facebook action and continued blogging as well. The second challenge is that I am going to try and have at least one mini session every day in May (the business days, that is) and processing through them as fast as I can. And I am going to try and have as much fun with it as I possibly can. I am not going to announce the time & location of each session until the day of or the day before so you must follow me on Facebook (find the Tara Clark Photography page and become a fan), Twitter (tclarkphoto)and check my blog too.
I will be shooting for 1 hour and it will be on a first come first serve basis (I may accept phone calls to schedule the time but that will be determined once I get going so you will just want to show up). Each child will receive 15 minutes of my time and a 5x7 of their choice from at least 20 images that will be posted online. I will ask for a minimum donation of $25 to be given to Soulumination (but giving more always feels better:)). Each day will have some sort of qualifier for the subjects of the day, i.e. you must be 12 yrs old; you must have a 3 in your age, like 3 mths, 2 yrs, 63 yrs, etc. Hopefully it will make sense as we go. I really think it is going to be a lot of fun and at the end of the day I hope to deliver a wonderful donation to Soulumination.
If you are thinking that I will not be able to capture beautiful images in such a short time know that RARELY happens. The image below was taken w/in the first 2 minutes of a mini session from last year and there were so many more to go along with it. So PLEASE forward this on to all your friends and family and help me meet make this personal challenge a big success and an even bigger gift to Soulumination!


p.s. not every sitting clue will be posted on all 3 spots (blog, FB & Twitter) so you will want to check each of them regularly and I am hoping to get a few other businesses on board for some extra surprises. And the minis are limited to 1 per family.

My first sitting in El Paso was for my #1 client. Everytime I visit I am always amazed at how much time has passed and how I have gotten to see little Grace grow and change (the first time I met her she was still in her mom's belly). She had celebrated her 5th birthday the week I was in town and was so excited to share the photo shoot w/ her two God sisters who were visiting from out of town. I asked Grace if she had been giving them tips because they were naturals in front of the camera.

After a handful of rescheduling due to bad weather & sick little ones I was amazed that we got a beautiful, sunny day that brought out smiles for everyone. These kids have become regulars on my blog as I have been fortunate to photograph them since their oldest brother was born. There were two of them then and it is amazing to think that this shoot was to document their little sister turning one. WOW!! And she is just as cute as her older siblings.

I have photographed this next family a few times and I always walk away appreciating the freedom the girls are given to express themselves and do exactly what they want. We got lucky w/a beautiful day of weather which brought out lots of smiles.

I am heading out the door again this afternoon, bound for a weekend of work in Texas. I am looking forward to the warm weather and catching up w/ my great clients down there.
I finally finished the last preschool class and wanted to share a shot of every cutie. They are in the "Threes" call (younger than most of the other classes), so they were a little more unsure of who the heck I was but once the ice was broken each and everyone of them gave me some giggles and grins.

Back from a great spring break with my family I am again working hard to get back on top of all my work.
A few weeks ago I received a sitting inquiry that is a rarity. A dad wanting to give himself a birthday gift of pictures with his girls. I was excited to meet this dad and give him a gift that he would cherish for many birthdays to come.
This shoot was so much fun. The entire time I was flabbergasted at how well these sisters got along and how cooperative they were with me. They truly made my job so easy. There are so many images that I think illustrate how much love they have for each other and their dad and how much fun they have together...I wish I could share them all (they will eventually be in the online gallery section of my website if you want to see more).