Good morning and Happy Monday, everyone!
Those of you who have been part of the E.M.Ward Photography family over the years, know that I love to design fairytale/storybook-style portraits for kids. These have become more elaborate over the years and they are now, one of the most requested products that I create. There are a lot of portrait photographers in the St. Louis area, a lot of good ones, even - but this is one of the things that makes me a little unique. I have Photoshopped a girl feeding a giraffe on an African Safari and another riding an elephant. I've done several other composites as well, that attempt to display the whimsy of childhood.
In the past, I've had to rely on stock photography for a lot of the composites I've done. While there are some great images out there, using stock photography is not always my favorite, for a few reasons. This can be anything from the cost to purchase the photo and license to use it to printing rights and other boundaries. Knowing that these are often the parents' and kids' favorites to print on canvases, I wanted to make sure that my clients could do whatever they want with them, without limitation. So, I spent a full day last, wandering (in some cases, running lol) around St. Louis with my camera - visiting places like the Wild Bird Sanctuary, Lone Elk Park, and the St. Louis Zoo - capturing images of every animal I could find so that you guys could have more options, when it comes to your storybook portraits. All of these images are currently being catalogued and put into a gallery so that from now on, you can go through my Gallery of Animals and select the one or ones you'd like to use in your portraits. I'm really excited about this and am happy to finally be able to provide you this service! If you follow me on Instagram(EWard328), you may have seen some previews recently of a few of the animals.
In the coming days, I will be uploading the Gallery of Animals for your viewing - so be sure to watch for a link to it on my Facebook page. I hope you all have a wonderful week and that your weekend was restful! I spent the weekend volunteering with a group called TAPS (more about that on the blog tomorrow) and will be down at Almost Home doing portraits this evening - and I can't wait! If you have a free minute today, or if you're just not feeling work, head over to my website and sign up for my newsletter - I will be announcing some composite specials soon!