Nash Bash!-Family Portraits-Memphis, TN

Meet Katherine, Ann Bennett, Elizabeth, and Stephen Nash.

These 4 siblings have been part of my life here in Memphis since I arrived…and actually even before that.  My husband was a family friend of theirs for a while before I appeared on the scene.  He often received text messages and calls inquiring about this new girl in his life.   I was even intimidated sometimes that I wouldn’t meet up to a 11 or 14 year old’s standards.   Well, things turned out pretty great and I have really enjoyed spending time with all four of these guys.  

The business is beginning to pick up a bit, and I have many people to thank for that, and this family is included.  They have been a big support and great encouragers as I began this journey. 

Taking these photos was actually the kids’ idea!  They wanted to surprise their parents with some updated portraits of themselves for a special occasion.  I thought it was a great idea and was more than happy to help!  

Here’s what came out of my camera…

-gretchen*shaw 

 

Baby Clemens-Newborn Portraits-Memphis, TN

Baby Clemens…how cute is she!

Since being here in Memphis, there has been one little girl that has shown up often on this blog.  Well that little girl now has a sister.  So that makes 2 little girls that may show up often on this blog!

This was my first newborn session.  I really enjoyed it, but I learned some things.  A newborn session is a lot different from any other kind of photo session.  I thought, because she’s so small and just a baby, she would be easy to control and photograph exactly how I wanted.  WRONGO! She was completely in control. She ate when she wanted to eat, she slept or didn’t sleep when she wanted, spit up when she wanted…whatever it was…I was on her time schedule.   But it was great.  It’s kind of a freeing feeling knowing that you can do what you can to make her comfortable and get some good photos, and that’s it. 

I can’t get enough of baby Clemens, though.  She’s so funny! Her parents sometimes refer to her as a warthog because the sounds she makes are unreal! Lots of grunting going on.

It’s exciting to see how much she’s grown already and I hope to see much more of that for years to come.

Enjoy,

-gretchen*shaw

Isabella and Brook-Children Portraits-Memphis, TN

I am so excited to share these photos with all of you somewhere out there!

Meet Isabella and Brook. 

I met these sweet girls and their parents through a mutual friend we have here in Memphis.  It’s truly been a blessing to get to know this family and to see how they interact and enjoy each other’s company.  It makes me excited to have a family some day.  And Brook and Isabella were so much fun to work with.  They were shy for about 10 seconds and then we just had a blast.  We walked around the park, enjoying all the trees in bloom.  At one point I think the girls thought I was taking them on a nature walk instead of a photo shoot. 

I really had a lot of fun with these girls and capturing all their fun and beautiful expressions.  These are 2 sisters that just have so much fun together. 

I loved this photo shoot for lots of reasons and one of them is because I felt like I found my niche.  I love working with kids and love working out doors surrounded by beautiful scenery.  These girls were just being themselves.  I wasn't forcing them into any super specific pose. Their expressions were their own. This is the kind of work that I would LOVE to continue to do, and maybe only do! I guess we’ll see what happens!

Hope you enjoy!

-gretchen*shaw

The Beauty in the Tales we Tell...

I’m in the process of thinking and creating this business of mine.  I’ve been wrestling through what it is I want to achieve in this business; what my goals are; what I want Gretchen Shaw Photography to look like and to be about.  And to answer these questions, I have to first answer a few more…Why do I do what I do? Why do I love photography? What’s at the root of this passion?

I often (stupidly) want to hide my faith.  I want to leave my belief in God out of the things I do.  As hard as I might try, (again, stupidly) I CANNOT leave Him out of the reason I LOVE making images.  It makes no sense in my mind without Him. 

What I love about photography is that is tells a story.  Photographs help tell hundreds and hundreds of stories!  Images also display beauty.  Images can be beautiful in obvious ways and in not so obvious ways. You can take a broken object or a beat up building and look at it in a different light, and see its beauty.  This is simply what Christ is doing in us, and what’s He’s doing in this world.  He is making it new.  He is making it beautiful.  He is and will take this broken and messed up world and redeem it.  It WILL be beautiful one day.  I and you will be perfectly beautiful one day, and I’m not just talking physically here.  That is my story.  And in this small way of taking photographs, I can look to that day through the gifts the Creator has given me.  In these hundreds and hundreds of stories happening in all these different images, there is a bigger story, a glorious story!

The image above is a photograph of a building that will very soon be torn down and will be no more.  Corpulous, a friend of mine and a better friend to my husband has lots of memories and stories tied up in this place.  This is his childhood home.  I don’t know what went on here.  I’m sure there were both good and bad memories tied up in this place.  But it was his home.  He asked me to photograph this building so that he could remember. 

I think that is beautiful. 

-gretchen*shaw

“Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And its protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters”

–sara groves