Happy Valentines Day!!!

All of us at Thompson's Photography wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day! Here are a few Valentine's quotes to share with your sweetheart!

When love is not madness, it is not love. ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Many are the starrs I see, but in my eye no starr like thee. ~English saying used on poesy rings

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end. ~Author Unknown

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. ~William Shakespeare

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. ~Plato

How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said. ~Victor Hugo

For twas not into my ear you whispered
But into my heart
Twas not my lips you kissed
But my soul
~Judy Garland


Happy 13th Birthday, Bubba!

My family!!!

I'm finally getting a chance to post the portraits that I took of my family! I can't believe Tyler is going to be 16 (ahhh!) this year and the Stephanie is going to be 5 on the 5th! Where did the time go?

Barack H Obama, the 44th President of the United States

As so many Americans did, I watched the inauguration of President Obama a few moments ago (even though he did foobar it, hehe). This is a moment of deep reflection for not only our country, but the entire world. As our country has changed since the inauguration of the first president, so have the times. We now welcome the first african-American president, a feet which has been tried and failed before. But has now come to fruition in President Obama. This isn't the person I had originally wanted as president, my vote changed 3 times during the race. But as the president, the position alone demands our respect and our loyalty. And he will have mine. He is a good person and I believe he will do a good job if we have faith. We are in desperate need of the changes he promises. But as Americans, we also have the right to inflict change. Take it into your own hands to change not only your life, but the lives of those around you. And hopefully if enough of us do this, we can change the world.

Congratulations Mr. President!

Mapping out your timeline for wedding photography...

Greetings to all my lovely blog readers! As some of you know, occasionally I will post little tips regarding weddings. Here is a time line that will help you know what you should expect regarding your wedding photos.

As soon as you've set a date:
*Decide on the style of photography you would like for your wedding, whether it be traditional, formal, photojournalistic, etc.
*Start checking into finding wedding photographers for your date. I can't tell you how many weddings I turned down for last summer because I had the dates booked early on and a few too many brides waited till the last minute! Don't do this!
*Meet with the photographers to go over information, pricing, styles, what is included in your wedding package, contracts, any important information. Your photographer should know what to do!
*Decide and book your photographer!


As soon as you've booked your photographer:
*Discuss a time line for your portrait sessions.
*Schedule your engagement session. That way you can get your announcement in the paper!
*Discuss pertinent information with your photographer as soon as you know it. Also, information regarding the ceremony, candle light, outdoor sunset, outdoor full sun, all this is very important to the photographer.

2-4 months prior to your wedding:
*This is the time to nail down any detail regarding attendants, family, location, what the schedule looks like, etc, for your wedding. Knowing how many attendants, family and such you will want photographed, will help the photographer come up with a realistic idea of how long your portraits are going to take the day of the wedding. Also, telling the photographer about any personal family issues, like divorce, might help. It makes it hard when a divorced couple refuses to cooperate for portraits, especially if the photographer didn't know about it! (*Personally, I like to schedule as many of the formals before the wedding as possible! This takes so much time off the amount of portraits taken between the ceremony and the reception!) Be realistic when discussing a time line. You don't really want to schedule too little time for portraits, only to be disappointed that you didn't get a picture with Great Grandma!
*Schedule your bridal session as soon as you have your gown! Don't wait till 2 weeks before your wedding to do this!

1 months prior to your wedding:
*Go over all the details again with your photographer.

1 week prior to your wedding:
*Go over all the details again with your photographer. I can not express this enough! Careful planning makes everything go so much smoother! Confirm all the information regarding the wedding day: location of hair salon or where you are getting ready if your photographer covers this, location and directions of wedding site and reception site.
*Get and give photographer emergency numbers. I tell my brides to never hesitate to call me any time day or night. I have gotten a call at 2am before from a bride who couldn't remember if she told me where the salon was (4 times in fact). But it's okay, we are here to make your day smoother!

During the week prior to your wedding:
*Get plenty of sleep!
*Hydrate!
*Relax!

Day before your wedding:
*Call your photographer to see if they have any questions. Hey we may be as concerned about you and just haven't had a chance to call you yet!

Hope this helps a little with your wedding planning!

Angie

Referral bonus!!!

Attention everyone! We are offering all of our customers a wonderful chance to get free stuff!

Brides - To all of my current and former brides, if you refer a new bride and she contracts her wedding with us, we will give you your choice of free gift from your wedding portraits! Former brides have received mouse pads, tote bags, portrait sheets, enlargements, even extra pages in their wedding album! So send your girlfriends our way!

Portrait customers - Send us your friends for portrait sessions and if they say you referred them, you can get mouse pads, tote bags, portrait sheets, enlargements, or even a free all day session!

So send all your friends and family our way! Believe me, you won't regret it!

The lovely Miss Gabby!!!

I recently had Miss Gabby over for portraits. She was such a sweetheart to work with and was so polite! Here are a couple of my favorite images from her session!

We are on MySpace!!!

To all my friends and loyal blog readers, we are on MySpace! I would love for you to check out my profile and add me as your friend!

www.myspace.com/thompsonsphoto

Ashley's Senior Session!!!

I was fortunate that while Ashley was here visiting from Oklahoma, we had time to shoot her senior portraits. This fun girl was ready to roll in the leaves if it got a good shot! Thanks Ashley, for trusting me to take your portraits!

The Wedding of Juliana and Shane!!!

I've been very neglectful of my blog lately. You know, life happens between plans. So after several weeks, I'm finally getting a few of Juliana and Shane's wedding pictures up! They had such a beautiful wedding and so many of their friends and family showed up to share the day!

Becky's Girls Night Out Party!!!

Recently, my friend Becky hosted a Girls Night Out party with our studio. We had a wonderful time with lot's of laughs! Here are a couple of portraits of the beautiful ladies attending the party!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

As most of you who read my blog and know me personally, we had our Thanksgiving last Saturday. The day we celebrate doesn't matter so much to us as being with our friends and family does. We do this so that the kids dad, who has a ton of family to visit on Thanksgiving, isn't trying to shove it all in a few hours. Being able to compromise is important to us also, especially since we need to share the kids.

Anyways, some things I'm thankful for this year:
*4 happy, healthy children
*1 happy, healthy marriage
*lots of happy, healthy family
*lots of happy, healthy friends
*a good relationship with my ex and his wonderful wife
*having a career that allows me to spend time with my family
*also having a career that allows me to make others happy by capturing those memories that are so important to them
*having a roof over our heads
*food in our bellies
*a job that allows us to have these things
*a good, spiritual foundation that allows me to be confident in myself
*love

My fondest wish is that you who read my blog are surrounded by these things as well. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Breakfast at Bogey's

Saturday was the Galax Conservatory of Dance and Theatre's breakfast benefitting the Conservatory's production of The Nutcracker! In attendance was Santa, the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and her Prince, and many more characters from this amazing ballet! We encourage you to come and see the production! For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Conservatory's website or call 276-236-2105.

Galax High School Auditorium:

Saturday, December 6 at 6pm

Sunday, December 7 at 3pm

Ashe County Civic Center

Saturday, December 13 at 2 and 6pm

2009 Wedding Giveaway!!!

Do you know someone who is getting married, but can't afford to have those precious memories captured? Maybe they have been hit by a layoff and are having to scrape their wedding together. There are a hundred reasons we don't always get the wedding of our dreams, but we settle for the I do's that we can manage.

We are giving away 1 Basic Wedding Coverage Package (up to 5 hours of wedding day coverage and images on CD) to a person who otherwise would not be able to afford to have their wedding memories safely captured. Interested? All you have to do is send me an email telling me who you are nominating and why (thompsons_photography@yahoo.com). Include your name and phone number in your email as well as the person you are nominating.

The last day for entries is December 20, 2008. This will give us time to decide on our winner and let them know for a fantastic Christmas gift! So hurry, get your nomination in today!

Juliana's Bridal Session - Redux!!!

Today was Juliana's wedding! So... here are some of our favorites from her bridal session at Cumberland Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway! She is such a stunning woman and was such an easy person to work with! She wasn't afraid to do anything!

No Spots... not today

I was cleaning my cameras today and when I went to load them back up, my kitten, Spots, had decided she didn't want to give up her spot!

New president aside...

This is normally not the forum I would use to talk about this, but I feel I have to. I spent much time before the election doing research all the cadidates, and on that, based my decision on who was getting my vote. Well, the man I chose didn't get elected. Shoot, he didn't even get second place. Anyways, I voted Independent, well Constitution actually.

Anyways, after President-elect Obama appointed his new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, I did more research and found something VERY disturbing! His Plan.

Emanuel's plan is about "asking" our children to be part of a national service, by spending 3 months of basic training in civil defense and community service. While this may be wonderful if he was actually asking our children to do this, he isn't. It will be mandatory for those between the ages of 18-25. Emmanuel calls for “a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service. All young Americans should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service… Universal citizen service will bring Americans of every background together to make America safer and more united in common purpose.”

Personally, this sounds like socialism rather than democracy. How can it be asking if it is mandatory? And what happens to those who don't do what they are asked? Will they be charged with a crime? Can anyone say draft?

What was our new president thinking?

The website is down...

Well, the old website is officially down! Check back for updates on everything!

Juliana's Bridal Session!!!

Wow! I was so worried that since we were doing them on location that they wouldn't turn out very well. The weather was beautiful, the sky was blue, and Juliana was stunning! Of course the wedding isn't for 2 more weeks. Sooo... you'll have to wait a couple weeks to see them. And I can't wait to show you!

Congrats GC Blue!!!

I just wanted to congratulate my son's football team, the Grayson County Blue, on a fantastic 2008 football season! Chase is number 54, can't miss him there in the middle! I would also like to congratulate all the rest of the recreation department teams from Fries, Galax, and Carroll County who all played fair games and displayed good sportsmanship throughout this season! All of you played some awesome games and all of us are very proud of you!

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's hoping everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!